Dan Antion

Reaching Back

I’ve gotten used to participating in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge on Monday. Cee didn’t post a CFFC this week because Chris is still recovering from major surgery. The good news is that Chris is home, but she needs Cee’s support, so Cee won’t be able to post the challenges, other than the flower of the day. I am holding a good thought for Chris’s full recovery and I am keeping Cee and Chris in my prayers. I’ve shared the latest update link before, but if you missed it, it’s here.

On this side of the country, we are looking at a couple of days of possible snow. You never know in March. We could get several inches of snow, or rain, or the dreaded “wintry mix” between this afternoon and Wednesday afternoon. For today, as the title suggests, I am reaching back into Cee’s list of CFFC prompts tp a point before I joined the challenge. Today, I’ve chosen a challenge from April 2017:

The Seasons and Elements. Hopefully this series will bring out our creative side with some unique perspectives and ways of looking at things. This week the topic is Autumn – Metal.

You can take photos of anything that relates to the season of Autumn or metal. For metal I would like to see its strength and beauty. Have fun with this challenge. Use your imagination for this theme. The thing is to have a lot of fun with this challenge.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

Let’s see what we can find in the archive. I’ve got some metal things, some things made with metal, some things that include metal parts (legs on the coffee table I made), and some autumn shots.

This flat metal marker commemorates the life of Gilbert O. Ahlman, who sailed on ore freighters on the Great Lakes. He was a member of the Seafarers International Union of North America.
These metal flowers adorn each of the corners of the building.
Simple steel structure, decorated with stone.
This shows how the intense heat caused the steel to bend under the weight.
There are two coasters in this photo. The Phantom Menace (steel coaster) travels through the Thunderbolt (wooden coaster).
Close-up of the steel structure.
The main attraction in the sculpture garden is Horton.
An old band saw and drill press as sculpture.
If you look close, you’ll see the railroad trestle through there
It’s been well over a year, but they are still working on the railroad bridge. I’m looking forward to a picture without a toolbox.
Until we did something like try to accelerate, we felt like just another vehicle out there, even though we had about 30 more feet of truck/trailer behind us.
CT Rail – Ready to roll.
CT Rail – The Hartford Line – Being pulled by an AMTRAK loco across the trestle across the Connecticut River.
I like bridges and railroad trestles.
the coffee table has found its new home.
This is the way I like to see our flag flying – high and strong.

58 comments

  1. nice archive selections – with lines, designs, and art as you showed the strength and beauty of metal.
    Also, sending good vibes for Chris as she recovers :) and for Cee as they take it one day at a time.

    Liked by 1 person

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      • I need to go and visit Cee at her blog and add my thoughts there

        And doing the interview was fun!
        I hope it came out to your liking – and I just say that I was surprised at how much content I had –
        I know I can make the interview as long as I want to – but I left off the “good reads book given away” mention because it just was not needed –
        Oh and do you have a photo of any of your Salomon shoes?
        Just curious

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  3. You sure had the perfect photos waiting for this challenge. Of course I love the trestle through the autumn trees, but that sculpture of band saw and drill press is a winner too. There is artistry in tools, isn’t there? Well, in some tools. I like its placement near what looks like an old stone wall.

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    • Thanks! The old cast iron tools were often made by people who liked to show off the beauty they could achieve in the casting process. The two items sit outside the building where I had my cabinet shop in 1985. They renovated the building, and I guess they found those in some of the abandoned spaces. The mess of twisted steel was what remained after a fire destroyed a four-story textile mill. The building I had my shop in had been the workshop for the mill. It was far enough away that it survived the fire. Those tools were probably used in support of the mill when it was in operation.

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      • There’s always a story in tools, isn’t there? Sounds as though your cabinet shop was located in an interesting place. I bet that fire took a lot of history with it. That metal looks really tortured.

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        • Several different groups had tried to renovate and turn that mill into apartments/condos but none were able to get all the necessary approvals. The river ran right through the building (it was the original power source) so of course the building was in a flood plain. That always seemed to complicate plans for use of the first floor. Oddly enough, when I had my shop, there was a Waterbed store on the first floor, and there were several small businesses like mine on the lower level.

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  4. Lots of metal here….cars, trains, trestles, tracks, sculptures, even flowers. You covered the prompt nicely Dan. Of course, I particularly like Horton!

    Hope you ride out the approaching storm without any problems.
    Ginger

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    • Thanks Ginger. I’ve used Horton before for CFFC, but I like him a lot, so I stick him in whenever the prompt works for a big steel elephant.

      he forecast for this storm keeps changing. I’m not sure what we’re going to get, but I guess we’re as ready as we can be.

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    • That was the second coffee table I made for my office. I gave it away to a coworker when I retired. I gave the first one away to my best boss, when he retired. I enjoyed making them, but they liked them better than I did. Our forecast is moving from all rain to a mix of rain and snow. Who knows what we’ll actually get. Hang in there.

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  9. The melting metal is quite something, Dan. I’ve never seen anything like that, and you know the heat down here–the humidity alone could kill you!
    I do like the train trestles. All good photos.

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  11. You had a lot of really good ones in your collection. I liked Horton, was that Bullwinkle too? The trestle bridge is wonderful, and that sculpture made from industrial shop tools was pretty neat. My favorites though were the autumn images with all the trees in orange and green, and even reds with the trestle bridge. Just beautiful!

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  14. I like those artistic metal flowers on the building, Dan. They spruce the place up a bit. I also like the Horton sculpture – nice centerpiece to the garden. Glad to see the coffee table resting comfortably in its new home. I gather your area will be “participating” in the next Nor’easter? As has been the case throughout this Winter, we won’t…but it is supposed to still be very windy the next two days and along with ourselves…the trees and wires will also be working to stay upright.😀

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    • Thanks Bruce. I love those flowers, and Horton is a favorite from childhood. The sculpture garden is a fun place. Thing-1 and Thing-2 are also in there.

      They were saying we’d be getting rain. Then a mix. Now they say snow.

      I hope everything stays in place.

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  15. Wonderful as all the pictures are, I have to love Horton best! He’s holding aloft his prize, protecting it, the movement in his body is just spectacular. We never stop to think how much metal is all around us and in everything we do. But even metal can wear out, just like us.

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  16. I really can’t stop laughing at myself. For a second there, I was surprised to see so many trains (or train related things) for “metal.” I should have known that was the first thing you’d think of, Dan. :D All these are great. I really like the metal flowers, and Horton is terrific (particularly since I have elephants on the brain for my next serial episode). Well done. Hugs.

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    • Haha – I have too many train photos, Teagan. But my first thought was Horton. The metal flowers (at a renovated train station) are some of my favorites. I love the color they add, and just the right amount of whimsy.

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  19. I am so sorry to hear about Chris’s surgery and I hope she makes a speedy recovery! I’m glad she’s home and I’m keeping her and Cee in my prayers. I can’t wait to see what the next CFFC challenge is!

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