Random thoughts on a weekday evening

It snowed again the other day and I’m hoping that this is the last of it for this winter. It was pretty, I’ll give it that. Luckily it didn’t snow enough to close the schools. We already have enough days to make up on the calendar.

It only amounted to a couple of inches although it came down in blustery swirls all night.

 

Checking my photo files, I saw that on the same date the previous year, it had snowed enough to cause school closings. I shot the photo below from my bedroom window on March 25 of last year.

 

We had about six inches then. So this year’s end of March snow was nothing.

I just hope it’s the last of it.

 

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A co-worker gave me a present today. It’s a really pretty wireless mouse. She said that she knew I liked birds. She bought it {here}.

It’s sitting on a mouse pad I made several years ago that I bought from Shutterfly. I used a photo I had taken while visiting Deer Isle.

 

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I took this because it caught my eye while walking in Baltimore last weekend.

I was hoping to see some firemen, though.

 

Inserting gratuitous firemen shot.

Taken on the High Line in New York City back in 2009.

 

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Today the children in 1st through 5th grade were rehearsing for the Spring Concert in preparation for tomorrow evening’s show at our school. I went out to listen to them a couple of times because it makes me glad, but I got this one song stuck in my head that has become impossible to shake loose. It’s the The Lonely Goatherd from the Sound of Music. Maybe sharing it with all of you will finally get the monkey off my back.

I apologize in advance.

 

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I shot this through my kitchen window late one afternoon this week.

I thought it looked kind of dreamy.

 

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Respectfully submitted,

Hello again

Christmas was a bit sad for us, as my husband’s brother continues his stay in the hospital. I haven’t written about it because it’s not my story to tell and besides, it’s personal. And I’m a big proponent for keeping personal business off the internet – especially when it’s someone else’s business.

I did get to visit him several times however, and Christmas Day was spent with my husband’s family as it has been for as long as we’ve been together. I got to see some of my side of the family as well which is always fun. But I have to say that the most fun was spent during a trip to New York City.

I have been planning this for awhile now and in the end, it was a much-needed getaway. I met up with my blogging friend, Daryl, on the Upper West Side. And Janice came in on the train from Richmond, bringing her two kids. I have been wanting to visit the top of Rockefeller Center and we did it, meeting my son for the trip to the top.

 

I timed it so that it would be just around sunset, and we watched as the lights of the city slowly came on, giving the night a special glow. That’s the Empire State Building you see there, dressed up for the holidays.

It was seriously cold up there, let me tell you. The day began with rain, but thankfully it cleared in time for our visit. The wind was whipping at this height and the plexiglass walls helped some as a buffer, but at the very top there was no protection so I couldn’t stay up there that long. I did get several decent shots between the plexiglass walls, though.

 

My son took this one of me before the sun went down.

So happy.

 

Afterward, we rode the elevator down to the ground floor and went out to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. I was especially enamored with these blue lights on the bare branches of the trees. A beautiful photo of them can be found on Daryl’s blog, {here}.

And, to give you some idea of the crowd, check out {this photo}.

 

We walked and walked, and when I could walk no more, we took cabs.

 

And the subway.

 

Janice’s son and daughter were wonderful to have along.

 

We went to Central Park, just for a quick visit.

 

That’s the Dakota on the right side of the photo above.

We had wonderful food. I could do an entire post of food pictures. On Friday evening, we met up with Lauren and her beautiful daughter, Emma at one of our favorite places to eat – Robert, on the 9th floor of the Museum of Art & Design at Columbus Circle. My son joined us there as well.

 

Daryl scored us a window seat reservation. This is my cocktail. It’s called The Redford and is made with Kanon organic vodka, cucumber and mint. Yummy.

But the best part of all was coming home to someone who really missed me. And to my husband.

(Got you there, didn’t I? Actually, my husband and my dog missed me equally as much, I believe).

 

This was my view coming up the driveway this afternoon.

Shot with my camera phone.

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More photos to come. Too tired to edit much more tonight.

Every which way but loose

I know, I know. You’re totally shocked, aren’t you? Here I am posting three days in a row. Will wonders never cease?

It’s Friday evening and it’s been a good day. Aside from the fact that I caught a not-so-flattering glimpse of myself in the full-length mirror that our director at school has installed on her closet, it’s been a fine day. I got off early from school and oh, my gosh, was it ever cold. The wind was wicked and the air was frigid so I elected not to take George for walk and ended up watching Dr. Oz instead. Is that ever an informative program. And I’m this close to starting a low-carb diet, I tell you. This close . . .

