random reflections

Weekend Recap

Tonight I tuned into the nightly news and heard the awful news from Boston. My hairdresser (I’ve been going to her for over 30 years and feel like she is family) was running the Boston Marathon today, and I am anxious about her safety, and the safety of her family.

We had a busier weekend than usual, and I thought I’d share some photos. Friday night Betsy and Skylar came for dinner. Skylar’s been under the weather with ear infections, and was feeling enough better in the afternoon to come to dinner, but it was easy to tell she wasn’t her usual happy self. No smiles, and very clingy. Nonetheless we were delighted to see both of them.

Skylar did feel good enough to play with the toys for awhile, but decided being in the toy box was best.

Saturday I drove to Syracuse to spend a few hours with my brother. When he retired a few years ago, he decided he needed a new job, and became a school bus driver. He’s a people person, loves the kids, the other drivers, and the structure it gives his days.

He drove a group of middle school students from Highland to Syracuse University for a state science competition. He had most of Saturday free while they were in competition, so we met at the newly expanded Destiny Mall.

This is the rope and climbing area that is suspended above the addition to the mall. I'm guessing there's a 30% addition to an already large mall; about half of the stores are filled. We had lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant. I’m sure it’s a chain, but the food was incredibly fresh and delicious. 

We opted to have the guacamole which is made fresh at your table, and we both chose the Enchilada Vera Cruz. It was fabulous.

The guacamole cart.

I got home about 2:30, just in time to get ready to have good friends for dinner.

Cathy and Bob were our companions on our Alaska adventure two years ago. Their daughter, Rachel, is a good friend of Sarah’s. Rachel and her husband recently moved to Istanbul, Turkey. They’ll be there just a year with a Citibank training program, and we’ve been invited to come visit. We’re taking them up on the offer, and one month from today we’ll be on our way to Istanbul. Since this year is our 40th wedding anniversary, we’ve decided to extend our trip with two days in Athens, and a few days on Santorini---long on our bucket list. I’m very excited. Bob and Cathy will be going this fall for two weeks. I made a Mediterranean appetizer platter in anticipation of our trips.

On Sunday we christened my mother-in-law’s new home with a impromptu picnic. The condo is completed (and stunning!), but Ellie will have to completely furnish it since there was almost nothing salvaged from the fire last January. Sadly, none of the photos I took were good of everyone, but this one was the best of the bunch.

Later that night, we had dinner at Tina and Bill’s. No photos of the delicious dinner, but suffice it to say, I need to get back on The Plan quickly!

Hope your weekend was a good one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday & 52/50: Week 15

Yesterday was Adam's birthday, and although I did get a phone call in to him, I didn't get a blog post up because I ended up driving to Syracuse to spend a few hours with my brother. (More about that later this week.) Here's the card I left with our gift for him when we were in Ashland.

I'm a big fan of Papertrey's Stylish Sentiments: Birthdays, and thought the bicycle image from Studio Calico was a perfect match for it. The arrow is a Papertrey die, and I hand cut the banner. I think I cased the design for this card from one by Joy Taylor, but I can't for the life of me find it on her site or in my Vi.sualize.us account.

We've had a very busy week and dreary, dreary weather---enough rain that we ended up with some water in the basement. It made for slim pickings for the 52/50 project this week. I had hoped a visit by Betsy and Skylar Friday night would add some good images, but Skylar was feeling under the weather, so I'll save those for a weekend recap post later this week.

My favorite image from the conservatory last Saturday, taken with the 50 mm.

A rather winter-worn deer showed up in the yard one morning.

I was happy with the clear focus on the raindrops since it was taken through the kitchen window. It was much too wet to take the good camera outside.

There was a break in the rain the day I after I found the helleborus blooming in the backyard. This is the pick for Kent Weakley's P52 project.

Opportunities

Rochester offers photographers a wide range of opportunities. First, there's the George Eastman House. Saturday night Tracy and I attended a showing of the Ivory/Merchant film "Jefferson in Paris." It was introduced by James Ivory, and an interview with Mr. Ivory followed the film. Their collection of photographs and films is one of the best and most prestigious in the world. A few years ago, my brother-in-law gave me a membership there for Christmas. We've renewed it every year, and enjoy the parties for members whenever a new exhibit opens up. I get to three or four lectures there every year as well, and we enjoy the concerts in the gardens during the summer.

There's a long standing camera club, Camera Rochester, that hosts monthly competitions the first Monday of the month, and a lecture/demonstration the third Monday each month. Image City, a local photography gallery hosts new photography shows every six weeks or so, and hosts a free photo critique session the first Wednesday of every month. The partners there frequently offer both short and long-term classes. Then there are several meet-up groups. In addition to Camera Rochester and the photo critique group, I belong to the Rochester Photo Editing Group (RPEG). We meet once a month to see demonstrations of photo editing techniques (Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop, HDR programs, etc) and occasionally they host a photo shoot for edit. 

On Saturday RPEG members met at the Lamberton Conservatory. It's one of my favorite places to take photos. The deal with RPEG is to go to the shoot with some new skill to practice and then to upload your photos to share at the following meeting. I don't use my tripod or my macro lens very often, so I went off with macro on my mind. I wasn't thrilled with what I got (I had definite ideas about what I wanted), but I learned a bit. One of the benefits of groups like these is the help you get from other members. One of them walked by me on Saturday and asked why I wasn't using the Live View feature on my new camera. Truth is, I didn't know anything about it. In a matter of minutes, Brad had me "up and running" with Live View.

I had hoped to convert several of the photos to black and white, but this was the only one that seemed to work. Seeing in black and white while shooting in color is another skill I need to learn.

This one I liked; I call it "Eyes to You, " though someone said it remined them of an owl.

