Spring Changes

This quote is so true in so many ways. I’m here to focus on the beautiful this morning, despite the fact that today’s weather is less than beautiful.

Spring has been very slow to arrive in the northeast this year, but we have finally been experiencing some days of warmth and sunshine. Last Sunday was warm and breezy, and I took a little time just to sit outside and appreciate.

I haven’t lifted a rake or anything else to begin spring cleaning, but I’ll get to it soon enough. Chives are poking through last year’s dead ones to make a new appearance this year!

It is school vacation week here in Massachusetts. Today is Patriot’s Day and Boston Marathon Day. A blogger that I read, Amy of “Plain Mama” is running this year. Best of luck Amy!

I got to kick off my vacation week in one of my favorite ways. Jennifer, Renae and I headed up to Pickity Place once again. Saturday’s weather was lovely and sunny and warm, and flowers were popping out all over, despite Pickity’s New Hampshire location. We figured they must have started some of these plants in their protected greenhouse and then brought them out.

These were not from the greenhouse of course:

I’m not sure what these are; they reminded me of a purple version of forsythia.

And I always share a picture of the beautiful dessert presentation too:

What beautiful changes are you experiencing this time of year?

Strolltober?

I’m sliding in at the last moment to participate in Robin’s Walktober. Life’s busy pace really hasn’t slowed down but I am not complaining! But that is my reason for only having a “mini-stroll” to share with you rather than a nice meandering walk like I would prefer. In the middle of a busy but wonderful day yesterday, I took a few moments to enjoy some warm autumn sunshine and have a little stroll. These are iPhone photos that I’m using once again. (I can hear the Canon Rebel grumbling in the corner).

In the middle of many errands and preparations for a wonderful dinner with great friends at my house last night, I decided to stroll by our local pond and enjoy a breather of fresh air and sunshine.

It was about 65 degrees yesterday and I took a few moments to appreciate that as I ambled the tiny beach.

There is a pretty path that goes a little further into the trees surrounding the pond, but I knew I didn’t have the time to spare to walk it on this particular day. This is the entrance to it.

Instead I enjoyed the leaves and the light floating on the water…

…and breathing deeply and remembering that life is good.

Thank you Robin for once again hosting Walktober.

It was a great month!

Four days of October have already passed as I sit to write this post, but I just couldn’t let September go by without creating a little memoir of it here on the blog. It was a beautiful, busy and wonderful month. Let me show you some of the great things I got to experience.

I’ll start by saying that the weather was, for the most part, outstanding. August left me desiring more sunshine and warmth, and I feel like September brought all the beauty and heat it could muster. It was my first month of teaching full time and I absolutely loved it – and still am loving it. I often brought papers home to sit outside on my deck and correct and enjoy the sun at the same time.

September is Big E time here in western Massachusetts. The Big E is a huge 6-state fair, and people come from all over to attend the 17 day event – 1,498,605 of them this year. I enjoyed some favorite things on my visit there this year:

Fried food (this is a basket of tempura veggies)

A really big frozen margarita in a plastic mug with a handle for enjoying while strolling the fair

Oreo cows! Squeeeeeeee!

I discovered that belted galloways (their “real” name…phffft!…not nearly as interesting as “oreo cow”) also come in other colors.

My sister, Sarah and I made a trip to the Cape to visit mom in September as well. We had one day of lovely weather. Warm enough to sit outside and enjoy a warm beverage at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans…

(my sister’s pic of her hot apple cider with caramel)

…and watch the wind surfers at Smuggler’s beach (also Jennifer’s pic)

The weekend after we visited the Cape, Jennifer and I visited our dear friend Renae. Renae took us to lunch at a fabulous winery in New Hampshire called La Belle Winery. It was a gorgeous day and we sat outside.

We enjoyed this wonderful cheese slate as an appetizer. That’s my yummy sangria in the background of the picture!

And then, at the very end of the month, something that I have been waiting for for a very long time finally happened!

