The Chalk Guy

My friend John, from up in Vermilion Bay Ontario Canada shared the following with me. Thanks for sharing John.
The artist name is Edgar Mueller but he is also known as the Chalk Guy. He really is an amazing artist.

CHALK GUY IS BACK! Hard to believe that these are drawn on a FLAT sidewalk surface.

 Great Crevase Edgar Mueller. Hard work: Together with up to five assistants,

Mueller painted all day long from sunrise to sunset.

 The picture appeared on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire , Ireland ,

as part of the town's Festival of World Cultures.

 He spent five days, working 12 hours a day, to create the 250 square metre

image of the crevasse, which, viewed from the correct angle, appears to be 3D.

He then persuaded passers-by to complete the illusion by pretending the

gaping hole was real.

'I wanted to play with positives and negatives to encourage people to think twice

about everything they see,' he said. 'It was a very scary scene, but when people

saw it they had great fun playing on it and pretending to fall into the earth.

'I like to think that later, when they returned home, they might reflect more on

what a frightening scenario it was and say, "Wow, that was actually pretty scary."

Mueller, who has previously painted a giant waterfall in Canada, said he was

Inspired by the British ‘Pavement Picasso’ Julian Beever, whose dramatic but

More gentle 3D street images have been featured in the Daily Mail.

This guy is amazing no matter how you look at it!

Thanks again John for sharing this with us.

Can I Have A Mulligan Please

It seems like forever since Veronica and I were on our Baltic Capitals Cruise. I know it was just this last September but it still seems like forever.
More and more lately, I have found my minds eye taking me back to a special place and time.
I find myself going back to Warnemunde, Germany. Veronica and I are sitting outside of a cafe/bakery. She is drinking her coffee and both of us are sharing a warm roll or a piece of pastry.
The smells of the fresh baked breads, rolls and other assorted goodies drift through the air like butterflies looking for the next flower to float to.
Even with these vivid memories to keep me company, I want a Mulligan...a do over.
Why? Because at the time, I had a hard time believing that I was really there. It was all too surreal. There I was with my best friend and wife, Veronica, sharing some special once in a lifetime moments. I needed to be a sponge so that I could soak up every little bit of what I was smelling, seeing, hearing, tasting and sharing. I know I missed something. There is no way that I couldn't have. There was just too much happening at one time. A new place, a new language, new food...everything new and different. Trying to soak in everything that challenged all of my senses. It all came at me so quickly. I don't think that I could truly grasp the magnitude of everything that my senses came into contact with nor could I really appreciate it all....until it was gone...over with...just another memory refreshed by my minds eye.
The sights and feelings that I had as our ship was leaving port in Warnemunde. Residents of Warnemunde lining the banks...hundreds if not a thousand of them there...clapping....waving...whistling. Saying good bye to our ship and those that had visited their town. The boats in the harbor circling our ship and sounding horns in loud appreciation for us spending time in their little slice of heaven. And then there was the fireworks show...the grand display and send off for us. A visual exclamation mark put at the end of a very appreciatively worded sentence.
Yes...I want a Mulligan...a do over. I didn't appreciate it enough while I was there. I couldn't. But I have come to appreciate it so much more since then.
Yes...I want a Mulligan...a do over....please.

A Cool Aircraft Sighting

About 3 miles up the road from our place, in Kill Devil Hills, there is a rather small airstrip. This airstrip has no lights but it does have a place to park quite a few planes.
Several days ago Veronica and I were returning home from doing some errands in town and we saw this unusual helicopter flying low in the sky.
We had never seen this type of helicopter before and we found it to be really interesting to watch it.
As we drove by the small airstrip, we saw this helicopter again and this time it was either landing or just taking off.
The helicopter had 2 big propellers...one on each wing and the propeller blades were rather large.
We lost sight of this helicopter as we drove home.
The next thing we knew, this helicopter had the propellers turned in a way that it turned the helicopter into an airplane.
Upon doing some research, I found out that this aircraft is an MV-22 Osprey. Here are some photos of the aircraft:







Unfortunately I did not have my camera handy so that I could take a video of this aircraft but that won't happen again. Because of this missed photo opportunity, I took Veronica's old camera and got a new camera case for it and placed it in our vehicle. Now I will always have a camera handy if I should find something photo worthy while driving around.
Below is a movie of the aircraft changing the propeller angle so that the aircraft changes from a helicopter to and turbo prop plane. Please be patient...the aircraft will eventually take off and change the propellers angle.