random reflections

Saturday Road Trip

Twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, we try to get to the Ithaca Farm Market. We have wonderful farm markets locally, but the one in Ithaca is a favorite. I never tire of taking photos there, and all of the photos at the market were taken with my 50mm lens for my 52/50 Project. I'd be curious to know which one you'd choose for this week.

I loved the slogan the Sticks and Stones Farm has chosen.

The Six Circles Farm had one of the loveliest displays of their produce. I love these baskets.

These plum-filled scones were delicious! This is my favorite bakery at the market. Their bread is simply lovely---and tasty!

I left the market with a peck of Roma tomatoes (from which I made roasted tomato sauce to freeze), peaches and plums for my first galette (on today's agenda), candy-cane beets (roasted but not yet eaten), some cute pumpkins for a fall display, and a scone, of course.

When we left the market we headed for the Cornell campus. I had two items I wanted to buy from the Cornell store, but alas, it doesn't open until noon on Saturdays. On our way up the hill, I got this shot of the Uris Library Tower with my iPhone which I'll use for the Scavenger Hunt (I have an earlier one, but this one has more meaning.)

We decided to walk to College Town, a lucky choice since I found what I wanted in the first store I tried. On our way, we passed the Law School, and I loved the name of their cafe.

We drove up the east side of Cayuga Lake to Auroa for lunch. We'd never been to the Fargo, but the reviews on Yelp gave it high marks. We would concur. Lunch was delicious. Tracy had New England Clam Chowder, and I had a chicken/cranberry salad sandwich.

Our destination on this side of the lake was the Heart and Hand Winery. We'd read about it this summer in Summer in a Glass, a lovely book about the Finger Lake wineries. The owner spent much time trying to find just the right composition of soil (limestone) on which to grow his Reisling grapes. Although the wines we tasted were lovely, we'll have to wait another year before the single vineyard wines are produced.

On the way home, we stopped at Sauders, a wonderful Amish market where we picked up some meat, cheese, and a big pumpkin for the porch, and the Waterloo Outlets where Tracy picked up some new sneakers, and I got a jar of facial cream. Then we headed home to roast all those tomatoes. A lovely day on the road.

 

Thinking of You

The prayer list at our church is way too long, and I needed some cards for two of the members on the list-- good friends who could use some cheer. The first card I made earlier this summer, and was glad to have it on hand. The pretty flowers were from my garden. There aren't many left now, though we do have a pretty arrangement of hydrangeas still on the dining room table.

The card uses one of my favorite Papertrey Ink stamp sets:  Rosie Posie.

This card uses my newest floral stamps from WPlus9, appropriately called Fresh Cut Florals. The hardest thing about this card was finding the right combination of inks to use for the multiple stamping. 

The colors and the berries make me think of fall. It's felt like it the last few days---temperatures in the 40's some mornings and only getting to the mid-60's during the day. Summer will be back with a vengence if the meteorologist is correct. It's supposed to be in the 90's on Wednesday!

Card Recipe #1
Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White
Patterned Paper: A Muse
Stamps: Rosie Posie and Rosie Posie Step 2; sentiment: Floral Frenzy (Papertrey Ink)

Card Recipe #2
Cardstock: Select White, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Fresh Cut Florals (WPlus9)
Handcut banner

 

Athens: Part 2

We took a lovely road trip yesterday, but before I share some photos from that and catch up with my 52/50, I wanted to finish up the photos from our short stay in Athens.

After lunch on the first day, we visited the Central Market. In Istanbul, I was surprised to see sheep’s heads, tripe and intestines displayed in all the butcher shop windows. Here the whole animal was hanging from the hooks.

Athens, like Istanbul, has created a pedestrian mall--here part of Ermon Street. 

We watched as a travel video was being filmed here. The poor narrator repeated his steps at least six times as we watched. I had no idea how tedious making one of these travel videos must be!

Graffiti is everywhere in Athens. Tracy was quite put off by it, but I enjoyed photographing it.

We finished our day at a lovely rooftop restaurant, Psarras, recommended by friends.

As the sky got dark, a full moon appeared--a very romantic end to the day.

The next morning we left by ferry for Santorini from Piraeus.

After our time on Santorini (blog posts to come) we spent our last afternoon in Athens visiting the New Acropolis Museum. It’s a beautiful building, and we were fascinated to see it’s been built over one of the excavation sites.

Photographs were not allowed in the main exhibition, but were allowed in other parts of the museum. So much of the beautiful art was plundered by conquerors over the years, but what has survived is fascinating. 

