THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

  The USS Monitor “Nantucket”.  My great grandfather, J.K. Smedley, was in the Union Navy during the Civil War and served aboard this ship.  That’s a lot of smoke billowing from the ship’s smokestack. A ship much like the USS “Tullahoma” during the Civil War which J.K. Smedley also served aboard. Photo from a history of Maine’s ferry service. A steam ship operating on Lake Tahoe in the early years. A steam ship resting at Meeks Bay pier, Lake Tahoe in the 1930s. The smokestacks on the “Tahoe Queen” which paid a surprise visit to Meeks Bay one August evening in 2012 while I was sitting out on our cabin deck. The smokestacks or funnels on the Titanic. The stacks/funnels on the HMS luxury liner, "Queen Mary". The stacks on Cunnard Line's HMS "Queen Elizabeth" The stacks/funnels on a Disney cruise ship with highly recognizable markings. The stacks on the “Island Princess” on which we cruised Alaska’s Inland Passage in August, 2017.  Great trip!   :->   La Nig

  We’ve played around with trains in other prompt pictures in the past, so this time I decided to concentrate on one feature - their smokestacks. Historic train smokestacks at “Railtown 1897 State Historic Park” in Jamestown, CA Leviathan Steam Locomotive in North Carolina train museum. The Leviathan up close.  In operation in the good old days, the engine (& smokestack!) would not have looked this neat & tidy of course! Leviathan steam locomotive in its heyday.  This photo labels the train as “The Lincoln Train”.  I’m supposing that might mean it was one of those President Lincoln rode to promote his presidency.  The smokestack might have been polished up on those occasions? Early photo of a wood burning locomotive. A bulbose stack.  Ma-Ao #5 ready for the long haul up the mountain. Wood burning steam locomotive. Steam train taking on water. Steam train with a straight stack.  If that’s steam, though, it’s pretty dirty looking? The “movie star” steam train - #3 at “Railtown 18

  This week my post is a kind of loose connection to the prompt pic’ in that where an Army nurse is, there is probably some kind of a conflict going on. WHEN AN IMMOVABLE OBJECT MEETS AN IRRISISTIBLE FORCE Susie & Calvin Whatever this argument is about, it’s a hot one! Gossip columnists at odds: Louella ‘Carsons’ & Hedda ‘Hatter’. The silent argument. The not so silent argument. Sports, of course, provide a wide array of immovable objects vs irresistible forces . . .     in football . . . baseball . . . basketball . . . ice hockey . . . tennis . . . old fashioned jousting . . . new fashioned jousting . . . golf club jousting . . .  turkey jousting . . . this is where people riding bicycles try to whap each other with (dead, thank goodness) turkeys in bags. And speaking of turkeys & irresistible forces (no immovable objects here! ) we can’t forget the great “Cheers” Thanksgiving food fight of 1986.   :->   La Nightingail

  STOLID FACES Because of a sad unfortunate occurrence this poor girl’s face looks far too old for her age.  The rest of the photographs following, however, are mostly because one wasn’t allowed to smile during the taking of a portrait photograph.  Still, the result looks almost the same. My great grandmother, Ella Chase Taylor in her teens. At 61 she's still not smiling - at least not in a portrait photograph.  Hopefully she smiled otherwise. My great great aunt, Eliza Marshall Taylor, Ella's younger sister, at a young age. My husband's Aunt Phyllis is apparently laughing at his mother, Viginia, Phyllis's older sister, who seems to be having a problem of some sort.  What a face! Happily, Virginia's problem appears to have been solved. So . . . I've graduated from high school, summer fun is over, and now I have to find a job and go to work. :-> Nightingail

  My son, age 3 1/2, walking down an unplowed road in Gasquet, CA Our house last year in Sonora Vista.  Looks like the plough hadn't been around yet. The highway in Groveland CA plowed for holiday travelers. The Christmas scene my Mom used to set up.  It looks like she made a little road in there? Greta Goose doesn't need a plowed road to go somewhere, but she might want to shuck the Santa suit before taking wing. Santa's reindeer don't need a plowed road either, but they might want to slow down a bit?  Icy rooftops can be treacherous! :-> La Nightingail HAPPY NEW YEAR!