My photos at the 2012 Guilford Fair

Foucault's Pendulum, The Pantheon, Paris, France.
Division: Color Enlargement; Class:  Misc.

Every year I enter photos in the Guilford Agricultural Fair's contest (Department R, to be specific).  This year I entered 10 photos.  One or two may look familiar, but in any case here they are (including the one above):

Castle Stairwell, Loire Valley, France
Adult Color Enlargement, Architecture.

Purple Coneflower
Adult Color Enlargement, Flowers and Plants.

Wheat Field, Loire Valley, France
Adult Color Enlargement, Scenic.

Trees in Fog, North Guilford
Adult Color Enlargement, Scenic.

Barn Door, North Guilford
Adult Black and White Enlargement, Architecture

Squirrel at Haverford College, Pennsylvania
Adult Color Enlargement, Wildlife

Field of Sunflowers, Loire Valley, France
Altered or Manipulated Photography, Scenic

Blue Doors, Santorini, Greece
Altered or Manipulated Photography, Architecture

Hay Rolls, Loire Valley, France

Altered or Manipulated Photography, Scenic

Some years I have won a ribbon or two, some years none.  But this year was a bumper crop!  I won four regular ribbons

and Best In Show for adult color enlargement!  (... I'm so excited ....)  Steve

Commuting By Bicycle

We have been doing a lot of fun biking, both for pleasure and as training for our late September Boston to New York ride -- the AIDS charity Braking The Cycle (donations to our effort can be made here).    In a later post I'll show some of my (many, many...) photos from our trip to France, which included some fabulous bike rides.

But for now:  last week I took my camera along on my Thursday ride to work, a 23-mile route from Guilford to Middletown (there are shorter options but this is a nice one).  When the weather is good and my work schedule doesn't conflict, I can usually find a day (sometimes two) a week to bike to work instead of my half-hour drive.  It's a beautiful ride:

Two left turns after leaving  the house, I pass the verdant field across the street from the local elementary school (every now and then sheep dogs train there).

A mile along, the road dips through some water company protected woods.  This is the pattern for the ride, alternating between fields and woods, with only a few commercial strips until I get to Middletown.

There had been some rain the night before, and the morning fog was still lifting as I rode north on Route 77, a bigger road that takes me into Durham.

I only went through the south corner of the small town of Durham -- turning right at the Citgo station, I headed through more fields and then up my first big hill.

More lovely country side (the cows sometimes graze here but must have been on holiday!)

past a pond full of lily pads reflecting the blue and white sky

and then up my steepest hill, which doesn't look like much from this angle

but on a bike it feels the way it looks on my route mapping software:

Up that big hill, down the big hill, and somewhere about mile 20 I'm entering the south end of the city of Middletown -- and again riding through scenic farmland.

Finally, about a mile from the YMCA where I shower, there's no avoiding the city and the cars.

Great exercise, and a wonderful bike ride in late summer.  What a beautiful way to start the day!