Today 61.18 miles from New Hampshire, through Vermont, and back to New Hampshire.

The first 20 miles were along the Ammonoosuc River Rail Trail. This is a multi use trail so I was glad I went early and avoided the motorised vehicles. I just saw 2 dirt bikes and one ATV.

Old railroad station now a museum along the way.

Am I the only one that thinks this looks crooked?

A view along the way.

Covered bridge from one side.

From the other.

Back on the road.

House along the way…

With information sign.

More cool building.

Stopped at a park along the way for a snack. Nice waterfall, and some shaded benched.

Bridge to New Hampshire.

Civil war memorial in Lyme.

The smallest library I’ve ever seen.

The park that the last to things were in.

The down side of the rail trail. Let me tell you the shower…

Sekyu: Tasked with the dirty job of enforcing company policies

Photography is a strong arm. Here in the Philippines, the House Bill 4807 boner is proof of this. You don’t mess with photojournalists. Photojournalism rules! I’d like to think, in this democratic population, while civilian authority reigns supreme over military, photojournalists reigns supreme above all.

But no. For we have another sector which doesn’t budge to photographers and reigns topmost in this hierarchy — the Security Guards.

You see, where the power of camera ends, security guard supremacy begins. Thou shalt not mess with the sekyu. They don’t bend to photographers and photojournalists’ carte blanche. They can declare NO PHOTOGRAPHY and they don’t even need a legislation from your friendly neighbor Congressman.

A recent brush with a security guard made me dig up past experiences involving photo refusals and run down this 10 No Photography Places in Manila (Metro…

It was another of those hot, humid July days last Sunday so I decided to see if the air conditioner was running up in the deep cut rail trail in Westmoreland. It was, and the relief was immediate. This man-made canyon creates its own breeze and the air blowing over the moist canyon walls usually runs about 10 degrees cooler than it is “out there” in the world. It was wonderful to stand there and be cooled but taking photos was a chore because it was very dark due to all the overhanging trees. I had to use the flash to get this photo, which is the mediocre best of a poor lot. But it does show you what I’m talking about and I guess that’s the point.

The railroad used a lot of the stone they blasted out of the bedrock in the previous photo to build walls, and…

Our hot dry weather continues, and the more visible stones there are in the Ashuelot River the lower the water. This is normal in the in late July and August, but it has been this way since May, and that isn’t normal. Or maybe it’s the new normal.

Despite the low water levels I’m seeing a lot of dragonflies, like this 12 spotted skimmer.  Males are sometimes called 10 spotted skimmers, but apparently it depends on whether you count the white spots or brown spots. Only males have white spots between the brown. I’ve read that mature males seldom perch, but this one returned to its twig again and again.

I’m not sure about the identity of this dragonfly, but it might be a dusky club tail. There is a similar dragonfly called the ashy club tail though, and I’ve read that care needs to be taken in identification of…