rawr

this one deserves its own post, late or not. when friends go on trips, i ask them to bring me back a rock. here's one that a friend found for me. do you see the face?

mid to late summer

time at the beach was again a high point of my summer. weather was perfect, rental was fabulous, but being with family was the best. assorted brothers and sisters came and it was wonderful to spend time with them. after years of being together on a regular basis, i miss them now that our parents are gone, and i so look forward to this extended time with them every summer. also, the girl and the not-so-little-anymore-girl both were there for a few days. so much fun...such precious memories. 

here's july's blue moon rising over the atlantic. the not-so-little-girl thought it was pretty funny that it was a pink blue moon. 

i took lots of low light photos as i grappled with manual settings on my camera to try to graduate from shooting in automatic. sometimes it worked, sometimes not. 

the other summer highlight was a prolific vegetable garden, the first in many years. did I take any photos? no. just beach-y things this summer. although i think i might have a shot of harvested carrots around here somewhere...

waylaid

all i really wanted was a picture of this butterfly that hung around the garden for days, fluttering in and around this milkweed plant. but on the way to photograph it, i got sidetracked by some of the other flowers in the garden.

purple coneflower...

poppy (from helen!)...

and daylily, with ant. 

summer planets

jupiter and venus, in the west, after sunset. brilliant. 

a birthday in june

this is my grandfather, my mother's father. as a small child, i believe he was my favorite person. he talked to me and he made me laugh. he took me to church, and on trolley rides to boston and ferry trips to nantasket. he called me on the phone and showed me off to my great-aunts and uncles. he spoiled me with banana splits. when i was learning to drive, he gave me his old green two-toned ford. when i needed furniture after college, he gave me his maple bedroom set and didn't mind that i painted it navy and lime. on the day of my wedding, when i went to the hospital to see him, he cried because he was too sick and feeble to come and watch me get married. i adored my grandfather - he was huge influence in my life. although he's been gone now for most of my life, i still think of him quite often and silently thank him for making me feel so loved. he'll always hold an important place in my heart.

the little girl was born eight years ago this month, on the day of my grandfather's birth. i wish they could have met. he brought so much joy to my young life, and she brings so much to these waning years. i love that the two of them are connected in this very small, very special way.

priorities

yesterday the girl and her family were here for a visit. at one point, they went for a quick walk, and the little girl came back with exciting news of newts. they counted thirty-one, she said, but there were at least a hundred. her dad accidently stepped on one and felt bad. they were all over one side of the road but not the other. they were everywhere!

after they left, after the table was cleared and the leftovers were put away, after the dishes were washed and the floor was swept, i took a walk down the stretch of road she described. i was disappointed, but not surprised, to see only three newts. tiny and new, they were wandering the road long after their ninety-seven brothers and sisters had dispersed. up the hill and into the woods they went, all while i, of course, was doing more important things than investigating the wonders of spring.

june moon

this evening, the moon set in the west shortly after the sun. in my eagerness to photograph it, i went off about an hour too early and was disappointed to find it still very light. but i took a lot of shots anyway and cropped the ones of the moon. this is my best shot of the evening. i think i can see a crater!

guest photographer

Over the weekend, the little girl took off up in the back for a woodland walk. before she left, i handed her my point-and-shoot camera and told her to take photos of interesting things she saw. and she did!

bunchberry. i've never seen this here. she identified it back at the house using one of my field guides. i was pretty impressed with both the photo and the research skills. 

a camouflaged toad. can you see it? i couldn't, until she pointed it out to me. 

 new growth on hemlock. she thought it was beautiful and soft. 

bark on a tree. not sure what was so appealing about this one, but she really liked it and was proud of it, so here it is. 

finally, claw marks on a tree - from a bear, she tells me!!

june garden

what's blooming in june?

margarites

morning glories

inherited irises - they came with the house!

lupine - purple and pink

columbine

flight-of-the-butterfly iris

chive blossoms

and this new plant, given to me from her garden by an acquaintance. she doesn't know what it is and neither do i. but i'm watching and documenting and i'll figure it out!

