The Week That Was – March 19, 2023

I should write this down

I realize that I have been remiss in writing for this website. I keep waiting for momentous event that will capture my imagination and inspire a post but so far it has been rather quiet. Actually I prefer that way. At my age surprises tend to be bad news.

I found inspiration

I attending an interesting lecture at the Library named “Family, Memory, Place: Writing Family Stories”. It presented by Maura MacNeil who has taught writing at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire. We we were asked to spend about five minutes writing short essays based upon prompts. For example one prompt was “Take a moment to think about a family artifact you are connected to (either in memory or that you have in your possession) – a particular phonograph, a book, a piece of jewelry, an heirloom of some sort. We were instructed to write down this item without overthinking why it came to mind. Instead to concentrate on the concrete and sensory detail. It was an interesting exercise. Maybe you might want to try this, go ahead.

Perhaps a weekly newsletter?

I don’t have any interest in writing a daily diary but a weekly newsletter would be a a good vehicle for me. It would include lots of photos of course. However I was faced with a technical dilemma. When does a week begin? If it is Monday then why do calendars show Sunday as the first day. Since I had no clue, I decided to ask Barde, Google’s AI project.

The first day of the week is a matter of convention. In most of the world, Monday is considered the first day of the week. This is because the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has defined Monday as the first day of the week in its ISO 8601 standard. The ISO 8601 standard is used by many countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, and Japan.

However, in some countries, Sunday is considered the first day of the week. This is because Sunday is the day of rest in many religions, including Christianity and Judaism. For example, in the United States, Sunday is considered the first day of the week because it is the day of rest for most people.

There is no right or wrong answer to the question of which day is the first day of the week. It is simply a matter of convention.

Google Bard

Thank you robot masters. This is the newsletter for the week that started on SUNDAY, March 19, 2023. Lets decided on some topics.

Analog Photography

I’ve reached the point where I’ve spent more time shooting with a digital camera than than with film. Certainly there are more photographs. However I’ve spend considerable time digitizing those photos from prints and transparencies. However the analog photos lack information such as GPS data and accurate time stamps. I can only try to guess where and when some of these forty year old photos were taken. Here is my first offering.

The Door

I am fairly certain that I took this photo in California, so it was taken in 1971 or 1972 when I was in the Navy. I’ve always been drawn to photographing doors and windows and finding this weathered door framed with a wisteria was a real treat.

Photo of the week

On Saturday we had lunch with my son at Ray’s Restaurant in Rye, NH along the seacoast. When we left I noticed a woman feeding bread slices to gulls along the breakwater. It was a chaotic scene.

Only a picture stops time

Photography is a time machine, frozen moments from the past. I looked back at the photos that were taken in previous years in the seven day time frame of March 19th to March 25th and picked one for this newsletter.

This photo was taken on Monday, March 20, 2022 at the Mad Moose Sugar House in New Ipswich, NH. At this time of year we have freezing nights and warm days which are conducive to maple sap collection. Although the hanging buckets are more picturesque, this is the more efficient way to gather sap. This sugar house is located at the bottom of a hill so the sap flows right into the collection tank.

That’s all folks