Project 365 and More Catching Up

Seems try as I might to catch up, the behinder I get. For as many days that have been consumed with work and just hanging at home, I’ve had days so full of stuff it’s taken me days to go through all the pictures. I’m also trying to catch up on burning some of these many pictures to disc as I’m running out of disc room and I have three 1GB discs and one 2GB disc. Yikes! So lets get cracking shall we.  We’re on the weekend and Saturday running errands after I had to go in to work for the morning. Headed south to the mall of first a stop for lunch at a popular hot dog spot.  No frills kinda place that just has steamed hot dogs, kept on a warmer in butter,  with mustard, onions and relish. In recent years they added chili for the dogs to the menu but gotta have them the Nick’s Nest traditional way.  Accompanied by one of their milk shakes and it’s a perfect lunch. Fortified we headed to the mall where I hit Sephora for a cute little kit of four of their OPI nail colors. I always used to love doing my nails but somehow got out of the habit. Saw some of the OPI shades a month or so ago at my hair salon and felt the urge to do something fun for myself. Now I’m hooked again. It’s such a lift to see a pretty color on your hands.  Sunday morning I was lazing in my jammies doing my usual catch up of blogs and Facebook while listening to Acoustic Sunrise. Got a message on Facebook from a friend of ours Joanna who was thinking of coming our way for the day and wondered if we were free. Why not, it was a beautiful Sunday, what better way to spend it than showing a friend from another state around. I shared some pictures from that in a post here already but here’s a couple more views from the top of Sugarloaf. Looking toward Sunderland in this one and Joanna hamming it up in my picture of the day. Back to the work-a-day world and one of the albums that I made from our trip to Revere Beach and Boston arrived. It was the highlight of my Monday. More heat and humidity! Hard to believe we’re still seeing it in September but thankfully not staying around. In the meantime, the boys and I headed to the air conditioned bedroom to watch the US Open. Novak Dvokovic won a very exciting match this evening.  What’s been our go-to supper on all the really hot days we’ve had grinders. This day wasn’t any different. Supper from the Polish Deli in town.  Employee meeting day and in addition to feeding us Apple Crisp from Chandlers, fresh fruit, coffee and juices, we all got a commemorative anniversary edition of Spiced Pumpkin. The end of a crazy busy week at work and a nice treat of Boneless Wings from the best local spot for wings with more flavors than you can count. Yummy as they were the highlight of my day was coming home and finding my other free photo album had arrived. This one from Shutterfly. Saturday we were celebrating Crystal’s birthday with her and Kevin. It was actually Friday but Saturday evening they came up and we went to a restaurant in town here for dinner. Crystal and I both enjoyed pasta dishes, while Kevin and Matt had the fish and chips platters. Very yummy and leftovers, always good! It was close enough that we’d walked and on the way home I captured this shot of them that was my picture of the day and the close for this post.

Life and Project 365

Eeekkks! I find myself behind again on posting my Picture a Day project.  Work has been crazy busy and by time I get home most nights I’m collapsing in front of the tv, watching the US Open lately, or just staring at whatever is on the screen. Before I get farther afield let’s catch up some.  Matt and I had a great day a couple weeks weeks ago in Boston. We started our day at Revere Beach. It was a beautiful beach, the water felt great and there were these huge seagulls that stalked you for your food. LOL  This group was eyeballing us while we ate our lunch. That guy nearest the camera eventually made a surprise attack from behind and grabbed up most of my roast beef sandwich. Good thing I had some scallops too! hehe My picture of the say had to be the beach. It was a bit of a tough call as we spent time in Boston as well but we’d never been to Revere Beach so…After wandering the beach and boardwalk some more after lunch we got ourselves to the T to head into the city. We were able to spend some time walking the waterfront of the Charles River on the Cambridge side and I captured some nice views of the skyline. We continued along over the Longfellow Bridge and enjoyed wandering along the Esplanade. I love catching artists at work. By later afternoon clouds were rolling in. We were grateful to have had such beautiful sunshine on the beach and enough sunshine in the city. The next day we woke to rain and there would be no cooking out as we’d been enjoying all summer since getting our deck. It seemed like a harbinger of autumn and the next day the temps dropped. It was chilly enough to make a pot of coffee in the evening, something we’d not been doing for months it seemed with all the hot weather we’d been having. As I mentioned work’s been keeping me busy during the week and we’d still been having some car issues so that kept me home most nights as well. My picture of the day here was a real exciting evening doing my nails. Hey a girl’s gotta have a little pampering right? It was my evening with Crystal and Kevin. We got grinders for us all(including Matt who popped on his supper break from work) from a local pizza place and they brought the entertainment, a movie from their Netflix, “The Hangover”. The three of us loved it, laughing over many of the lines and scenes. The food was good too! Usually I’m heading off to Northampton on nice Friday evenings after work, but I had to run an errand in the next town over on a Thursday. Coming home through Northampton while stopped at a light I decided I had to stop at a little neighborhood grocery store for one of their amazing sandwiches for supper. Serio’s has been a family run mainstay in Northampton since 1902. They have an amazing butcher/deli counter and I got me their Paisano. Grabbing a frappucino at Starbucks, I headed for Pulaski Park to enjoy a late summer early evening. I couldn’t finish it all and ended up taking some home for Matt to have a taste. The end of the week and I was ready to just relax at home after work. On the couch with my book. I know, I’m still behind but getting there and will share more real soon. Had some fun weekend plans that I’ve touched on some and will share more of.

