When I took Ferdinand out to play in the snow, I also took photographs of the snow. A fresh coating of several inches of snow has an amazing way of making everything look peaceful and beautiful. I like the way it sort of unifies everything. You are not sure where the grass and plants end and the rocks begin.The snow calls attention to the shape of branches and how thick they are or are not.
Category Archives: Photography
NY Subways
On my last trip to New York, I took a tour with the New York Transit Museum that included a subway ride through the Jamaica Maintenance Shop yard and the tunnels through it. Even cooler, the train conductor kept the door open to the train control room, so we could go in and take a few pictures out the front window of the train. Normally when on a subway train, you can only see stuff go flying by out a side window, so being able to see the tunnels through the front, allowed a much better view. In some places they were working in the tunnels, so there were a lot of lights lit, which allowed even better viewing.
Subway tunnel surfacing to ground level
Jamaica Maintenance Shop yard
Jamaica Maintenance Shop yard
Subway car wash
Subway car wash
Subway tunnel
Subway tunnel
Subway tunnel
Subway tunnel spliting
Subway tunnel right before station
Subway tunnel entering station
Montreal
While we spent a good portion of our Montreal visit in Old Montreal, we did spend some time wandering around other parts of the city. (Also, see previous Parc du Mont-Royal post.) The Montreal Plateau could probably be considered the original suburbs and has beautiful townhouses and various ethnic areas. Downtown (Centre-Ville) has a lovely mix of old and new buildings and some nice parks that give much needed green space.
Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde
Centre Bell
Christ Church Cathedral
Edifice Sun Life
Old and new Montreal
Place Montréal Trust
Public are that makes sure you know it is public art
Square Dorchester
St. George’s Anglican Church
townhouses
townhouses
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal
While visiting Old Montreal, we visited the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal (Notre-Dame Basilica). In my opinion, while the outside is pretty, the outside is somewhat deceptively plain compared to the beauty inside. The inside is gorgeous. There is just amazingly detailed decoration everywhere. There is beautiful wood, gilding, colors, paintings, stained glass, statues, and more. You name it; it is there. Much of the detailed decoration on the walls and ceilings is really well done trompe l’oeil. Then behind the church is the chapel, which has a sort of gilded modern decoration. While the church is bathed in a blue light, the chapel is bathed in a gold light. The builders and artists who built and decorated the basilica really did any amazing job.
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, looking towards alter
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, looking towards organ
sanctuary
top of alter
wall behind alter
alter statue
Pulpit
confessional
Alter on side of the church
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal Chapel
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal Chapel
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal Chapel
Old Montreal
I spent much of my short visit to Montreal just wandering around Old Montreal (Vieux-Montréal). I love old buildings, and Old Montreal certainly has plenty of them. It has lots of charm, cobblestone streets, cafes, and shops. It sits right on the St. Lawrence River, and there is a wonderful linear park that separates the river and its quais (wharfs) from the main part of Old Montreal. It is just a lovely place to visit and walk around.
Old City Hall (Hôtel de ville de Montréal)
Place Jacques-Cartier
Rue Saint Paul
Rue Saint Paul
Place d’Armes with views of the more modern buildings in Old Montreal
Bank of Montreal
Saint-Sulpice Seminary
Old Montreal building
Place Royale
Parc Lineaire de la Commune
Parc Lineaire de la Commune
Bonsecours Basin Park with views of Bonsecours Market and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel
Quai des Convoyeurs
Quai Jacques-Cartier
Parc du Mont-Royal
After spending some time enjoying the tam-tams, I went further into Parc du Mont-Royal to do a little hiking and to visit the overlooks that I had read have amazing views of the city. The park is on part of a mountain, so the overlooks have wonderful views of the city below on the plain. The Camillien-Houde lookout gives views of the northern half of Montreal Island, and the Kondiaronk lookout gives views from the northeast and southwest including downtown Montreal. I wished I had had more time to hike as much of the park is a dense forest. It is a wonderful park and oasis, akin to New York’s Central Park.