After supper, we walked down to Hadrian’s Gate (132 A.D.), or the Arch of Hadrian. The arch originally spanned an ancient road, and inscriptions were found honoring both Hadrian and Theseus as founders of Athens. I like that you can see the Acropolis through the gate in this photo.

 

Given our short time in Athens, we managed to get a glimpse of some of the ancient history I enjoyed reading about through myths and in social studies classes. The monuments here make some of the ancient sites in Istanbul seem like youngsters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Athens: Part 1

By the time I finished the posts about Istanbul, summer was in full swing, and it was a busy one. Istanbul was just the first half of our trip, so I'm back now to finish up the travel posts over the next week or so.

From Istanbul, we flew to Athens and had a day and a half there before we left for Santorini. On our way home we spent another afternoon and evening there. We concentrated our time on the Acropolis and the Agora.

The first evening we just walked through the Plaka, browsing through the shops and grabbing a bite to eat in one of many restaurants. Although the guide books suggest avoiding these restaurants, we found the food to be reliably good and reasonably priced. Not once during our whole trip did I have a meal I didn't like. I could eat Greek and Turkish cuisine every day!

Many of the shops are filled with inexpensive touristy wares, but we did find a few shops with high quality merchandise and were able to purchase some lovely gifts. In this shop the merchant is the artist herself. We purchased one of her hand-painted plates of ancient Olympic runners for Adam.

After a fabulous buffet breakfast at our hotel the next morning, we headed to the Acropolis. 

The main buildings on the Acropolis--the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the temple of Athena Nike--were all built during the mid-fifth century BC. That anything remains is truly a miracle. When I was here 40+ years ago, there wasn’t much going on in terms of reconstruction. Now the temples share space with cranes and construction workers who are working to maintain these historical treasures.

The Erechtheion

And the beautiful Caryatid Porch.

I took the next photo for Inspired, a class by Katrina Kennedy. May’s assignment was “forced perspective,” and we were able to line up a postcard with the Caryatid Porch. A fun assignment while on vacation.

The Parthenon

And one of the few photos of the two of us on the trip.

Odeion of Herodes Atticus--love the iPhone panorama

As we walked down from the Acropolis to the Agora, we passed an archaeological dig. It's amazing to me that the antiquities continue to be uncovered.

The ancient Agora is often considered the birthplace of democracy. As you walk through the Agora today (basically deserted the day we were there), it’s fun to imagine how it must have looked so many years ago when it was the bustling political center of the city.

The Church of the Holy Apostles is one of only two structures still intact. It was built in the late 10th century during the Byzantine era.

A lovely fresco in the Church of the Holy Apostles

The Agora Museum is housed in the Stoa of Attalos, originally constructed around 150 B.C. It was discovered in the late 1800’s and reconstructed to house the excavations from the Agora in the 1950’s.

In fear of overload, I'll leave you here for today, and will be back soon with the rest of our stay in Athens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks

Next to birthday cards, I make more thank you cards than anything else. That's because I'm a lucky lady and have so many wonderful opportunities and wonderful friends. I needed a few this weekend. When we were in Chicago, I had a chance to visit an Archivers store and came away with a few new paperpads and treats. It's fun to bust out the new goodies when it's time to craft.

One of the hottest trends now is the chalkboard craze. My Mind's Eye has a great little 6X6 paper pad and some darling tags. I used both on this card.

I'm linking this up to the Papercrafts September Challenge Gallery appropriately called "Chalkboard Craze."

As soon as I saw this stamp set, called "Arrows and Elements" being used on some of my favorite blogs, I knew I wanted it. But it was out of stock for awhile. I was able to order it when I was away, and it was here when I got home. It's by a relatively new company, Reverse Confetti. 

The frame, the banner and the sentiment are all from "Arrows and Elements." The script "thanks" is an oldie but goodie by AMuse.

And finally an ombre Thanks using an Archivers exclusive stamp that I picked up the last time I was lucky enough to be close to a store. (The nearest Archiver is a little over four hours away from Rochester!)

Although the colors are quite different, I'm linking this up to the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab for the Honoring Ombre challenge.

 

Card Recipe #1
Cardstock:  Select White, True Black (Papertrey Ink]
Patterned Paper: Chalk Studio (MME) 
Tag:  Chalk Studio (MME)
Stamp: Fillable Frames #1 (Papertrey Ink)
Silk ribbon: Papertrey Ink, colored with a Copic marker

Card Recipe #2
Cardstock: Select White, Pure Poppy, True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Arrows and Elements (Reverse Confetti), thanks (A Muse)
Die: Notched Star Banner (Papertrey Ink) 

Card Recipe #3
Cardstock: Select White, Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink)
Stamp: Thank You Grid (Hero Arts for Archivers)
Pearls: A Muse & Recollection