Fourth of July, North Cape May

I didn't have anyone to bring to my town's Fourth of July festivities, so I brought my camera (and lenses) instead. This was especially fun because this town doesn't just shoot off fireworks, they host a carnival down by the bay. People come from miles around and end up parking in front of my house blocks away for the rides, food trucks, entertainment, and ultimately a half hour of non-stop fireworks. I didn't stay for the pyrotechnics because Gladys the Sheltie is terrified of them: they are loud and close.

After our beachwalk earlier in the day, I spotted this ride and thought it would be fun to shoot it in action:

 

There were other rides, mostly for the kiddies...

Get your tickets here:

And then see if you can ring this bell by hitting the thing with the giant hammer (I didn't see anyone try last night):

There were a couple of bands playing while we cruised through the food trucks...

 

 

As you can see, the late-day light was tricky, so I made up my mind that this batch of photos would be experimental...

Here's that gorgeous Mimosa tree about a block from the bay through my fish-eye lens

And a view of the bay with a black & white filter

And finally, while all this was going on down by the water, and before the fireworks were set off from a barge in the water, neighborhood houses were being judged for a good ol' Fourth of July house decorating contest!

And now this morning, all of the excitement is over, house parties more-or-less cleaned up, the rides packed-up and off to their next gig, and the neighborhood seems to be back to normal. Every house is quiet, and besides the lady hanging beach towels on her clothesline and the man walking his Border Collie, there aren't any people out there. It was a late night!

The Quilt Show at Historic Cold Spring Village

I visit Historic Cold Spring Village at least once a year or so, usually for one of their weekly (in the summertime) special events. I blogged about the place back in 2011 right here, but today I'm focusing on the Quilt and Fiber Arts Show. We walked among the authentic Cape May County buildings brought to this location to form this little village and visited various vendors of fabric and fibers along the way. We saved the Country Store and its old-timey and handmade merchandise for last.

The Country Store is housed in the James Hathorn House (c. 1722/1780)

The Ice Cream Parlor was doing a brisk business this day...

The Ice Cream Parlor is located in the Ewing-Douglass House (c. 1850)

...and the Bakery offered some tempting treats.

The Ezra Norton House from Dias Creek (c. 1850) houses the Village Bakery

But we're here for fabrics and fibers, remember? Over at the Spicer-Leaming House (c.1817), a costumed interpreter was showing a visitor how the spinning wheel works. We watched.

Across the road at the Corson-Hand House (c. 1837), experts were demonstrating wool carding, and down around the corner my friends from Jersey Shore Alpacas had a tent set up where they were selling luxurious alpaca yarns and gorgeous soft things made from these fibers. This farm is right around the corner from Cold Spring, and Tish and Jim welcome visitors to their farm to visit the alpacas and browse through their store full of soft alpaca things. (Check the link above first, though.) They even offer workshops!

I like the crocheting and knitting, but quilting is my true medium of expression. The first bunch of quilts on display were hung in the 1894 Welcome Center. Visitors got to vote on their favorites on Saturday, and we got to see the winners in various categories when we were there on Sunday. As a person who has entered quilts in shows, I think they're all winners. It's not easy to put your creation out there for all to see and judge! Here are some samples:

There were quilt supply vendors at the Walter P. Taylor Octagon House (c. 1880 and formerly a chicken coop), and at the Dennisville Inn (c. 1836) where I got some red cotton velveteen for a crazy quilt I plan to tackle soon. I never seem to have enough cash for all the things I would like to buy (four or five hundred would be a good start), but that is just as well since I wouldn't have the time to actually stitch the stuff. Maybe this year I'll finish something and enter it in next year's show...but for now...more inspiration...

There were more quilts displayed by the Gazebo (see them at the top of this post) and that was also the site of the QUILT QUIZZO trivia game. Visitors were formed into groups by organizer Merry May, a respected and accomplished quilter from Tuckahoe, NJ. We answered questions on quilt history, quilting innovations, and famous quilters, for example, and after two rounds our Team C had pulled away from the pack. This was a good thing, as Round Three was all about anagrams, my Achilles Heel and my Waterloo. The scrambled words were names of classic quilt blocks, but it doesn't matter because my brain is missing the anagram figurer-outer synapse. But Oh Happy Day! We won!

Margie and Janet show off their Quilt Quizzo medals of fine gold plastic.

NJ Lighthouse Crawl

Every year, I say I'm going to participate in the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge in October, and every year I don't. October is a very busy month for me, and I just can't seem to fit it in. This year, Fred, Gladys, and I decided to make our own challenge on Thanksgiving weekend. We thought we'd hit all the oceanside lighthouses from Sandy Hook in the north to Hereford Inlet (North Wildwood) in the south on Day One, hang out in Cape May for Day Two, and then travel north on starting at Cape May (at the confluence of the ocean and Delaware Bay), visiting the three bayside lighthouses. (That's the East Point Lighthouse in Heislerville, on the bay, at the top of this post.)

Unfortunately, Fred had to go to work on the morning of Day One, and I hadn't considered that the days are short and we'd lose daylight around 4:30. This was important because I had planned to photograph each lighthouse even if I didn't climb them. The Day One plan was spread over Day One and Day Two, and there was a lot of extra driving. On the positive side, we enjoyed traveling the Ocean Drive in the off-season through some of the shore towns we don't often visit. Gladys was thrilled that all of the lighthouses were dog-friendly this time of year except Hereford Inlet in North Wildwood. This is because they have a pretty awesome garden and prefer to regulate the fertilizer that goes in it.

So we visited the eleven lighthouses: Sandy Hook, Twin Lights (Navesink), Sea Girt, (Day One); Hereford Inlet, Absecon, Tucker's Island, Barnegat (Day Two); and Cape May, East Point, Finn's Point, and Tinicum (Day Three). I photographed all and climbed none. At the beginning, we borrowed the term 'challenge' for our adventure, but about halfway through changed that to 'crawl' (see the title of this post). Red and green words in this post are hyperlinks, by the way.

STUFF I LEARNED

• Sandy Hook is famous not merely for its nude beach, but also for its lighthouse, the oldest in the United States (1764) and occupied by the British during the Revolutionary War.
• The Absecon and Barnegat (pictured below) lighthouses were designed by the same engineer, Brigadeer General George Meade who later distinguished himself at the Battle of Gettysburg.
• The Absecon Lighthouse is only steps away from the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City, and is New Jersey's tallest lighthouse with 228 steps.
• The exoskeletal Finn's Point (pictured below) and and Tinicum lighthouses are rear range lighthouses, and each was used with another light. Ships' navigators would line up the two lights to make sure they were on course to enter a channel, river, or harbor.

• Cape May is still my favorite.