bestseller

since i've semi-retired, one thing i'm just not doing enough of is keeping up with new books. it's odd, i know, but it's true, and it bothers me a lot. so when folks started talking about the girl on the train and what a thriller it was, i thought- i must read it. since i didn't want to wait for it at the library, and because i didn't want to lose my resolve, i downloaded it to my kindle and began to read straight away. and, from the get-go, i did not like it - at all. i'd read rave reviews - so i kept on reading. friends gushed about it - so i kept on reading. i finished it friday night. and i hated it. yes, i did.

today at the library, i saw the print version at the desk, so i thumbed through it. inside, characters i didn't know, scenarios i didn't recognize, whole paragraphs i didn't recall. how could this have happened? did i fall asleep and miss large chunks of the story? am i really that poor a reader?

i went to the kindle app on my phone to check. and the cover (which i never look at on ebooks) was very different. so was the author's name. slowly it dawned on me - i read the wrong book. 

in hindsight, it's no wonder. just look at how many there are!  what am i reading now? station eleven...i think. 

in the garden

for days, i've been here, in the garden. weeding, dividing, transplanting, planning. new growth is always so green and lush and promising, and volunteer plants so surprising. this is my favorite time to be in the garden, before anything even begins to bloom. 

what's this?

this tree's been in my backyard for half my life, yet i have never seen it like this. it's all leafed out, but it has what i can only imagine to be tree "flowers" hanging from the branches. a strange and unusual sight out the back window, that i mostly just want to document here.

purple lilac

since they began to bloom last weekend, i have taken at least a zillion photos of purple lilacs. i am hoping to capture just the right shot, and submit it to the state's lilac photo contest. i entered a few years ago with an adorable shot of the little girl wearing a red sox cap with a lilac pressed right up to her nose. maybe it was too cute - it didn't win. so this time i'm trying for a conventional shot. so far, no luck. i have only a few more days to shoot, then the florets will begin to turn brown and eventually shrivel up - along with my chances of winning.

apple blossom time

still here. enjoying the warmth and beauty of spring. finally. 

antique shades

my favorite pansies. i'm always so happy to find them again. 

earthquake

i have nickels buried all over the world. friends on vacation take my nickels and plant them in beautiful and interesting places i'll never see. it's a long story, but this has been going on for years and years.

my two most recent nickels, just placed weeks ago, were buried by three dear friends on two separate trips to nepal. all afternoon, i've been reading the reports of the earthquake, looking at photos of the devastation, and sending up prayers for the good people of the country - and also thanking heaven for keeping my friends safe as they traveled.

here's the spot in kathmandu where my friend gretchen buried my nickel. she said it was beautiful, and i would love it there.

at last!

snowdrops, "spring"ing from the soil on shady side of the house, where the snow is just beginning to melt. what a wonderful surprise to see them there this morning...i had forgotten i planted them!

hide 'n go seek

she wanted to play, and here's how she hid. camouflage, she told me.

feeling hopeful

as i write this, bright blue sky is turning a steely gray, a winter sky again. but these photos i took not fifteen minutes ago show the skies i awoke to, the hopeful skies, the brilliant ones, blue with white clouds sailing effortlessly. i do hope today is spring.

easter 2015

happy easter!

the tradition continues. i am amazed. two friends i have long suspected are in different states this easter morning. 

selfies and shrinkage

i don't take conventional selfies. it just seems too narcissistic. also, i can never get a good picture no matter how hard i try - perhaps i'm too narcissistic! this shot is the closest thing to a selfie that i will take.

there's no place for a full length mirror in the house so i often take a self-timed photo to see how i look in new clothes or outfits that i haven't worn in a while. it sure saves asking "does this make me look fat?" when i can easily answer that question affirmatively for myself in private and in only ten seconds. 