The Summer that was

We were out running our weekend errands last Saturday and stopped at one of our local farmstands. Getting out of the car I glanced at their fields next to the stand where the corn was picked and plowed and the pumkins were big orange orbs that looked near ready to pick. A sure sign of summer coming to an end for me is the arrival of these denizens of fall. It’s been a great growing season in our valley and many of the crops of fall are already making an appearance at the local farmstands. The bounty of summer will continue into autumn. Now here we are at Labor Day weekend the day on the calendar that signifies an end to the lazy days of summer and return to school for kids as well as young adults in college who arrive daily at the numerous colleges nearby. My daughter’s school days are behind her but these days still have me reflecting on the summer that was…

• hot, we saw more 90+ degree days along with plenty of humidity than we’d seen in a very long time.
• got me back in a reading groove. I finished five books this summer, more than I’d completed in the previous part of the year.
• enjoyed a number of dinner and movie nights with Crystal and Kevin. They came over after work and did some laundry while we had a light supper and watched a movie from their Netflix or some Ghost Hunters.
• taking a family drive to Foxwoods Casino and Resort to see the Titanic exhibit and eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.
• celebrating my friend Paula’s birthday with her having dinner together at The Wok, a favorite local chinese restaurant.
• going to Starbucks many more times than I have before to enjoy their a/c over a frappuccino or my new favorite sweetened iced green tea.
• getting to the shore in Connecticut and Matt actually putting his feet in the water!
• sunrise at the shore, with the sound of some classical music in the background and the show of colors nature put on it was magical.
• our first Taste of Amherst gave us many delicious foods to try, and good music.
• Boston not once but twice! this summer.
• Bar-b-Que and music night at Chandlers. Good food, homemade sangria and the sounds of Tom Carroll.
• getting a deck put on out back.
• being able to grill out on our deck. Every weekend we took advantage of it.
• despite my lactose intolerance I used my lactaid pills and enjoyed a couple sundaes. Not being able to have them as often made them taste all the better.
• having our Grandkitties spend a few days with us to escape the heat of their house.
• getting a second kitty ourselves and bringing Meeka into our lives to join Oliver.
• the Green Monster Coolatta at Dunkin Donuts a perfect antidote to many a hot evening.
• walking around downtown Northampton with Primate Fiasco as they played their unique sound of dixieland music.
• farmer’s markets and farmstands full of summer’s bounty with all the hot, sunny weather we had and not much rain.
• going to dinner and the movies with Crystal, seeing “Ramona and Beezus”. It was a perfect mother/daughter experience.
• Terriers around Town in West Springfield.
• RiverCulture in Turner’s Falls, lots of great music.
• Bar-B-Que, at home, at Curtis’s in Vermont and Famous Dave’s with Crystal and Kevin.
• going to Revere Beach out near Boston.
• fresh seafood at the shore in Connecticut and at Revere Beach.
• grinders for supper. The perfect meal on all the hot summer days we had.
• iced coffee at Cumberland Farms on afternoon break.
• getting to ‘meet’ our friend Joanna in person as we spent a day showing her around our awesome neighborhood.
• going up to the top of Sugarloaf.
• eating a light supper in the park in Northampton.
• celebrating Crystal’s birthday with her and Kevin having dinner at a local restaurant.

