Curiosity 66: Lighthouses

I am teetering on the verge of abandoning this daily blog, after a two-month-plus run—but also appreciating the practice of a daily blog, the pleasure of probing my experience, of paying attention to the stimuli, big or small, that come my way over the course of ordinary living (so often, these days, something I stumble on on FB). That practice, that discipline, that business of keeping my eyes (and ears) open, is why I keep coming back with new iterations of the blog. (I think this one is my fourth or fifth? Two of which went for a full 365 days?) I reckon it's good for me, and a few of you readers have expressed appreciation, which certainly helps me keep going.

Anyway, for today, I'm still here! Today's stimulus was an email I received from one of my poet friends, Shirley Brewer, with a link to a USA Today story about "America's last lighthouse keeper... leaving her post." The lighthouse in question is the Boston Light, and the keeper is Sally Snowman, 72, who has served in that position since 2002. Shirley sent it because we've corresponded lately a bit about her own interest in lighthouses, after I forwarded an old photo I took of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, up the coast from me in San Mateo County:

That got me searching my files for other photos I've taken of lighthouses ("my files" actually being Flickr, where I stopped posting regularly years ago). Which is what this post shall remain, since I'm too lazy to do any research—into, for example, the number of lighthouses on US shores, or what entities oversee US lighthouses, or why Snowman remained at the Boston Light when it was fully automated in 1997 (though obviously, I do have questions!). Here you go, in no order whatsoever:

Makapu'u Lighthouse, Oahu

Boat Bluff Lighthouse, Alaska
(yes, that's a lighthouse; and it still has a keeper)

Point Sur Lighthouse, Monterey County

Point Arena Lighthouse, Mendocino County

Assateague Island Lighthouse, Maryland

Kilauea Lighthouse, Kaua'i

Detail of Kilauea Lighthouse

And for a little extra spice, here are three European lighthouses we visited this summer: one on Hornøya in Norway (see yesterday's post), the other two in Brittany:

Cap Fréhel

One of two lighthouses in the town
of Bénodet, Brittany

I'm sure I have other lighthouses in the vast collection on my phone, but who knows where... I need to do some cataloguing and culling. This serves as my reminder!

And if Shirley has written any poems about lighthouses, I don't about them. I will ask. If she has, I will append one here. She did tell me, though, that a visit to Pigeon Point and Santa Cruz figures into her beginnings as a practicing poet. She also wrote, "I’ve always loved lighthouses for their great beauty and for their tenacious weathering of storms. In my apartment, I have an entire wall of lighthouse paintings and photos. I‘m proud of serving on the Maryland Lighthouse Commission for several years." So this post is for you, Shirley!