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For the past few weeks prior to Christmas — I’d been working on five drawings of the grand­children of Mr. Robert Leffler, my father-in-law out in Tucson, Arizona. We’d even gotten in touch with La Paloma Art Gallery in Tucson so that mats would be cut and waiting when we got there. You just can’t transport art properly on the airlines. If we’d framed them the glass would need replacing at the very least. Stuff gets tossed around. Sue bought two heavy plastic frames and and we nested and taped them together with the drawings carefully placed in a tracing pad between the two. From there, they would be my carry-on luggage along with my camera, extra memory cards and a battery charger.

Initially we were set to fly on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Turned out that our flight from PHL on US Airways was canceled due to a shortage of flight crew. So Sue went to work resched­uling from this to that… and back again. It wasn’t too much fun. We got up at about 2:45 AM and I brewed the coffee. We left in the dark. It was rainy. The night before I’d finally cleared a snow drift and plow in with the VW Beetle and the driver’s side window regulator broke in the pouring rain. Murphy’s Law. So — Trash bags were taped over the window and the rain stayed out. Thank goodness we were taking the van to the airport. We parked and dragged all the luggage into the United terminal at PHL. Two connecting flights and we were finally in Tucson.

The entire reason for our going West was to attend and document Mr. Leffler’s 80^th Birthday Celebration that was held on the afternoon of Saturday, December 27, 2009. Good thing that I had the art and the camera because our luggage was nowhere to be seen. The morning of the party — Sue, the girls, Lauren and myself all had to go shopping at 7:30 AM or so — otherwise… I’d have been in the same t-shirt and jeans that I traveled in. As would all of the group that departed from Philly. So — We had clothes. Late Sunday night, the day after the party, they found our bags and brought them to the house in Tucson. You pay $20 each for 4 bags from point A to point B and they lose them. Will we be compen­sated by the airlines for the loss of the bags and needing to go buy clothes? Who knows?

The first thing that I did on return was to jump onto the computer here to “process” the Olympus Raw Format “ORF” files in Photoshop CS3 Extended and convert them into uncom­pressed Tiff Images (2.26 Gigabytes). Then I made full size Jpegs, half size Jpegs and quarter size Jpegs and burned all materials onto a data DVD and onto 3 CD-Roms for distri­b­ution and safekeeping. As of yesterday afternoon all were ready to ship. That’s good. In case the extended family is inter­ested in them — I’ll pop them into a NextGen Gallery and post them here very soon. For now I have to work on a website.

The VW Beetle is now in the shop to fix that broken window that I mentioned and the parts won’t be in until Friday. So I’ll be right here working I suppose. Lots to do. Got to go change over the laundry and get another load of wash in. I’ll be back and corre­sponding again soon — but nose to the grind­stone on that website for now.

I hope that everyone has a warm, happy, and wonderful Christmas. If you live in the Northeast like me, we actually have a White Christmas. Most unusual according to the statistics. I’m very typical of my standard behavior again this year… a bit nostalgic and melan­choly missing my folks and my brother. I have the blessing of my wife Sue’s compan­ionship and my stepdaughters who are always “enter­taining”.

Had a couple unexpected bumps in the road recently and I’m glad that I’m here. I don’t take it for granted. I feel a need for a few days of quiet that I’m unlikely to see — but I think perhaps that isn’t a physical quiet but instead a quiet that you carry with you inside. The animals feel a peace now. Maybe it’s the snow. Things are a bit more muffled than usual. That is okay. I’ve listened to the Christmas Carols on the radio and I’m in the mood. I’ve been drawing and designing a whole lot of stuff lately and right now I’m working on a series of portraits. I’ll be done with them soon. I really don’t want to run out of projects. But if I did — I’d update this blog with lots of new things.

I hope that everyone here in Bucks County takes a piece of their Christmas break to go to the Visitors Center to see Daniel Troy’s exhibit of Railroad Photography entitled “ON TRACK”. It runs until January 9, 2010. Go to the Visitor’s Center website for additional info and direc­tions and also see lots of Dan Troy’s work at his website. It’s a good show. Image below ©2009 — 2010 Daniel Troy.

That can mess up your whole day. My computer decided it was time to add the latest QuickTime, iTunes and ActiveX Kilibits update all at the same time.  Something had to give and it gave. Thankfully,  I use Norton Save & Restore on this machine and I used my Symantec Recovery Disk to get myself out of a mess. The utilities let me run CHKDSK /f and I was able to reroute the corrupted file around the bad blocks or sectors. It worked. I ran all kinds of tune ups tonight and seems to be nice and stable again. That’s a good think because I have a lot going on tomorrow. Typography, color breaking, web site work… and some stationery.

Working on some drawings based on my series of shots at Tanner’s in Ivyland, PA

We found really nice Mums and Gourds at the Farm & Garden Station here in nearby Ivyland, Pennsylvania. Not too far from here out old Almshouse Road in (depends on your source of infor­mation) Ivyland or in Warminster, Pennsylvania. I notice the same problem with Tanners in the web look-ups. The shots that I have here were done on October 10, 2009 in the afternoon. The tracks were quiet but the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad crosses near the property — hence the name “station”.  It was a nice day and my wife Sue wanted to go bring home some Fall decora­tions.  So that was exactly what we did.