It was a summer that was AWESOME!

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Photo Essay ~ Brenda Photo Challenge

Miz Brenda came up with a wingdinger of a challenge this time for the Brenda Photo Challenge. It’s Photo Essay. Quoting from the challenge blog “Some information on Photo Essays: A photo essay (or “photographic essay”) is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer.
A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages.
Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs.
Choose anything that can be tied together by the sum of its parts, but not something so big that it becomes overwhelming. For example, you could create a photo essay about your home, your city, the local zoo, a person, or an event. Limit yourself to telling your story using fewer than 8 to 10 pictures.” Well I signed up for this one having no clue, once again, what I was going to do. Sitting here this morning and still had no clue when inspiration hit. Delve into those photo files from Boston and see if I can’t find a common thread there. Now if you look at any of the posts that my category cloud has tagged Boston chances are in many you’ll see the Prudential Center. Along with the John Hancock Tower it dominates the skyline of Boston and is my “where am I in relation to” whenever I’m in the city. I decided to give you a view of the city from the top of the Pru. So here’s my photo essay a “Pru eye view” of Boston. Coming out of the elevator on the 50th floor to the Skywalk this is your view. There’s a reception desk to collect your ticket and the Hancock Tower behind it enticing you forward. Going in for a closer look I zoom in on the Hancock and beyond.  The steeple you see in the upper left corner near the water is the Custom House, what in Old Boston was the tallest building in the city and its first ‘skyscraper’.  The Skywalk gives you a 360 degree view and I’ll share some views that you’ve seen from ground level here. This is the grounds of the Church of Christ Scientist. Here we’re looking out on the harbor. You can see a couple of the many harbor islands there. Moving over looking out toward Fenway Park. That’s the Mass Turnpike(toll road) running through the middle and you can see the famous Citgo sign on the right.  Continuing along the skywalk we see the Charles River here. That’s Cambridge on the other side and you can see the Longfellow Bridge as well, or the ‘salt and pepper’ bridge as it’s called for those pillars. In the forefront of the picture is the Back Bay. Called that because before extensive landfilling it was literally the back bay of Boston. The thicker clump of trees running in the middle of the shot is Commonwealth Avenue. Looking out toward Charlestown we have the Bunker Hill monument in this view along with the Zakim Bridge. Over to the left center of the picture the white ‘dome’ shape is part of the Boston Science Museum.  We’re back where we started and one last look before we step back on the elevator, another Boston landmark, Trinity Church. The reflective building to the right is the John Hancock Tower.  Feel free to visit the Boston link on my Category Cloud again to see many more views of this spectacular city and many of these spots from the more traditional ground view. And be sure to visit the Challenge blog to see all the other participants photo essays.

Staycation Day

We had a surprise visit from a friend from Rhode Island yesterday and in the process of showing her around our neighborhood found a mini staycation day for ourselves. I share many pictures of the area we live in and places we go, and many of you comment on how much you enjoy seeing them. Still you get complacent about your home area at times and then you get the opportunity to see it through someone else’s eyes who’s never seen these things before and find a new appreciation. I had my camera with me throughout our day and would like to share a few of my favorite images of our neighborhood. Joanna and I started out walking over to the Yankee Candle flagship store where I gave her the grand tour of the store. No matter how many times I walk into the Bavarian Village and see the huge Christmas tree I’m struck by it. Joanna felt the same sense of awe.  One of the cows from New york City’s 2009 Cows on Parade now resides at the store. This was actually the first chance I had to get a picture of it. Joanna found a couple of candles she wanted and I was able to get her my employee discount. We checked out and met up with Matt for our next stop.  We headed through some farm roads to one of our favorite farmstands for ice cream. Crops are growing very well this year and many ahead of normal. We saw some early pumpkins and squash already available. Very good prices too since things are pretty abundant this year. We enjoyed our ice cream sundaes on one of the picnic tables and then headed up Sugarloaf to check out the view from the observation tower. It’s always fun to pick out where our house is from the top of Sugarloaf.  We have a beautiful view of it from our living room window. It’s also wonderful to look at the winding Connecticut River making its way down the valley toward the Mt. Tom range. All that green and beautiful farmland. It was a clear, sunny day with just a bit of haze and the temps in the low 90s. You gotta enjoy these last days of summer. We headed over to Old Deerfield next and paid a visit to the farm. The ducks and geese were in the yard. They have a couple little wadding pools they splash around in and at dinner time cross the path to eat. The pigs were also out in their pen playing in the mud and the sheep were lazing in their area nibbling some grass. One last stop before we said goodbye. Richardson’s Candy Kitchen. I was taking a few pictures while we waited our turn to be served and made our choices. Just as I took this shot Matt stuck his finger out to point. My first thought was ‘darn, gotta retake that’, but when I looked at the picture I knew it was a keeper. And Yes! we did get some of those White Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels. They were Amazing!

