A Hazy Landscape But No Wires

With wires

Do you remember this photo of the Duquette Barn that I posted last Wednesday? I was disappointed because of the telephone wires in it. I could have taken them out with Photoshop but it is a long, laborious process. One of my commenters, Robin of Around the Island in Tel Aviv, told me about NoWires. It is a stand alone Windows application or an Elements plugin that easily gets rid of your power lines. It does exactly what Photoshop cloning would do but easier and quicker and without cramping my fingers. I tried it. I bought it. I fixed the photo, and  you can see the new version below:. Thank you, Robin!

Without wires

_/\_/\_

Hazy Landscape

The Duquette Barn

I took this photo of the Duquette Barn, down the road, from the top of the hill behind the house on Memorial Day. You should be able to see the Lowell Range of mountains in the far background, but smoke from the Quebec forest fires has made the view very hazy. You can also see the infernal power lines that ruin so many Vermont photographs. They seem to be in the way much more often here than anywhere else I have photographed. This old barn is slowly collapsing. We hope that it can be restored before it is gone forever.
_/\_/\_

What a Night!

This HDR photograph of storm clouds over the Duquette Barn was taken last week. Last night we had a huge and dangerous storm at midnight. I was the only one left up. It suddenly sounded as if several trains were coming down the mountain in the back. The wind was ferocious. The lightning and thunder were nearly nonstop. I trotted to the computer and disconnected it from the wall, returned to the kitchen and suddenly lightning struck the well! The noise was so loud that all of the people and dogs woke up.

This morning we woke to muddy water in the taps. The well guys told me to run a hose from the pressure tank and let it run for a few hours. Instead I ran it from the faucet outside to the brook (so as not to overload the leach field). The water is almost clear now.

Also, we discovered that our big TV was blown out and won't work. We were lucky. A church and two barns (including the barn with the effigy) have burned down lately from lightning strikes. Let us hope that the weather next week is calmer.
_/\_/\_