Regardless, I’m always about the photos on this blog and today I have several to share with you that have nothing to do with each other. Well, other than the fact that they’re on the hard drive of my laptop at the moment. Yes, I am a loser because I still haven’t purchased a new external hard drive. I don’t want to talk about it, so let’s not.




This was taken earlier this month by my husband with our old D80. It’s a Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) shot of one of the most beautiful sunrises which occured January 6. Everyone at school was talking about it that morning because we all come in at 7:30 am and we all witnessed the amazing skies on the drive to work that day.




Pier 1 on the Hudson in New York City. I took this over the holidays. The cloud action was pretty awesome.





Also taken over the holidays, this is my friend, Peg, with her darling little granddaughter. Peg, I just want to tell you that the guest room is ready. Bring wine. And bring Karen. I miss her.





My favorite window in the late afternoon. This is the window in my kitchen that faces west and has the most amazing light. I’m not too sure about the amaryllis plant there. It was a Christmas gift and when I opened it, it was pretty dried up. We’ll see how it goes, though. I bought some stones and a nice white pot for it to dress it up some. And I love that the geranium is blooming. On the left are some little spider plants that fell off when I was transplanting the parent plant this fall.

And yes, on the right you can see my pomander balls, made over the holidays, which still smell wonderful although they’re hard as a rock now.

The view out that same window.

Weird self-portrait.

I completely suck at these. And it’s so hard to focus.

I like the blur, though. And geez, my hair is really getting long.

And finally - tonight’s dinner. Friday night is take-out night and sushi makes me happy. My husband prefers a good cheesesteak and some onion rings, but give me sushi any day and I’m a glad girl. These are from Bamboo House in Newark, DE. On the left, we have Mexican Roll which consists of Kani mixed with wasabi mayo on top of shrimp tempura avocado roll. On the right is what they call the Brandywine Roll – Shrimp tempura, covered with avocado and topped with eel sauce. It was like a party in my mouth.

“And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?”   ― Bill Bryson

No, you're not alone, Bill. I, too, have a problem with chopsticks. I've tried to overcome my affliction to no avail and all I can say is thank God for forks.

Hope your weekend is wonderful ~

Mine will be three whole days which may or may not have a lot to do with my happy mood. That and the fact that my husband ate a regular dinner tonight (see cheesesteak above) and I think I saw him smile several times. Life is good ~

And then it was quiet

I had myself a merry little Christmas, and I am hoping that you did, as well. Our sons have left and all is quiet here again at the manor house on the hill. Yesterday afternoon, there was lots of laughter and lots of family at my in-laws home in NJ. In fact, it was a bit too much for my husband, as he prefers the quiet here.

But it was just what I needed.

Today, my husband called me to the window and pointed outside. And there, sitting on one of the large branches of the dogwood tree right outside our kitchen window, was a beautiful hawk.

I went to get the camera. And then to get the long lens, and then . . .




the hawk was gone. The little junco above was taken about an hour later from my bedroom window.

This was all I captured of the hawk.

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This afternoon, I watched a Netflix movie that I’d never seen before. And I watched it from my tv. Our son gave us a Sony media streamer for Christmas and then set it up for us. It’s so cool to be able to stream movies on the big screen. Today, I watched A Christmas Carol (2009), the Disney film directed by Robert Zemeckis and featuring 3D CG animation. Jim Carrey voices Scrooge, plus all of the ghosts. Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn, and Gary Oldham, to mention a few, round out the cast. At times, I felt like I was on a Dickens Disney ride, as I swooped over the snow-covered, bitter cold streets of Victorian London. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this version of Charles Dickens’ classic tale.

And it’s on stream at Netflix. Here’s the trailer:

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I am not particularly fond of this trailer, however.

My husband bought me new hiking shoes for Christmas and they’re really very nice Solomons and although I would have never bought shoes this color, they’re excellent on the trail. I tested them out today.




The skies today were sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy and always interesting.




And the sunset this afternoon. Can you see the moon? This is another photo opportunity pointed out to me by my husband.

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On Tuesday afternoon, I am leaving for New York City to visit friends, so I won’t be posting until I get home Thursday evening. I’ll be taking the train with {her}, then meeting {her} at Penn Station, then meeting {her} for dinner on Wednesday. I can’t wait and am so looking forward to having some fun in the Big City at Christmastime.

I’ll try to get some photos to share ~ but here are some from last year:

New York City at Christmastime

Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas


Hope your holiday week is a good one, my friends.

Anna’s shells

I am one of those lucky women who was blessed with in-laws with whom I actually enjoy spending time. I have heard the sad tales of friends whose in-laws leave much to be desired and every time I hear one of these stories, I remember just how blessed I am.