And this one I took simply for the amusement factor. Ah, sweet Victory! (It's some kind of bud.)

Lastly, a photo taken with my 50mm at the end of the shoot of the cute quails that run about in the tropical room at the conservatory.

It's been several months since I participated in any of these groups, but it's good to be back. I'm so grateful that there are so many free opportunities to practice and learn. I picked up some great tips for editing in Lightroom last night at the meeting, one of which I was able to use today while editing photos from our trip.

Simon Says Birthday Challenge

I have another card for the Simon Says Birthday Challenge. April is a big month for birthdays and although I made a few before we left for Oregon, I still have three or four more to go. Here's a second masculine one for another brother-in-law.

Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream (PTI); Patterned Paper: Studio Calico 6X6 February card kit;Stamp: 2012 Birthday Tags (PTI);Twine: Pure Poppy (PTI)

 

Two Challenges

My brother-in-law has a big birthday coming up, and I decided to see if I could get his card made in time to post it for two challenges:  Simon Says "Birthday" Challenge, and the current CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. I'm just under the wire for the second one.

Here's my card. I used papers from the April Simon Says card kit, the Typewriter dies from Memory Box, Tremendous Tags by Papertrey Ink, and an inside sentiment (no photo) that says, ". . .  years ago on what otherwise might have been an ordinary day, THE WORLD GOT YOU!" from Papertrey's Big Birthday Wishes set. 

I have another card for the Simon Says challenge which I'll be posting later today.

Pick Your Precious: Chapter 4

Sian (From High in The Sky) hosts a Storytelling Sunday each month. This year she's chose a theme-"Pick Your Precious" and it's given me a chance to think about some of the things I have that mean a lot to me. I'm guessing my children don't know much about them, so I'm hopeful it's meaningful to them as well. 

I grew up in my Great-Aunt Edith's house.  We moved in with her when I was in third grade and lived there until we moved to New York when I was a junior. (Aunt Edith moved with us. She was 93 and had lived in the same town all her life and the same house for over 60 years.)  She never married and lived with her sister, Aunt Lily, until Lily passed away the year before we moved in with her.

When she and Lily inherited their parents’ estates they decided to invest some of the money in some fine china. It was kept in a glass-fronted china cabinet, and she always promised me I would inherit it some day.

They had two sets of Haviland china. One of them was quite ornate, and when I inherited the china, many of the serving pieces had been broken. The other, a delicate floral pattern was still nearly complete. There are place settings for twelve with both tea cups and coffee cups. They seemed to have purchased every size of platter, soup tureen, and serving dish that was available. Tracy had to add a shelf to our dry sink (another precious item---also from my great- aunts’ home) in order to be able to store all of it.

In addition to the china, there are quite a few single dishes and serving pieces that don't match the other sets. This is one of my favorites.

I love these delicate dessert plates, too.

I don’t use it too often---it must be hand washed, and our entertaining style is a bit more casual than this lovely china, but I treasure it. I wish my kids would be interested in it some day, but I doubt it. They’re even more casual than we are! 

52/50: Week 14

It's been a whirlwind of activity since we arrived home (on time!) Wednesday night. It's amazing how much mail accumulates in nearly three weeks and then there's the empty refrigerator to fill, suitcases to unpack, and multiple appointments and errands. So here we are again on Saturday with another week gone by. 

Sarah, Tracy, Caleb, and I hiked the Orson-Todd Trail on Tuesday. There's an entrance to it just down the street from Sarah's house. All the photos were taken on our hike. Caleb alternated between the backpack and walking on his own. I'm guessing he did close to half the walk on his own power (that's about a mile.)

The view from the top of the trail was simply gorgeous, and it's the pick for this week's 52/20 project which I'm posting on Kent Weakley's P52.

The light on the mountains/hills is almost always dramatic and beautiful. It's a really wonderful place to live. I'm hoping to get time to visit all of you in the next day or two. I imagine there are a lot of posts to catch up with!

 

Oregon Day Trips

It's still cold and snowy in western New York, but we've had fabulous weather in southern Oregon. Sarah, Tracy, and I visited Harry and David's flagship store in Medford on Friday and took the factory tour. 

We had a wonderful tour guide. The production line moves so quickly it's hard to believe how fast some of the basket packers can work! We loved watching them make Moose Munch and arrived just as the caramel mixture reached the right temperature for adding the popcorn and nuts.

We came home with three different kinds of Moose Munch along with quite a few other goodies.

I loved their old pick-up on display. Harry and David (and the Medford region) are renowned for their pears which they used as a decoration on the truck rails.

While we were on the tour, the guide asked me what we had been doing while we were visiting here. I mentioned that I'd love to have gone to Crater Lake, but that it wasn't a particularly great time to visit. She said she'd talked to several folks that had been there that week, and that it was wonderful. We checked the weather, and discovered the temperature for Crater Lake on Saturday was supposed to be in the 50's, so after breakfast at The Breadboard in Ashland, Sarah, Tracy, Caleb and I took off for Crater Lake. Adam opted to stay at home and get some quiet time. The drive from Ashland to Crater Lake is wonderful. Despite the warm temperatures, there is still a LOT of snow at Crater Lake. The annual snowfall there is 44 ft. (the equivalent of over an inch of snow falling every single day!)

After some time at the visitor center, we headed up to the Rim. Crater Lake is reputedly the cleanest water in the world. Crater Lake gets no water from rivers or streams, so all the water comes from the sky. According to the newsletter, it's cleaner than the water that comes from your faucet at home.

I love this panorama taken with my iPhone!

 

Thanks to a kind offer from another visitor we have a nice family photo from the event. 

You'll find my social media and email links on the sidebar now, and here's the signature. Jessica's class was well worth the money not only for the design, but for the confidence in knowing how to refresh the blog!