Portland in Blues

Please click on photos to get a bigger picture (all photos by lgsquirrel)

Please bear with me as I could not resist having one more post in my current "blue" period. This is actually more of a photography posting as I wanted to share with you the top three pictures. However, I will natter on a bit about the background to these pictures.

I am quite proud of the pictures which I took from my hotel window as dawn breaks across Portland, Maine in late autumn 2005. The deep blues and glowing reds are the classic colors seen in the Singapore Girl photographs that I mentioned in my last post; so you can see that I have been influenced greatly by that series. At a personal level, I find such colors soothing and inviting. I try to get shots like these whenever I can. I hope you like them.

My visit to Portland, Maine was way too short - just three nights and two days. As I was there to attend some meetings, there was in fact little time to do any sightseeing. I did manage some and I plan to share more about this and about the wonderful people of Portland at another time. For now, I just want to share with you what I did at the start of each of those two wonderful mornings in Portland.

After taking those photographs, I was out into the freezing cold by 7.30 am. I could have eaten at the hotel but hotel food is hotel food the world over and it was not friendly to the pocket either. No, I purposely was out of the hotel earlier than I had too so that I could cram in as much of local life as possible. Most of my colleagues ventured no further than the convenience store further down the block for a hot coffee and sandwiches for breakfast. I, though wanted to be a bit more adventurous.

I wandered much further, allowing my nose and my stomach to lead me. At first, I was disappointed as nothing much seemed opened. Eventually, I headed down to the harbour area. I had to cross a very busy road but near the commercial harbour area there was a diner and it seemed very popular with the locals. It was functional and unpretentious but little touches like its community bulletin board suggested friendliness. It was "Becky's".

I never found out who Becky was and I did not ask but I found myself fitting right in even though I must have stood up like a sore thumb. The waitresses, the cook and the patrons were all engaged in cheerful banter with exchanges of greetings and well-wishes flying about at a regular rate. After ordering from the small menu, I found myself at the counter rubbing elbows with the locals; some of the burly, barrel chested men, I imagined must be weather-hardened fishermen. Others, from their conversations were clearly local artists and craftsmen, a couple of retirees and even some students. I was even sharing and exchanging sections of the local newspaper with others on the counter.

I was very pleased with the unhealthy size of my breakfast when it arrived. As I dug in, I was a silent listener to all variety of gossips and exchanges of local news which appeared to carry on with gusto despite the obvious presence of a stranger. This was great. I felt right at home. I even joined the locals in wishing one of the waitresses well as she planned to quit to carry on her studies. This was done surreptitiously as apparently the boss (Becky, I presume) had not yet been informed. Before I left, several locals told me the best place to get mussels, clam chowder and of course lobster for lunch. I took their advice and it turned out to be an equally friendly local haunt. I left Becky's full and satisfied in stomach and in spirit.

I was back the next day again but this time I considered myself one of the regulars!

My cheerful waitress

Nothing like a cold-busting Maine Breakfast

The friendly diner, counter and patrons