We went to see my husband’s mother today, stopping at the hospital to visit my brother who is finally going home tomorrow, if all is well. (He looked good and actually giggled a couple of times).

Anna (my MIL) is a lover of the beach and collected these shells on the gulf coast of Florida earlier this year.

 

We have been to see my husband’s folks several times since they returned from their winter sojourn on the gulf. But each time we visited, I had forgotten my macro lens. This morning, I remembered because I wanted to take pictures of the beautiful shells Anna has on display in a little basket.

 

Anna loves to tell a good story and has a fun sense of humor. Godfrey is quiet, like the son to which I’m married.

And he reads my blog.

(Hello, dad.)

 

Anna and Godfrey instilled a love of nature into their three children, taking them camping and visiting as many national parks as they could after their emigration from the UK in the 60’s. I don’t remember ever going camping as a child and it wasn’t until I met my husband that I began my life-long love affair with sleeping outdoors in a tent.

It was terribly chilly here in Maryland today and although the wind has died down some, it’s still quite brisk.

I’m in the middle of watching a movie on Netflix and it involves a series of letters written back and forth between people in London and a woman in New York City in the 1940’s. It’s ‘84 Charing Cross Road’ and I’ve never seen it before.

This is a sea urchin shell and it’s covered with something but I have no idea what it is. Here’s another photo of a sea urchin that I took while visiting Maine last summer.

All of these photos were processed using Florabella’s Vintage Summer II action and lowering the opacity considerably. On some of the photos, I added texture.

I love shells.

Have a beautiful Monday, my friends. Until tomorrow, then . . .

Daniel Sunjata loves me

I’ve made mention before that one of my long-time favorite shows on TV is Rescue Me, a series that airs on the FX Channel. It focuses on the private and personal lives of a group of firefighters in post 9/11 New York City. It’s gritty, intense, raunchy and at times, incredibly funny, and I’ve been missing it a lot lately. Season 7 doesn’t begin until early summer.

I feel like I’ve gotten to know all the main characters since the show first aired in the summer of 2004 and Daniel Sunjata, who portrays Franco Rivero, is one of my favorite characters.

And until this evening, I had no idea I was HIS favorite as well. I mean, it says so right here.

Taken in the NYC apartment of a friend of mine, he looks really kind ~ not at all like the tough firefighter he portrays on the show. And he was more than happy to oblige my friend when she told him I was one of the biggest fans of the show.

Here’s the intro. I look forward to hearing it again this summer. And thanks to my friend for making me smile today.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

A walk in Central Park, Part 1

Today, because I felt like it and I can do what I want, I drove to the Big City to meet blogger friend, Daryl and then meet up with my son for lunch.

I’d been wanting to visit Central Park, as I’d never been there before. Since my son moved to NYC in the fall of 2007, I’ve visited the city several times and have a rudimentary knowledge of where I am when I’m there. And now that I have the added bonus of meeting a blogging friend and visiting her when I’m there, it makes it even more fun.

So let’s visit the small section of Central Park that I was in today, shall we?

We’re going to the Conservatory Garden. We’ll pass the brick wall that bears the inscription “Girls Gate”, on 5th Avenue & 102nd Street. Did you know that there are 20 gates to get into the park? [link].

It’s a beautiful September day in New York, a little warm when walking about, but cool breezes to be found everywhere plus plenty of shade.

We come to an ornate gate.

This is the Vanderbilt Gate, which originally stood at the mansion on Fifth Ave. & 58th St.

I cropped the crowd below out of the picture. There was a bridal party as well as a Canadian tour bus that had just pulled up. The park is a busy day on a beautiful Saturday in September.

The Italian style garden is directly through this gate. The conservatory consists of 6 acres and is divided into three different landscape styles: Italian, English and French.

Upon entering through the gate, the expansive lawn of the Italian garden greets you. What a beautiful oasis this is. Note the steps on either side of the fountain. They lead to a pergola that is absolutely beautiful.

The Italian garden is bordered to the north and south by allees of crabapple trees. But something’s not quite right with these trees. Besides the fact that the ivy is climbing up their trunks, there’s dying off of the top branches.

Still, it makes a nicely shaded walk with the ornate benches waiting for you to take a quick rest.

To the north is the classical style French garden, with sculptor Walter Schott’s beautiful statue, ‘Three Dancing Maidens’ at the center. This is the Untermyer Fountain, donated to the park in 1947 by the children of Samuel & Minnie Untermyer.

I’ve made a collage of the fountain on my Picture A Day Blog because I was just so taken with it. More to come tomorrow of my walk in Central Park! Check Daryl's blog also, as she and I saw the same things and have different perspectives.

Until then, my friends . . .