My new tile kitchen floor was installed! The ugly, permanantly dirty nearly 20-year-old linoleum is finally gone!

A beautiful month – and so much to be thankful for and appreciative of. Life is good.

A Week in the Life, Day 1

While lazily scrolling through my Twitter feed this morning, I came across an interesting link.  It lead me to this post.  The idea was to share a week in your life through photos, words, notes, whatever you are comfortable with sharing.  The point is to make a memory and give your blog readers a little peek into your life, as well as take a peek into others lives if you care to.  I’ve often read Kathy’s and Gerry’s and Robin’s “slice of life”-style posts and thought maybe I’d do one.  This mini-project has some motivation attached too – a chance to win a really neat camera bag!  I decided to take a stab at it.  I don’t know if my crazy life will allow me to keep up all week, but here I go!

Today was actually a really good day for a project like this to start.  In addition to having the day off from work, it was a truly amazing day weather-wise for New England in October.  It was beautifully sunny once again, and look at the temp:

(and that was after the sun was starting to go down – I forgot to take a shot of the thermometer this afternoon when it was over 80)

My day started how I like it to start on weekends; it felt even more delicious knowing it was Monday!

Coffee and blog reading

I moved on to working on a couple of baby quilts.  I’ve really procrastinated on this for too long – these twin babies are due to arrive this Friday!  Yikes I better get moving!

But it was way too beautiful outside to spend the whole day inside!

My pool still isn’t closed!  Working on it, working on it – hopefully tomorrow.

Spent some time in my favorite chair.

I’m currently reading Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.

I sooooo enjoyed the fact that I could sit outside comfortable in shorts! Woo-hoo!

Dinner time brought a recipe from Cooking Light magazine.

Chicken and Herb White Pizza was delicious!  Definitely a keeper recipe.  Just look at Sarah:

So, there’s a little voyeurism for you into this life.  I’m kind of curious to see what the rest of this week will bring; are you?

P.S.  I took all of my shots today using my nifty-fifty 50mm 1.8 lens.  It was seeming a bit underused recently, so I might make it part of my challenge that I will use it for all my shots this week, just to have a slightly different point of view.

Picture Winter Day 21

“Winter’s Pull”

I thought today’s photo prompt, though eloquently written, was really very wide open to possible shots. “Winter doesn’t push you a thing. It requires you to go out there and pull. Work harder to find shape and line in composition. Work harder to bend whatever light you have. Change your position: capitalize. Work harder to find colour and depth in monochrome.”

We had another fresh snow fall, and our fourth snow day in two weeks, this morning.  Once again we are adrift in white.  Where would I find color and light today?  My first thought was, wouldn’t it be nice if a male cardinal was to stop by my feeder?  That would add some color to the white and gray.  Then to my surprise, the clouds parted and the sun broke through, at least giving me some nice light with which to work.

I used a small aperture to get the sun streaks, then warmed it up just a tiny bit in PSE.  It reminds me of childhood drawings we all did with a yellow ball and orange streaks to represent the sun.

While I didn’t get a male cardinal, a northern flicker obliged me with at least a little touch of red:

The focus is far from perfect here, but I forgive myself because this bird was not content to stay in one place for long.  I was just happy it turned its head ever so slightly so that we could see its face, and not just the back of its head, as it poked at the tree hoping dig up a tasty insect morsel.

Picture Winter Day 4

“A Little Sunshine”

The prompt for today’s picture read:  “Today, keep your eyes open for signs of the sun. Polka dots, symbols, colors, shiny things…whatever helps you remember that the sun will come out tomorrow (or sometime soon, no doubt).”

This is a charm I bought my daughter for her Pandora bracelet for her birthday this past August.  I remember thinking at the time about this sweet, sunny face and how appropriate it seemed for my summer baby with the (usually!) sunny disposition.  I accomplished this shot today with  my macro converter lens attached to my 55-250mm, f29, .4 sec, and a tripod!  In addition to the close-up detail, I also like the blur of the green and gold bead in the background.