The shop there had a couple Enormous Pumpkins on display. If you guessed the weight of the large one inside you could win it. Then you would have to figure out exactly what you were going to do with the rotting hulk and seeds… Clever. The store at the Station doesn’t really have a great deal to sustain it during the winter months. It gets pretty darned quiet around January there but each Spring they continue to be a good source of Mother’s Day plants and flowers. Lots of nice hanging plants. Anyhow I enjoyed bringing my camera and catching the color and light patterns. Here I’ll share them with you in a little NextGEN Gallery. Incidentally the NextGEN Galleries are very compatible with CoolIris and it makes a nice little slide show of the images.

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If you’d like to go see the Farm & Garden Station — here is their address and phone number. I’m quite sure they’d appre­ciate your business.

Farm and Garden Station
1370 Almshouse Road
Ivyland, Pennsylvania 18974
Phone: (215) 396‑6898

The best produce that we can purchase here in Bucks County Pennsylvania comes from the Tanner Brothers Farm in Ivyland. Better equipped for your shopping needs than any super­market that I can think of — Tanners stock is extensive and less expensive than regular super­market shopping. From Chiquita Bananas to Fresh Baked Pies — they’ve got it. If you need paper towels, Windex or Drano… go to the regular market. If you want to make an amazing Apple Pie — go to Tanners. Not only will you find six or seven varieties of Apples  — you can also cross reference them with some helpful charts hung on the wall nearby. Fruit and vegetables are always fresh and a good value.

And after all they are a dairy farm — They sell their own Chocolate Milk which is the best you’ll find anywhere. Smooth and creamy in consis­tency — it is somewhere between milk and ice cream. (awesome). In the freezer case they have their own Angus Beef that is just wonderful. Very good stuff.  We’ve never been disap­pointed with anything that we’ve brought home from Tanners. When we were there last we packed up the van with our groceries and then drove behind the store by the fence. The cattle were fairly friendly and I think that they were enjoying looking at people as much as the people enjoyed looking at them. I was lucky enough to have my camera with me and took the shots that you’ll see in the gallery here.

As you look at these images, you’ll have to remember that they were photographed as an illustrator’s reference shot. Composition is usually off and in the case of these blackish-brown cattle — I was spot metering so as to see detail beyond a silhouette in the form of the animal.  So the grass might be all blown out — Hey — just look at the Steer though… I found some reviews of Tanners right here.

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Tanner Brothers Farm
Ivyland, Bucks County, PA 18974
215–357-1716

Market Hours:
Mon-Fri: 8:30 am — 7:00 pm
Sat-Sun: 8:30 am — 7:00 pm
Fall Hours are in Effect

Tanner Brothers is located on the corner of Almshouse and Hatboro Roads in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They are a family owned and operated farm market serving farm fresh produce and dairy products. Check them out the next time you need to make a trip to the store for produce, I’m sure you have a new favorite farm market and feel as though you are a part of the family.

Specialties

• Homemade Ice Cream
• Fresh Made Milk
• Fresh Fruit and Produce
• Fresh Baked Pies
• Farm Raised Angus Meat
• Wide Variety of Dairy Products

History
The Tanner Family has been in the dairy business since as early as 1890, when Rudolph Tanner would drive his milk delivery route on horse and buggy. Over a hundred years and many gener­a­tions later, their market has become a staple in the lives of many Bucks County residents. They continue the legacy and the tradition of providing the best dairy and produce to everyone they serve.

Aerial View of the Tanner Brothers Farm from Google

A cold and rainy week here in the Northeast. Over the past few days,  a couple nor’Easters came through with snow as close as the western edges of Bucks County. There was a serious frost this morning and it sure seems as if winter may just be creeping it’s way in here.  I guess it is just about that time of year. It sure is nice to have the Philadelphia Phillies in the Championship again. Remains to be seen if they’ll be in the World Series again or not… Hope so. We had an early snow during the Series last year and the power was out for nine hours or there­abouts during the rain — snow out. The trees couldn’t take the snow with their leaves still on. The Bradford Pear trees suffered lots of damage.

Been working on a bunch of design projects with Victoria lately and haven’t been around to blog much. Well actually I have but the time spent at the computer was for other people. Met a nice printer up in Lansdale, PA named Dave this past Friday afternoon. He gave me a tour of his facility and Vic and I did some estimating work. I didn’t get home till about 8:00 PM Friday night. That gave Sue a chance to rest before I got home. We went out and got Mums last weekend and on Sunday we went to Tanners Farm Store and shopped. I had a nice oppor­tunity to photo­graph their herd of steers.

So — I’ve got a lot of new photos of Fall scenes with Pumpkins, gourds and flowers at the Farm and Garden Station and the Cattle at Tanners to put up in galleries. Sue had some fun looking at a large beast eye to eye as he snorted. He had an inter­esting presence.  I’ll be back soon with more stuff. On October 22^nd I snuck in here and resized President Lincoln.

