Picasa Web Albums - Karen - Christmas 2007

Picasa Web Albums - Karen - Christmas 2007

Simple Shots

It's not spring, but my house thinks it is. I did one of those cleanings that people talk about - the old top to bottom. I had lots of good music playing all day long and just went at it with a vengeance. Okay, not the most exciting way to begin a post but I'm kind of down to the bone weary so if I get off track or becoming oddly melodramatic about anything, you'll know why. Our secret. Oh, "out damn spot". Perfect example, if I do stuff like that just ignore me.

It never dawned on me until Thursday that Thanksgiving is next week. I was so focused on the fact that we were having an abbreviated week at school that I completely missed the why. Yeah! I love the smell of turkey cooking. Every year the group that gathers at our table is different. I like that this isn't a holiday that is so traditional you can't change it around a little. No changes to the turkey though - nothing that radical. Thanksgiving was actually one of my very most favorite days when I was growing up - wee lass that I was. My mom would always get up before the sun even thought about touching its own rise. She'd put this enormous bird in the oven and I would smell it in my dreams. I would head downstairs and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. God how I loved that parade. Apparently my sister was impressed as well because when she was little and anyone asked her what she wanted to be when she got older, she would always tell them "a parade girl". One year all four of us kids got to actually be in a Christmas parade. There was a big department store in my hometown called Iszards. Every year Iszards would put on their Christmas parade, floats, clowns, marching bands, Santa the works. My mom worked at Iszards on and off for a few years and volunteered the four of us to be in the parade. My sister just about wet her pants she was so excited. Our youngest brother was the one we all envied though, he got dressed up as an elf and got to ride on Santa's float. There's just no topping that when you're a kid! Of course none of us even got to the place in our thinking where we realized that that experience could have quickly laid to rest any doubts he may have had about the reality of jolly fat men with white beards.
Okay, now comes the time I have to come up with a picture that has any thing to do with this posting. And I have just the one!

Simple Shots

So, I'm sitting in hell at the moment. I am in a class with about 15 teenagers. The other teacher is threatening to quit and I'm letting her know in no uncertain terms that I will beat her out the door even if I have to hurt her to do so. The reasonable side of me keeps asking the irrational side of me why I ever agreed to teach high school. Women my age just shouldn't have to put up with hormones in rage mode.

Yesterday I went to Hopedale, a quaint, little, New England mill town to take photos. Most of the people living there live in duplexes. It's fun to drive through and look at some of the creative ideas people have come up with to distance themselves from their grafted neighbor. Smack dab in the center of town is a very cool old stone library covered in vines. Beautiful. It was kind of hard to snap a good photo of it though, because right next to it is a large white canvas tent with a couple of vinyl windows. No one was around because it was a rainy day (again! notice how that is a re-occurring theme? I mean, I live in New England for God's sake, not Seattle, Washington) so anyway, I got real close to the tent and snuck a nonchalant peek inside. I thought there would be boxes and tables with books or some other sort of libraryish stuff. What I found was this incredibly large, mammoth really, soft white marble sculpture covered with scaffolding. I think it might be a water fountain but couldn't say for positive sure. I'll have to wait until I get home today to insert the photos I took. It is a magnifient, yet very eerie. You have to wonder what the artist was thinking about when he carved this. The craftmanship is incredible, but I know that I wouldn't want this gracing the front of any home I would ever live in.

Simple Shots

Okay, summer is over! All in all it was a good one that was over too soon, the standard line for anyone in the educational field. Lucky for you I'm not going to summarize (like the Christmas letters that too many people send out in lieu of a card. I don't know, Christmas letter? Or pretty picture of the perfect Christmas all set to send off waves of oooohs and ahhhhhh's? Sorry letter writers, that one is a no brainer.). However I will post some of those fireworks photos that I mentioned in my last post way back in whenever.

So, I got up at 5 AM today - couldn't resist staying awake to listen to the rain dripping on the last few leaves of 2006. It's pretty quiet this time of the day, other than the rain. And it's really quite nice not rushing through my coffee this morning. Our home is pretty quiet in the morning now that the girls have moved out. Michael and I have learned how to dance around one another in our too small kitchen. Don't ask me which dance that is, I could only hazzard a guess...Samba? I like the way that sounds, samba, samba, samba... It's funny when you take dance apart, disect it, find its bones. It's really only a set of movements that millions of people duplicate everytime the proper tunes play. Deep huh?

