Strange Days Indeed

The end of the Mayan calendar is what a lot of people have been talking about today.  While I don’t think anyone truly believed it was an apocolyptic day, it was certainly a strange weather day.  It started out with whipping wind and driving rain, and I saw a rainbow briefly while I was out running errrands.

(taken with my Blackberry)

When I got home, the sun and clouds and spritzes of rain were all out at the same time.

I was rather taken with the sun lighting up the trees around my yard against backddrops of dark, eerie clouds.

I felt a little shiver looking around while I took these.  The temperature was oddly warm (nearly 50° F) for the first day of winter in New England and I couldn’t help but think of all the odd weather this area has experienced over the last year and a half.

Even Teddy thought it was a rather blustery day:

I know that busy days are ahead for us all.  If I don’t get back to the blog (I hope that I will) before Christmas, I wish you all a very merry one.  Hold your loved ones just a little bit tighter as we keep the families of Newtown CT in our hearts.

Mainely, the details

Back before I left for my vacation, I did a post about remembering to enjoy the details.  I noticed when I went through my vacation photos, that those are what I’d most like to share with you.  This was our 6th year returning to Hills Beach in Maine as a family (I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve been there when I was the child rather than the parent of the family), and our 3rd year renting the same cottage.  Perhaps because of this, my photo total from the week is fewer than normal.  I didn’t feel the need to take a lot of the same scenery photos that I’ve taken many times over.  I would’ve liked more pictures featuring my family, but as anyone who is the parent of teenagers will tell you, that’s not always the easiest thing to accomplish!

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite details that caught my eye this year.

Morning sparkle on the water

Yellow beetle in a rosa rugosa

Dandelion-like weeds appearing to grow from rocks

Cottages reflecting on Biddeford Pool

The shadow of the lacey toile curtains in the dining area of our cottage

The glimpse of a rainbow, spotted from the porch when I looked up from my book…

…of which I of course ran outside in the still sprinkling rain to get a better shot!

The warmth of the sun reflected in the colors of the beach

My toes in one of their favorite places on earth

Graffiti is something I would normally never photograph, but in this case I felt like the graffiti was giving me a message or a reminder:

I’m fairly sure this message was not even written by just one person, but when I first glimpsed it I read: “Life is a Gift”. “Life” is clear in black at the front then around the side in green, the lower letters looked like “a gift”. That’s probably not what was meant by those who scribbled the graffiti, but sometimes those reminders find us anyway.

P.S. I did take an awful lot of photos of the shorebirds that I encountered this year! I’m still comparing my photos to photos on my bird identification site trying to figure out the pipers from the plovers and the terns from the little gulls. When I get them as sorted as I feel that I can, there will be a post and update for the birding project.

Rainbow of Summer… in Maine

The posts have been pouring in for the August Photo Hunt.  There is still time to get yours in – due date is this Sunday – but I was thinking I should get mine posted today while I still have power!  What a summer it has been around here: first a tornado, then a microburst, an earthquake this past Tuesday (though I did not feel it), and now Hurricane Irene is projected to hit this area some time on Sunday.  What form it will take by the time it gets here no one really knows, but with this summer’s track record, it doesn’t look good.  At the very least, I am expecting to lose power again.

I hope my sister doesn’t think I am stealing her idea (she mentioned in the comments section of the Photo Hunt that she would find me a rainbow of colors on Peak’s Island while she was on vacation) but while I was still going through my photos from Maine, I realized I had all the rainbow colors in some of my favorite things about summer.

Red:

I eat usually 2 lobsters a year – one on vacation and one at our dear friends’ summer party, so a boiled lobster is the perfect representation of summer red.

Orange:

Flower planted by the owner of the cottage where we stay  and…

a monarch along a path I walked.

Yellow:

These seem to be some wild snapdragons that I found on one of my walks.

Green:

wild green on an ocean-side path

Blue:

Big blue sky and ocean and…

…look at all the blue I found when I looked at my family’s beach gear: bathing suits, towels, chairs, umbrella and float!

Purple:

pre-dawn sky from my up-before-the-sun morning

Bonus:

My “selfie”- this shot was actually inspired by the picture at the end of this post by KD.  If you haven’t read this post, you really should – go read it, I’ll wait.  Like KD, in this picture I am makeupless, feeling good and very content.  I am at peace when I am at the beach, and I hope it shows in this picture.

I will continue reading your posts as long as I have power this weekend!  The worst of the hurricane is supposed to come on Sunday, and I have to return to work on Monday (kids come back to school on Tuesday), so I’m not sure when I will get the recap of all the beautiful assignments posted.  In the meantime, check out the links in the comments section of the hunt post.  People have submitted some really beautiful pictures so far.  If you haven’t posted yours yet, I hope to see it soon!

Mainebows!

On Monday of our vacation week , we got stuck with some pretty heavy-duty rain.  The day was bleak enough that we tried to go to a movie and couldn’t because it was sold out!  We ended up renting one (the re-make of “Arthur” – meh, it was just aw-ight).  Monday night the rain hammered unbelievably loudly, and Tuesday dawned drizzly and overcast.  However, by late Tuesday afternoon we were treated to:

Can you see it?  Just the faintest hint of rainbow?  I discovered this at the far end of the beach where I take my morning walks.

