New England, part 2 of 2

        Finally I've mostly caught up with myself after the 12 days away.  I have some more photos to share  -- and memories too.  I'm so grateful for all the support friends and family gave me along the way.

         Many magnificent trees are on the Smith campus.  Hardly anyone was around when I was there, in late July. I had hoped to see inside the new library, but it's not yet open to the public, as I explained last week.

     The broader view of the botanical gardens at Smith, and the back view of my dorm when I was a student.  (See the previous blog for two other photos.)

I spent the night in town with a dear friend, Maureen, who used to live in Kentucky.  The first of the next two photos is a tiny neighborhood library -- or book exchange -- which she oversees.

        It's based on the house where her apartment is, up the hill from the street.
Northampton has many such lovely old large houses.

    Maureen took me to see the Quaker Meeting in downtown Northampton, MA.  I asked her to sit on the bench as we would do for Quaker Meeting.  I love the smile she shared and the simplicity of the room and benches.

   Then it was back to Boothbay Harbour, Maine, for the first night's cousins meal.  My sister, Robin, the night's chef, in the hat, seems to have caused multiple cleaned plates.... totally tasty pesto with her own basil.
   

All is ready for the next night, same view

These are probably Canada geese, but we were hoping for some species of exotic water fowl.

Also in Maine:  I was able to stay a night with my second cousin, Doug, on our mother's side.  He and Holly and 4 of his brothers and families live in Wayne.  Doug and I stopped here while doing some errands "in town".

I liked the comment in the lower right hand of this poster in the store.

!

    To end, I will try as always for one or two short videos, the first along the street friends Judy and Gwen live on in Hamden, CT, near New Haven.  Flowers everywhere in the small yards of most of the homes!

        The other one will have to wait until I get brave again.  Could happen very soon.  In any case, I will be back in two weeks for some more sharing.  PLEASE STAY HEALTHY EVERYONE.  School will be starting very soon, and our kids deserve to go to school safely, and that logically includes everyone wearing a mask for the time being.  Don't get brain washed! Instead use the brain to see the reasons for the need now to be as careful as possible.   

My laptop is definitely happier to be working from home.

       I am finally home, after 12 days driving around New England visiting family, good friends, and a few special scenic places.  I drove from Kentucky to and from NYC with a good friend, and we laughed a lot. She stayed in NYC, and I went as far as Maine!  

        She and I did some serious driving through periods of heavy rain, especially in Pennsylvania the first day of our trip.  I see tonight  -- when I am finally able to put together last Sunday's blog -- that there are currently tornado warnings in those very same places! I was fortunate that my friend is an intrepid traveler AND a very cool headed driver.  

         As for the delay in this week's blog, it was all about not being able to transition smoothly from one network after another on my laptop in all the places I visited.  I'll be asking a lot of questions soon about what mistakes I was making as I changed networks so steadily.  I will be making today's effort short, because there are still some "production issues".

         First Smith College and the rock garden behind Chapin House, my "dorm" for 3 years.  None of the college buildings were open to the public last week, including the greenhouses, but the rock garden was lush from the rainy spring and summer in Massachusetts.

The heron is a sculpture in the greenhouse pond.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Maine, where my cousin Sarah and her family live:
    

     This is the view of the cove from the house .  There were a dozen of us cousins gathered there for a few days; we do this every few years. Both my sisters were there.  The lobster tradition continues, as does a good game of dominoes.

 

     We did get out and about a bit:

 

 

dinner prep! 

BLUEBERRY PIE

 
            There will be more, but not yet. (That means more photos, I'm afraid, and not more blueberry pie....) I will be adding a video at the end next time, from Hamden, CT, near New Haven, where everyone on the block seemed to excel with some plant or other.  Lovely, lovely.

            May we all be spared from harboring anger toward our neighhbors, and may we be there to support each other and fill the room with kindness.   Also, Bon Appetit --  Ann                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

Hope helps, and witnessing this electorial insanity in the time of a pandemic needs all the hope we can give it.

post #518 

                This week is pretty full, just thinking about Thanksgiving -- and about whether this year's is a one time only happening.  I can tell myself that I hope that's true because it is possible to imagine that a vaccine will provide some cover by a year from now. I also know that improved national leadership will make a huge difference.  January 20 can't come soon enough. 