Project 365 and living life

Time for another Project 365 update along with the living that goes along with it. As the project winds into the last quarter of the year, how can that be!?!?! I’m glad again and again for doing my picture-taking for it the way I have been. I look through my album and every picture does tell a story. Taking random shots of things you see is great but for me, this project has really come to life with the shots that represent my life and the days I’m living.  We left off celebrating Matt’s birthday with Crystal and Kevin and a wonderful evening that was, our hearts full of love for those two and our bellies full of good bar-b-que. The next day after work I headed over to Hadley to pick up a book I’d requested at Barnes & Noble. I’ve gotten quite involved watching “Deadliest Catch” and when I heard the Captain of the Northwestern had written a book I definitely wanted to get it. This has been a good reading summer and I’ll be reading it soon as I finish my current read. After looking through Artful Blogging, I paid for my book and headed over to Whole Foods to make up a salad for my supper. Brought a book with me to read while I ate but I have to admit I probably spend more time people watching while I eat than read. Whole Foods is always interesting that way.  The next day after work I headed up to a new to me local Farm Stand. They had lots of the traditional veggies you find at local stands, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans, corn and so forth but they also had a section with more peppers and hot peppers than I’d ever seen before. Both sides of this table were full of different hot varieties as well as baskets on the top. Thankfully they had a chart with details about each one and their level of ‘heat’. I’d never seen or heard of these before that were ranked on the top of the heat chart.  I was to afraid to even touch them let alone try to eat one. LOL I picked out some lettuce, good-looking tomatoes, milder varieties of peppers and new to me, lemon cucumbers. A nice batch of veggies that made for some yummy salads along with the local salad dressing I also found there. Made it to Friday and a very tough work week it was. I needed me some ice cream. Luckily we have plenty of ice cream stands in our area and I had my lactaid pills with me. I decided to try one that just opened up this season at the truck stop down the road and was very pleased with it. No frills, basic soft serve in chocolate, vanilla or twist of the two. Your basic sundae toppings and the stress of the week melted away with each bite. It was a very nice afternoon and I didn’t feel like going home yet but didn’t want to go that far either so I headed over to the Old Deerfield farm to see what critters might be about. Caught these two piggies and let me tell you that saying ‘happy as a pig in mud’ is for real. I knew just how they felt, I was pretty darn happy myself.

Randomness ~ August 27th, 2010

More from my photo files. A little this and a bit of that. A quiet little spot near the Springfield Museums in Springfield, MAOne of the Boston Duck Boats in the water near the Zakim Bridge. Seen at the Yankee Candle flagship store. At Panera Bread.  Going by a local Harley Davidson dealer there was a bunch of bikers and their bikes gathering for a ride. Outside a yarn store in downtown Northampton. A hungry bird at Revere Beach.

Today – August 25, 2010

FOR TODAY:

Outside my window….nighttime with a feeling that fall is on the way.

I am thinking…how precious life and those we love are.

From the kitchen…steak grinder from a local pizza place.

I am wearing…jeans and a beige tee shirt.

I am creating…a picture book of beach pictures from Saturday on Walgreens site.

I am going…to pick a new book to read and settle in with it.

I am reading…Improper Bostonian magazine.

I am hoping…the rest of the week is calmer.

I am hearing…”If it’s Love” by Train.

Around the house…my online radio station and the kitties playing. Crystal and Kevin are headed home and Matt hasn’t got home from work yet.

One of my favorite things…when Crystal and Kevin bring a movie with them from their Netflix.

A few plans for the rest of the week…work and perhaps a drive to Vermont Saturday. 

Here is a picture I am sharing:  from Revere Beach this past Saturday.

