I don't know what others call this rock in Ravenswood Park.
I call it "Turtle Rock" since it reminds me of the head of
a turtle straining from its shell to take a look around.
Turtle
Written by Kay Ryan
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing-case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
she's often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.
Simply A Turtle?
C_A_B
A solitary walk through Ravenswood Park often gives one a chance
to slow down and reconnect with nature. The paths through the woods
offer many similarities to one's life. It could be climbing a hill
or tackling a problem, or perhaps wondering where a path will lead.
Other times, the path is littered with broken trees, much like
broken dreams or plans, or old trees yielding to new ones much
like old ideas and habits yielding to new perhaps better ones.
Where will this path lead?
Simply A Walk
C_A_B
There is still a little splash of colors in the garden as summer turns to autumn.
The dahlias have popped all summer.
At least one or two more blooms to come from this plant.
Simply Autumn Blooms
C_A_B
Where once a tree stood, now a stump with a hole in its center mopes.
Sadly, even in a place as well-cared for as Ravenswood Park,
at least one visitor decided that the hole in the stump serves as a trash barrel.
Simply Once A Tree
C_A_B
Sometimes, even a lowly fungus can be beautiful in its own way.
I found this little guy (as in "fungi") hiding behind a rock in Ravenswood Park.
Mushroom
Written by Emily Dickinson
The mushroom is the elf of plants,
At evening it is not;
At morning in a truffled hut
It stops upon a spot
As if it tarried always;
And yet its whole career
Is shorter than a snake's delay,
And fleeter than a tare.
'Tis vegetation's juggler,
The germ of alibi;
Doth like a bubble antedate,
And like a bubble hie.
I feel as if the grass were pleased
To have it intermit;
The surreptitious scion
Of summer's circumspect.
Had nature any outcast face,
Could she a son condemn,
Had nature an Iscariot,
That mushroom,--it is him.
Simply A Mushroom
C_A_B
The Cut Bridge opens up just after high tide.
Three powerboats wait in Gloucester Harbor.
Boats coming down the Annisquam River have rights.
First boat through is Stephen Hall's Columbine out of Manchester.
Nice and smooth. Barely a ripple.
Dog Star is up next pushing against the current.
It can be a fine line between not using enough
power to push through the current and too much
leaving a mess for the boats following you.
Dog Star did it well.
Not too much slop left behind.
Surf Rider is next in line.
Looks like they named this boat right!
Churned things up quite a bit.
Now the Grady White comes through and not only has
to fight the current but also now has to contend
with rolling waves left behind Surf Rider!
Need a quick, last minute correction and then the Grady is through.
Simply Passing Through
C_A_B
The Blynman Bridge, a.k.a. the Cut Bridge is raised and lowered to
allow boats to go between the Annisquam River and Gloucester Harbor.
The red lights flash on, the siren screams, the gates swing across the boulevard, the gears grind, and the jaws of the drawbridge crack open to let a fishing dragger through. For a few minutes Gloucester is almost an island.
-- The Gloucester Guide by Joseph GarlandThe gears are moving again. The bridge is coming down.
thecutbridge.com has a live webcam of the Blynman Bridge in operation.
It's almost done. Soon, the gates will rise and the cars will begin crossing.
Then the jaws descend and shut with a toothsome click, the gates swing clear, and the line of summer traffic drones across again, always with that urgency: can we make it before the next one shuts us off?
-- The Gloucester Guide by Joseph Garland
Simply Blynman
C_A_B
The Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Memorial stands
looking out over the harbor on a late summer morning.
The site was designed by Ann Gilardi Johnson.
The sculpture was created by Morgan Faulds Pike.
"The memorial serves as a testimonial to what wives, mothers, sisters, and children of fishermen of the world have endured because their men chose to be on the water. They had no choice but to stand on rock, to be on land."
-- Angela Sanfilippo at the dedication ceremony on August 5, 2001
Much more information about the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Memorial can be found at the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association website.
Simply Fishermen's Wives
C_A_B
The sun is setting while the moon begins it ascent.
Just barely visible to the right of this seaside home.
The moon and its travelling companion Venus.
Simply Lunar
C_A_B
Perhaps a mermaid?
Going...
Going.......
Gone.
Simply A Mystery
C_A_B
A family assembles on Good Harbor Beach.
Time for a family portrait.
Smile!
Simply Portrait Time
C_A_B
City Hall in Gloucester peeks out from between a couple of
buildings in the section of Gloucester known as The Fort.
You can read more about The Fort at DownTheFort.
Look at all the spires!
Simply Spires
C_A_B
Labor Day on Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester.
The "unofficial" end of summer.
Time for one more play in the sand.
Time for one more game of beach football.
Time for one more walk in the waves, ... 
or maybe one more boat ride.
Time for one more island excursion.
Time for one more (okay, four more) buckets of water.
Time for one more excavation and fort building project.
Looks like two of them found time for one more "mug up"!
Simply Summer Waning
C_A_B