So, my photo taking business (on the side) has become a reality. I have set up booths at a few craft fairs, sold several at Nancy's shop and have started doing some custom work at my school as well. Lugging the big framed photos around got to be a bit much, so I developed a line of greeting cards - affordable art! We have turned one of my daugters (almost) empty rooms into a studio. I like to get lost in there. Sometimes I miss dinner because I lose track of the time. A hobby with weight loss options! Hmmmmmmm wheels are turning.

Simple Shots

Hey there faithful readers. My blog is going on a summer vacation. It will return, and I promise to notify you when it does. Thanks for sticking with me!

Simple Shots

I'm just going to post these four photos. I'm pretty exhausted tonight and still have to muster up the energy for two more days of school.


 

Simple Shots

We drove to Plymouth this morning. There's a shop down there that will be selling some of my photos and I wanted to check out its location. Not only did we find the shop, but a beautiful seaside city as well. Just minutes after arriving we were attacked by the weather... At first there were these thick grey clouds of humidity that shrouded everything, slithering about and licking anything in its path. Oh how I hate humidity! But it was still nice to get out and walk around the town, taking in some new sights... And then it began to rain with a vengeance. I'm not sure I've ever seen it come down quite so hard. It was like being hit with fistfulls of rain that had been thrown from legions of angry hands, splintering and shattering into sharp glass slivers that had no mercy. This rainy weather has got to stop. How much time can we spend inside waiting for it to go away?
We had lunch down by the docks and watched out the window as a few hardy souls tried to pretend that "it" wasn't happening. There was a woman out walking with four young children. I think two of them must have been little boy twins about 5 or 6 years old. One of them had on a powder blue raincoat with matching powder blue boots, the other had on a yellow raincoat and matching yellow boots. Mom was getting drenched but these little boys had two days worth of fun jumping in puddles and splashing each other. Wish I could have taken that picture!


 

Simple Shots

It's getting pretty near schools end and we have a lot more free time in our schedules during these waning days. The seniors left a month ago, finals have already been taken and grades are closed. Not sure why we're still here, but hey, I'm just one of the little guys. Now that we have this down time the assistants have all been hanging out telling stories, spreading rumors and just having ourselves a good ole time. I was kind of doodling on a pad way back in our little cubbie hole of an office when I noticed this message that someone had scribbled on its back. Don't know why, but it really struck me as funny. The message was dire but there were all these smiling cherries dancing around. Did they think that this might be a good way of saying, " We really need you to help us out - no need to be afraid, we're good people, just kind of desparate at the moment, have a nice day."

We've had a couple of splendid days weatherwise this week. Summer has finally arrived, but I'm not sure it will have enough time to influence the pool that is waiting for us down on the Cape. That water is going to be pretty damn cold. We head down for our yearly vacation a week from this Saturday. My last day of school this year is the day before we leave, which really digs into any time I have for packing and preparations. My sister and her husband are flying up from Nashville to join us this year. I don't think either one of them has ever been to Cape Cod so we're really looking forward to having them with us. Fourth of July on the beach is pretty amazing.
Everyone tries to outdo the guy next to him. Last year I was relieved when the police came down and told everyone to head out. It was like being in a war zone down there! People from Massachusetts are just all out crazy to begin with, then add explosives and alcohol into the mix and boy howdy, it can get pretty wild.
I'm going to try taking some pictures of the fireworks, if any of them come out good I'll post them.

Simple Shots

Happy Father's Day Michael. You are an amazing father to our children and my love for you grows stronger every day. 

