This big rolly polly seal was trying so hard to stay on his rock as the tide came in at Brace Cove. Eventually the sea won and knocked him off.
E.J. Lefavour
Author: God's Morning
I pray you are blessed, built up in your faith and Christian walk, and become an interactive participant in God's Morning. We are here as Christ's body, supporting and building each other up in all righteousness, in His name, awaiting His soon return. Maranatha!
Who Was This Man?
You young ones out there probably won’t, but any of you 50 somethings and beyond will certainly remember him. In addition to being a tv personality that most kids in this region watched in the 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s, he was also an avid scuba diver and skier, how my parents became friends with him. My siblings and I watched him every weekend.
Howdy there, folks, we’re glad to meet you in Boom- Boom- Boomtown!
There’s a bunch of folks who’d like to greet you in Boom- Boom- Boomtown!
You can bet we’ll have lots of Western fun And excitement for you
We’ll ride and rope, do a square dance and shoot a gun And we’ll sing a song or two
Come along, folks, now we’re gonna start the fun in Boom- Boom- Boomtown!
From six to sixty there’s something for everyone in Boom- Boom- Boomtown!
So do-si-do and swing around, Get your gal and promenade down to Boom- Boom-Boomtown!
E.J. Lefavour
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We’ve come a Long Way Baby
Today you can pick up a Nikon Coolpix underwater camera for a few hundred bucks and grab yourself some underwater shots pretty easily. Not so in the old days. These photos go back to the early 50’s when my dad became fascinated with scuba diving (after seeing the film “The Frogmen, “1951) and underwater photography. He developed one of the first underwater camera cases, which resulted in his being invited by Jacques Cousteau aboard the Calypso so that Mr. Cousteau could see it. The model is my mom, Jean Lefavour.
E.J. Lefavour
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Obscure bit of interesting stuff
Hussein bin Talal, Ḥusayn bin Ṭalāl; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, in 1952, until his death. Hussein’s rule extended through the Cold War and four decades of Arab-Israeli conflict. He recognized Israel in 1994, becoming the second Arab head of state to do so (after Anwar Sadat in 1978/1979).
“He won the respect and admiration of the entire world and so did his beloved Jordan. He is a man who believed that we are all God’s children, bound to live together in mutual respect and tolerance.” (US President, Bill Clinton)
“He was an extraordinary and immensely charismatic persuader for peace. At the peace talks in America when he was extremely ill, he was there, talking to both sides, urging them forward, telling them nothing must stand in the way of peace.” (UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair)
“President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian people and leadership have received with great sorrow and pain the news,” it said in a statement. The Palestinian Authority
South African President Nelson Mandela believed the death would be “deeply mourned by all peace-loving people.”
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan paid tribute to the late king, praising him for his “lifelong struggle to bring peace”. (excerpts from Wikipedia)
In addition to being a great leader and persuader for peace, did you know that King Hussein was also a scuba diver? This is a letter I found going through old papers and photos at my mother’s house this weekend, from King Hussein’s office, placing an order with my father, Willis Lefavour’s scuba diving business (Seacraft Industries) for an assortment of diving related items for His Majesty. This has nothing at all to do with Cape Ann, but I thought it was cool and worth sharing.
E.J. Lefavour
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So Who Is the Mystery Winter Sailor?
I haven’t been able to catch him facing in my direction while out on his daily sails in the arctic wind and cold around Smiths Cove. Some believe it is Gordon Baird. Inquiring minds want to know. Is this Gordon Baird, or if not, who is it?
If it is Gordon, his Crazy Moon production is back at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck Thursday, 1/30- Sunday, 2/9.
https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/hes-back-save-the-dates-130-29/
E.J. Lefavour
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Flatrocks Gallery – a Little Out of the Way but Well Worth the Trip
The opening of Translucence at Flatrocks Gallery Friday night was extremely well attended, but not at all surprising for such an excellent show and gallery space. For us on this side of Cape Ann, it may seem a little out of the way, but it is well worth the trip over to Lanesville to see it. Gloucester’s art scene is just killing it!
E.J. Lefavour
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Do you Love Great Bird Paintings and Birding?
Then definitely go check out the Winter Meditations exhibit at Trident Gallery, 189 Main Street. The Opening last night was great and the work is exceptional and very exciting to be able to see right here on Main Street. The space is wonderful and I’m just sorry it took me so long to check it out. A fabulous addition to Gloucester’s art scene.
From Friday, January 24th, through Sunday, March 2d, Trident Gallery is proud to host a loan from the Massachusetts Audubon Museum of American Bird Art of more than 30 prints, paintings, and miniature sculptures by the renowned and important artists John James Audubon, Milton Avery, Andy Warhol, Allen James King, Robert Verity Clem, Lars Jonsson, and others. All the works of art depict bird species present on Cape Ann in winter, and their exhibition constitutes a new extension to the Cape Ann Winter Birding Weekend (Friday–Sunday, 31 January – 2 February) a festival which celebrates the winter bird life of Cape Ann, especially those Arctic species rarely encountered farther south. Sponsored by Mass Audubon and the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, the event draws several hundred participants to hear expert presentations and embark on bus tours and a boat trip to see the birds. A birding guide for the event in past years, Director Swift has this year orchestrated the festival’s new art component at Trident Gallery.
