bright, pink

A summer flower, dressed in bright pink...

the new SmugMug

Today the new SmugMug was released to the world.

I was privileged to participate in Smug's early release program so I've had a bit of time to play. My first goal was to become familiar with the new features, new gallery formats, new way of building a site. Play was an important first step that was followed by thinking about how I planned to bring my site into the new world. As I wandered through Smug day-by-day I could see the addition / fine-tuning of new product features. In the few cases where I reached out with a question I received answers very quickly. Knowing that the full team at SmugMug had to be very busy (and very tired) made the speed of response even more impressive.

My (old) site customization was driven by my desire for much larger thumbs to represent the galleries than was possible with the base product. I wanted my viewers to have an idea about the contents of a gallery before they clicked into it so a number of years back I removed the standard navigation and replaced it with my own. It took only a few minutes of exploring new options to realize that I would be able to easily use the new features of SmugMug without needing to use code, to use the standard breadcrumb and standard display sizes for photos presented in a folder or in a gallery. Awesome!

Once I had my head wrapped around my updated design it took very little time to complete the site customization.

OK, OK, it did take me a couple of hours to edit the description of every gallery and remove my old custom breadcrumb; as far as I'm concerned that was time well spent since I now have a site that is much easier to maintain.

I love the new organic layouts, and the ability to build my site by using the features of the product is wonderful. I love the fact that my site looks the same whether I'm looking at it on a computer or on my phone.

I'm happy!

If you're interested in more details, click to The New SmugMug Is Here.

late day light

Yesterday was a day for playing in Maine, from an afternoon walk in Bath to an early evening stroll along the beaches of the Phippsburg Peninsula.

A stroll following the waters edge from Fort Popham, heading towards but not reaching Popham Beach State Park made me wonder just how long the coastline of Maine is. The driving distance from Kittery to Calais following US 1 is 301 miles; the length of the coastline is more than 10 times that distance. According to the Maine Bureau of Geology, Natural Areas, and Coastal Resources, "Maine has approximately 3478 miles (5600 kilometers) of tidally-influenced shoreline." That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

The late day light painted the sky, reflecting in still pools of water left behind as the tide receded.

Jump to the gallery mid-coast Maine 2013 for more photos from yesterday's wanders.

smiles

I was heading north on route 1 in Brunswick, Maine when something caught my eye. I had already driven by when the image clicked in my head but I wasn't content with a quick glance; I had to stop and walk back!

What did I see? a happy cow sitting in a cup on top of a building with a coffee (or tea!) cup in hand...

The under construction sign gave the name of the company moving into the space. The new resident company will be a Tropical Smoothie Cafe. I wonder if the road art is from the new or the old business. I certainly hope it stays in place - it's a good smile producer.

rainbows

Rainbows are simply amazing; the two that graced the sky last evening were the best I have seen.

I headed out for an early evening walk under a sky that was gray but seemed to be clearing. The rain of earlier in the day had stopped so I was walking without protection against water falling from the sky. The first 20 minutes were dry, the next hour flipped between drizzle and a much heavier rain. By the time I arrived home I had water just rolling off of me. Luckily the temperature supported a wet walk without too much of a chill.

Dry again, I headed out to do some errands. On the way home I looked up to see a full double rainbow, the inner curve wearing bright colors, the outer curve a bit more subtle. Wonderful!

a splash of color

a splash of color, bright pink echinacea highlighted against green and yellow...

bridge grand opening ceremony update

I've continued to watch the Memorial Bridge web site to keep an eye out for the bridge opening date. There still is no announcement as to when the bridge will open to people and traffic, but the grand opening ceremony jumped back a week to 8 August.

A week sooner is a good thing. Hopefully that will quiet some of the vocal complaints about the completion lagging the official finish date of 19 July. It seems to me that finishing a project of this scale within a couple of weeks of the target completion date should be viewed as on time and successful.

(screen shot) from the Memorial Bridge webcam, early morning, 25 July 2013

soon...

An opening ceremony for the new Memorial Bridge has been scheduled for August 15th, just two days short of the 90th anniversary of the opening of the original bridge. I think it's fitting that there will be "a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by former Portsmouth Mayor Eileen Foley, who was five years old when she cut the ribbon at the original Memorial Bridge opening on August 17, 1923."

According to last Friday's news entry on the bridge web site:

The innovative lift bridge connecting Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine across the Piscataqua River will be opened prior to August 15 to motor vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic once final testing has been completed.

I'm looking forward to walking on the bridge with my camera, to riding my bike in the official bike lane (as opposed to following the bridge rules for the old structure which didn't allow for riding bicycle traffic), and yes, even to driving across occasionally.

(screen shot) from the Memorial Bridge webcam, late in the day on 23 July 2013

stretch...

stretch... ah, that feels good!

Some of the pieces of art scattered around the landscape at Bedrock Gardens are large, some are small. This small statue was standing in a clearing in the woods, almost hiding. I was quite happy to make his acquaintance since he quickly brought a smile to my face.

a splash of yellow

Summer flowers in yellow, reaching for the sky...