Wallpaper November 2011

Once again it's time to begin sharing winter wallpaper images. Here's hoping they'll bring you back to a favored place and its special memories.

I've been doing this for many years now, the game having been to identify where the images were shot and to share stories about those places. We've learned a lot this way (most of it still archived under Wallpapers if you're interested), but the stories spoke mostly about lesser known places.

I think it's time to widen the scope and learn more about recognizable places. If you miss the challenge, simply go back to last May's image which was the first ever not to be identified.

 

I recently left the island, so for those of you who left earlier, I'll share with you an image that I'm hoping will prompt some weather-related stories about the river. As always, there will be a prize for the most interesting story.

On this late October day, conditions changed constantly, from dark and threatening, to teeming rain, to sunny, only to start all over again, every few minutes all day long. This shot came when it couldn't make up its mind what to do, doing all three at the same time. Perhaps it will ease not being there. As I tell friends, "When it gets hard to stay, it gets easy to leave."

If the location isn’t instantly recognizable, then you haven’t been checking the Live Cam which shares the river’s transition through winter.

On another subject entirely, I’m hoping that you might be able to help solve a dilemma. For several years, I’ve been writing a book about the unexpected turn my life took when I discovered the river and all the adventures that ensued. It’s very much like The Olive Farm, Under the Tuscan Sun or A Year in Provence. 

Donna Walsh Inglehart, the author of Grindstone and an incredibly talented writer and editor, joined me in this project almost two years ago. We now have a completed manuscript (overview here), but I very much want to make it exceptional by layering in pictures and possibly also sounds and video in an iPad format. I have all this material, so it seems crazy not to include it to bring the story alive in a new and different way.

A printed book is pretty much out of the question. By the time the pictures are added, the page count rises too high to be affordable and video and audio is not possible. As an iPad book, it would not only be more interesting, but far less expensive, so that’s the plan - providing we can find the right software to create it.

I had been waiting patiently for this technology to evolve and last spring the perfect solution emerged. Push Pop Press was created by two Apple software geniuses. They announced that they were producing “drag and drop” simple software to bring books alive in exceptional ways. They demonstrated its effectiveness by showcasing Al Gore’s book “Our Choice” in this format. It was a triumph, and I couldn’t wait to get hold of the software.

Then Facebook stepped in. Seeing the power of all this, they bought the company, ending plans for producing the software, using it instead for the Facebook platform exclusively. Bitterly disappointed, I’ve been looking for alternatives, but none suitable has emerged. I’m hoping that amongst our 4,500+ subscribers that one of you may know or will come across such software and that if you do, you’ll let me know about it.

Many thanks and enjoy,

Ian Coristine 

Download wide-angle version

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