Shake it Out - Florence + The Machine

I know I ususally share a music video on Fridays, but the song I'd like to share doesn't have a video yet. It's that fresh. So please, go here and give it a listen. And have a lovely weekend!

Petite's Road

When I was in Vermont, I took a walk down an old dirt road that played prominently in my childhood. The maple orchard where we used to help with the sugaring in the early Spring, the vistas that spread out before me, the farm where we used to get our milk almost straight from the cow. The bottom of the first hill used to have potholes which once sent me flying from my bike, before helmets. In high school, I used to run this road when I was on the track team because I knew exactly where the five-mile marker was. Once on my run, I was stopped abruptly by a sound in the bushes and found a very young fawn calling for its mother. For the record, can you discern a sugar maple from a red maple? A sugar maple's leaves have five prongs (m-a-p-l-e) while a red maple has onle three (r-e-d). There. You learned something today.

More Random

Just sharing a few more shots from the weekend with you. Driving home tonight, I saw the the shadows stretching across streets, and the setting sun seemed bigger than I've ever seen it. I always want to hang onto these early autumn evenings, when you can sleep with the windows open and hear the night sounds. I hope you're enjoying the cooler days and the changing colors.

Random

Just a few shots from a weekend visit to Killdeer Plains. I remember an instructor's question,  "Where's a bad place to shoot? Absolutely nowhere!" So true.

Reflections

re·flec·tion noun
1. the act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.
2. an image; representation; counterpart.

3. a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.

4. a thought occurring in consideration or meditation.

Birds of Paradise - Basia Bulat

Happy weekend, friends!

Vermont: Decay

The weather can get pretty harsh in Vermont, in case you hadn't heard. While it can be rough to suffer through, it makes for some lovely, weathered images. The blue barn? That's where we got our whole, unpasteurized milk when I was a child. The bird house? My father must have made that at some point. The rusty hinges are on a barn right next door to my parents' house. Kind of cool, no?

Vermont: Stone

"Come with me, I want to show you something." my sister Carol said to me. And she brought me to this very old graveyard. And it was beautiful.

Vermont: Growing Things

I don't know why it surprises me every time. Summers in Vermont are profoundly fecund. Apple trees seem to punctuate your every ride from one place to another. My mother has two volunteer apple trees growing down the hill from her house. This makes the deer living in the woods behind them very happy, and so you'll see lots of deer prints there. She also has blueberry and raspberry bushes that deliver so many berries that she has a hard time keeping up with picking them all. She freezes what she can, and we make preserves throughout the year from them. And if you've ever had homemade preserves, you know that store bought pales in comparison. She also makes tomato ketchup, which is actually more like tomato relish but serves the same function. Fresh flavors in the dead of Winter.