Throughout Winter Meditations, the public is invited to respond with commentary and with contributions of their own winter meditations at TridentGallery.com/WinterMeditations (not yet live). Director Swift will share selected Meditations submitted by the public within the gallery.
Works of art by Gabrielle Barzaghi, Winston Swift Boyer, Charlie Carroll, Susan Erony, Dennis Flavin, Eileen Mueller, Joe Poirier, and Lynn Swigart will be on display during the entirety of Winter Meditations. In the final phase, Persephone’s Return, additional works of art by these and other Trident Gallery artists will take the place of the departing Mass Audubon winter bird art.
E.J. Lefavour
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Theatre Pie Workshops’ Star Gala
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Treetop Yoga Benefit for Pathways for Children
Hello,
I am excited to announce that Treetop Yoga has chosen Pathways as the beneficiary of this month’s Karma Class. The class will be held on Sunday, January 26th, 6:30-8pm at Treetop (7 Parker St. in Gloucester). This class is a great opportunity for anyone who has ever wanted to try yoga or the long-time yogi, every level is welcome. Come out on Sunday evening to show your support for Pathways and Treetop and enjoy a relaxing, restorative evening – I guarantee you will leave with a smile. Treetop Yoga also hosted a toy drive for our Holiday Store this year.
Join Katie to honor Pathways for Children with a sweet, playful flow to warm the body preparing you for a soothing restorative sequence to open the heart and calm the mind. All levels will benefit from this heartfelt class dedicated to the children of our community.
All Karma Classes are donation based. Minimum donation of $10 recommended.
Katie O’Malley has been a devoted student of yoga for over a decade and became a certified yoga instructor with Kim Valeri at YogaSpirit Studios. She is also a certified mediator, facilitator and conflict resolution trainer. She holds a Masters Degree in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder.
http://treetopyoga.com/workshops.html
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Please don’t be shy – I just started yoga last year and Katie was my first teacher, she is friendly, patient and very welcoming.
I hope to see you there!
Best, Jill Cahill
Communications & Special Events Coordinator
Pathways for Children
29 Emerson Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
978.281.2400, ext. 154
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For those who think the Blog has gone soft – here are some Nude Photos for you!
Me nude bathing and nude horseback riding. How’s that for hard core GMG.
Found these and many other great old slides from the 50’s and before while visiting my mother this weekend. I didn’t know I had been photographed nude so many times!
E.J. Lefavour
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A little dash of red brightens any scene
That is one determined sailor. He has been out there even on the most frigid days to brighten up Smiths Cove, along with Mysis, the tug, fish shack, and whatever that other red thing is by the house boat.
E.J. Lefavour
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Woodland Winter Greens
I love the bold greens in the woods in winter – a constant reminder that spring is just around the corner. Ravenswood Park is a beautiful place to walk, thanks to the generosity of Samuel E. Sawyer. In 1889, Sawyer’s will created Ravenswood Park which he named after the castle in Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor. We also have Samuel Sawyer to thank for the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library as much of the funding for the library came from him. Samuel Elwell Sawyer was born in Gloucester on November 25, 1815 and died in Gloucester on December 15, 1889, at the age of 73.
E.J. Lefavour
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We have the nicest Boston skyline views, without the traffic
When I lived in East Boston, we believed we had the best Boston skyline view. Granted it was closer, but we have a really nice view here without the traffic and crazy drivers.
E.J. Lefavour
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Just a few more pretty Niles Pond shots
Can’t help but shoot whenever I am at Niles Pond. Such a pretty spot.
E.J. Lefavour
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Get Outta Town!
Whenever I hear a ruckus of crows, I always look for a hawk. This hawk looked uneasy while being harassed by three crows as he perched in this tree. He finally had enough and flew off, with them in close pursuit. Afterwards, two of the crows were heard boasting about how bad they were to run that no good hawk outta town.
E.J. Lefavour
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Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
It probably won’t last, and it is pretty.
E.J. Lefavour
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And then I met a man who had no legs
And we allow so many little things to hold us back from achieving our dreams and full potential.
E.J. Lefavour
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Len Burgess and his Ice Crystals
Beautiful ice crystal formations just seem to follow Len Burgess, and he always sees and captures them so nicely. This photo is the top of his car.
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The Fine Art of Figure Skating
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Naming the Twins
An acoustic duo from Gloucester’s sister city of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, “Naming the Twins” perform folk songs in the tradition of Peter, Paul & Mary.
Join them at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for an evening of food, fun, humor and harmony.
Thursday, January 16, 2014 @ 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $25.00, includes a buffet dinner and concert.
For more information and/or to make reservations, call 978.490.0001 or email thegloucesterfund@yahoo.com
Net proceeds to benefit the Kent Circle Christmas Tree Lights.
