Summer 03

The window of my office at work looks out into a courtyard that is surrounded on all 4 sides by the building.  I’ve always liked this courtyard, it has a number of trees in it and makes a very pleasant view.  This summer there is, for the first time that I know of, a pair of geese raising babies in the courtyard, and I’ve been chronicling their progress, which you can see here.

In early June I drove from New Jersey to the Lucent facility in Naperville, IL, just west of Chicago.  While I was there, I took quite a few pictures, which you can see here.

One day in June I saw a magnolia tree, with a few blooms left, and took these pictures:

On July 5, Mary Ann and I visited Bushkill Falls, in Pennsylvania not far from where we live.

At the end of July, I took a week and went to Virginia and West Virginia. I visited with my friends Ray and Anne Rust in Richmond, and we visited the Virginia Aviation Museum. From there I went to Charlottesville for the annual conference of the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, and then from there to Durbin, West Virginia to ride a couple of tourist trains, the Cheat Mountain Salamander and the Durbin Rocket. Of course, I also took quite a few pictures that didn’t have anything in particular to do with whatever the day’s activities were. All in all, it was a great trip.

On Labor Day weekend, Mary Ann and I went to Jim Thorpe PA, a historic town about 75 miles from here that is full of attractions.

During the end of August and beginning of September, the planet Mars put on a real show, making its closest approach to the Earth in 5000 years or so, and thus appearing larger and brighter than anything in the sky other than the moon. I managed to get a few pictures of this notable event.