A walk to Sparta Cemetery – Overview and a statue

by Posted in Statues Leave a comment
statueonscarborough-1-of-1

It’s been very hot and humid for the past several days, so I haven’t been getting out much. After a few days of this I was starting to get “cabin fever”. I decided that I would get up early and go for a walk while it was still fairly cool. My plan was to leave the house, walk down Scarborough Road to Route 9/Albany Post Road, which I would cross near the Presbyterian Church and go down to historic Sparta Cemetery. After that I planned to continue on the Stop and Shop, pick up some groceries and then get an Uber back home.

My first picture taking opportunity was the statue above. It’s not far from my house. I’ve tried to take pictures of it before, but it’s quite a long way away from the road on private land and I’d never been able to get a picture I was happy with…until now. I was quite satisfied with this one.

I don’t know what the subject of the statue is. I thought it might be Pan because of the pipes he’s playing, but the statue doesn’t seem to have the goat’s legs normally associated with Pan. After a bit of research, I’ve found images of similar statues called: “Boy Playing Pipers”. I thought the flowers were a nice touch, as were the frogs around the base.

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50

A red car

by Posted in Vehicles Leave a comment
redcitroen2cv-1-of-1

I came across this beautiful shiny, red car during one of my recent walks.

For those who are not car aficionados it’s a Citroën 2CV, Citroën being the manufacturer and 2CV meaning (in French) “”two horses” or “two horse power”, or to be precise “two taxable horsepower“. It was a low-cost car introduced at the 1948 Paris Salon de l’Automobile. It was built between 1948 and 1990 and has an air-cooled engine that is mounted in the front and drives the front wheels.

Conceived by Citroën Vice-President Pierre Boulanger to help motorise the large number of farmers still using horses and carts in 1930s France, the 2CV has a combination of innovative engineering and straightforward, utilitarian bodywork. The 2CV featured overall low cost of ownership, simplicity of maintenance, an easily serviced air-cooled engine (originally offering 6.7 kW (9 hp)), and minimal fuel consumption. In addition, it had been designed to cross a freshly ploughed field with a basket full of eggs on the passenger’s seat without breaking them, because of the great lack of paved roads in France at the time; with a long-travel suspension system, that connects front and rear wheels, giving a very soft ride.

Often called “an umbrella on wheels”, the fixed-profile convertible bodywork featured a full-width, canvas, roll-back sunroof, which accommodated oversized loads, and until 1955 even stretched to cover the car’s trunk, reaching almost down to the car’s rear bumper. Michelin introduced and first commercialised the revolutionary new radial tyre design with the introduction of the 2CV.

Between 1948 and 1990, more than 3.8 million 2CVs were produced, making it the world’s first front-wheel drive car to become a million seller after Citroën’s own earlier model, the more upscale Traction Avant, which had become the first front-wheel drive car to sell in similar six-figure numbers. The 2CV platform spawned many variants; the 2CV and its variants are collectively known as the A-Series. Notably these include the 2CV-based delivery vans known as fourgonnettes, the Ami, the Dyane, the Acadiane, and the Mehari. In total, Citroën manufactured over 9 million of the 2CVs and its derivative models. (Wikipedia)

It’s now become something of a cult car. There are still quite of them around, or at least there were when I was living in France in the 1990s.

Taken with a Sony RX10 III

Man on a motorcycle

by Posted in People, Vehicles Leave a comment
manandmotorcycle-1-of-1

Just about a year ago I found myself in Woodstock, NY. The pictures I took will be posted shortly (I’d forgotten that I’d taken them), but in the meantime, I wanted to share this picture of a man on his motorcycle. With the cigarette in his right hand, and the coffee cup in his left I thought he looked “cool” so I asked him if I could take his picture, and he agreed.

After I’d taken it, I showed it to him, and he seemed quite pleased with the way it came out.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Sigma 18-50mm f2.8