The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck is located at 6 Wonson St. on Rocky Neck in East Gloucester.
For more information about “Naming the Twins” visit their website at http://www.namingthetwins.com
A couple of years ago, Joann Mackenzie did a nice history of the Kent Circle Tree tradition for the Gloucester Daily Times:
GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA
November 29, 2011
The roots of Gloucester’s tree
Joann Mackenzie, Staff Writer
It all began with a scene straight out of an old Frank Capra movie.
One morning 15 years ago, with Christmas fast approaching, Brent “Ringo” Tarr walked into the kitchen of the Tarr family’s farmhouse and said, “We have a problem, we have no Christmas tree.”
Now, no Christmas tree with Christmas fast approaching would be a problem in lots of family’s books, but in the Tarr family’s book, it was a very, very big problem.
Thanks, in large part, to the Tarrs’ concerted efforts, the children of Gloucester had come to expect a tree of about 40 feet in height and several tons in weight to appear as if by magic — glowing with thousands of lights amidst a little lit forest of twinkling crab apple trees at Kent Circle.
Ringo Tarr — along with his brothers, state Senator Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and Brian Tarr, assistant superintendent of Gloucester Schools — had begun that tradition several years earlier in response to the West Gloucester’s community’s collective desire for “a tree of their own.” And in the past, they’d relied on good luck and local backyards to find Kent Circle’s “Green Giants.”
But that year, Ringo Tarr — the self-appointed Paul Bunyon of the bunch — had simply come up empty-handed in his search for a perfect tree. And like the Jimmy Stewart character in Capra’s Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” he was looking for a Christmas miracle to save the day.
What might be an option, suggested Ringo’s brother, Bruce, was sending out a fisherman’s SOS to Gloucester’s sister city, Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
Gloucester and Shelburne had a long history of helping each other. The two fishing ports had been each other’s safe harbors through centuries of storm-tossed seas. And, more recently, had been discussing a new bond, through joint business ventures in tourism and energy, that could make them future economic partners.
As state lawmaker, Bruce Tarr had developed a good working relationship with Shelburne’s city leaders — and a good working knowledge of Nova Scotia itself.
One of Canada’s three Atlantic Maritime provinces, Nova Scotia is, among other things, “the Balsam Fir capital of the world,” exporting more than 2 million Christmas trees annually. Could the province, Bruce Tarr wondered over the phone to the mayor of Shelburne, possibly spare one more of its famous firs for Gloucester’s Kent Circle?
The answer came in the form of a 38-foot Nova Scotia fur. And in all the years since, the Nova Scotia green giants have kept on coming from Shelburne to Gloucester every November, by land and sea, and a variety of vehicles.
Most recently, it has arrived via an annual odyssey which, for the Tarr brothers, has evolved into what Bruce Tarr likens to a 12-hour international triathlon, “… an Iron Man Challenge of Christmas Tree hunts,” he says.
The longest and arguably toughest leg of the three legs of the journey is by ferry, across wild, winter-whipped North Atlantic waters. But the senator, who has videotaped years of footage of the annual trips, clearly loves every minute of them. So, too, does his brother, Ringo.
Over the course of 15 years, the people of Shelburne have, the brothers agree, become friends.
The friendships may not, as they do here in Gloucester, go back to school days, but — like the Nova Scotia “Green Giants” themselves— they’ve grown with time.
“I walk the streets up there,” says Ringo Tarr, and they know my name. “‘Hey, Ringo!’ they’ll say, ‘How’re ya doing?'”
Ringo Tarr is doing just fine this year. The trip to Shelburne went without a hitch, and he and his traveling partner, St. Peter’s Fiesta Committee chief Joe Novello, delivered a bouncing 38-foot Nova Scotia Fir to Gloucester, and, thanks to the mild November weather and the help of friends like Ed McCann and Joe Ciolino, had it raised, decorated, and ready for lighting last weekend.
An electrical contractor, Ringo Tarr — like the Thomas Edison protege who first introduced the “electric Christmas tree” back in the 1880s — is a born inventor.
As the mastermind who makes the “magic” of the Kent Circle tree happen, his inventiveness has included — among countless other things — the planning and construction of the 12-by-12-foot underground infrastructure that “houses” and supports the trees.
Designed to withstand winds of up to a 100 miles an hour, Ringo Tarr’s two tons of poured cement support largely stood the test of last December’s Nor’ Easter admirably.
Though badly battered and, well, downsized, Gloucester’s Kent Circle tree did not — like the national tree on Washington, D.C.’s, Ellipse — actually topple over in the storm.
Though the Kent Circle tree owes much to the Tarr family, the Tarr brothers are quick to give credit to “legions” of “Christmas Angels” in both cities who donate their time, energy, elbow grease, ingenuity and equipment ranging from flatbed trucks, trailers, earth movers, cranes.
Like the gifts of the Magi, Shelburne’s trees travel from afar, across seas the two old fishing ports have shared for centuries, where, says Bruce Tarr, “the long-standing philosophy is that all men must always help each other.”
Especially, at Christmas.
Good Morning Gloucester 