Retirement:  Is there any place better to spend retirement than in Port St. Lucie, Florida--- winter home of the N.Y. Mets?

Retirement, Port St. Lucie (sold):

Somesville Bridge, Maine:  Found in the village of Somesville on Mount Desert Island, the Somesville Bridge is one of the most photographed bridges in all of Maine.

 

Somesville is the oldest settlement on Mount Desert Island.  However, the bridge itself was built in 1981 as tribute to Dr. Virginia Somes Sanderson’s grandfather Thaddeus Shepley Somes, a descendent of Abraham Somes, the island’s first settler in 1761.  Images of this bridge have been captured in paintings and photographs by visitors from around the world.  The clean, white graceful arch over Somes Creek generates peaceful images of nature and inner solitude.

The small structure near the bridge is the historic Selectmen’s Building, built in the 1780s by John Somes.  He was the son of Abraham Somes.  Over the years this little building was used as a cobbler’s shop, post office, and museum.  It also served as the town office during the 19th century, up through 1911.

Somesville Bridge:

Yet another brook trout:  During the summer of 2017, lurking on the bottom of the upper Neversink was a brook trout, stealthy and poised for the next morsel to pass its way.

Lurking:

Some recent watercolors:  Below are several recent 2018 watercolors.  Some might have originally been done as oils, others perhaps got a second chance as watercolors, and some are brand new--- never posted, nor painted before.

Along the Hudson:

Bamboo and brookies (DTC):

Catskill summer:

Into the evening:

Connecticut River:  This mighty waterway flows some 410 miles through four northeast states, forming the liquid border between Vermont and New Hampshire before emptying into Long Island Sound.  Native Americans called the river Quinnetukut, the great tidal river.

During the spring of 2018 we visited the very upper reaches of the Connecticut River near the international border.  We hiked, we fished, we dined, and Lois painted.  Here’s Lois painting along the river at the Carr Ridge Bridge Rod.

And, here a two plein air paintings.

Carr Ridge Bridge Road (Sold):

Magalloway:

Winter:  Is there anything so peaceful as gentle falling winter snow, especially when hunkered down in a cozy warm cabin?

Winter (Sold):

Genesis:  The first book of the Bible; a Latin and Greek word meaning the “origin” or “beginning.”  The 5x7 landscape below features the Rahway River, in the hustle and bustle of Union, New Jersey, where two side-by-side U.S. 22 highway bridges cross over it.  It was here, back in ’62 --- lifetimes ago--- young wannabe anglers embraced the pastime of fishing, often drowning worms or drifting salmon eggs to hatchery trout.  We were young noble knights of the eternal Order of Sir Izaak Walton and the Rahway River was our preordained turf.  This was my Genesis to the eventual world of flyfishing for wild trout and bamboo rods.

Notice the trout dimple, if you can, forever burnt into the fabric of my mind.

Genesis (NFS):