Doe and fawn

Doe and fawn crossing the Back River

click photo to enlarge 

John Coltrane - volunteer apprentice seaman

In 1945 John Coltrane, at the age of 18, entered the Navy as a “volunteer apprentice seaman” and a year later made his first recording with a Navy band called the “Melody Masters.”

The Melody Masters, a segregated band stationed in Oahu, HI were not officially allowed to play with black musicians. An Excerpt from the book “Coltrane: The Story of Sound” By Ben Ratliff states that Coltrane appeared as a guest of The Melody Masters by evading the knowledge of their superior officers. The band made private recordings together, eventually pressing four copies of a 78 RPM record.
from Tumblr of Jazz at Lincoln Center 

Sprague's Lobster shack, Wiscasset, Maine

Best baked haddock sandwich on the coast of Maine, Wiscasset, Sheepscot River.

How to make an old man happy

Horace Silver, US jazz musician, dies aged 85 | Music | theguardian.com

Horace Silver was one of the great jazz musicians of the 1950's and 1960's when players like him were Jazz Messengers who expressed sublimely the aspirations and yearning for freedom and peace of black people the world over.  They inspired millions. I believe that those whom they reached were changed forever.  Those musicians and their audience played a big part in the changes that made possible the election of Barack Obama. - gwc

Horace Silver, US jazz musician, dies aged 85 | Music | theguardian.com:

 "Jazz musician Horace Silver, a composer known for pioneering hard bop, has died, National Public Radio said on Wednesday. He was 85.

Silver, a native of Norwalk, Connecticut, was shaped by the Portuguese influence in the islands of Cape Verde, from where his family emigrated to the United States.

Playing alongside noted jazz musicians such as bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Art Blakey, Silver, who played piano and saxophone, recorded exclusively for Blue Note Records over three decades before founding his own label, Silveto Records.

Silver composed music featuring percussive, hard-driving beats that was inspired by his philosophy of holistic self-help, jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote in his Encyclopedia of Jazz."



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Bagheera - exploring Greenland's west and Baffin Island's east coasts

There are a few remaining (half price) berths on Bagheera for its summer 2014 cruise of the west coat of Greenland and east coast of Baffin island.  They hope to get as far as 81 degrees north!

Father's Day sail

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New Catch Limit for Menhaden Leaves Millions of Fish in the Sea – News Watch

Bunker, porgies, menhaden - whatever you call them.  Catch limits are good.  They use the fish mostly for fish oil which is a GNC health food scam.  Better to leave them for the blues and stripers. - gwc

New Catch Limit for Menhaden Leaves Millions of Fish in the Sea – News Watch: 

by Carl Safina //  National Geogrpahic

"In December 2012, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to establish the first ever coast-wide catch limit for the Atlantic Menhaden fishery, after urging from fishermen, conservationists, and many of you to protect Menhaden1.  Menhaden are one of the sea’s most important fish because they provide food for many larger ocean species.  For decades prior to this, fishermen were allowed to catch unlimited amounts of Menhaden, and because of this the Menhaden population declined by around 90%.

The Menhaden fishery is the largest on the U.S.  East Coast. The fishery primarily catches Menhaden to grind them up for use in fish-oil dietary supplements, fertilizers, and animal feed.  Commercial fishermen also use menhaden for bait.

The Menhaden catch limit established by the Commission reduced catches by 25%, to help stop overfishing on this species (catching them faster than they can reproduce). Each East Coast state received a share of the catch limit."

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George H.W. Bush skydives on 90th Birthday

He is reported to have lost use of his legs, but not his nerve - or flying skills

George H.W. Bush skydives on his 90th birthday.
Gotta hand it to him. Must See video!

North River 2 Launch 2014

North River 2 launch! My fifteenth year with her!

Where Typhoid Mary Lived - North Brother Island in Ruins

North Brother Island is returning to nature.  The Brothers are a narrow gate in the East River near Rikers Island through which all inbound and outbound traffic must pass. The island's longest-running function was as a quarantine facility, so most of the buildings are of a medical nature. This is the Nurses' building, where the island's resident nurses lived. The island famously housed "Typhoid Mary" Mallon, the first carrier in the United States of Typhoid fever.  Now it is a nature reserve - left undisturbed as a stopping point for migrating birds.  Photographer Christopher Payne has been given access by the City.  His shots are beautiful and eerie. - gwc

Quarantine hospital in East River's North Brother Island in Ruins

Mom & Dad at grand-nephew Patrick Trautfield's wedding

Patrick Trautfield and Valerie Harmon were married yesterday at Mattei's Tavern, an old stagecoach stop in the Santa Ynez valley.
Patrick is the son of Curt, Mom's brother Walter's son.  Mom and Dad went to the wedding in Solvang with my sisters Nancy and Kathryn.  Amazing to be able to go out for an afternoon at 94 and 92. 

Patrick and Valerie with her parents

Maine puffin chick death: Climate change, hungry chicks, and strange fish (VIDEO).

Maine puffin chick death: Climate change, hungry chicks, and strange fish (VIDEO).: 

by Rowen Jacobsen



"The puffin cam, thanks to a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, offered new opportunities for research and outreach. Puffin parents dote on their single chick, sheltering it in a 2-foot burrow beneath rocky ledges and bringing it piles of small fish each day. Researchers would get to watch live puffin feeding behavior for the first time, and schoolkids around the world would be falling for Petey.

But Kress soon noticed that something was wrong. Puffins dine primarily on hake and herring, two teardrop-shaped fish that have always been abundant in the Gulf of Maine. 

But Petey’s parents brought him mostly butterfish, which are shaped more like saucers. Kress watched Petey repeatedly pick up butterfish and try to swallow them. The video is absurd and tragic, because the butterfish is wider than the little gray fluff ball, who keeps tossing his head back, trying to choke down the fish, only to drop it, shaking with the effort. Petey tries again and again, but he never manages it. For weeks, his parents kept bringing him butterfish, and he kept struggling. Eventually, he began moving less and less. On July 20, Petey expired in front of a live audience. Puffin snuff."



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