Frozen in Time

Land Ship

Spending the winter on land:

And for fun...

Bayside Ski

My previous ideas of a reflecting pool and a family friendly ice skating rink at this location in Bayside have yet to come into existence, so I submit by newest idea. 

As I mentioned in my previous post on this location, the city hauls a good amount of snow from downtown streets and sidewalks each winter to this currently vacant lot in Bayside. Naturally, a pile of snow creates an opportunity for skiing. Once you get to the top of the slope and look down at the city you will quickly forget that you are standing on a pile of dangerously toxic snow and ice. I've enjoyed the Downtown Showdown event the last few years where a mini-mountain is created in Monument Square for a ski & snowboard competition. Maybe they could move the event to Bayside this year? This picture doesn't do the Bayside Ski area justice, but you get the idea (the skier was pasted in the photo for your viewing pleasure):

Something To Do: Winter Farmers' Market

In case you haven't heard (or in my case heard once and eventually forgot), the Winter Farmer's Market is taking place 9am-1pm each Saturday from January to April at the Irish Heritage Center. You might recognize the building from some previous photographs of mine. It is located at the corner of State and Gray Streets. So if you are looking for something to do and need to get some groceries or gifts, I encourage you to check it out.

Wintry Park Street

Keen readers may recall this photo I took last June from a similar spot:

Reader Appreciation

Hi All,

I just wanted to do a quick post to show my appreciation of the people, such as yourself, who visit this blog. Whether this is your first visit or last visit, I hope you enjoy what you find. I enjoy sharing my photographs from around town (this blog should probably be called Portland Peninsula Daily Photo) and seeing your comments and how many people view my posts. Thanks also to the other sites and blogs that help to send readers my way.

As expected, traffic to this blog in 2010 increased from the previous two years. According to my trusty statcounter.com account, the blog itself had 45,995 unique 'unique visitors.' I expect that by the end of this year it will have over 100,000 total unique visitors from the past years combined. The blog currently has 71 'followers' via Google friend connect, and 389 feed subscribers per Feedburner.The facebook page has amassed 52 'likes' so far as well. I was also surprised/pleased by the number of 2011 calendars sold. In future plans, I plan on setting up some sort of photography-selling site someday soon based on the positive feedback to the calendar.

There are a billion websites out there, so it means a lot to me that so many people make a point to visit mine. We all live busy lives and face countless choices in real life and in the blogs we visit, so thanks!

Rise Above Sink Below

The Eastland Hotel rising above the snow:

A (free for the taking?) chair under the snow on Pleasant Street:

Icicle Watch 2011

Winter in the Oaks

I took a quick stroll through Deering Oaks yesterday:

Stay warm!

Cast A Shadow

I've been meaning to keep an eye out for some interesting shadows. This isn't a great example of shadows but I saw this today and decided it was picture-worthy.

Keeping Up With the Weather

So Many Photos

As a rule of thumb, I take at least twice as many photos than I will ever save and about three times as many photos that I will share on this blog. Here are a few photos from late November that are still on my memory card that I recently decided to keep.

You are being watched:

Downtown Congress Street Fire Station:

Looking South

Winter in the Square

Some photos from the last snow event:

Alley to Alley

Alley between Exchange Street and Fox Court:

Alley off of Congress Street, across from old L.L.Bean / New Reny's:

If You Build It

Eastern Waterfront / New Port empty lots and construction:

Snow on Steel

In a more artistic twist, here are a couple pictures of railings during/after the recent blizzard:

It Snows Here

Dunkin Donuts at Congress & Oak Streets:

A tribute to the USPS:

Under he scaffolding outside of the new Reny's on Congress:

Buildings next to other buildings

Eastern Prom in January

Fore Street

A view from above of Fore Street in the Old Port.

Portland, Casco, Machigonne & Falmouth

This obelisk monument where Congress Street ends at the Eastern Promenade commemorates the present and past names of the city as far back as the 1600's.

As noted on Wikipedia, the original name of the  city was Machigonne, which was the name given by local Abenaki Native Americans. The next settlement in 1633 led to the new name of Casco, which is also the name of the local bay and a town near Sebago Lake. In 1658 the name was changed to Falmouth and in 1786 the name Portland was given.

Danger Falling Ice

Inanimate Objects

Forgotten books on Park Street:

Snow people on Deering Street:

Seen

The top of City Hall peeking out above another building:

Layers:

Post

This is a portion of Pine Street in the West End. I like the canopy created by the (non-pine) trees.

Here's a story at Rights of Way about this building under construction at Bramhall Square, formerly the site of Binga's Wingas. It will be a shared workspace, the first of its kind in town:

Some views from the tip-top of the Commercial Street parking garage. This is looking Westward over the  piers with some selective coloring:

Looking to the north on Franklin Street, towards the new Hampton Inn building under construction:

Seagull Visitor

A local seagull checking out the state pier:

And a more dramatic version of the event...

1-1-2011

Happy 2011! I saw the temperature at the top of the Time & Temp building reach 59 degrees Fahrenheit today. The new year is off to a warm start.