Sweet Day

Matt and I had a very awesome day to be on Revere Beach and Boston yesterday. Over two hundred pictures later, some color from the sun despite using sunscreen, many miles walked, full bellies even though a hungry gull decided he liked my roast beef sandwich(more on that in another post hehe), we’re back home and planning our next visit. Can’t wrap my brain around too many words describing our day yet so I’ll share just a few of my favorite images of the day. Pour yourself a cool drink, put your feet up and enjoy. We went out to Revere early before it got too crowded. There were miles and miles of beach so not to worry.  Some clouds moved in by time we headed back to Boston but nothing to stop our wanderings, just made the temp a bit more comfortable. There’s just never enough hours in a visit to do everything but luckily we’re getting out there more so I don’t have to try to.  It doesn’t hurt to have so much so close either or within a short subway ride away, as visiting Revere Beach was.  It’s fun revisiting favorites and finding new ways of photographing them. Yes, it was a sweet(hint of food to come here) trip!

I think I’m goin’ to Boston and Project 365

The car is fixed and running better than it has in a long time. The weather forecast is sunny skies with temps around 80. Matt and I are heading to Boston in the morning.  I’m very excited about this trip cause we’re taking the Blue Line of the T out to Revere Beach. So not only will I get a day in my favorite city but a trip to the shore as well. Since we’re celebrating Matt’s birthday there, we’re going to his choice for lunch, which happens to be at Revere Beach, Kelly’s Roast Beef.  Matt’s been to one of their other locations and has raved and raved about it and talked about visiting one of their locations. We happened to be watching one of Rachael Ray’s vacation spots on $30 a day and she featured the Revere Beach location. So off we go. We’ll head out there first and spend some time on the beach and boardwalk before lunch. After we eat we’ll take the T back into the city and spend the rest of the day wandering Boston. Yippee Skippy! Another beautiful summer day in Boston. Twice in one summer! Wowza! I guess I’ll be looking for another album for the pictures from this coming trip. hehe Let me catch up on some more Project 365 here. Last Friday Crystal and I went over to Gramma’s house so I could pick up her car. She was letting us use it while ours was getting repaired. I captured this picture of the two of them when Crystal was showing her Grandma some pictures on her camera. She’s getting up in years and it means more to her than anything to have a visit from her family. I shared some pictures here already from the Turners Falls RiverCulture Fest. The one I chose for my Picture of the Day was one that I felt captured the magic of the day. One of the most unusual group of musicians we’d ever seen was performing. The sun was low in the sky and I wanted to get the performers with the 93.9 The River van with their slogan “Different is Good” showing. It fit the day, the group and that bokeh..magic. The weather cooperated on Sunday to let Matt and I get a walk around the neighborhood in. We lamented how few we’ve been able to take this summer with the heat. We stopped by a nearby farm’s vegetable cart and picked up some delicious heirloom tomatoes.  I’ve mentioned how much I love watching “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” on Planet Green, and I’m reading the book one of them wrote. I placed an order for some of their fabulous goat’s milk soap and a delicious sounding jam. My order arrived Monday and it was my picture of the day and highlight of my day.  You can visit their website and find all sorts of interesting information, a link to their goat cam and order some of their merchandise yourself. Tuesday was actually Matt’s birthday and he took a personal day from work. We celebrated with Crystal and Kevin at Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que, their treat.  It was amazing. When Crystal told me that was where they wanted to take us for Matt’s birthday, I checked the site online and signed up for their emails. You could also register you and your family members birthdays so I did that as well. I received an email to bring in for Matt’s birthday for a free menu item to be determined by the prize code. It turned out to be one of their appetizers. The birthday boy chose the Rib tips, hickory smoked and served on a bed of french fries. There were so many it would have been a meal for one person by itself. Our main course was Famous Dave’s All-American Feast. To quote from their menu. “A full slab of St. Louis-style spareribs, a whole chicken, 1/2 lb. of either Texas beef brisket or Georgia chopped pork, coleslaw, Famous Fries, Wilbur Beans, four corn-on-the-cob, and four corn bread muffins.” Since we had pork for our appetizer and the ribs, Matt chose to go with the beef brisket. Excellent choice. Tender! There were five different barbecue sauces on the table to try as well. Crystal and I both chose to have Sweet Tea with our meal which was out of this world too. A wonderful birthday celebration with our ‘kids’ full of good company, good conversation, good fun and good food!