Trails through the park’s forest
Rock outcroppings near the trails
From Camillien-Houde lookout
From Camillien-Houde lookout, a view of the Jacques Cartier Bridge (with zoom)
From Camillien-Houde lookout, a view of the Olympic venue (with zoom)
From Kondiaronk lookout looking at downtown
From Kondiaronk lookout looking east
From Kondiaronk lookout looking west
Burlington Houses
While I spent much of my time walking around Burlington, Vermont, in the downtown area, I also spent a good deal of time walking around some of the residential neighborhoods. Burlington has some historic, large, gorgeous houses, and many of them are painted in various, traditional colorful schemes. However, Burlington also has plenty of not quite as old, not quite as nice houses painted in not quite so traditional colors. Some of them are painted in almost blindingly bright color schemes, and I loved them. They are not traditional at all, but in my opinion, they are completely fun. I don’t even like some of the color schemes, but I love that someone cares enough about the house and what it looks like to paint it something other than all white.
The day that I spent much of my time photographing these houses, I walked into the Fletcher Free Library. While I was admiring the architecture of the old section of the building, Lorrie, one of the library workers asked me if I was enjoying the architecture. We had a lovely conversation about the library, Burlington, and Burlington’s houses. It turns out she knows the owner of many of the colorful houses that I was admiring. You have to love small towns, because of course I would run into someone who knows the owner of many of the houses. According to her, Stu lives in the brick house with purple trim that is situated between the two purple-painted wooden houses, and he has the purple Camino. These were some of the houses that I was admiring the most, especially since they featured the color coordinated purple car in-between them. Also, his brick house has a duck family walking on the ceiling of the entry porch because of course it does. He and his wife own and rent many of the bright houses, and he paints them that way just because he likes it and doesn’t care what others think. Stu, I am an admirer of your work. I don’t like all the color schemes, but I love that you painted them that way.
Post has been edited to correct the spelling of Lorrie’s name. Thank you Stu for the correction, and thank you for your comment!
Well played Benjamin Moore, well played.
Burlington
I was in Burlington, Vermont for a week for a conference. Luckily, I had a few hours off here and there, so I was able to spend some time walking around the town. Burlington is a wonderful city in which to walk around. It has some wonderful old buildings, which I love, and as it sits right on Lake Champlain, it has some really nice views of the lake. If you visit, you have to spend time just walking on the Church Street pedestrian mall and perhaps eat at the many restaurants on it or go in some of the shops. Of course, there are plenty of other great restaurants and shops downtown besides the ones on Church Street. Also, stroll along Waterfront Park and admire Lake Champlain.
City Hall
Church Street
Citizen Bank
Old brick buildings
Old buildings
Fletcher Free Library
Fletcher Free Library
Fletcher Free Library window
Waterfront Park
Lake Champlain
Sunset on Lake Champlain
Winooski
While visiting Burlington, I walked to Winooski, which is just to its north, and wandered around. Winooski is a cute little town that is situated next to Winooski Falls, a rocky area of the Winooski River. They have built a really nice river walk area on one side of the river, so you can walk past the falls and also down to the dam. The town square is also walkable and has a bunch of really good restaurants. [Normally I don’t recommend specific commercial places, but I had dinner at Our House, and I highly recommend it. They have all these really good variations of mac and cheese, and it is just so delicious.] The only bad thing about the town is how fast the traffic goes around the town center, which can make crossing the street difficult.
Winooski Block
Winooski town center
Winooski Mill
Winooski River (upstream of falls)
Winooski Falls
Winooski Falls
Winooski Falls
Winooski Dam
Winooski River (just downstream of dam)
Winooski River (downstream of dam)
Vermont Nature
After visiting the Green Mountain Audubon Center, we visited the Richmond area and also went north of Burlington to the area where the Winooski River flows into Lake Champlain. The area is really pretty, and of course Lake Champlain is gorgeous.
Sunflower
Coneflowers
Buttonbush
Cute little frog (I think my silhouette is actually reflected in his eye)
Winooski River delta
Lake Champlain marshy area
Lake Champlain