            Hey, everyone, don't you think it's kind of hopeless to have so many people dying and so much golf being played and so much suffering by essential workers being unrecognized for the absolutely difficult work they are doing?  Admitting the problem and working together to solve it seems a lot more hopeful to me. 

 

            I've chosen just a few photos for today's post which speak to hope for me. I know there are more, but, as I said, it's a busy week. You all stay safe, and love your neighbor --- safely.  

 

 

the almost end, again, of the lavender blossoms, yesterday

a discovery of how a sycamore leaf could use an empty hook in my gallery area! for weeks!

three nearby friends --- two sisters and a cousin  ---- which is which --- all figuring out their lives

                  MaKayla is holding a quilt with a story.  A dear friend of mine, Gerda Wodlinger, whom I met during our two Coast Guard years in Kodiak, Alaska, had become a nurse as a teenager by escaping by train to work in England during World War II.  She was German and Jewish, and the only one in her family to survive.  Near the end of the war she went back to Germany to help with the resettlement.  She took with her this quilt where each block was knit by someone she had worked with while in London.  Gerda passed this quilt on to me, and I have now passed it on to MaKayla. It has always given me perspective about what hardship means and how important it is to hold on to hope. 

                The title of this photo --which I took in West Virginia from a moving train -- is SIDE-TRACKED.  It could also be called THE TRACK NOT TAKEN.  Somehow it speaks to me about always wondering about what the choices mean that we make in life.  Of course it could also mean that it's fun to look out the window on a train to see what you can see!

            Here's hoping  --  I'm saying it one last time -- we don't have to be subjected to this desperate and dangerous election behavior much longer. It makes everyone look very bad, especially the timid Republicans who can't speak up about who has fairly won this amazingly complicated but well executed election. Thanks for reading this blog, staying on track, Ann

Outbreaks of Happiness

post #516

            Words seem necessary, but this long, long week speaks for itself. Well, first, for weeks, we saw the long, long lines that people tolerated, everywhere, wearing masks, sometimes waiting for hours and hours, to VOTE YES to have each one's VOICE be a part of our constitution's presidential every-four-years schedule. We had mostly good weather, except for a couple of hurricanes or simple heavy rains, and also fires. All that with the virus, ready as always to take you down. 

        Physically I couldn't have easily done what those voices did, though I like to think I would have tried. Luckily, in Kentucky, where I live, early voting by mail could be done by request for reasons of age or concern for the virus, so that is what I did.

        Now we are processing the outcome. For those of us who can not understand the Trump appeal, we were astounded at how strong our sense of relief has been. That's why so many hit the streets Saturday afternoon and evening to dance and shout. It was a joy that just had to be shared.                                    

       I do want to share also that this week I heard from my Japanese friend Mariko, who married a Frenchman and lives in France, and her cousins, who live in California and New Hampshire.  I also heard from Reidunn, who lives in Oslo, Norway, and from close friends in England, Bill and June. Knowing my feelings EACH ONE expressed happiness that the mean guy had not been re-elected. They were thrilled that Americans were not continuing to go down the road of being cruel, cut off from the world, and [governed] by chaos. Another Norwegian friend, Kjersti, now living in Canada, called last week distraught about Trump's behavior and calling the damage he continually causes incomprehensible.
       I hope to have future conversations, with whoever wants to really talk and listen. We need to figure out how to work through with friends and neighbors where the disconnects occur.   

      OOPS, I've talked way too much. My bad. I planned to show some photos from my life as an American choosing to live in rural Eastern Kentucky. My America. We are all part of the work that a vibrant democracy requires.  As my friend, Melva, suggests, we should construct a political party that is called "Common Sense."

 

 This set of photos is going to take at least two weeks to show. They are mostly in order of date, but somewhat grouped if connected by topic.  I call this first photo "story line." Cathy K. worked at the sewing factory that used to be in Olive Hill; they made jeans.  It's one of my early photos from when I started making photo note cards.

 

a worm eating warbler who must have been sitting on eggs she didn't want to leave

mother LISTENING intently to daughter

looking for mom on those same steps

a mom competing with the rash of younger family members using months for their ages.....

This is the consequence of mountaintop removal mining, near Hazard, Kentucky, the photo made while I was in a small plane. The health of our earth is at stake. Believe it.

on our land, lady-slippers, no longer in that same place, the land is changing

        I want also to touch on families, everywhere, and the security they can provide, and the importance they play in lives lived. I don't know if turkeys love each other, but they sure do hang out together.  This first gathering took place essentially in the yard outside my house!

