Check it Out

My friend, Jim DuBois, is featuring one of my photos on his blog for the next week or so. You can look at here. If you ever see any of my photos in your travels through my blog or on Facebook and you'd like it printed, matted and framed I'm sure that you and I could agree on a fair price. Yes, my photography is FOR SALE.

This 'n That

OK, just to let you know right away, that's not Sarah Palin that we're chummy with. That's our friend Cathy McNally who does a fine job of impersonating Sarah Palin. Cathy's a stand-up comic and was performing at an event called "Comics for Change" which was a fundraising event for the Barack Obama campaign. Trevor's known Cathy for many, many, many years and so naturally we got a picture taken with her following the event. I'm pretty sure that Cathy didn't spend nearly as much on her wardrobe for this event as did the RNC for Sarah Palin's new wardrobe.

I've been getting regular exercise this week. We hiked into Fitzgerald Lake in Northampton; hiked to Sachem's Head in Greenfield; walked the trail in Haydenville that will some day be a bike trail; and I (alone) delivered almost 300 phone books to residents of South Deerfield. I feel like I've walked about 20 miles this week.

My mom's visiting for the weekend. We went out to Pittsfield to visit my older sister, Audrey. Her birthday (45!) was a few weeks ago. For lunch we went to a pub called the Forge Tavern. They were having a special Oktoberfest day complete with German menu and lots of beer. They were having special events for the day. One of the events was "Keg Bowling". After a little encouragement, Audrey and I went out to try our hand at "Keg Bowling". They had 2 empty kegs that were the balls and a bunch of empty cans set up as pins. I went first and knocked down 2 pins. On my second turn I got a "gutter keg". Audrey went next. She'd obviously been watching my form (and learning from my mistakes) and almost knocked down all the cans! We went back in to eat our lunch thinking that was the end of that, and silly though it was, had fun too. We were almost done eating when the guy who was organizing the Keg Bowling came back in looking for Audrey because there was "bowl off", the first time since 1987! She had to go back out and bowl against some young dude. She did really well and placed second! Her prize was a beer stein and a t-shirt. Guess all that candlepin bowling with our grandmother in the '70s has finally payed off!

Big Trees Grow in Northampton

Trevor and I went on a walk at Fitzgerald Lake Conservation area this morning. We walk there regularly since it's a short drive from our house and a relatively easy walk into the lake. Today's walk was led by a Big Tree expert. We only made it about half-way to the lake since there was a lot stopping to learn about the many, many varieties of trees at Fitzgerald Lake. Above is a red oak (I think).

More magnificent trees. I was mostly interested in the color of the foliage, I have to admit. Nothing against trees, honestly, it just happens to be Autumn and the foliage is impressive.
Trevor and I have gone in search of large trees in the past, and found an impressive small forest in Stockbridge, MA called Bullard Woods. If I remember correctly, there's a huge tulip tree there, as well as magnificent white pines. Today I learned that the largest sycamore tree in MA is in Sunderland. 25' in circumference!

Pretty colors.

The tree expert teaching us about tree rings.

Politics as normal?

"Cheney's heartbeat returned"

That was the first part of the headline and then it said "to normal". At first I only read what you see above and thought for a moment that he didn't have a heart...but it turns out he does and it was just beating abnormally. Too bad. Don't mistake me for a Republican. I was born and bred in a blue state and so it shouldn't come as any surprise that I'm a registered Democrat. I voted for a Republican once, William Weld.

And in other political news:
"W." a movie about our current president is opening in theaters this Friday. Would have been nice if they'd waited until the guy is out of office to release it. I wonder how much impact it'll have on the elections on Nov 4th.

As Trevor says, "No third terms." I agree.

Cape Ann Trip: Day 3

On Friday morning we packed up our stuff and left the cottage. We were a few minutes early for meeting Heather at Lobsta Land so we went to check out the village of Annisquam in Gloucester. It was our lucky day! The Annisquam Exchange was open. It's a thrift and consignment shop. We poked around in there for 15 minutes, found a few things we couldn't live without and then headed over to Lobsta Land. Heather and I have been friends since way back (1990) when we both worked in Boston in the fast-paced crazy business of commercial photography. About once or twice a year we get to see each other and it's always a fun time. Heather treated us to lunch at Lobsta Land in honor of our 10th anniversary.

After lunch, just for the halibut, we drove up to Halibut Point State Park . One of my favorite places to explore. There was once a granite quarry here. There's also all kinds of paths to walk down to the rocks on the ocean. I love it here! Trevor had never been here and he really liked it too.

Trevor enjoying the view at Halibut Point State Park. There's also an adjoining property that's owned by the Trustees of Reservations, it goes by the same name.

