Many, many of my Gospel Hill Posts readers have reached the blog when searching on Norman Rockwell’s classic take on the wait in Maternity Waiting Room.  I hope we can all continue to relish the snapshot of American life that he so aptly portayed!

My son-in-law, Dan, had been working with Linda all day long on the final garden cleanup and the burn pile was going all afternoon. By late afternoon it was dying down… and when he grabbed this shot in the very low light of evening twilight, the moon was rising above the trees on the eastern edge of the property.

My reflection on it all first appeared in Gospel Hill Posts as Entropy. Still musing on that!

This low angle “grab” shot captures the thrust of the twin towers toward the blue Texas sky, anchored by the bubbling fountains in the square facing the cathedral.

In our area countless posts like this still bound the land, forming sentinels of aging reminders of a time past when livestock grazed the land.  Now, sadly, the pastured herds are dwindling… the urbanites encroaching. I first used this photograph in a post about the laid stone walls in upstate New York and refocused on the image in April 2008 in Walking the fence line.

Yet, the weathered boundaries remain.

It’s been a difficult season to lift the bike off the hooks and ride this spring. Our household has been non-stop busy for weeks! With any luck I’ll be hitting the road this week. In the meantime, photos like this one transport me back to those pleasant evening rides in Delaware County.

Many visitors to Gospel Hill Posts have viewed this image from a post last year (Planning, preparing & praying…) as I was preparing for my 3-day “Cycling Retreat”.  This view is looking north up the East Branch of the Delaware River just 45 minutes or so before sunset. I ride along the Delaware on NYS Route 30 and then loop back to Downsville on the river road.

It’s just as tranquil as it looks… an occasional angler or a paddler in a canoe.

Ah, the surprises we find when we look through other’s eyes!  Two days after my ordination as a Permanent Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, I had a few minutes to download the photos my wife had taken during the Ordination Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, New York. Most of the images I found were expected, but not this one!

She managed to capture the moment of the laying on of hands perfectly… the Bishop, with his hands firmly laid on my head… the other ordinandi standing in place… the priest and deacons off to the sides. As often happens with photos taken in less than ideal settings, the frame included some unwanted elements:  the back of the person’s head, a date/time stamp and a bit too much foreground. Some minor cropping in Picasa, along with a sharpening of the image improved the overall format of the photo. The addition of the soft focus effect, positioned over Bishop Costello as he laid his hands on me, brings the eye of the viewer right to where the “action” is:  when the bishop called upon the sacramental graces of Ordination from the Holy Spirit.

Considering the dozens of images that I’ve included with my posts at Gospel Hill Posts, this would not have been the “morsel” I’d have chosen. However, since I snapped this shot with our handy Minolta DiMage, it’s become a perennial favorite on Google Images.  Hundreds of readers, worldwide, have referenced this photograph, originally published in Sagging fences… battered walls.

This impressive wall is located about 2 miles up the hill from our house. Carefully restored in place with all of the original stones, this stonewall once bordered a farm in Guilford, New York.  Like any work of art, it is a pleasure to view… time and time again.  Riding alongside stonewalls like these on my road bike always stirs an appreciation for the toil of those who came before me–artisans in their own right, sculpting utility and beauty from God’s creation.