Old Bahia Honda Alone

Photos are anecdotal inasmuch as I can take a picture any old time and make it look like the highway is jammed or empty. But believe me when I tell you I stopped on Niles Channel Bridge, forty feet above the water and took this picture absolutely alone on the highway for a mile behind me and half that in front. That's not a moment in time, that's the reality of roadblocks coming into the Keys and most people out of work.

 Arriving at Bahia Honda on a lovely morning and I was all alone. With Rusty. We walked alone.

I live near Venture Out, a residential trailer park on Cudjoe Key filled with dog owners who conscientiously walk their dogs at least twice a day and I applaud them for their diligence. (I played with photography filters to enhance the unnatural colors below).

However aside from the boredom of walking the same streets every single day I don't see the safety in numbers of  dodging a dozen dog walkers on the same street. 

Did I overdo this one? I post it here because this a page between friends not as an example of high photographic art. I see lots like this on Instagram but though I find it fun to push back the envelope of tedium closing in during the pandemic it's not my style to process pictures that hard. If you like it by all means copy and use it, as you can with any of my pictures.

 For some reason I was looking down while walking the beach, watching where I put my feet as I am always more careful than I used to be before my accident, and I found an ancient 20th century relic. I have to say I don't remember film photography with anything but irritation so holding this long lost automatic film canister in my hand did not bring back happy memories. I love digital.

 Rusty and the full moon that had everyone in ecstasy recently.

 I'll tell you what though, with all this full pink moon stuff going around I got some good tips to photograph the moon properly next time I am inclined.  If we are still locked down I'll be forced to give it a  go in a month. I also learned about Earthshine and photography. Honestly though I find photographing celestial bodies to be only marginally interesting in relation to what's underneath.  A horizon underneath the photographed moon might make it more interesting. Here's a yellowish moon:

Bird on a Stick alert. Turkey vulture giving me the stink eye. You know things are not going well when vultures look askance at you. I took the picture and reminded the bird that Rusty and I were both quite alive, just resting.

 I tell you, we were completely alone shortly after seven in the morning last Wednesday. Check out these pictures that need no captions. Oh by the weay the coronavirus stuff is still going on and businesses are still closed and you can't visit the Keys by car without a local ID. All that stays the same but the beauty is still here for us to enjoy.

Rusty found a hole and told me he wanted a rest.  Who was i to argue? We were still all alone. Sad but lovely.

Historical Monument

And today, in an effort to avoid thinking about the coronavirus we look at a small piece of Key West history. The substation is next to the old diesel generator plant at the end of Angela Street.

It was all before my time, built in 1890 and in use powering the city for 70 years. The Geraldine Street side of the building has become an art display.

Given the deterioration after fifty years of being abandoned the city planned to tear the building down. Once that plan was announced everyone suddenly noticed the brick structure and the drive was on to save it.

 Just over a year ago the Miami Herald was reporting a new set of plans for the overlooked building.

 "A Key West nonprofit will redevelop the crumbling former diesel plant into an interactive museum that features a microbrewery and restaurant. The goal of the museum is, in part, to reflect the importance of the historically black neighborhood of Bahama Village, which is largely gentrified and infused with art galleries and restaurants."

I don't know why but Rusty got it into his head that there was stuff worth sniffing alongside the building. Then he rolled in the grass which always requires untangling his leash and inbetween all this drama I wielded my camera.

 We were alone, it was sunny but not yet hot and I enjoyed the break before we had to resume our exercise plan. 

There aren't that many brick buildings in Key West so I take advantage of any opportunity to photograph brick structures. 

It used to be that bricks were brought to Key West as ballast in sailing ships, turning dead weight into cargo but that source of supply has dried up in the modern era. So brick buildings are not that common in a town made of wood. 

 Turning this building into something useful is going to cost an estimated $15 million and before the interesting stuff happens they have to make sure it stays up and doesn't turn into a pile first.

 The Key West Art and Historical Society has it's work cut out. I hope it turns out well.

Caroline Coronavirus

I got an e-mail titled "A Bunch of Rambling" from a  friend in Arizona. Thanks Bruce, now I've got to figure out how to write a page that is as interesting. I took Rusty up Caroline Street Wednesday when I was in town to get prescriptions and of course no one was around.  The Marker Hotel is silent and dark, which it obviously has to be...I normally walk by and wish the old Jabour's Trailer Park was still there. 

