Lighthouse and pier on a mountaintop along I-68 in western Maryland - it's a church. I hope they don't expect to use it to launch a new ark, I seem to remember something about "no more water, but fire next time."

 

Blue Marsh Lake - In all the time I've lived within about ten miles of this lake, a few weeks ago was the first time I paid the $3 to get access to the developed areas at the lower end of the lake. A profusion of watercraft were in evidence from one-person PWCs to pontoon boats for floating parties. The impoundment on the Tulpehocken Creek upstream from Reading is a flood control project of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

 

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias - at the moment of take-off at the pond behind the Tilden Industrial Park.

  Least Skipper - Ancyloxypha numitor - mated pair - the first time I've seen a mated pair of this species which appears to have been more numerous and widespread this season than in prior years.

  Case 590 Super M Series 2 - More proof that the difference between men and boys is the size (and cost) of their toys, this is my latest major acquisition.

  Spicebush Swallow- tail - Papilio troilus - demon- strating a tendency more pronounced in some other species to feed on something other than flowers, in this case, droppings from a Canada Gooose on the dredge launch ramp at the Kernsville Dam.

 

Frieden's Church, New Ringgold, Pennsylvania

 

Firetruck fantasy - mine goes back to grade school when I would pester my father to stop the car when we passed a junkyard near our home so I could climb over the rusting hulk of a pre-WW2 engine that had belonged to the Boonsboro, Marlyand fire department. I never understood why I couldn't take it home. This one, which would have been shiny and new in those days, was offered at an auction we attended early this summer near Fort Dix, New Jersey. We went to the sale to bid on a tri-axle OTR tractor, but it went for over $50,000 which was more money than I wanted to tie up in a truck. So, I thought about dragging this firetruck home as a consolation prize - I thought restoring it might make a nice hobby for the rest of my life - but I was outbid by a guy who just wanted to part it out.