Photography

Amateur digital photography is a fun hobby of mine that I can share... watching for "just right moments" and taking photos of "those unaware" at family gatherings and other occasions. I have online albums site that I use to send photos to the subjects of those snapshots but do not post to the web. Usually even the folks who don't like being photographed are glad to have the memories caught by the camera; for those who would rather not be a part of an album I certainly delete them from it. Other places and things I enjoy watching and taking pictures of are our pets, nature; especially flowers and gardens; The Pearl River and the beauty of its surrounding area near our farm. Be watching for link icons to take you to some of those albums.

'Ships' and 'Boats' & 2 great poems

I collect items from 'Ships' and 'Boats';
also graphics and "whatnots".

We have many nautical items in use
and on display in our home.





... Gone from My Sight
by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!

"Gone where?" Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to takeup the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.
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THE SHIP OF LIFE by John T. Baker

Along the shore I spy a ship
As she sets out to sea;
She spreads her sails and sniffs the breeze
And slips away from me.

I watch her fading image shrink,
As she moves on and on,
Until at last she’s but a speck,
Then someone says, “She’s gone.”

Gone where? Gone only from our sight
And from our farewell cries;
That ship will somewhere reappear
To other eager eyes.

Beyond the dim horizon’s rim
Resound the welcome drums,
And while we’re crying, “There she goes!
”They’re shouting, “Here she comes!”

We’re built to cruise for but a while
Upon this trackless sea
Until one day we sail away...
Into infinity.