September 15, 2020September 15, 2020 by Pat Coakley

On the Isle of Lockdown Video Flashbacks on YOUTUBE may keep me connected with the present and future generations.

The last ferry with friends and family may have left the harbor and I’m on my own on The Isle of Lockdown but with YOUTUBE I can stay in touch with them and maybe future generations as well. PS. If you are 75, do not record in HD. Just sayin’.

patcoakley

thephotogardener

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Oct 15

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I am going to apply pan pastels to this “smashed” elephant ear and post the evolution on my website when it is done. You can sign up to get notified of these mixed media botanical hits and misses with link in bio. I use two hammers! A woman with tools is a dangerous event. #thephotogardener ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 15

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“Maybe what I am afraid of today: COVID and, well, just about everything else if I'm honest, is not what I'll be afraid of in the future. That's my definition of good news.” My new post on www.patcoakley.com. (You can sign up for notifications by link in bio) A comparison of 2010 posts on cars and the latest in 2021 got me thinking. Also, here’s what I am doing with the time available after stopping my daily FB & Instagram posting and clicking behavior: realizing I should have done it sooner. More time to read, think slightly deeper thoughts, create a label for my bags, and more time to try drawing portraits by folks who can draw. #patcoakley . ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 15

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Goodnight, sunflowers. Goodnight, sky. #thephotogardener #sunflowers ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 12

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Color in this October’s garden. Dahlias, Mums, elephant ears, hydrangeas, tree leaves, planted the clematis vine that will be purple heaven next year, and those autumn sunflowers are now 8 feet tall and still a bee magnet. #thephotogardener ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 11

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I have restarted posting “Notes From My Bunker” on my website, www.patcoakley.com. My bio has a link to signing up for notifications of new posts. The postings will mirror some of my daily Instagram themes, drawings, obsessions, opinions, and images. I have stopped FB posts entirely and I’ll use my Instagram accounts less frequently. This decoupling is a work in progress but the goal is to focus my efforts and whatever talents I have on platforms that don’t have a business plan that is morally bankrupt. The impact on this user is: if I contribute to their bottom line by clicking on products or buying products, benign as they may be, from their platforms, my complicity with their moral bankruptcy is implied. It’s not much but it’s a start. So, on to the new format. This new post recounts my experience with a 2021 rental car. Jesus. Lots has changed in Car-World since 2014. I invite you to sign up to get notified of new postings in the link in my bio. Clearly, Instagram and FB posts are easy and it is not lost on me that this convenience is part of the attraction and the cricket sounds may surround my upgraded posts! I have written on this website since 2008 so there is a plug in that will highlight other posts within each current post. I have 972 posts and I97 podcast episodes in total. What have I noticed? I used to spend a great more time shaping a sentence in the earlier years than I do on Instagram or Facebook. So, in a weird way, this move might be an investment in improving myself and the quality of my posts? Whether anyone will notice or care, I don’t know! So, I hope you sign up! This is actually how I started my online presence in 2008. So, we’ll see if the extra stuff one has to do to post via a website will conquer my craving for convenience. Anyway, going to my sign-up form in the bio is worth the trip even if you don’t sign up. You’ll see why. What can I say? I am an acquired taste. #patcoakley ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 11

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The first three photos are from an iPhone. The final is a high resolution scanner. Yes, you can see the difference but, honestly, this camera in the 12+ IPhones is amazing.#thephotogardener #dahlias #dahliasofinstagram ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 8

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I am watching a YT video on portrait drawing. I chose a photo of my brother around age 10. He’s been gone 23 years this weekend and no one would roll his eyes in a wider arc with bemusement than Tim. He told me I was the easiest person to buy a Christmas present for each year as I always had something new I was interested in. All I can say is: at least it has improved from my initial drawing as seen in last image. Turns out the creative impulse to learn something new, even if I stink at it, is a bit of a joy bundle all of my life. Each day of this long weekend, I am going to try drawing a new photograph. I am grateful for this touch of joy on this weekend. #patcoakley #learningtodraw ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 6

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I don’t think I can look the other way any more. Maya Angelou said If someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. Sigh. I’ve got to refresh my website skills to the sound of crickets. #patcoakley ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 6

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My grand niece who started McGill in Montreal in August sent me a photo of this cathedral with the name “Mary Queen of the World”. What happened to Mary’s humility? Anyway, when I blew the photo up I saw the Marriott dome and thought well, now it’s Mary Queen of the World and a Marriott. All part of God’s plan. #patcoakley ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 5

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It is almost faux fur weather. (This might post twice cuz Insta is having a really bad day.) #patcoakley ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 4

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And what I will plant this fall. I have to plant something every year in my small condo spot. I think about them in the frozen ground and often snow covered many times over the winter. If they don’t mind, I won’t either. #theohotogardener ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 4

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What seems to have the survival gene. #thephotogardener ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 3

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And I even love them on their last (very last) legs except one at end which may be headed for timelessness in the sky. #thephotogardener #rudbeckia #coneflowers #sunflowers ...