 

turkey families on an outing

We call this gathering Cousin Camp.... There are stories.....

                I think I will save the other photos for next week - This has been a long week and it's not over yet. I know I have shown most of these photos before, but they look different to me after the import of the last few weeks. I just am so grateful for where I live and for all who are in my life and for discovering I love to take photos.  I'm also grateful that so many fellow Americans got it together to go vote this year, enough of us to cause a change in the direction our country was headed.  I do believe that if we are patient, and if we listen to each other, we can go beyond how partisan we have become.  The first task may simply to be to examine what truth entails and why it is so important to our lives. Please, everyone, don't give up on the inclusive core of our American dream.   

              Special thanks to everyone who helps with the consequences of the virus -- Ann

             

Summer love (Cousin Camp, 2020)

post #499 

            By some unearned miracle, this week we are managing to have our annual cousin camp here in the homestead in Eastern Kentucky.  I am not doing much of the work -- such as a lot of food planning and prepping -- but I sure am loving this once a year together time!  (Actually, I am doing very little work AND getting dinners by J almost every night!)

          The big hits this year so far are the chickens and the four roosters.....  I'm going to share just a few photos, several taken while the wrong lens was on my camera. When candids are required, there's often no  time to be fully prepared. There are only three kids at the moment, which is plenty after so many months of my being sheltered alone most of the time.

NOTE: at first I said I'm going to try to do better than last week about adding the photos. It seems Blogger has decided to revamp itself.  While there are bound to be glitches for awhile, especially since my learning curve is never what I'd like it to be, the difficulty of the new system is unbelievable.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason for some of the changes, and there is no way to seek clarification.  I was gratified that so many others are complaining on line about the "improvements."  I will leave up what I posted Sunday night in frustration, even though it may duplicate some of what I hope appears here.  (This is being tried again Tuesday evening.) I just hope that I can figure out who can help me because I really do not want to lose access to the 500 blogs I have been posting over ten years.  


FIRST, some more hay ambiance photos: 

good friends

 

NEXT, COUSIN CAMP

        first: important to remember --

            

chasing chickens who are not ready yet to give it up

viewing social distancing, on my way home -- if cattle can do it, why can't we all!!

            Well, there are 4 vertical photos that continue to refuse to be transferred to the blog, even though I did find the link to go back temporarily to the former format .  Two of those photos are my favorites of the week.  I will keep working on all this, but not to worry since I definitely feel that the big picture is really most important these days. The election.  Our democracy. The health of every world citizen. Getting rid of chaos and cruelty that currently rule our government. Inequality. And of course racism, which, like the virus, is real and is all controlling, even if we don't want to believe it.  So, I end by a plea to support the arts and creative thinking as a way to nourish and strengthen the positives that surely lie beyond today. I hope.

Grayson Lake, midsummer, part 2 of 2

post #443
       I love having these additional photos to share from our afternoon on Grayson Lake. However, first I'd like to explain briefly about the lake. It's located near Grayson along I64 in northeastern Kentucky. It was built by the Army Corps of Engineers; it didn't exist when I first came to Kentucky as a teenager.  The cliffs in these photos would be "taller" if I could show their underwater sections as well. It's the reason the kids can swim right up to the side of the cliffs. We don't get to go out often enough on a boat or canoe or kayak.
       The shape of the lake on a map looks to me like an extremely elongated serpent. Also in the general area is Carter Caves State Park, which features underground caves. We don't have much coal in this part of Kentucky, though there is some. Mainly there's lots of beauty.

        Well, that's enough for explanations. Here are more views from last week's boat outing:

fishing, sort of

Even a place so large and relatively remote suffers from thoughtless trash.

 I do love the cliffs, including the details.

Thank you, Rebecca, for being picturesque AND for making your photos!
 

Rebecca using her "good photographer eye"

Two photos by Rebecca:

       I hope this post today provides a bit of lift after more gun violence this past week, and more lying and bullying from our president.  We had no way to get news all that afternoon, even if we had wanted to. I don't mean to be a spoil sport, but, as citizens, we should never pretend there aren't needless and abnormal behaviors being thrown at us every day. We have to persist. Thank you for caring.