One of my favorite movies of all time is a film called “Smoke” starring Harvey Keitel as a man who owns a smoke shop in Brooklyn.  The movie examines his relationships with his ex-wife and the people who live in his neighborhood.  One particularly poignant relationship is the one between him and a character played by William Hurt, whose wife had been shot in Harvey Keitel’s smoke shop.

Another aspect of the movie that I have always loved is the fact that Augie, Harvey Keitel’s character has a tripod set up in front of his store to take a photo of the people passing by the store every single day.  He takes their photo with a Canon AE-1, a great little camera that I used for years.  Every day I walk down the same street, have for two years and I have snapped photos of it before.  Usually I am in a mad rush when I am walking down the street, but two days in a row I was able to snap a photo.

Yesterday:

Today:

Anyone who think Bostonians are unfashionable doesn’t walk around this place before, during or after your average holiday:

That is immediately what I said when I happened upon the following scene:

Well, my ski season in Wachusett is over.  In fact, most of ski season is over.  I’m taking one more ski trip this year and then I get to wait until December to put on skis again.

Wachusett has become a great place to ski for me.  It has a gentle, easy going vibe about it.  As evidence, I wanted to add that I bought a t-shirt with a storm trooper that was snowboarding at that place.

Wachusett is a city ski slope.  It is the Coney Island of skiing.  Technically you can ski there, but it is kind of tiny, but is also within short distance of Boston.  And it is a great place to bring beginners, as the terrain isn’t that difficult.

Well, now the melt down has started, so for now we just have a few more pictures to enjoy:

Your damage, decay, straight lines, reflective surfaces, singing denizens, steaming pipes, I love it all.  Here’s to you, my one and only:

No large former German Chancellors were harmed in the making of this photo:

Nah, just kidding.  Just a few more photos from the flower show:

As a kid, my mom would make me go to flower shows with her.  I found the whole experience supremely and utterly boring.  Flowers.  Huh.  Different types of flowers.  Huh.

But then I discovered people like photos of flowers and I like looking at colors.  So yet again, a boring activity gets turned into a very interesting activity.  And there are some other additions I will speak of in a minute that make it all worth while.

First let’s enjoy some flowers:

Yeah, I know not so many gorgeous flower photos.  I was more going for disintegrating flowered wallpaper your grandmother had in her house.  Except these are really flowers.

And then came the snakes:

Again, I tricked you!  They aren’t actual snakes or flowers for that matter, but to me they look like a bunch of snakes.  My mother assures me that these are the latest in garden ornamentation, but I prefer my garden to remain snake free, glass or otherwise.

Now I think that the flower show knows that a lot of the people who go to the flower show aren’t flower fanatics looking to buy orchid food or another nozzle for their garden hose.  Put me squarely into that category.  You find many other interesting things among the flowers.  Many many many many interesting things:

And I left the best for last:

This is one of the more interesting parts of show.  Yes, you just say a grown lady, a baby and a couple of birds.  Never a dull moment at the flower show, I tell you!