Antique Chandelier

Chandelier Shadow on Door, Old Farm House, Village of Lewisburg, Ohio
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved  (Velvia slide film)


An antique chandelier casts its shadow on a farm house dining room door,
just in time for a spot of afternoon tea and crumpets.

Humming in the Rain

West Prong Little Pigeon River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


On a misty, rainy afternoon, a long fallen tree points the way to the West Prong Little Pigeon River in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Rainfall in the park averages up to 85 inches per year, making it one of the wettest places in the U.S.  It is no wonder the Smokies have the greatest variety of plant species of any temperate climate! ... a significant reason for being declared
 a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To take this photograph, I held an umbrella over my head with one hand while trying to steady my camera with the other. I did this as I sang Beethoven's Ode to Joy... well, sort of. Because I could not remember all the words,
 I mostly hummed.

A Touch of England

Thuya Garden, Seal Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)


Pavilions, lawns, rows of annual and perennial flowers planted in semi-formal style might indicate a garden in the English countryside. But surrounding this garden are the Maine woods of Mount Desert Island. The 140 acre paradise near Seal Harbor once belonged to a Boston landscape architect, but the land was eventually donated in trust to the residents of the island for public enjoyment.

Look Up!

Lantern and Ceiling, Great Market Hall, Budapest, Hungary
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved (Velvia Slide Film)


When entering the Great Market Hall in Budapest, visitors are invited to explore three floors of stalls selling a variety of goods... meats, pastries, caviar, deep-fried treats called langos, fish, garlic, cucumber pickles, palinka (fruit brandy) and of course hot red paprika.  The bright arrays of treats may delight the eyes, but one must look up to discover this invitingly warm and ornate ceiling. This month the market will specialize in foods from Thailand as part of its National Gastro Days program.

Back Dunes

Back Dunes, Beachwalker County Park, Kiawah Island, South Carolina
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved  (Velvia slide film)


Behind sea island dunes, hardy plants and animals thrive in a hot, dry and salty environment. Inkberry, one of these plants, forms a colony rooted in the sand. Tracks of a ghost crab weave through this miniature forest toward the beach.

Trapezoidal Stairway

Stairway, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Near exhibits of cutting-edge art, a stairway provides geometry
 for abstract style photography.

Finding Little Treasures - Birthday Edition

Lamb's Ear and Rocks, Boulder, Colorado  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


The velvety softness of Lamb's Ear thriving in a field of granite stones would seem improbable, but the improbable often becomes the probable when talking about Mother Nature. Finding this little treasure near our friend's house in Boulder was pure delight. The Lamb's Ear is likely a naturalized escapee from a neighborhood garden. Coincidentally, Lamb's Ears and rocks are two of my wife's favorite things. Which is why she chose this image for today's post, because today is her birthday!

Happy Birthday Becky!

Forest Realm

Tree on an Island, Crabtree Falls, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Wood sprites and dryads,
Satyrs and water nymphs,
Fauns and elves,
Oberon and Puck...
a vision such as this conjures an imaginary realm of faeries
 who frolic among forest and falls.

The Midas Touch

Portico at Night, Pantheon, Rome, Italy  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Velvia Slide Film)


Columns of the ancient Pantheon, the color of aging florins, adorn the Piazza della Rotonda on a golden Roman night, where everything seems transformed by the touch of Midas.

Fossil

Hood Detail of Old Mercury, Danny's Classic Cars, Elko, South Carolina 
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved



Snaggletoothed-clunker.

Fiery Beacon

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, Acadia National Park, Maine
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved  (Click on image for larger view)


Even on a sun-splashed afternoon, a lighthouse beacon glows like the blacksmith's fiery furnace. Steady and reliable, it blazes regardless of weather or season, guiding boats safely to harbor and home.

Ambiance

Unitarian Church (foreground) and St. John's Lutheran Church, Charleston, SC
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


On Sunday's in Charleston, the musical sound of bells tolling in historic churches are part of the quaint ambiance of this charming Southern town.

(These two churches are National Historic Landmarks. They are among the 1400 historically significant structures within the Old and Historic
 District of Charleston.)

A Gem of a Window

Stained Glass Window Detail, Sottile House, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved (Velvia slide film)


Little jewels of light and color... elegant patterns of stained glass illuminate this Queen Anne style mansion in Charleston.

Left Hanging

Tree Swing at the Beach, Botany Bay Plantation, Edisto Island, SC  
© Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved  (Velvia slide film)


A rustic swing lolls from an ancient tree by the sea as children's whispers echo on the breeze.

Standing Out at Sea

Shrimp Boat, Shem Creek, Mount Pleasant, SC  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


In a place where the sea's blue horizon meets the blue of the Carolina skies,
 this trawler stands out when it sails out.

Haute Couture

Window Display and Reflection, King Street, Charleston, SC  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)


How will you wear your pinwheel this summer?

*Fashion tip: display it proudly on your lapel,
 on your hip, in your hair, on your hat,
 or perhaps more daringly
 in the middle of your forehead.

Silky Connection

Gate Scrollwork and Door, Legare Street, Charleston, SC
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


One of Charleston's hallmarks is its decorative ironwork, as seen on this gate. Notice the little cobweb of silky gossamer spun between two adjoining arms of scrollwork... a small example of nature's symbiotic connection with the works of man.

A New Day

Sunrise and Pineapple Fountain, Waterfront Park, Charleston, South Carolina
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Seeming to dangle from the fingers of a fine fountain, a Carolina Lowcountry
sun rises to begin a new day. In that same spirit, I shall begin a new chapter in the story line of Doug's Photo Blog. Shifting the setting from our adventures out West, I return to the Deep South, where Becky and I have lived for
more than 25 years in Charleston.

Every story should offer a bit of drama and intrigue, and perhaps some comic relief. Hence the title of this week's chapter shall be, "A Return to Charleston...  whereupon the leading characters ride a runaway carriage, stroll along the Battery promenade during a tropical tempest, feast on she crab soup while whistling Dixie, shop for pineapple-shaped chocolates at the Market, collect sea shells by the sea shore (even after getting swamped by a salty rogue wave), fish in backwater creeks among cypress knees for stumpknockers,
and dance the Charleston while wearing silly feathered hats." 

P.S.  Please note that Doug's Photo Blog may be a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, yaks and incidents could be the product of
my imagination or a condition of delirium brought on by eating too much
she crab soup. Any resemblance to actual persons, events,
yaks or locales are likely to be entirely a fluke.
 Thank you.
Doug

Go West XXXIX - On Safari?

Giraffe, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on any image for slideshow)

Gorilla, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Elephant, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Zebra, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Rhinoceros, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

King Kong, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Putt Putt Golf, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Becky putts her ball in before I do.
She wins, again.

Go West XXXVIII - Golden Grains

Grain Field, western Kansas  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)


Although western Kansas seems an endless wave of golden grains, these high plains were once the realm of immense prairie land. Vast herds of buffalo roamed the plains, and prairie grass stretched for hundreds of miles. It was a scene my ancestor James Butler Hickok (aka Wild Bill) was no doubt familiar with, having worked as a stagecoach driver in the territory of Kansas, and later as gunslinging marshal in Hays City and Abilene. But the Old West is gone, along with the unspoiled prairie.

Today the vast lands of Kansas are a bread basket for the world, producing wheat, oats, barley, milo, soybeans, corn, and sunflower seeds for backyard birds,
and binocular-slinging birders, like me.