We came across these little rock cairns that someone left. It reminded me of the rock cairns marking the trails in Arches National Park in Utah. No ocean there, though.

More rock cairns at Halibut Point. After poking around for about an hour (I could have stayed a lot longer...), we headed back to the truck and then went in search of the $2.97/gallon (yes, it's true!) gas we saw the day before. Once the truck was full we hopped on Rte 128 South and headed home! All in all, it was a fabulous trip and I wish we could have stayed longer. We'll just have to go back !

Cape Ann Trip: Day 2

Lanesville, a village of Gloucester, was just 1/2 mile up Washington Street from our cottage. On Thursday morning we walked up there so that I could check out the local coffee shop. The coffee was OK but the coffee cake - loaded with cinnamon and chocolate chips - was YUMMY!

On our walk back to the cottage we walked down a little side street to Lanes Cove cemetery. I've always loved old cemeteries so had high hopes that this one, being right on the ocean, was going to be pretty special. I was right!

It was so peaceful, of course! Obviously the trees have grown up around the old gravestones.

I walked to the far corner of the cemetery and discovered there were several paths. Not seeing any "no trespassing" or "private property" signs I took that as a sign that it was permissible to walk out there. So we did and below is what we saw!

Lanes Cove.

In the afternoon following a scrumptious lunch of a lobster roll for me (when in Rome... or Gloucester...), and Trevor's standard breakfast (fruit and coconut) at Good Harbor beach (below) we drove to Eastern Point Light. The gabby old ladies at the visitors center in Gloucester highly recommended it but it wasn't easy to get there with all of the "no trespassing" and "private roads" signs. That didn't deter us though, we just kept going until we finally reached it. It's closed to the public and being used as a private residence now but you can walk out on the granite breakway. I walked out about 1/2 way. It was quite a windy day!

Good Harbor beach. Some claim it's the most beautiful beach in the world. Since I haven't been to all the beaches in the world I can't really say but it's pretty nice. The sand isn't as velvety as Wingaersheek beach, but it's pretty fine.

I'll take the house on the left with the yellow trim, please.

Trevor got a brief lesson in coastal geology while we were at Good Harbor beach. I wasn't lecturing. He just was asking a lot of questions. As you can see in this picture the island in the background is influencing the way the waves are hitting the shore. And I like the way the clouds are reflected in the water, too!

This is a pretty nice house too, on Good Harbor beach. My friend Heather, who lives in Beverly Farms painted this house. By painting, I mean on canvas. Not actually painted this actual house.

So, while I was there I called Heather and this is what I said:
"Hi Heathah. I'm callin you from the pahkin lot at Good Hahbah beach in Glosta. Do ya wanna meet at Lobsta Land tomorrow? Call ya latah."

Cape Ann Trip

We're spending a few days in Gloucester, MA for our 10th wedding anniversary, which was October 3rd. I rented a little cottage in the village of Annisquam right near Plum Cove. It's called, appropriately, Plum Cove Cottage. And, yes, Mother, it has heat. It also has a gorgeous kitchen (below) with granite counter tops which I'd like to take home with me. I mean, I'll take the whole kitchen, including dishwasher and counter tops home with me.

The lovely kitchen. Which would be improved greatly by having a teakettle. This world is so biased towards coffee drinkers!

I saw the most amazing and beautiful ripple marks on Wingaersheek beach in Gloucester.

Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester, MA. The sand is like velvet! I love it!

More velvety sand at Wingaersheek beach.
I could live here, easily.

A cute little pocket beach at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester.

Another pocket beach. This one is Plum Cove beach and it's 1/10 mile from our cottage.

Setting sun at Plum Cove beach.

Helpful Signage

This is what I woke up to this morning.

Thanks, Tiger Lily.

Thanks, Trevor.

Just leave it for me to clean up.

Love you, too.

As I write this Tiger Lily is barfing up houseplants again.

A mother's work is never done.

Why?

I'm not going to get ultra-philosophical or anything like that. I won't be asking WHY does the universe exist or what is our purpose in life. No, I won't be asking questions like that.

I'm going to ask:

WHY IN THE WORLD DO WE HAVE TO DISCOVER THE FURNACE ISN'T WORKING ON THE FIRST REALLY COLD NIGHT IN OCTOBER? WHY?

IT'S FREEZING IN HERE! Yes, Dad, I've put on a sweater. And Trevor has called the Landlord.

One of these things just doesn't belong...

Remember that little ditty on Sesame Street, "One of these things just doesn't belong..."?

I don't know why, but there's been a light bulb in our fruit bowl for a couple of days now. Can you find it? What else doesn't belong in this fruit bowl?