Autumn light

Hello, friends. I’m enjoying the fine autumn weather we’ve been experiencing lately in Maryland. Last week was rather warm and this weekend found me turning on the AC again. Just too hot. Since I start back to work next week, I’ve been trying to tie up a few loose ends beforehand and rewarded myself by spending yesterday visiting my niece in Baltimore for lunch at her house. She and her husband have an adorable baby girl who is now 6 1/2 months old.

Seeing babies is always heartwarming, isn’t it?

Well, except when they’re screaming. Which this one was definitely not.

 

How cute is that little face?

 

 

Kim and I took a walk to a nearby park and stopped along the way to look at this interesting and colorful row of homes. We each fooled with our camera settings to get things right.

 

I love all the brick, too.

And the marble steps.

 

 

At the top of Federal Hill.

 

 

View of the harbor from the hill.

 

 

Baby loves loves loves the swing.

I swear, I took 30 or more photos and couldn’t get things right. Either she wasn’t laughing, or she was laughing and just out of focus. I swear my camera has a setting that locks onto the face while they are moving. I need to discover this setting.

 

 

My niece, like her mother (my husband’s sister, Helen) is a wonderful cook. For lunch, she served homemade roasted tomato soup and grilled cheese. Ok, this was no ordinary grilled cheese sandwich and I’ve been dreaming of it ever since. She took two slices of rustic bread, sliced on the thin side. She then shmeared each side with homemade pesto, then added slices of fresh mozzarella cheese. On the outside of each piece, she brushed on herbed butter she had made using a collection of different varieties from her patio garden. Then she grilled them to perfection. Oh. My. God. Soooo good.

Sometimes I feel guilty when I feel so happy.

I’m sure this is perfectly normal right now. So I’m not going to sweat it, you know?

 

 

But I miss him.

Yesterday evening, while I was inside working on these photos, the entire room took on a sort of crazy glow. I looked out the windows and realized that the sky was so different-looking with the sunset. It was glowing. My son and his friend were outside setting up things for a campfire party. I went outside to snap these while they were gathering kindling and setting up the camp chairs and thought to myself that it was a perfect evening for a campfire. Good for them!

 

 

I remembered that my husband used to often find me working on my pictures or reading a book or something and he would come in and tell me to come outside. That he wanted to show me something. Here is one such time:

Vignette #1

My husband would often bring me feathers. He would find them during his walks and I would often come home to a feather at my place at the table. When my son asked me to come out to the campfire last night and meet his friends, I walked out the front door and found a beautiful big feather.

And I smiled.

Hope your week is full of smiles. Until next time, my friends ~