Sunday’s Snapshots – The Stevens Coolidge Place Gardens
Yesterday I went for a walk along my usual route. But I veered off my path to go to the Stevens Coolidge Place in North Andover, Massachusetts. What a treat. The gardens are lovely with their spring newness and fresh blossoms.
I didn’t have my camera with me so I used my htc one phone camera. I have to say this camera is fantastic. I doubt I’ll ever get a quality print out of a photo, but it never disappoints for screen display. A gallery of images is above. I encourage you to click on the images and scroll through them for better viewing.
Sometimes you’ll see what look like repeat photos in the gallery but you’ll note that I was playing with light. With the phone I don’t have the settings of my camera. Still, it’s remarkable to me how easy it is to vary the lighting by moving or tilting the phone to capturing more (or less) of the source of light. I also tap the screen where the light or darkness is, enabling the camera to read and alter the lighting of the shot. I had a great time in the Stevens Coolidge garden as the sun began to set and the lighting was awesome.
I also want to point out something of interest at Coolidge Stevens Place. Here are two photos of a ribboned brick wall that runs alongside one edge of the gardens. There is only one other place where I’ve seen this style of brickwork – along Fresh Pond Parkway in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I think I’ll google and see what I can learn about this distinctive style of brick work.
I can’t say enough about the htc one phone camera. So, I’ll let one more photo do my talking for me. I took this next photo one day last week and posted it to my Instagram page. What’s not to LOVE about this shot?! This is a cropped section of the photo – not even half of the whole image. It held the resolution pretty well for a phone camera. The detail is incredible. Also, that bee was not just sitting pretty. It would stop for may 1.5 seconds on a blossom, often with obstructed view, and then move on to another blossom. I finally resorted to just picking a focus section on the screen and then following the bee, blossom to blossom, trying to keep it in the focus area as I hit the “shutter” button repeatedly. It took me about 20 minutes to get this shot! But it was worth the time and the stiff muscles I had afterwards from standing and moving awkwardly!
sublime days 
What wonderful photos and from a phone! I could even smell the lilac. In England that wall is called a crinkle crankle wall! There was one very near where we lived. Google crinkle crankle wall Suffolk and you’ll see it. I was going to include a link but it was eleventy-seven characters long!
LikeLike
Hi Carol! Thanks for this info on the crinkle crankle wall! In a million years the term “crinkle crankle” would never have come to mind – but I love it! In fact I’m thinking I’ll write a memoir of the last fifteen years of my life and title it The Crinkle Crankle Mid-Life Journey of Mary McAvoy! Catchy?! I think so!
Yesterday, a friend told me the exact misconception that the wiki page mentions – that some will say Thomas Jefferson “invented” the wall. And now I know that’s not true…so thanks for setting me on the straight and narrow (and off the crinkle crankle path of thought)!
PS Here’s a tip about how to shorten a long url – if you go to Tiny Url you can convert a long url into a tiny one! It’s so easy (and free!) it’s amazing and a huge help when posting. Just paste the long url in the bar shown, click on the tiny button and, presto!, a tiny url will be produced that you copy and paste wherever you need it!
Hope all’s well with you,
Mary
LikeLike
PPS – I went to the Suffolk images of the crinkle crankle wall. Wonderful!
Also, I want to give you and other readers a better url for Tiny Url than the one I put in my comment above.
Go here for free tiny urls!
LikeLike
Hi Mary,
I hope you continue to enjoy your mid-life crinkle crankle journey. It’s a funny term isn’t it? And thanks for the tiny url tip. It’s just so easy when you know how!
Have a great week,
Carol
LikeLike