Gracelaw Simmons

@walecarg

Thrilled to be in my first year as a grandmother. Retired librarian, philanthropoid, community volunteer. ⭐ Please don't forget ALT text on your images! ⭐

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Bluesky

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Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· 5d

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Earth. Dyke Green Farm, Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England. August 2013. #EastCoastKin.

An 18th-century stone farm house with attached barn is nestled into a hollow on the misty green Yorkshire moors. Its locally quarried, roughly squared, sandstone block construction is typical of northern English architecture. The residential portion of the structure is painted white.

Four generations of my Law ancestors/relatives, beginning with my fifth-great-grandfather, farmed here.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· 12d

I posted the full photo before, for the #BlueSkyArtShow theme of Peaceful.

The foreground is a pond bank filled with bright green lily of the valley plants and edged with slim leafy trees. The closest water is rippled and swirled, reflecting a pale blue sky, then the water beyond that is yellow-green.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· 12d

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Water. Pond ripples and reflections. Mount Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, Massachusetts. May 2022.

This is a detail of a photo taken at the edge of one of four small bodies of water within the nation's oldest garden cemetery. The closest water is rippled and swirled, reflecting a pale blue sky, and the water beyond that is yellow-green, reflecting leafy overhanging trees. The colors and texture remind me of stained glass. (The original photo is in Replies.)

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· 13d

Belle says "hang in there!"

A calico cat peeks around the corner from halfway up the opening to the next room.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· 19d

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Big. Backyard maple. Near Boston. October 2023. #EastCoastKin.

A big old maple tree against a bright blue sky nearly fills the frame, its leaves a mix of summer's green and fall's orange and yellow. It dominates the small backyard and dwarfs the 3-story house it backs and a red-leaved dogwood tree beside it.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· 26d

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Glass. John Hancock Tower, Copley Square, Boston. August 2010. #EastCoastKin

This street-level view of the Hancock Tower in Boston's Back Bay shows a bit of empty street and a sidewalk with a row of shiny silver cylindrical bollards and a diamond-shaped yellow pedestrian crossing sign. The visible facade consists of tall vertical panes of highly reflective glass on either side of a building entrance, a second row of seven glass panes, and a narrow strip of the third row.

The somewhat warped reflections in the glass include a portion of Trinity Church with two groups of people in front of it (the photographer among them!), and people, trees, cars, and buildings across Copley Square Park to Boylston Street.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jul 18

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Growing. I just came across this definition of exuberant: "growing in lavish abundance." And I thought of last summer's flowering dill! Near Boston. July 2025.

Round clusters of tiny yellow flowers on green stalks amid delicate green fronds cascade from a dill plant in a rust-colored pot that stands on brick-red porch floorboards among the diagonal shadows of white railing balusters.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jul 11

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Quiet. Foggy day. Shenandoah National Park, Big Meadows Lodge, Cabin #70. October 2014. #EastCoastKin.

The forest just beyond a wooden porch railing is shrouded in fog, so that only the very closest trees are distinct. One is a nearly bare oak with a few orangy brown leaves hanging on.

The photo doesn't show that the sounds of the busy lodge were effectively muffled by the fog.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jul 4

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Wide. Three teens exploring the tidal flats on Cape Cod Bay. Eastham, Massachusetts. Summer 2004. #EastCoastKin.

Three teenaged girls and their reflections in shallow water appear tiny between a stretch of wet sand and a dramatic sky of gray clouds and pale sunshine.

The Brewster Flats on Cape Cod Bay are the widest expanse of tidal flats in North America. The twice-daily tide recedes as far as two miles in a few places, and exposes 12,000 acres of sandbars and tide pools teeming with sea life.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jun 27

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Macro. Peppermint flower. Near Boston. September 2025.

A half-inch-tall cluster of pale lavender flowers on a green stalk with four leaves fills the frame, with blurred greenery in the background. The topmost flowers are open, with their white filaments reaching upward, and green-sheathed buds below are in various stages of opening.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jun 20

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Curve. Flowering dill. Near Boston. July 2021. #EastCoastKin.

In the foreground, two dill stalks extend from the right (from an unseen plant on an open porch), one curving gracefully upward to display a round cluster of delicate fronds and tiny yellow flowers. In the background, a couple of brick-red-painted porch steps with a white-painted railing meet a brick walk between patches of green grass.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jun 13

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Sharp. Black bears have sharp claws. Big Meadows Campground, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. April 1974. #EastCoastKin.

This 3-photo collage shows a damaged green canvas tent: rips near the entrance and a hole with a hiking boot and paper packets strewn outside; a close-up of bear claw marks; and a back corner with a tear down the seam and a small square ripped away.

We were careless. It was cold, so after supper we kept the instant cocoa packets in the tent instead of taking them to the car.

The bear was hungry, recently awakened from hibernation. She woke us by ripping open a tent wall near our heads. Then she snuffled around front and tore a hole large enough to reach in and pull out the cocoa... and my boots!

We never saw her. When we couldn't hear her anymore, we bolted to spend the rest of the night in the car.

It was the first night of a week-long trip, so we patched the tent and continued on our way!

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Jun 6

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Busy. Black swallowtail caterpillar on fennel. Near Boston. October 2023. #EastCoastKin.

A black caterpillar, embellished with narrow stripes of yellow, white, and pale green as well as yellow dots, climbs a thin gray-green fennel plant stalk to reach its delicate fronds.

This gorgeous caterpillar spent two weeks eating the fennel plant on our front porch. Then one afternoon I happened to be watching as it let go, dropped to the porch floor, lay there for a minute, and then bolted off the side of the porch.