today's "selfie" was to check the length of new jeans. they are the "short" length of the brand that i have always needed to wear and, before i put them on, they got the usual treatment for shrinkage - hot water washing and high temperature drying. but, for the first time ever, they clearly did not shrink enough. i will repeat the process again - and again if necessary - but i truly wonder if the shrinkage may be on my part and is not the fault of the pants. 

morning crescent

brilliant blue sky this morning with birdsong and a waning crescent moon. already, the sun is warm on my face. these are the days i wait for all winter long.

ides of march

rain, ice, snow, lilac buds. nothing to beware of here! almost springtime in new hampshire.

blue twilight

the shift to daylight saving time brings erratic sleep patterns, crazy dreams, and general feelings of internal disarray. i am having a hard time shaking it this year. but i can again walk - nay, mosey - in the evening, and that is good.

kitchamajig

i don't usually wax poetic about things like kitchen utensils, but i am so happy with this find that i feel the need to document my delight. i bought this at a local thrift store last summer. i'd never seen anything like it. i was intrigued with the fact that it was made in hong kong. the asking price was a dollar and i gladly paid it. i brought it home, cleaned it up, plunked it into the utensil crock next to the stove, and promptly forgot about it - until thanksgiving. in the rush of meal prep, as the pile of spatulas and slotted spoons built up in the sink, i grabbed for the ---  what was it, anyway?

long after it had drained the potatoes for mashing, scraped the turkey bits from the bottom of the pan for gravy, and whipped the squash into a puree, i googled it and found it was often referred to as a kitchamajig. knowing its quirky name made me even more enamored of it! it's now my go-to utensil - it beats, it drains, it mixes, it strains. i still get giddy using it.

winters like this one, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

toooooo long

this winter is endless. i am sick of ice and boots. i am tired of all this white. i hate this cold. i yearn for melting, puddles, and temperatures in the forties. tiny bits of green coming up through the snow and popping out on branches. warm sun on my face.

remember my strategies for keeping my spirits up through the long month of january? next year i'm going to extend them for four additional weeks.

valentine memory

today was valentines day in schools, and i had the unexpected surprise of participating in a kindergarten party, highlighted with valentine delivery by beaming five year olds. later in the day, the little girl shared with me her valentine box from school, reading each card and the name of the giver, commenting on the styles of cards and the candy and lollipops that accompanied most. it's a tradition. we have done this every year since before she could even read them.

from nowhere today, came pieces of the ancient memory of a nine year old arriving new to a school on the fourteenth of february. the classroom was all decorated with pinks and reds and the room was abuzz with talk of the upcoming party after lunch. the teacher had a kind face and a pleasant manner, but i remember being apprehensive - we had moved around a lot and it was always hard for me to make new friends in a new place.

those were the days when there were neighborhood schools, stay-at-home mothers, and no need for lunch programs. when i came back to school after lunch, a beautifully decorated box was sitting on my desk, and inside were valentine cards from all my new classmates. i don't remember learning the details of how all that came to be, but i do remember the welcoming feeling of acceptance from a room full of strangers. years later, i suspect that it all had to do with my new teacher, mrs. stanton. and i silently thanked her again today for her kindness to an anxious child so many, many years ago.

makes scents to me

a long time ago, i read that smell is a most powerful conduit in terms of memory-making - that a scent can quickly transport you back to a place, an event, or a person in your past. to that end, even though i don't wear it regularly anymore, i try to wear a spritz of my favorite perfume when i'm around the little girl. i always have. i want her to remember me.

yesterday, all my efforts paid off. while having tea with the girl, she related this story: earlier in the day, she had taken a walk through their quiet village with the little girl. at one point, the little girl stopped, sniffed the air, and said it smelled like - me! me!! eventually the girl too smelled the sweet scent, but could not identify it.

now, there was no one around, least of all me, so it wasn't the perfume. clearly, in the dead of winter, it could not be emanating from anything green and growing. woodsmoke? - i thought? i certainly hope not. i pondered this for hours before i finally came up with a feasible answer to this conundrum. i bet the smell was coming from a dryer vent behind some house. i bet the little girl thinks i smell like dryer sheets.