Simple Shots

Well, time kind of got away on me. I just realized that it has been about a week since I last sat down to blog. We've had a king sized chunk of good weather so I've been out working in the yard. It's such a good feeling.
Tommorow is Father's Day and I have been thinking about my Dad quite a bit. He was a dad that really loved his kids - he didn't say it a whole lot, but you just knew because he had his own way of showing you. I loved to go out fishing with him. Mostly we didn't talk, didn't have to. The quiet was a nice little slice away from the rest of life. We were usually up at the lake on Father's Day. The day would start out with all of us piling on to Mom and Dad's bed so that we could watch him unwrap the inevitable Bermuda shorts and a golf shirt or button up short sleeve. Dad was gracious about being the center of attention and would usually try on his new clothes before complaining to Mom about how much she spent on him. I loved it when he wore his new clothes to church, he was the most handsome silver haired fox in the whole place. I was proud to have him for a dad. I sure do miss him. 

Simple Shots

Bella came by for a visit today. She's just a tiny little house cat with a whole lot of imagination in her itsy bitsy little cat brain. I took her outside and she instantly became a fierce jungle cat stalking around under my rhododendron bush. Yep, she was one fierce kitty cat, hunting butterflies and ants and all kinds of big game. Tonight she's back in Fitchburg with Maple and Randy, tucked in tight dreaming big cat dreams about her exciting day in the Upton jungle. 

Simple Shots

Friday 6/9

Three days ago we had a precious handful of sun that lasted all of two hours. Trying hard not to startle Mother Nature and upset the buckets of rain being held in reserve for the rest of this week, I slipped out into my yard and took this top photo.

The second picture is down on the little pond in town. I love it when the water is soft and smooth like this. The surface perfectly echoes the lush green trees lining its bank.

A few people have asked me about the camera I use. It's a 5 megapixel digital made by Canon. The model is a PowerShot A610. Nothing very fancy, but definately fun to play with. I do not use Photoshop to touch up my photos - you see what I saw, simple shots. For a larger view, just click on each picture.

If you like what you see, please leave a comment (it gives my ego a boost). Thanks for reading!
 

Simple Shots

Mon
Monday 6/5

Just finished mowing the lawn. Took me two and a half hours. I love working in my yard, getting dirty, working up an honest sweat. Why is it a whole lot of people only want to sweat when they're working out, but not when they're out working?

 

Simple Shots

Monday 5/29

Michael and I spent a lot of time working around the house and yard over the nice long 3 day weekend. Why can't we just get over our serious selves and have more of those? My passions seem to keep getting squeezed out and the majority of time I spend working, working, working at a job I really need to be finished with.

One of the teachers I worked with a few years ago is retiring next month and opening a small boutique. She saw some of my photos posted in this blog and asked if I would be interested in selling any of them. Big hell yeah! Why is it so hard for me to imagine making a living doing something I would love to do?

Anyway, some of my flowers are beginning to put on their warm weather show. The middle two shots were taken a day apart - same flower, an allium. I planted flowers Saturday, and Sunday and again today. We're going to have some serious color going on here real soon.

I remember when I was just a little kid getting packed into the back seat of the family car with my 2 brothers and my little sister. (No big ole SUV's back then) (matter of fact I think my thighs mutated from being squeezed and pinched from both sides at the same time). Anyway, we always drove through Watkins Glen on our way to Keuka Lake and there was a house right at the bottom of the road going up to the racetrack. Every year they had a row of red tulips lining the walkway up to their front door. I loved those red tulips. I remember thinking that you had to be rich to grow red tulips. I promised myself that when I grew up and had a home of my own that I would have flowers all over my yard. So I do. Wonder if my yard might inspire a future flower grower...

 

Simple Shots

Sunday 5/28

The weather today is what they write about in fairy tales. The air is clear, invisible. The sun is crisp, rendering truth to everything it touches. Birds are out and singing the halleluia chorus. A perfect morning.

Yesterday I was able to plant many of my flowers before the storms rolled through. I was touching up one of the beds I had previously planted when I noticed a plant lying on its side. So I reached down and dug up some of the earth to put it back in place. Odd. The spot this one flower had occupied was now the home for something else. I found this big speckled egg just barely under the surface. This really has me puzzled. I took a photo of it for you to see. I know it wasn't there the day I planted - I have this small pick ax looking tool I use to break the soil up first. No way this could have survived that assault. So for now I have the egg just sitting to the side. I doubt anything will hatch from it, but I'm keeping an eye on it, perhaps a dozen will spring from it saving me a trip to the supermarket. 