I saturated the color in PSE, but this still wasn’t as vivid as I’d hoped – my polarizing filter was back at the cottage and I imagine that would’ve helped bring out the color.

After I had walked back to the cottage, I spied another delightful sight!

Out by the little island with the puzzling monument on it (I can’t seem to discover the purpose or reason for that structure – it was there when I was child, and I have no idea who built it or why).  I took this shot from the sand dune in front of the cottage.  I also liked the way the sun was starting to shine on the boats in the distance.

(Remember how I mentioned how the tide goes waaaaayyyy out here? )

Rainbow with mysterious monument:

I liked how the rainbow reflected in the small tide pools left behind on the clam flats.

Speaking of rainbows, don’t forget your rainbow of summer is due this Sunday the 28th!  I’ve received links from Nye, Gerry and Scott so far – remember to add yours to the comments section of that post.

ETA: How short my memory is!  Becky discovered the mystery of the monument last year, and I even commented on her blog post that contained this link to an explanation!

A Rainbow of Autumn

I’d been trying to come up with a unique way to present my favorite fall photos for Scott Thomas’s assignment this month, when I thought of rainbows.  I was treated to a couple rainbows recently, and managed to get a few pictures, so I decided to present some of my favorite autumn shots in a rainbow of colors.

Red macoun apple

Is this pink mum close enough to fit in the red category?

Orange beach

Classic combination of cat and orange pumpkin

Summer fades away like the sunflower, giving way to..

yellow leaves

green pond

green pine needles in afternoon sun

shiny blue pond

I saw this peregrine falcon soaring in the bright blue sky while I was raking leaves last weekend.

I made purple grape jelly for the first time ever this fall

and saw a lovely purple sky.

While I was composing this blog post, I had the lyrics to one of my favorite songs in my head, “Boys of Summer” by Don Henley:

Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach,

You can feel it in the air, the summer’s out of reach,

Empty lake, empty streets, the sun goes down alone…

Thanks again, Scott, for another fun assignment.  I will be looking forward to the assignments of 2011!

Fall Colors – Picture Fall, day 25

When the day for this prompt, which I was sure was coming eventually, showed up, I was hoping it would have been one of the lovely, sunshiney days we’ve had this month.  I was also hoping it would have been a day when I had time to take the dogs for a walk in the woods or up the small, local mountain.  But it came today, on a dreary, cloudy day – fall colors.  Here in New England, the landscape is kind of known for fall colors, although it has been an odd year for them for sure.  Some trees seemed to go wild with color quite early, while others are still holding back – at least in this part of New England.  I actually have a few days, usually in November, when it seems my entire backyard has turned yellow.  Hasn’t happened yet, didn’t go early like virtually every other plant that I grow did this year.   I did the best that I could to show some fall colors today, with a look up my street:

(That’s my driveway with the tan Suburban parked in it)  I chose this shot because I noticed my little street is actually showing almost all the colors of the rainbow, with the exception of blue, at this moment.  Although not in perfect order, we have orange at the top of the street, followed by red, yellow, green and purple (ish).  Speaking of rainbows, another made an appearance the other day, and I haven’t had a chance to share it, so here you go.

What Would You Change?

Kathy over at Lake Superior Spirit recently received this award.  In her blog post about it, she explained although the award came with a few rules, she wasn’t obligated to follow them, so she followed them in her own Kathy-like way.  This is a pass-it-on type of award where you are supposed to choose 6 other bloggers to give the award to, plus answer a question.  Kathy was unable to choose 6 bloggers, so she invited any of her regular commenters who had commented in the last couple of weeks to have the award.  This award seems more like one of those blog “memes” that passes around from time to time, because of the question:  If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?

I started thinking about many of the decisions I’ve made in my life, some I’ve come to regret.  Why didn’t I join any clubs or try to get more involved in high school?  Why didn’t I study dance as a child?  Why didn’t my sister and I take that student trip to Paris when we had the chance?  I wouldn’t change anything about the fundamentally important parts of my life – my husband and when we got married, my children and when I had them.  It brought up the question of fate and predestination.  I believe that we as human beings have the control to take our lives in the direction that we choose, that it is not all layed out for us at the moment of our birth.  Although I am not a religious person, I feel I do have a spirituality to me and believe that my husband is my soul mate.  I do believe that if we hadn’t met when we did, we would have met at another place and time with the same result.

So what would I change if I had the chance?  One big choice that I do regret from time to time is the fact that I did not go away to live at college.  I was accepted and had a partial scholarship here, but at the last minute chickened out of going.  I lived at home and commuted to a local state college.  This may not seem like a big decision, but when I think back, it kind of was.  I never lived on my own.  I went from living at home, to getting married and living with my husband.  I never really took that chance to see what I was like on my own.  Perhaps if I had taken the chance and lived away at college, I’d be happier with my work situation today.   Perhaps not.  Perhaps if I had lived away at college, I’d be more willing to take other chances today.   Perhaps not.  Perhaps if I’d taken some time to be on my own, I’d feel less today like someone who is still trying to figure it all out.   Perhaps not.

I invite any blogger reading this post to also accept this Cherry on Top award, and do with it as you like.  Follow the rules or don’t.  Think about and answer that question or don’t.  Take a chance on something new today – or don’t?