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For Christians around the world today, Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week which ends with Easter Sunday next week. I hope that all those who celebrate have a Blessed week.

Monday is St. Patrick's Day when everyone becomes just a little Irish for a day. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. How often does St. Patrick's Day and Holy Week coincide? I don't think it's very often.

This is a local church in town that I shot a few months back during an early snowstorm. In the large version you can really see the snow falling, it's not so evident in this small view.

I have to apologize, again for my absence here. I have been swamped! It's all good, but when it rains it pours, feast or famine! I should enjoy the feast while it lasts. I have been buried in work up to my eyeballs the past 2 weeks and it just keeps coming! Which is good, but I am just not used to it.

So between family obligations and work I have had no time for recreational photography, or photo-blogging. I started to make the rounds to the photo-blogs the other day and ended up having more work come in that couldn't wait. The work I am doing I cannot really post here and for that I am sorry.

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This is an old abandoned mill in Milford NJ. I love the detail and colors in the wall and the window. The property is for sale but the building should probably be condemned. The wall on the river side is pretty much falling into the river. It is temporarily shorn up but.

Last week was a rough one. I had the flu and a lot was going on. I am much better, almost 100% although I am still very tired. The weekend was filled with events. Jon had his School Musical which was really good. I had never been to a High School Musical before and the School's production of "Evita" was quite a surprise to me. It was quite good. Jon played violin in the orchestra pit and is a member of the stage crew. The talent on stage was really impressive and the audience seemed very receptive and pleased.

On Sunday Jon had the CJMEA region II Orchestra concert and it was very good also. He played viola for that. It was quite impressive. These kids have a lot of talent and the teachers and music professionals that put this all together to showcase and promote it are wonderful. The dedication to the cause of music education for our kids is evident and is a great asset to our youth and our state.

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This is probably the last photo I will post for this series. Once again it is from Hoffman Park. Now I am not certain but I believe the low building on the right is for the cattle to seek shelter in times of extreme weather. I walked over and there isn't much left to the lean-to type shelter but it definitely looks like that is what it was used for. If someone knows better please let me know so that I can offer the correct information.

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This is a view of Hoffman Park from up at the entrance taken from the parking area looking toward Manny's Pond on the left and Heron Rd. in the middle of the frame. Off in the distance, after the tree line, and before the mountain on the left you can see Spruce Run Reservoir. The farmhouse from the previous photo would be over my right shoulder, behind, and above me.

I rarely saw my Aunt's Farm in winter since she spent her winters in Florida and Nassau in the Bahamas. We only spent summers there when I was little. In fact I actually don't remember ever seeing it with a blanket of snow. The transformation is wonderful!

My Aunt and Uncle started aquiring properties in the county in the 1930's. They would lease the land to farmers for livestock (cattle) at a monthly per animal rate. They owned land in four other townships in Hunterdon County as well as in Florida and the Bahamas. My Uncle was one of the Hoffman's from the Hoffman Beverage Company from many years ago.

As I have mentioned before here, the farm and her other properties in the county were transferred to the county by my Aunt with the stipulation that it remain "pristine parklands".

If you would like more information about Hoffman Park click here.

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This was taken on Saturday the day after our First "real" snow. It is my Aunt's old farmhouse which is located on part of the Hoffman Park Property which is now off limits. The house was grand and beautiful at one time, but has quickly fallen into disrepair and I fear that if the county doesn't restore it soon it will be too late.

I couldn't get any closer because this area is off limits to the public and it was being heavily patrolled by the park rangers because the hills were open for sledding. From this vantage point you cannot see how badly the house has deteriorated. It still looks grand to me. Last year I did "trespass" onto the property and left a rose on the porch in memory of my Aunt. It was then that I saw how really bad the house had gotten and it was pretty tough to see it.

Saturday remained gray all day. I had hoped for a little late afternoon sun, but it didn't happen. I still had a good time getting out and taking winter landscape photos. I am now really ready for Spring!

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Finally we had a real snowstorm! I am not a big fan of winter but I figure if it has to be cold and dreary at least let there be some snow. I got my wish Friday and so did the kids since school was canceled because of the snow.

This was shot in my own backyard on Friday while the snow was still lightly falling. I managed to get out Saturday and take a ride in the country for some more winter scenes. The snow was indeed beautiful but I was hoping for the sun to make a late day appearance to shine some golden light on everything. That never happened as it remained very gray all Saturday. I still managed to get some halfway decent shots from my travels. I will be sharing them over the coming days on both of my photoblogs.

I am hoping that this afternoon I will have a chance to get out and get some photos of the snow in some late day sunlight. It looks promising right now. I just hope the skies co-operate later.

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This is another one from the archives. I took it last January in the thickest part of the woods in my little Mohawk Park. It's a very small park, so by thickest, well let's just say it isn't all that thick especially in the winter.

The light that day in the woods was very interesting, unlike what I've been dealing with this winter. I had posted several photos from that January day last winter, but somehow I overlooked this one. I think I felt it was just too dark and maybe it is, but now that I look at it I find the subtle, and interesting play of light here very appealing.

