TIme for a summer moment, in Maine

post #415
       Too much ugliness is showing in the world these days. And Steve L. encouraged me two weeks ago.  So I've decided today to go back to Maine, from when I was there a year or two ago.  My paternal female cousins got together for a long September weekend, something we had never really done before.  It was about time! 
       And then the light from the lake and the sky was so lovely that I managed to get some good photos.  Even when it rained I got some good photos. I didn't go just to take photos, however, but I'm so glad I had my good camera with me.  We ate well, talked and walked well, and between all of us we remembered well our childhood summer on this same lake, Lake Caspian in Greensboro, Vermont, over 50 years ago!  Bless you cousins, all.
        ENJOY!

 The dock for our long weekend rental was sort of our anchor, so to speak --

view along the bank near the dock

picturesque morning neighbor

afternoon visit from cousin Steve and Kathy, our cousin-in-law

and their happy-to-be-out-of-the-car dog

This view is looking from our dock to the right, in the morning.

gotta love the railing!

We were walking on the path around the lake until we came to the back of the house where we spent time as kids.  At least we were almost 100% sure this was that house.

midday light, but still beautiful with the clouds

another middle of the day, no clouds but lovely sister in the stern, and her visiting friend

one morning's fire after a very chilly night

never a gathering of any kind without a jigsaw puzzle

the longest game of Clue any of us had EVER played

What a wonderful weekend. I hope the photos look particularly good as we face storms all around us today. I also hope all peoples can be safe and the world made safer.

a rare sun day today, do my photos shine?

post #413
           Welcome to the new year!  In honor of this annual new beginning, I guess I need to say one thing I hope for -- which are breakthroughs for our nation.  The variety of backgrounds newly representing us in the Congress is a hopeful sign. So is increased scrutiny of the impetuous and irresponsible behavior of folks in leadership positions in America. We could be so much stronger. We could be less afraid that we will run out of clean water and clean air future generations will need. We could make education a priority, so kids can be all they can be and not held back. (Kentucky, thanks to hard work and persistence by advocates, now has a law requiring that schools provide appropriate learning experiences for kids whose brains are excellent except they learn differently, such as experienced with dyslexia. Even small steps forward contribute to the greater good.) We each could and must learn to think independently from the herd and from what defies common sense. 

         Then there's the fact that I'm still having beginner's missteps 'twixt blog and my new laptop. So I decided at the least to test the technical quality of my photos, which seem to look a lot sharper on the new laptop! Can this be really so? Well, I've chosen some fun ones to test it out. Here goes:

Jamie gathering the bails of hay

Natalee, my neighbor and friend, is patient during a photo shoot at her grandmother's house.

 

A favorite cousin camp moment, at the pond, in honor of Eric starting a new job tomorrow as Solicitor General of Colorado! May you never lose sight of the family sense of humor!

with Mariko, and two of her friends, near Rennes, where they live, in France

mother and daughter, same place in France, very good sports about my taking a photo, though I do speak French

grandmother and granddaughter, first bottle

The meat's alike on the inside.

a child, during a demonstration, in Morehead

an artist with an amazing story and talent, at his exhibit at the Kentucky Folk Art Center, in Morehead

Wilkerson cousins, revisiting some childhood summers, in Vermont

on land, nearby the boats

maybe cousins, here in Kentucky?

I love discovering where pileated woodpeckers hang out.

I hope these photos look fine. I am grateful to be able to share them with you.  Thanks, Ann

can't resist water, mist and clouds

post #302
      Last week's post was mostly all about people. Today's is mostly all about the dock on the lake where I was last weekend with my two sisters and three cousins.  We had all been on that same lake -- Lake Caspian -- in our childhood, and the idea was to revisit the place that had been so evocative for us all.  Located in northern Vermont, this lovely lake isn't close to where any of us now live.  However, it was as evocative as ever and the weather was cooperative. I seem to have done most of my photography that I want to share either from the dock or near the dock that belonged to the house we rented. (I was there three of the four nights of the gathering.) The changing moods of the lake, the evening light and the morning mists, the loons and grebes and humans passing quietly by, were all wondrous. I did go swimming, it did rain one day, my sister R. took the canoe out the last day with a friend, and my two sisters did walk around the lake -- the path is said to be seven miles around -- in honor of the walk four of us took together as youngsters. The rest of the time was mostly talking (a whole lot) and eating and working an ongoing jigsaw puzzle and one endless single game of Clue! 
       So, in mostly chronological order over the days, here are some lake photos:

a first evening photo, for proof that we really pulled this off and were on Lake Caspian!!

Saturday morning

Later, that afternoon:

afternoon visit from more cousins, with traveling dog

It did rain Sunday morning!

Our dock from the neighbor's lakeside spot -- only a few people were in the area.

the ongoing effort to find a place where ye olde cell phone would work.... not at the end of the dock!

This is the same view as the beginning photo, looking across the lake, but it appears to me to be quite a different place!

Don't forget to click on a single photo in order to be able to see them all in a larger format, one by one.  I traveled all that way to talk and listen, or I would have even more photos. I hope this gives a flavor of another place I have been thankful to be able to visit. Quite the summer for me!  If you have a favorite, favorite photo, please let me know -- annphoto@mrtc.com, or leave a comment on this blog. Thanks!