Windows

I prefer the light. I prefer warmth. I like the big windows.

I've Long noticed that many (most) of the homes I have seen in New Jersey have very few windows. Especially the larger houses. It's as though some architects found inspiration in a box with small holes—the kind of box you use to transport small rodents home from the pet store.

This entry is a response to the Daily Prompt.

When we take photos, we use all kinds of things to frame our images and get the viewer's eye to focus where we want it: plants, architectural elements, lighting. You know what else can be a great frame? An actual frame — a window frame.

I've seen homes where the entire side of the home is paved in vinyl save for a tiny and sad window. This is usually the side of the house with a two-car garage. Why can't garages have windows? It's not like people parks cars in garages anymore. The garage is a place to store all the stuff that used to be in the basement. The windowless basement has been finished and no longer looks good with all that junk.

So when did the "War on Windows" start? Was it around the time Americans stopped decorating rooms with personal items? When beige and white became the best colours because you know "resale value". Not all cities in the USA are lacking in colour. South Carolina, Florida, and California have some very colourful cities. Maybe it's a northern USA issue.

It's the same inside most office buildings. Beige carpeting. White walls. Grey cubicles. No light. The office building where I work has small windows on the outer wall. That's where the court executives sit. Staff sit in cubicles running along the inner walls. No windows.

Center for Historical Analysis, Rutgers University
Center for Historical Analysis, Rutgers University | Sunday 1 October, 2017 | Nikon D5100 | 1250 sec | ISO 100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | F8

When my wife and I looked to buy our home 15 years ago, one of the things we loved was how many windows we had. And how much light they let in. If you've followed this blog for more than a moment, you'll know that I'm from the British West Indies. I'm not a fan of winter. It's grey and white and beige. It's the same colour scheme as the inside (and outside) of the average New Jersey home.

I prefer the light. I prefer warmth. I like the big windows.

Each Wednesday, The Daily Prompt Photo Challenge provides a theme for creative inspiration. Participants take photographs based on their interpretation of the theme and post them on their blog anytime before the following Wednesday.

Signs

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Signs by jansenphotojansenphoto (Dutch goes the Photo!)

Everywhere are signs

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The signs are everywhere. The air is crisper and cooler. The leaves are less green and more yellow. The sun rises a bit later in the day and sets a little sooner. The night grows longer than the day.

But it’s not quite here yet. Some days it feels like summer. Hot and humid. Then the next it feels like I know it’s supposed to feel. Chilly.

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Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.

Stones

What is a stone?

It’s a unit of measure. The stone or stone weight is an English and imperial unit of mass now equal to 14 pounds (6.35029318 kg). My bodyweight (Earth) is approximately 11.4 stone.

Stone also refers to a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. Rocks are stones.

It may also refer — in the plural — to the assemblage of English musicians into a rock and roll band or the collection of pages and images into weekly periodically about music and popular culture. Was that a pun?

Stone silence on that question. Wait, that was a pun?

My town of Skillman in Montgomery Township lays at the base of the Sourland Mountain, a 27km long ridge extending from the Delaware River in Lambertville to the western end of Hillsborough Township, through Montgomery Township, and into Hopewell Township.

The Sourland Mountain and the area around it are full of hard igneous rock called diabase. The diabase is a highly erosion-resistant stone known as trap rock.

In the sixteen years that I have lived in Skillman, I have photographed many various sections of the Sourland Mountain, including my favourite spot, the Rock Brook. But there are other areas that I wanted to explore for this photo challenge.

Stones, Sourland Mountain Preserve

NIKON D5100 24mm f/4 ISO-5600 1/250sec Khürt L. Williams

On private property along Rileyville Road in East Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, a series of three large rocks sit on top of another boulder large enough to hold them. Legend claims that many years ago three brothers decided to meet the Devil, overcome him and rid the area of his presence once and for all. But, as it turned out, they were no match for the Evil One who surprised them, turning them into stone on the spot where we still see them sitting today at Three Brothers Rock.

The European’s who settled the area shared a penchant for naming areas after the Devil himself, for example, the boulder fields called Devil’s Featherbed and a collection of huge boulders along the hiking trails in the Sourland Mountain Preserve called Devil’s Half Acre.

Bhavna’s was tired of attending the Bruno Mars concert last night. I was hoping she’ll join me in hiking the eight-kilometre (~ 5 miles) Ridge Trail from the trailhead at Eastern Mountain Road in Hillsborough Township, along Maple Flats and up the boardwalks into Montgomery Township toward Roaring Rocks, then continue along the Roaring Brook trail over the Texas Eastern Pipeline toward Devil’s Half Acre before heading back down to the trailhead.

Instead, I contacted my friend Prasanna, who was happy to get out on a hike with me. We hike hikes for just over two hours. We didn't stick to the planned route. We skipped the outbound trail to Devil's Half-Acre and instead returned to the trailhead via the pipeline. It was just a bit too warm and humid for us. We were sweaty and sticky.

Stones, Sourland Mountain Preserve

NIKON D5100 24mm f/4 ISO-4000 1/250sec Khürt L. Williams

Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.

Sourland Ecosystem Preserve Trail Map
Sourland Ecosystem Preserve Trail Map