Maps

March 19

I am thankful for maps. I love all kinds of maps, the paper kind, the digital kind, etc. I love Google Maps and Google Earth. I really do like the satelite views you can get. The resolution has gotten so good that you can make out people in them. I used Google Earth extensively when I was doing research in the writing of my book Louisiana Golfer's Paradise: The Audubon Golf Trail. It allowed me to see the spacial relationships of golf holes, refreshed my memory on certain features of the course, and even allowed me to determine elevation changes. For Christmas this year I bought my wife a GPS unit because I was never able to successfully use my iPhone to track maps. I absolutely love having it.

My biggest joy in flying is to be able to get a window seat and watch the Earth map roll by underfoot. What fun! And even better is to have a real map on my lap so I can figure out the features that we are passing over.

maps

i tried to map my course

the course i was to take

i plotted and calculated

to see what stops to make

i did set out

on this great journey far

after a while i realized

i had just missed my star

looked around and saw

i knew just where i did roam

for directly in front of me

was where i began, my home.

© rt tulley

Mandolins/Mandolin Music

March 18

I am thankful for mandolins and mandolin music. To me, it is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments ever played. And I also think they are stunningly beautiful to look at.

I was in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin at the height of the country-rock revolution, which quickly became my favorite form of music. I decided I wanted to learn to play one of the instruments heard in that music. My choice was between pedal steel guitar or mandolin. When I priced the steel guitar, it was out, but I was able to find a nice looking mandolin with f holes for about $80. I jumped in head first and tried to teach myself how to play. I still have that mandolin, but years later after I had a steady job, I was able to find a vintage 1913 Gibson A4 mandolin, which I picked up at a reasonable price. It is pictured above. My baby is making 100 years old this year and is in great shape (except for a couple of minor scratches I put on her). I just wish I could play that thing like Bill Monroe, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Chris Thile, or Adam Steffey. They can make it rock out! These bluegrass mandolin masters are especially fun to listen to play, which is stunning at the spead with which they can accurately pick those strings. I even love the mandolin on ballads such as Loosing My Religion by REM, or even Italian songs.

Luke Thompson, a man who previously made mandolins for Gibson, lives in Baton Rouge, and makes F style mandolins under his own name, which have recieved critical acclaim. I was fortunate to have met Luke Thompson and visited him at his house and shop. Luke can boast that he knew Bill Monroe, the King of Bluegrass. Luke has been called the King of Louisiana Bluegrass because he organized the first bluegrass festival in the state. Luke also plays in his band the Green Valley Cut Ups. His mandolins are beautiful and their sound is outstanding. I wrote this poem for Luke:

mandolin man

mandolin man

play me a little bluegrass

you can play like no other

clean and so fast

you are the master luthier

and you build them so fine

shiny lacquered wood

with a sound sublime

mandolin man

mandolin man

play some music

on your mandolin, man

strum the chords

pick those strings

and hammer on

as the note rings

slide and tremolo

beautiful and smooth

or fast and staccato

you can mesmerize

every audience or crowd

as the music you reprise.

© rt tulley

Tulips

March 17

I am thankful for tulips. Among the flowers, they rank up there with roses and orchids as my favorites. I remember them being my very favorite flower when I was a child growing up in Indiana. They had a lot of tulips there. Down here in the south, in Baton Rouge, I don't see that many tulips, so when I do, it's cause for rejoicing. Tulips are perenials that grow from bulbs. They have straight stems, usually one flower per stem, and a small number of waxy leaves. The flowers are cup or star shaped. Tulips began in the Turkish Empire thousands of years ago; the name is derived from the Turkish word for "turban", because of their turbian looking appearance. In Persia, the giving of a red tulip signifies a declaration of love; if the tulip is yellow it means that the giver is hopelessly utterly in love. Holland is big for growing tulips now, however, they were in the middle east long before Holland discovered tulips.

My wife Bebe told me about these tulips which were not too far from my house. Then, our friend Anne Wolfe told us about them. I knw then that I was destined to photograph these tulips. Unfortunately, there seem to be cars there all the time and the yard is lined to keep cars off the grass. I am guessing they get a lot of viewers of their tulips. I went a total of 3 times but didn't want to trespass on their property. So I brought out the big guns-my 200 mm lens and took this photo out the window of my car. I did not trespass or trample the grass.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Although not strictly Irish, in tying together today's tulip theme to Ireland, I can say that tulips are very big in Ireland. They even have a Tulip Fesitval or so.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I am deviating a bit from my normal photo of the day theme poem. I love many things Irish-Irish music,especially Irish fiddle tunes and tin whistle music, and of course, the Chieftans; the Northern Irish golfers Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell;  and I must not forget Bailey's Irish Cream. So in honor of St. Patrick's Day I present not one, but five Irish themed poems:

pot of gold

the irish say

there’s a pot of gold

at the end of the rainbow

where a leprechaun

has put away

his hard earned cash

but in searching

for that hefty stash

we have to make certain

and this is what i’m told

there’s those who search and never find

and become very old

with dreams and wishes

with schemes of perfect kisses

could it be

that very simply

that pot of gold

is not at the end

but is the rainbow itself

and the vision it lends

could it be

that the beautiful rainbow of colors

is the true gold that you see.

© rt tulley

pot of gold ii

i’ve been searching

for a pot of gold

and i’ve been looking

for it’s at the end of the rainbow, i’m told

searching searching

but never to find

could it be i’ve looked in the wrong place

could it be a trick of the mind

perhaps it’s not

at the end of the spectrum

perhaps there is a real pot of gold

at the end of my own rectum

(well it is a pot).

© rt tulley

leprechaun’s lament

“well little irish girl

what do you have to say

you’ve captured me

you’re own leprechaun this day

so you now have three wishes

if wishes are what you’d like

tell me your wishes

i’ll grant them

and then i’ll take a hike

for your prisoner i’ll no longer be

but you’ll be wishes richer by three”

so the little girl

with curls in her hair

thought very long and hard

before her soul she bared

said “wish number one

is you have tea with me

i’ll have sugar and spice

you’ll have chamomile tea”

later after tea time

“wish number two

will be a great wish

really good for me and you

i wish you would play pretend

i’ll be queen elizabeth

and you’ll be my very best friend”

so after play, the leprechaun

said in his own inimitable way 

“well, little girl now is the time

for your third wish to say”

she pondered

and she pondered long

then broke into a smile

and broke into a song

“well, here it is

the third and final wish

you will dance with joy

and be happy to be irish

i wish that you

would play with me forever

so that you

will leave me never”

the leprechaun he stomped

and his teeth he gnashed

for with this last wish

his hopes were thus dashed

in a flash he saw his future unfurl

for freedom would not be his

outwitted by a little irish girl.

© rt tulley

luck o’ the irish

they say the irish

they have very special luck

but the way i see it

with this they are stuck

for if success

had on mere fortune been built

everyone would just sit around

do no work and party to the hilt

oh yeah

i forgot what I knew

come to think of it

isn’t that what the irish do?

(my apologies to my Irish friends and those I don't know. No insult intended with this one - just good natured fun! Of course the Irish party hard but work very hard also.)

© rt tulley

shamrock

st patrick often said

the shamrock was a symbolic host

the leaves represented the trinity

of the father, son, and holy ghost.

© rt tulley