This winter has been cold, flat, gray, and boring and generally uninspiring here in my corner of suburbia. I haven't had the opportunity to get out shooting when the light has been good, which hasn't been too often anyway. The window of opportunity has been small and infrequent for me this winter. It's been very cold and there's been no snow to speak of which really annoys me. I am not a big winter person to begin with but if I have to suffer through the cold, gray, overcast, then at least let there be some snow to make it interesting! Every week they call for snow, even this weekend there were supposed to be 2 storms that were supposed to offer us an inch or 2, maybe 3 but Noooooo! Just cold, gray, overcast, and irritating weather!

I have to drive quite ways out of suburbia to find things that I find interesting to shoot but I just haven't had the time or opportunity to do it. When I find the time, I've encountered the most annoying light conditions...Grrrr! So I resorted to looking for stuff inside my house using my lightbox and snoots etc., but there are only so many things around the house that I find interesting. Not to mention that when I am home, I usually find other pressing projects that need attending to and get distracted by those.

Perhaps this afternoon will yield a little better light. It looked promising earlier this morning, but now it looks as though the gray, flat, overcast is returning to spoil my plans...I just checked the weather and it doesn't look good. Oh well! Tomorrow is another day!

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I've been so busy I haven't been able to catch up like I wanted to. Lots going on and some of it is very exciting, some of it is tedious, and some of it is stressful, or a combination of all of the above...but more on that later.

This is yet another one from the ice storm. The ice storm is a distant memory due to the 50-60 degree temps we've had the last couple of days. I've been trapped in the house though unable to get out and enjoy it or take photos. Well maybe tomorrow. In the meantime I was perusing some of the archives and I found a few that I've overlooked in the past and may post in the future...we'll see.

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I'm not kidding! The last 2 days have been cccold! It didn't get out of the 20's...Brrrr! I know it's pretty "normal" for it to get that cold, but I don't have to like it!

My internet was being funky for a few days. My router burned out and was seriously limping until yesterday when it wouldn't hold a connection for more than 5 seconds at a time...fun! Anyway I got a new router and I'm back in business so I will be catching up with everyone soon.

This photo was actually from a few weeks ago, but it really fits considering how cold it is. This is one of the paths along the Rahway River in Mohawk Park after an ice storm. It was a little scary walking there because you could hear branches starting to give way to the weight of the ice. I decided to stay on the wide paved path.

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This is the last in the ice storm series...I think. I have more but I don't want to get too boring with them. I hope you enjoyed the series. As I mentioned before I am horticulturally challenged so I have no idea what kind of berries these are. If anyone knows feel free to set me straight.

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"Tis' The Season"

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This is the second photo in the ice storm series which was also shot in Mohawk Park on Friday after the ice storm. This is a more isolated view of the same kind of berries as the previous photo.

Thanks to Kathleen, I now know that this is called Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora Thunb.ex Murr.) Actually I know a lot about it now because she is a master when it comes to this stuff and left a wonderful detailed description and history in the comments on the previous post. Thanks Kathleen!

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"Tis' The Season"

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This was shot on Friday in Mohawk Park the day after we had a nasty ice storm. I have a series of photos of ice storm shots featuring different berries covered in ice that I will be posting in the coming days. I am horticulturally challenged so I have no idea what kinds of berries they are so if anyone can tell me I would appreciate it.

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"Tis' The Season"

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It is December 2 and I woke this morning to the first real snow of the season. Not a big snow but enough to cover everything with a beautiful Mantle of pure white delight. I of course was very excited. I had to go to church early to set up the coffee and goodies for Fellowship Hour. When the service ended and all the goodies were put out I went outside and got a few shots of the snow outside of the church.

There is a Pussy Willow bush/tree next to the parking lot. I thought Pussy Willows bloomed with their little fuzzy buds in the early Spring, I didn't know they could have buds in the Fall/Winter. I know there are a few gardeners who visit my site and I would love if one of you could enlighten me.

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"Tis' The Season"

This blog was born. Wow!!! I cannot believe a year has passed. In fact I was taken somewhat by surprise when I realized today was the anniversary. In that year, many posts and many new friends have been made. So many of you have been with me since the very beginning and I have really cherished all of your visits. You all keep me going. The blog has evolved in style over these 12 months thanks to Azhar and his immense talent and kindness. Thank you Azhar!!!

Getting back into photography was one of the best things I've done for myself. It's been rewarding and fun! I hope to stick around for a long time to come. I've come a long way in that year. I look at things differently now, even more so than in my younger days, I find beauty in the seemingly mundane. Sometimes I hit, sometimes I miss, but nearly every shot I take means something to me, even if not everyone else gets it.

I wish this shot was more profound for the 1 year anniversary, but I've been so very busy that I've really not had a chance to go out and shoot other than some jobs for a couple of weeks now. I'm hoping that will change soon and I will have more time. This shot was of the only significant snow we've had so far this winter. It was the Valentines Day snowstorm and it was actually more ice than snow here. This was taken on Friday, a couple of days after the storm, from my Kitchen door looking out onto my deck. I liked the way the sun was coming through the trees and I particularly liked the shadow lines that were created.

When I don't have a post here, there is likely to be a different one on "Parallel Universe" so I invite you to check it out as well. I was moving the archives from here over there since I had issues with the archives so you may see some posts that are duplicates of these but they would be in the archived posts, not the current post, all current posts will be different from what's here.

I want to thank you all for the supportive comments, particularly on the last post regarding Robert and his upcoming deployment to Iraq. It means so much me to have your moral support.

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