Pinestraw Man

Straw for brains -- for real.

Louise and I found this fellow taking his ease on the grounds of Radium Springs park at Albany, Georgia. Don't look for his head, because it's only a sheaf of pinestraw. 

I don't know why he was there. He couldn't speak for himself, and there was non one around to ask. However, it was the middle of October, so he might have been part of preparations for a Hollowe'en celebration at the park.

Radium Springs, Georgia's largest natural spring, is about four miles south of Albany's riverfront area via Radium Springs Road. With a flow of 70,000 gallons of fresh, clear water per minute, Radium Springs is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. Traces of radium in the water give it its name. The spring is surrounded by a 95-acre botanical park that includes the ruins of an early 20^th-century casino and resort. 

 Radium Springs, Albany, Georgia

 If you find yourself anywhere near Albany, be sure to visit the spring and also the many other interesting things along the Flint riverfront, including the Riverquarium. 

(I used a Fuji X-H1 camera and a Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens for both photos.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel     Georgia     Albany     Radium Springs     Fuji X-H1 camera     Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens

My Business Is Going to the Dogs

Miss Biscuit, posing like a pro model.

Ever since we moved into our home in Wesley Place in Knoxville almost a year ago, our neighbor Ashleigh has repeatedly gone out of her way to be kind and helpful in a multitude of ways.

A few months ago she brought home a nondescript and skinny little rescue dog that she named "Biscuit." Sweet and outgoing, Biscuit soon blossomed under loving care, bringing obvious joy to her mistress.

Recently, Louise said to me, "Ashleigh has been to nice and helpful to us, I wish there were something we could do for her."

I said, "Why don't I give her a photo session with her and Biscuit and a good-sized print that she could frame?"

Louise loved the idea, so I contacted Ashleigh, who also loved the idea. We made arrangements to come to her house and set up for the pictures.

One never knows how an animal will react to flashing lights, etc., but Biscuit was perfectly calm and posed like a pro. Ashleigh was delighted to receive 31 proof files and loved them all so much she asked for more time to choose the one to enlarge. (She still hasn't been able to choose.)

Ashleigh and Biscuit

I used a Fuji X-H1 camera for the portrait session, with the Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens set at 50mm (75mm full-frame equivalent) for most of the photos. The lighting was a single Neewer electronic flash, bounced out of an umbrella.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     portraits     animal portraits     Fuji X-H1 camera     Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens     Neewer electronic flash

Historic Buildings in Talbotton, Georgia

The 1832 Warner-Simpson-Jordan House, Talbotton, Georgia

Talbotton is an interesting small city in west central Georgia, about 85 miles from Macon via U.S. Highway 80. It's interesting to me, at least, because of the number of well-preserved historic houses and churches, including the Greek Revival Talbotton United Methodist Church, built in 1857, and the 1848 Zion Episcopal Church, a Tudor-Gothic structure which would look right at home in an English village.

The rare Pilcher pipe organ, installed in 1850, is the oldest one still working in the United States. A $257,000 project to restore the exterior of the church was completed in November, 2020. Worship services are held quarterly.

The Warner-Simpson-Jordon House, at 126 Monroe Street, is one of many great old houses in Talbotton. A Plantation Plain-style house built in 1832 by Judge Hiram Warner, a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, it was his home and law office. During the Civil War the house was raided by Yankee soldiers. Warner, who was a prominent Rebel leader, resisted, and was sentenced to hang. The Yankees hung him from a tree in his own yard and left him for dead, but he was cut down by a family slave, revived, and lived 16 more years.

The house is obviously well preserved and maintained. I wish I had removed the modern folding chair on the porch, but I am reluctant to go on private property. I usually just take my pictures and move on. As the saying goes, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints."

(Photo: Canon EOS 6D, probably the Canon EF 24-85 f3.5-4.5 lens.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     Talbotton     Georgia     Zion Episcopal Church     Canon EOS 6D digital camera     Canoon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens

The Return of the Handyman

The finished job. New countertop and sinks.

 

 Everyone makes mistakes. I've made a lot of them.

One of the worst mistakes of my young life was letting Louise find out that I could work with my hands. 

After 58 years of remodeling, renovating, and sometimes repainting, five houses, two trailers, and building half of a barn, I was deathly tired of handyman work. I only did it because (1.) it was cheaper than paying someone; (2.) I usually thought I could do a better job than the people available for hire, and (3.) I like being married to Louise. (The third reason is the most important one.) 

But I never liked handyman work. I looked forward to spending my declining years in Knoxville without doing any more of it. Surely, she would have respect for my age.

Sadly, no. It was not to be.

The previous owners of our house had lived there since it was built in 1984. The old lady died there in the fall of 2022 at age 100. Some "upgrading" was needed.

After repainting everything, new carpets in the bedrooms, and new wood floors throughout the rest of the house (which thankfully, I didn't do), Louise's attention turned to the bathrooms. The sinks and mirrors must be replaced. By who? Me.

So the first order of business was replacing the mirror with medicine cabinets.

 New medicine cabinets from Wayfair.

 

I would have preferred to countersink the medicine cabinets, but our neighbors were just on the other side of that wall. 

The barn door came as a bundle of boards and hardware with "some assembly required."

 

 Next, there was no door between the master bedroom and master bath. A barn door came from Wayfair with total assembly required. 

 

And finally, we bought a slab of laminated acacia wood, which I cut to fit and to which Louise applied many, many coats of stain and varnish. The scary part was drilling the holes for the sink drains and faucets, because if I got them in the wrong places the whole project would have to be done over.

 

The physically most difficult part was installing the sink drains, each of which required two sections of flexible tubing and me laying on my back with my head and arms under the counter. But it all came together and it all works. The only thing left to do is install some tile on the walls.

 

Now, can I please remove my handyman hat and throw it away? I really don't want to do this stuff any more.

(Photos: Fuji X-T20 camera, Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     handyman     home renovations     Fuji X-T-20 camera     Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens