Brunswick MD, Cars and Character part 2

Try as I might I cannot shorten the list of images I wanted to share from our day trip to Brunswick a couple of weekends back. Those cars were just so enticing to me and my camera so humor me and see part 2. This time it is character without an "s" because I also want to showcase a little of the character of this old railroad town.

 You'll recall that the Golden Gears Car Club from Frederick MD was showing their vehicles at a street festival in Brunswick on July 27. The vehicles were parked on the narrow main street of the old town Brunswick. These were potentially the first ones to arrive. I spoke briefly with the older gentleman who has owned this red and cream Chevrolet since about 2000. He proudly told me he drives it quite an amount and that includes a trip all the way to Florida and return.

 Mirror like paintwork on this black beauty but can you imagine riding in something like this with the small windows?

 Under the hood of Black Beauty. Feel free to leave me a comment if you can identify any of these.

These few were later arrivals as I watched while the lime green one was reversing into the space. But wow, look at all that color together.

 Okay, I admit it, my favorite was this 1928 Ford A "Rat Rod" being carefully reviewed here by a judge.The entire event was judged by both selected judges and members of the public who could be seen wandering round dutifully marking their scorecards.

 The front end of the Rat Rod. Such attention to detail.

 Looking at all my photos my other favorite was red cars as they seemed to predominate. Here we have another with tiny windows.

 Same judge, different car.

 Oh yeah, another big red Chevvie.

Now this one was absolutely the baby among the bunch but it still attracted curious onlookers. Can you see why? It is a driverless Tesla! Yes, AppleMac , there in the drivers position seemed to be the only reason it was moving slowly up and down a short six feet or so of the street.

 After walking away from the car event we wandered down the hill and over the tracks towards the Potomac River. Brunswick had a huge railroad yard in past years. While it is no longer the size it was it is still a big area. Both CSX and MARC use the tracks here but I'm not sure which use this particular stretch as nothing passed along it in the hours we were there.

 CSX on the other hand had several long trains pass by on the other set of double tracks.

 The small station building has some character.

This older brick building has had some great cosmetic updates to the outside. Click on the image to see it bigger and you might notice that the middle window at ground level and the bicycles leaning against the building are trompe l'oeil.

In closing out this is a view in the opposite direction of the street in my opening shot. After the car show finished at 3pm the street emptied out really fast.

Did you enjoy seeing Brunswick through the lens of my camera? I hope so as we enjoyed our day visit there.

Brunswick MD, Cars and Characters

A couple of weekends back we headed out to Brunswick MD to see their Heritage Museum which has a wonderful model train layout. However, our visit was totally hijacked by the main street event that day - a collaboration between the Brunswick Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Auxiliary fundraiser and the Golden Gears (Frederick MD) Car Show.

As someone who appreciates color, art and the full-on involvement in enjoying your hobby this event hit all the buttons. So forgive me for the overload of photos and the shortage of descriptions...

 Consider the love in this paint job.

 And the joy in keeping the paintwork spotless.

 The detail work under the hood.

 The enthusiasm for color.

 The full-blown pursuit of steam punk...

 And the vehicle owner chatting to a visitor about his pride and joy.

 Having fun with his 1960 Ford F-100.

 Club member supporting the auxiliary fundraiser lunch.

 Fire engine red.

Contrast in styles - hood up or... no hood!

 The hot rod folk were also well represented.

 Not all the sights were parked up in the street show. On returning to where we had parked our car we found these two bikes nearby. Same auto body detailer perhaps?

 More under the hood fun.

 And more characters.

And to close out - she had nothing to do with the car show but she and her macaw fit nicely under the "character" heading. The boy in the background was entranced with this bird and was able to have it sit on his arm for a while.

I'll be back in a day or so with the balance of commentary on this day out.

Critters in the Garden Salad Bar

We have been keeping a low profile recently while waiting out a prolonged spell of awfully hot and humid weather. With not much going on perhaps an update on critters and other things in the garden might tide us over until something more exciting comes along.

 Here is one of the twin Bambi's after a rainstorm.

 The self-seeded dill was very prolific this year but it does make for a pretty contrast with the salvia and ageratum.

 Nine days later and the Bambi ears seem to have grown rapidly!

 Every year I am resigned to finding these on my tomato plants. Up to now I thought they were the tomato hookworm but I happened to be looking in my garden book and discover that they are actually the tobacco hookworm. Tomato hookworm have only white stripes and a black hook while this one has black outlining the white stripes and a red hook. Both are found on tomato plants which they defoliate at a rapid pace. Although I did pick off seven of these critters on this day I might just as well have left them there as my plants are not doing well at all this year. Very little fruit has gown and that which has is barely ripening.

 This was the only almost-red regular sized tomato I had seen until one day I looked out the window and did not see it. Closer inspection revealed that some critter thought it was theirs to devour and was rude enough to leave the remains laying there for me to find.

 One critter that is very welcome in the garden is the swallowtail butterfly and this has been a banner year for them with dozens and dozens of them each day lately. Sadly I have yet to see a monarch butterfly this year.

 In this instance there were three fawns all here together - one is unseen behind the bush, one thinks it is unseen under the bush and the most bold is perhaps the ringleader.

 I am not sure what this critter is but it is taking lessons from the swallowtail and hanging out on the coneflowers.

 On the deck I have a purple and green scheme going on this year.

 More from the deck plant-pots. Ordinarily there would by now be hummingbirds investigating the flowers but we are only seeing one lonely hummer this season to date.

 Another swallowtail.

 Bees also like the coneflowers.

 Coneflowers at sundown.

Wait, which way should I run?

A July 4th Hometown Celebration

As the July 4th extended weekend comes to a close I thought I'd share some images from our hometown celebration. While there are a number of events we tend to focus on the main street parade and a quick wander through the family activities after the parade.

 The Brownie troop started the parade this year.

 They were followed by the old Post Office truck with special guest Spiderman riding along.

 The Great Falls Garden Club ladies had a wonderful entry this year and won the award for "Best Neighbor Float".

The garden club ladies.

 It's always fun to see the old vehicles that seem to lurk in various garages only to come out on special occasions like this.

 Trying to watch and photograph a parade is challenging and enjoyable. You see lots of wonderful sights but invariably there is someone in the way. However, sometimes even that works out and makes for a more unique shot.

 Do you have lawn mowers in your July 4th parade?

What we do have is lots and lots of candy. I think the children go home with more candy from the July 4th parade than they do at Halloween. This friendly fellow had just tossed two big handfuls of candy out.

 The crew from the Great Falls Creamery were likely very grateful they did not need to wear the cowheads this year - the day was a very steamy 90+ degrees with high humidity. Half an hour or so after the parade finished it started to rain. The Great Falls Creamery won the award for "Best Mini Float".

Out of cow costume but still in business attire, these two collected the trophy on behalf of the team.

 Dad on the bike with the children. I think he was challenged trying to ride a straight line at a low speed.

 The day is organized by the very hard working volunteers from Celebrate Great Falls and their float came near to the end of the parade. They deserve special thanks for this wonderful effort.

 After the parade there are activities for the children. For those of us with no children it is still fun to watch the little ones step up and have a try.

At the end of the day these parade goers were ready for a good long nap. It was time to go home and put away all the decorations until next year. I hope you enjoyed the parade!