The next summer I noticed movement around the new fennel plant, and realized it was a black swallowtail butterfly. It was likely too long after "my" caterpillar's metamorphosis, but I like to think it was a descendant!

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· May 30

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Growth. Ferns and lilies of the valley. Near Boston. May 2025. #EastCoastKin.

Just a few weeks after the end of winter, delicate ferns and graceful lilies of the valley, with their broad leaves and small white bell-shaped flowers, emerge from bare ground to glow and grow in spring sunshine.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· May 23

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Tall. Block Island, Rhode Island. October 2016. #EastCoastKin

Walking past shoreside ponds among fall shrubs and grasses, I was surprised to spot a solitary white Great Egret at the very top of a tree, dramatic against the blue sky.

I've since learned that these birds, which live near shallow wetlands for access to food, roost in trees, often in large colonies, for protection from both ground and airborne predators.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· May 17

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Morning. After the winter's first storm. Near Boston. January 28, 2015. #EastCoastKin

In pale golden light from the low morning sun, wooden patio furniture is heaped with two feet of drifted snow. A total of 110 inches would fall on Boston in 2015, the city's snowiest winter on record.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· May 9

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Soft. Ranunculus. Near Boston. February 2023. #EastCoastKin.

The crepe-like petals of the ranunculus blossom that nearly fills the frame are pale shades of pink, peach, and yellow. A second flower beyond and mostly behind it is slightly out of focus.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· May 2

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #ShadowPlay. Oregano shades a pumpkin. Near Boston. October 2021. #EastCoastKin

On a weathered outdoor table, thin tendrils of an adjacent oregano plant cast graceful shadows on a small pumpkin with a long curved stem.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· May 2

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #ShadowPlay. Ficaria verna under black walnut trees. Royall House and Slave Quarters, Medford, Mass. April 2020. #EastCoastKin

Tree trunks' shadows -- two large and one smaller -- diagonally cross a lawn of lesser celandine plants. Also known as fig buttercup, these invasive yellow flowers rise a few inches above mats of dense green leaves. In sunlight the flowers are muted, but they glow brightly in the shade.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 25

Coral bells in summer.

Heuchera plants in full summer bloom are lined up on a slatted wooden patio bench. Their ruffled leaves in shades of green and purple are interspersed with long thin purple stems of small white flowers. Other greenery is visible behind the bench.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 25

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Odd. Coral bells in winter. Near Boston, January 2022. (See replies for the same plants in summer.) #EastCoastKin.

Four potted heuchera plants are lined up on a slatted wooden patio bench the morning after a blizzard. The mounded snow makes them look like huge white eggs. A few random thin branches poke through the snow caps, and the low sun casts purple shadows around the bench.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 18

Today's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Edge. Ranunculus. April 2024. #EastCoastKin

Open ranunculus flower and a bud behind it that both have bright golden petals edged in red, with greenery behind them.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 18

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Edge. The scenic drive within Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge follows the edge of the shallow, marshy Blackwater River. Cambridge, Maryland. March 2018. #EastCoastKin

Seen through a car's open window, a great blue heron stands among tall reeds at the edge of a wide river. The car's side-view mirror reflects a cloudy sky.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 11

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #New. #EastCoastKin. Today's buds will be tomorrow's newest blossoms. Near Boston. Photo taken April 2023, but it happens every spring!

An array of white and pale pink blossoms, closed buds in various shades from light to deep pink, light green leaves, and glimpses of dark branches fill the frame. This is a small section of a large crabapple tree.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 8

This is my favorite fossil because it's the only one I've found myself, standing knee-deep in Lake Champlain just off Isle La Motte, staring straight down into the water. Tough on the back, but good for the soul! Happy birthday! 💐

Gray stone roughly two inches square with a raised curl on one side resembling a snail shell.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Apr 4

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Openings. #EastCoastKin. Opening day of The Smoke Shop patio. Assembly Row, Somerville, Mass. July 2018.

Large windows show bits of a restaurant's interior, but mostly reflect the blue sky and the neighborhood's other buildings with their many windows. A huge wooden door stands open. The view is across wooden patio tables. My lunch date and I (phone/camera in position) are choppily reflected in the window glass. We were the patio's first customers!

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Mar 28

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Background. Michael's Harborside, Newburyport, Mass. August 2023. #EastCoastKin

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Mar 21

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Stone. We were in our early 20s, meandering from Luxembourg to Paris, with no idea what to expect in Strasbourg. About a mile from the train station, we turned a corner ... and saw this! Strasbourg, France. December 1974. #EastCoastKin

Four- and five-story buildings line a narrow street busy with cars, bikes, and pedestrians on a gray winter day. Straight ahead, an elaborate, soaring, hazy, sepia-colored cathedral more than fills the frame.

Constructed of reddish-brown sandstone between 1015 and 1439, Strasbourg Cathedral was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874. Today it is the tallest extant structure built entirely in the Middle Ages.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Mar 14

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Horizontal. Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Mass. October 2017. #EastCoastKin

This view from the dark interior of a bayside cottage to the bright outdoors begins with a lamp on a shiny wooden table, silhouetted against the wide center pane of a picture window. The bottom of the lamp's shade parallels the table edge, window sill, and distant horizon. Outside there are low green shrubs, a modest headland on the left and pine trees on the right, then sandy beach, blue gray water, and a hazy distant shore with thin gray clouds above. White clouds drift across the blue sky.

Gracelaw Simmons@walecarg· Mar 14

This week's #BlueSkyArtShow theme is #Horizontal. February 2026. ❤️ #EastCoastKin