Because that’s exactly what it was yesterday afternoon. Been having a toothache for a while now and finally got over to Newtown Endodontics to get it taken care of.  It didn’t take all that long and the Doctor was gentle and the surroundings pretty serene. Made a difference to me.  Sue drove me over there and that let me allow my mind to drift on the way.  Sort of a Zen state that you have to get yourself into to deal with these things. One of my biggest problems is my history with medical illus­tration. I visualize all too clearly the pulp being removed from the center of that molar and the small circular files penetrating into the root itself. Widening the lumen and removing the tissue that has any feeling. Porous bone through which the syringe with anesthesia has to reach. I could do a great painting of it… But the theater of the mind will suffice. I’m glad that it is today instead of yesterday and it is mostly over now.

Yep — When you under­stand how things work — sometimes they are larger than life… yuk.

I was napping on the loveseat yesterday evening post root canal and a line of showers and thunder­storms came through and Sue got to see a double rainbow. That’s pretty sweet. I didn’t see much more than a bunch of overcast by the time I got the camera there.  I did see a really red tinted sky. It was also gone before I could take a shot. Weather effects are often very fugitive.  Sue got the camera just in time because she caught it — though faintly.

My Dear Wife Susan and I attended a wedding on Long Island in Westbury this past Thursday afternoon. Debbie, one of Sue’s best friends from High School, had her son Brian getting married to Anna and we were lucky enough to be invited. It was all very, very, nice. Next morning we met Sue’s brother Alan and Debbie for a bite to eat at a local diner in Carle Place. Then we started out on the road. Sue and I were going to go to the furthest point away from Manhattan and the Boroughs on Long Island — Montauk Point. We stopped briefly in Rockville Centre where Sue Leffler had grown up, to photo­graph additional reference for drawing and painting. Then off to the east. It just kept getting more open and cleaner the further you were from New York City. Getting there was very straight­forward out Montauk Highway through Amagansett and the Hamptons to the town of Montauk. Really not a bad drive at all. If only there was a way to circumvent the very busy urban areas on the way in. Aircraft would most likely be the best choice eastward.

What a beautiful place! Their thousand dollar fine for littering has certainly paid off. It was truly spotless. Not what I’d pictured in my mind’s eye at all — this was just as if we’d been trans­ported to the New England coast. Really nice and a bit rustic with Apple Orchards and fields of Sunflowers swaying in the wind. Quite picturesque. I loved it. We had nice fresh seafood to eat and Sue was able to get Lobster. Sue was unfor­tu­nately a bit under the weather with a cold and we sought relief at the only game in town “Montauk Medical Group” where Dr. Knott runs his business. Once diagnosed and prescribed medicine we went over to White’s Department Store where they also fill prescrip­tions in their Pharmacy in the back. Leaving a couple scripts to be filled we went across the street and had brunch on Saturday. Out on the overlook you can see across the scrub plant dune cover to sandbars that close off a large pond of salt water which is appar­ently flooded on a regular basis. Certain areas there have full tree canopy covering the road and a few times we saw the sun penetrating the foliage and illumi­nating the sea mist with focused beams of light. We call that “God Light”.

The only negative aspect of this trip was that Sue didn’t feel partic­u­larly well — she did take care of that — and that we had such a short visit with the end of Long Island.  I’d say that I’m pretty certain that we’ll go back to see it again. If not physi­cally, my mind will surely go back. I shot these images all in a few quick bursts and I was surprised that the weather had turned out as nicely as it had. Initial forecasts had it raining Thursday with additional showers and temper­a­tures fifteen degrees below normal. It just all blew out of here on Saturday night. All night long a rumble punctuated sleep as a cold front blew through and building trim, awnings and windows shook. Couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. On the way back we stopped at the famous “Lunch” restaurant where you can get a “Lobster Roll”. I never had a Lobster Roll and was picturing something similar to a spring roll or an egg roll. It is a toasted hot dog bun filled to the brim with “Lobster Salad”. Lots of pink claw meat. Sue had that and I had New England Style Clam Chowder. I also saw that they cook Puffers (blowfish) there for the tasty bit of meat within. A really nice trip. Sue has yet to get over her ailment and I’m coughing as well now. It will pass.

Memories like this trip sustain one through the gray skies of winter.

Glad that I shifted over to a new format before all the inspiring Autumnal color comes sweeping in. Not a real exciting day here in Holland. The girls are home and Caroline is getting over her cold. Liv was doing her aimwork — I mean… homework on the machine nearby. Sue had me put on all of my suits to help clear space used unnec­es­sarily by stuff that I don’t like or doesn’t fit any longer. I’m still trying to figure out how a suit or pair of slacks can shrink all by itself sitting in the closet ? Maybe, just maybe, it’s tied into ice cream or other desserts that sponta­neously disappear…

Well - you never know. I have to go get my haircut tomorrow and much like a sheep I do so every six months or so whether it needs it or not. The storm that was in here since Wednesday night finally blew on out this morning. We had some great low altitude cloud­scapes flying by yesterday afternoon. Stark contrast.