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patcoakley

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Oct 3

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The New England world has gone crazy about tonight’s game. I inadvertently created (translate: seriously, I can’t draw for s) a new fashion concept: NFL Linebacker Couture. #patcoakley #linebacker Text ...

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thephotogardener

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Oct 2

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My new fabric arrived while trying to sketch my logo for handbag labels while looking at the flower container that I planted in May with purple petunias that all had to be replaced in August with marigolds and new quinea impatiens but all the rest weathered the monsoons and heat. And elephants ears are well named. #thephotogardener ...

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patcoakley

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Sep 30

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I am sewing a ladies who lunch bag out of Harris Tweed and big girl leather handles. I have a light gray and navy winter coat. Since I haven’t been out to lunch in nearly two years, this may be a ladies who go to the grocery store bag. #patcoakley ...

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thephotogardener

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Sep 28

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Note to self: remember when your dahlia bulbs bloomed 10 at a time? #thephotogardener #dahliasofinstagram ...

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patcoakley

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Sep 27

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Look what bloomed in my garden yesterday. A month delayed from previous years but just in time for this one. #patcoakley ...

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thephotogardener

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Sep 26

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The yellow center of this dahlia does not photograph well in early morning blue light. On my computer, I can bring the light. A powerful thing when I think about it. The smaller star like dahlias bloomed in July and continue now with the sunflowers. It is only the larger dahlias that have taken so bloody long to bloom. #thephotogardener #dahliasofinstagram ...

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thephotogardener

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Sep 25

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At last, Saturday. #thephotogardener ...

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patcoakley

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Sep 25

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Remember hula hoops? I do but even when I was young I couldn’t keep them in motion around my waist but I am rewriting the past and present with silly ink drawings of folks in motion & it is my version of making lemonade out of lemons. See previous post to understand as I’m all worded out. Plus, I’m gonna do another series with stick figures in motion wearing hats scarves and carrying tote bags wearing sensible shoes. #patcoakley ...

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thephotogardener

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Sep 24

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Every day, this solo dahlia bud is first thing I check on. Nearly a month later than last year it’s getting there slowly but surely. #thephotogardener #dahliasofinstagram ...

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patcoakley

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Sep 24

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I saw a photo of myself from 2012 in Battery Park, NY with the harbor and the Statue of Liberty in the background today and have not yet recovered from the shock. It’s not how I looked then and how I look now that shocked me as on that score I have held up pretty well. Still wear the same jacket and pants and necklace even hairstyle. But, What ten years has done to the world, my physical world, my fellow citizens and some friends and family (maybe they were always this way and I just didn’t know it) my country…well, combining those thoughts together? It’s like rounding a corner into a stun gun. What was not visible in the photo was the Queen Mary II. She had just arrived and berthed in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook as its bulk is better suited to that facility than for pier 90 on the West side Hudson River where we had boarded the original Queen Mary in 1956. A long winded way of saying that these flashbacks can be nostalgic in all sorts of ways. Ships have changed. COVID has uprooted all of travel routines and in the meantime I realize that even a trip to NY now, even if I had a Covid Free magic wand, the travel, the walking around my museums and Battery Park and taking photos from a tour vessel of the new World Trade Center is physically beyond me now. I draw figures in movement instead, some looking cool and together but also veiled because folks don’t really want me to speak about limitations. So, I veiled this cool character and gave him a disguise visible if you want to notice it but still pleasant if you choose to ignore it. I drew the next one trying to dance as fast as she can while remaining upright. I post also the world that is within my reach. Zinnias. sunflower buds. Dahlias. Heirloom squashes. Samples of my fabric designs for new bags to be sewn but no matter how accomplished my current days may be, some days and this is one of them, I go to bed with an unfamiliar leaden heart. I can’t berth in pier 90 anymore either as my clunky shoes simply won’t fit. It all just seems like enough for today. #patcoakley ...

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