More pictures for you today.
But first, a question about fear —
Is thirteen unlucky? Some fear the number so very much that when they build a multi-storey building, floor numbering starts at one, goes to twelve, and continues at fourteen. The superstition has been around a long time. And it’s still here. Last year the Republic of Ireland changed their license place numbering, so the new plate that might have begun with “13” began instead with “131”. You wouldn’t want to have people postponing car buying on account of having “13” on their number plate, would you?
People are funny.
But back to fear.
Triskaidekaphobia comes to us from Greek roots: “tris” means “3”, “kai” means “and”, “deka” means “ten”, and “phobia” means “fear”. (As opposed to “philia”, which means liking or loving, as in bibliophilia or oenophilia.) Triskaidekaphobia, like many words, is way more fun when you know where it came from and what the parts that make it up meant originally.
The triskaidekaphilia neologism in the title is because in this post’s thetompostpile gallery, there are thirteen images that I like or love.

Speaking of numbers….. Momma turkey tried but failed to have as many babies as the astonishingly prolific Duggar family, whose claim to fame is their enormous brood of children, featured on the silly teevee show called “Nineteen and Counting”. How many brand-new turkey poults can you find in the picture?

Morning sun reflects from still pondwater surface onto a living room ceiling. A friend said “what’s cool about this image is that the light is actually coming from the right, and not from the window at the back of the room”

Another photo from the ferry. I keep taking pictures of the Nonamesset house. Here it’s immersed in the new greens of May. The men in the boat in the foreground are immersed in the quest for bluefish and striped bass, which have recently made their spring return to these waters.

One of my photographic games is during docking, to try to get the red plastic “monkey’s fist” ball while it is airborne. This time I got it good.

We’re going to leave the water, after this one-more picture, of a preening mallard duck. In all my years, I had never managed to notice the concentric rings of wavelets that form when a duck preens in still water. Thanks, camera, for helping me notice a nifty thing.

Whitegreenandyellow. On a rainy day. The daisy center’s double spiral is mathematically precise. English daisies open in the morning and close at night, so the flower was called “day’s eye”, which we’ve shortened to “daisy”.

The correct title for the painting called “Whistler’s Mother” is “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1”. It’s a fine painting, by the way. This famous photo, “Tom’s Wife on the Phone”, should properly be referred to as “Arrangement in Blue and Purple No. 9503”.