Carrots, Carrots, Carrots

Artfully arranged produce is more of a European specialty, so these carrots were a surprise. Stacked like angled bricks, they form a wall of horizontal orangeness. The purple rubber bands chime in with an additional, contrasting rhythm. It's a colorful, jazzy tune, high in beta carotene.

Washington Monument In the Setting sun

A week ago Saturday the sky promised a good sunset. A few photographers gathered on a hillock overlooking the Washington Monument. I joined them to watch the sun dip beyond the trees. The flags circling the base of the monument glowed red for a few minutes. Click click click went the cameras. A plane passed by, low on the skyline. Click click click. Every minute the sky changed color. Now the monument and its temporary scaffolding became a silhouette. Click click click went my camera. This week the repairs to the monument have been completed and workers began removing the scaffolding. I am glad to have captured that moment in the setting sun.

Green and Gold

I've never cared much for formal gardens which emphasize symmetry and impose  geometry on the plants. In a corner of the French Parterre at Hillwood, Marjorie Merriweather Post's grand garden, a Japanese maple branch fluttered its leaves. Was it taunting the ivy with its gentle anarchy of golden leaves? The walls of ivy remained immobile. I saw a clash of design styles; art nouveau, by way of Japan, trying to encroach on a bit of Versailles. My camera's view is of a modern, minimalist painting. Ivy and maple both win.

Tombstone Face

I find tombstones to be irresistible any time of the year. The carved names and dates, the flowers, skeletons and angels are enduring examples of the work of long-gone craftsmen. The disembodied heads seem especially appropriate for the week of Halloween and Day of the Dead. This is one of my favorites, languishing in a church cemetery in Much Marcle, England.  A good-natured face floats amidst the scrolling foliage. The carving has a distinctly folk art feel to it. The hairdo reminds me of the wigs worn by British barristers. Perhaps it is an ancestor of the legendary Horace Rumpole who argued cases at the Old Bailey.