Even before the coronavirus problems it was getting harder to find quirky sights in Old Town, a  by product inevitably of gentrification. However as I trail along behind Rusty I keep an eye open. This one I liked (below) which has the capacity to bring a  gentle smile when you know the pineapple is traditionally a symbol of welcome in Key West. Which is why they are everywhere in home decorations and gingerbread designs. 

In normal times you'll see a line of people drinking coffee and reading papers on the porch so once again you get  a little jolt seeing the chain across the steps and the porch empty and the front door closed. 

Similar picture slightly changed by the presence of a homeless guy pedaling by. Nothing and no one else. I remember when the zombie apocalypse fad was its height and people around me would speculate how great it would be to have all debts cancelled and life lived at it's most fundamental instead of dealing with modern societal limitations. I wonder if those faddish thoughts have been pushed aside by the reality of lock downs and closures and too much time on their hands.

Hope your bike doesn't get a flat. Apparently bike shops aren't essential so you'd better get back to your spooning skills and dexterity with patches and glue and all that ghastly childhood drama. Rubber wasn't so durable when I was a youngster and roads were covered in trash so fixing a  flat was a required skill and aside from being useless at it, pinching the tube on the rim with painful regularity, I hated doing it.

 And then we close this day's selection of pictures with a joke that drifted past my dog and I as we strolled so I could not resist. I labeled it Hopeful Scooterist on Instagram.

And that was five minutes of your life you won't get back. So now I'd better go and see what Bruce is blathering about. Check your e-mails, you never know what you might find!

Walking Alone

I was reading a  discussion on a  photography forum about how to use one's camera in these days of limited mobility. As the group has a worldwide readership it was quite interesting to see some Australians claim they are not allowed to use cameras when getting their daily exercise.  The state of Victoria has apparently outlawed photography, perhaps on the grounds that people might stand around in public pretending to exercise while indulging their artistic sensibilities.

Here in Florida you can go boating as long as you don't anchor in a  crowd, you can fish but not from bridges for fear of creating crowds, you can hunt and walk as long as not in crowds and you can even crowd each other out while praying. Oddly enough some European countries don't allow you to drive to a quiet place to get your exercise and you have to walk only in your neighborhood. That sounds daft to me as the main street in my subdivision is crowded with dog walkers, but look at this back road:

I have increased my circuit of trails and back roads in order not to bore my dog, or myself, and to look for things that catch my eye. The travel restrictions have emptied the Keys and now whether I am walking the mangroves or the city streets I find more time to look and see uninterrupted.

I am reminded of those children who prefer to invent their own toys rather than play with store bought items. Many roads have broad shoulders and thick impenetrable scrub and as unappealing as they appear close up I enjoy my time here as much as Rusty seems to. I feel lucky to live here in these hard times. I don't envy apartment dwellers and urban victims of lock down restrictions.

To be alone; it's a wonderful thing.

Golden Hour

Photographers call it the Golden Hour and you can sort of see why.  I am not a huge fan of sunrise and sunset pictures because I suspect I am not as good at them or committed as others who post extravagant bursts of color. In a moment of whimsy I put my hand above the lense and tried something a bit different. To my jaundiced eye it looked different or weird. 

I like looking at sunsets, they give me that feeling of clam that comes from appreciating the fact I've made it through one more day but trying to make an interesting picture...!

From time to time Rusty loves to run alongside the back roads for a change, sticking his head in the shrubbery, backtracking and chasing scents. Which gives me time to look around and enjoy being in the silence of a forested desert.

The moon is waxing, half full and full of light in the early hours, a big white half disc in the evening as it closes in on the full moon. I like a full moon even though it blots out the stars at night.

And I don't mind wool gathering either, spotting a weird shaped cloud, this one reminded me of a horseshoe crab. 

Then I wandered off road for a few feet and found some crocodile skin wrapped around a branch. Well, it looked like a reptile.

How Rusty finds joy in this under brush I don't know. 

I did get just a bit bored waiting for him to get his fill of the smells and I tried using the color selector in the camera. 

With darkness falling and all cars tucked up for the night I might have been on the dark side of the moon. The wind was whistling past my ears like it does when you are in a wide open space, and Rusty was panting as you do when you have had a good walk, all was well with the world. Sort of.

Long miles of emptiness. To passers by it probably looks like social distancing and responsible exercise. To me it is another day of the kind of social isolation that helps me get past another twelve hours of waiting for 911 calls.  

For Rusty? Its what he lives for.