Wallpapers

I received only a few guesses attempting to identify January’s image and of them, only two were correct. Jim Pontious of Murrysville, PA was one, but the award and the six prints has to go to Steve Franzeim of Harvard, Mass. In the interests of full disclosure, I need to confess that Steve and his wife Chris are very dear old friends. “Beach buddies” actually. Part of a group of friends who re-converge each summer, “Big Chill” style at Goose Rocks Beach in Southern Maine, my childhood and favorite escape, at least before I discovered the Thousand Islands sixteen years ago.

While I figured November’s scene would prove elusive and didn’t, December’s was one I was fairly sure would be easy to recognize, particularly as it included a “down bound” ship passing Singer Castle in the distance, yet only two people picked up on those clues to identify it as the foot of Grenadier Island. This is the Grenadier that reaches downstream on the Canadian side from Rockport to Mallorytown Landing, not the similarly named island in Lake Ontario not far from Tibbetts Point.

The surprise is that there are several Grenadier Islanders on this list and none of them recognized it.  It simply goes to show how very different the aerial perspective of a familiar place can be, which is one of the reasons I felt compelled to produce my books in the first place.  With only two correct answers, both sharing somewhat different information, I thought I’d include excerpts from each while awarding both a set of prints.

Last month's image:

It is getting ridiculously tough to find scenes that don’t instantly get identified by a lot of you. I would have thought November’s would have been difficult, but apparently not.

Another summer on the River has come to a close - reluctantly, as summer’s warmth lingered far later than in years past. It’s always difficult being away but as last winter, I’ve left the Internet Camera running (click on “CAM” in the menu bar) so that you can visit the River anytime you wish during daylight hours. Hopefully, no gremlins will get in the way and it will run flawlessly until spring.

Last spring I left you pondering this image of a place very dear to my heart. Coincidentally, the view overlaps the Internet CAM's, aiming slightly more to the south. It is a spot I affectionately call “the dining room” as that’s its primary function when weather allows. In sharing this image, I hadn’t expected any correct IDs except from friends and visitors who know it well and therefore could not be counted, yet amazingly Bill Stock of Glen Cove, NY who has never been on the island was right on the money with this response:

Fellow Thousand Islanders,

I was quite certain that very few 1000 Islanders would recognize last month’s scene as it is literally the extreme western tip of the region, exposed to the waves and weather of Lake Ontario, where only very brave or very foolish boaters venture unless it is extremely calm. I was wrong. A surprising number of correct IDs arrived, again with several interesting stories, but alas only one, Hugh Cowan, can be the winner - for this: