Simply At Year-End

While some of us are resting and vacationing between Christmas and New Year's Day, the Capt. Novello is still at work.

Capt. Sam Novello sits in the wheelhouse of the Capt. Novello.

Photo from the June 8, 2008 edition of the Gloucester Daily Times.
Read Peter K. Prybot's Ebb & Flow column: At-sea events have made captain superstitious article for more information on Captain Sam Novello.

A New Year's Prayer
Anonymous

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you anxious to be there to help.
God's love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.

Whether you'll be shouting Felice Anno Nuovo! or Onnellista Uutta Vuotta!,
or whether you'll be jumping into a sauna or preparing pork and lentils,
I wish you all the best in the coming year!

Simply At Year-End

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Simply Gullible!

It was a quiet Saturday morning, just after Christmas. The weather was nice, yet the sky was still overcast. There was very little boat traffic and most of the city seemed to be sleeping in.

Even the seagulls were in a subdued mood.

Click an image to enlarge.

Here's one little guy (gull?) coming in for a landing.

These two homies were keeping a lookout for Joey of GoodMorningGloucester fame. I could have sworn that I heard his voice but couldn't see him.

Simply Gullible!

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Simply A City Hall Castle

A recent trip to the Jodrey State Fish Pier presented an interesting view of City Hall. Sorry about the grainy quality. It was very overcast this day.

It almost appears to be part of a castle from here!

Click on the images to enlarge.

Especially, once I "posterized" the image.

(I did center the tower just a bit!)

Simply A City Hall Castle

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Simply BarnStorming

Not all pictures of Cape Ann need to be "seascapes". Here's a beautiful barn just constructed at the Blue Sky Farm in Essex. More details and pictures during it's construction can be found on GoodMorningGloucester.

Simply BarnStorming

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Simply Tranquil

A quick stop at Hodgkins Cove provided these tranquil images. Once again, I am showing these pictures as both a digital capture and a "rendered painting".

Be sure to click on each pair of images to see the larger versions.

The first pair is called "Out to the Bay".

This next pair is called "Wait 'Til Next Year"

Simply Tranquil

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Simply Majestic!

Here are a few more pictures from Stage Fort Park. Even without their spring and summer clothing, the trees stand regally by the harbor.

Click on the images to enlarge.

A perfect day for a walk with Tablet Rock ahead.

Reach for the sky! How high can you reach?

Tablet Rock surrounded by the trees.

Simply Majestic!

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Simply Ten Pounds

A walk through Stage Fort Park provided these glimpses of Ten Pound Island. And to think that it was "purchased for only ten pounds". Truly a bargain!

The following description of Ten Pound Island is from the National Park Service.

Ten Pound is a small island located at the eastern end of Gloucester Harbor with shoals between it and the mainland to the east. The island allegedly received its name from the amount of money the early settlers paid the local American Indian tribe for it or for the number of sheep pens (pounds) that it could hold. Ten Pound Island Light Station was established in 1821 to safely guide mariners into Gloucester's inner harbor.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Ten Pound Island Light

Simply Ten Pounds

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Simply Magnolia

The Hotel is long gone and most visitors only travel through Magnolia to stop at Hammond Castle. Imagine looking out at these sights every morning!

Click on each image to see a larger version.

Simply Magnolia

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Simply November

The final weekend of November brought nice days and clear skies. Here are a few images of Little River as the calendar page flips.

Be sure to click on each image to see the larger version.

November
by William Cullen Bryant

YET one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapoury air,
Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds ran,
Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue Gentian flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skim the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.

November
by Hartley Coleridge

THE mellow year is hasting to its close:
The little birds have almost sung their last,
Their small notes twitter in the dreary blast --
That shrill-piped harbinger of early snows; --
The patient beauty of the scentless rose,
Oft with the morn's hoar crystal quaintly glassed,
Hangs a pale mourner for the summer past,
And makes a little summer where it grows; --
In the chill sunbeam of the faint brief day
The dusky waters shudder as they shine;
The russet leaves obstruct the straggling way
Of oozy brooks, which no deep banks define,
And the gaunt woods, in ragged, scant array,
Wrap their old limbs with sombre ivy-twine.

Simply November

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Simply Waiting

We have just entered the Advent season of the Christian year, a time of waiting and preparing. This season is overlooked by many as the sales seasons jump right from Halloween to "Holiday Gift Purchasing" season.

Henri Nouwen describes spiritually oriented waiting as “openended.”

“Openended waiting is hard for us because we tend to wait for something very concrete, for something we wish to have… We are full of wishes, and our waiting easily gets entangled in those wishes… Hope is something very different. Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises and not just just according to our wishes. Therefore, hope is always open-ended.”
(H. Nouwen)

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? (Tao Te Ching)

Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?
(Tao Te Ching)

“I have found it very important in my own life to let go of my wishes and start hoping. It was only when I was willing to let go of wishes that something really new, something beyond my own expectations could happen to me… To wait openendedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life… The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.”
(H. Nouwen)

Simply Waiting

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