Dogtown 4

While visiting Gloucester recently (but not that recently), we had the opportunity to go on a nice walk through Dogtown. Cape Ann, North of Boston, features a few towns such as Gloucester and Rockport. In the center of the Cape is some higher ground that apparently was once settled to some extent and known as Dogtown. The town has long since been abandoned, and is forested with the kind of scrubby secondary growth you find in most natural areas on the East Coast. The most interesting feature of the area are the 30-odd boulders, strategically placed in basically the middle of the woods, carved with pro-values messages. These were funded essentially as a make-work project by a local tycoon during the Depression. Most of the boulders we found were limited to a single inspiring word, but there are several with somewhat more elaborate phrases.

On the downside, the woods also feature some really mean bald-faced hornets, which we learned the hard way.

Dogtown 3

More words soon. Like, we'll write more, not just more pictures of words on rocks.

Dogtown 2

Of Dogtown

Trying to get back into this after our extended break due to technical difficulties.

Coming over the next few days, some pictures we took in the fall in Dogtown, Gloucester, MA. Above, a marker for Dog Town Square, long since abandoned.

Aaaaaand... we're back!

Our long national nightmare has come to an end. The Holla computer found its way home, with all its precious photographic cargo intact. That actually happened a week or so ago, but we just haven't managed to get back into the rhythm of publishing, so your long national nightmare of not having a near-daily piece of Holla journalism to brighten up your day lasted unnecessarily long.

Anyway, consider this post an official bit of throat-clearing. We hope to have some pictures for you soon. Of course, we're still in Washington, so it won't be too Foreign Service-y, but it will have some nice holiday snapshots.

For the moment, accept this snapshot of an undisclosed location in Washington, where most of the apartment buildings are graced with quasi-regal-sounding names. We did not, however knock on the door at Columbia House to see if it was just another name for an apartment building, or if in fact they were perhaps still offering 12 cassettes for a penny.

Please Stand By

We are undergoing severe technical difficulties. So, we will offer a friendly reminder to readers to back up your computer now if it has been a while; a promise to be back with more as soon as we are able; and this positively ancient picture of a palm from Guatemala that we can't find any record of having posted here before, although that seems unlikely.