Simple Shots

Wednesday 5/24
When I was leaving school today I glanced at the car parked on my left. It had a small little white oval sticker on the bumper that said HOPE. Then I looked at the car parked on my right and it had a little sticker of its own. This one said ESCAPE. What do you do with stuff like this? I just wanted to go home and eat some cookies. Shouldn't have to deal with this kind of thing after working all day.

I went down to Kiwanis Beach tonight, a little lake right here in Upton. It was a few minutes after sunset and I thought the reflection in the lake was beautiful. I wish I lived on a lake. Maple told us that the father of a good friend of hers won a million dollars on a scratch ticket last week. If I won that kind of money I would find a nice quiet lake and live on it for the rest of my life. 

Simple shots

5/22
Today it's in the low 60's with lots of sun, racing white clouds and wind. I took this picture yesterday, the cold front moving in. It was so eerie looking, the sky was dark and crackling with energy, but the trees and grass were letting off a soft green glow. Michael and I had gone to the movies and on our way back I was watching the sky - you just knew something was brewing. We were going to stop at Gregg and Shelly's house for a couple minutes and we were almost there when I asked Michael to pull over so I could take this. It was silent - no birds singing, no kids, no dogs - just silent. Not even 5 minutes after I took this the rain started with a vengeance, and then hail. It reminded me so much of the storms we would see when we were living in Austin. Very powerful. I'm glad that men haven't really figured out how to manipulate the weather yet. It's still neatly held in the hands of God. A good place to be all things considered.

Simple Shots

At last! Released from boxed up, stale air smothering us - from tight, sharp corners and dusty grey corridors. School was over for today and the sun was shining! We all went giddy! Rushing out, each one in tune with frantic inner voices repeating over and over like a record that skipped, outside, outside, outside... Only now would young boys fall in love again with sweet faced girls in short pink skirts. And wrinkled old men were free to throw aside their canes - to tap dance in the streets. Each dog and every cat had a grin that
stretched from my house to yours. It felt like part of me just flew away for a bit and then smoothly eased back in. The world fits right again.

Michael and I went to Milford before dinner and hiked around Lake Louisa. It was warm and windy, my very most favorite weather. It felt good to stretch out muscles that were beginning to atrophy from lack of use.
I took these photos there. The one on the bottom is my favorite.

Tomorrow it's back to school again, but now I know the sun isn't broken.

Tuesday 5/16

As promised! The top picture has the eye brow dormer that first drew us in to the cemetery and the second photo is the tree I mentioned. It almost looks as if there is a crucified man hanging from it. I went back last evening and took a few more shots, but it was raining (again) pretty hard and you could see that on the camera lens. It was so quiet there. Part of me wanted to stay and just walk around - but there was that rain issue...
It's raining now too. A good part of Massachusetts and New Hampshire are getting flooded. Having lived through that once in my life, I wouldn't wish the aftermath on my worst enemy.
My husband is laid out on the couch sick with a flu so I'm going to have to post this and go slip on my wife, nurse, maid, cook uniform. 

5/14

A rainy day for Mother's Day. Michael took me out for breakfast at our favorite little coffee shop, "Rebecca's". We sat by the window and watched dogwood blossoms float down the street and around the corner. Legend has it George Washington spent the night in this same little red wooden building. One of the things I love most about New England is the rich history here. I often ask Michael to indulge me in visits to little church side grave yards. Churches that have names like "First Congregational of Hopkinton" or "St. Ann's by the Sea". So many stories are told there, silently told there, inscriptions on moss covered stones that lean today but will someday cover the grave they mark like a lush green blanket. On our way back home after breakfast we stopped when we noticed this little stone building with a unique eye-brow dormer in the Hopedale Cemetary. As we were leaving I spied this incredible Beech tree and asked Michael to pull over. I wanted to take a few pictures, but as luck would have it, my camera batteries gave up the ghost (sorry, sometimes I can't help myself!). I decided to go ahead and shoot blind hoping I still had enough juice left to capture an image. It worked. I want to go back tomorrow and perfect the composition though so I guess this post is just a big commercial free preview of a shot you will get to see in my next post. We've got ourselves a cliff hanger!
But back to Mother's Day...The photo on the left is my oldest daughter, Maple. The picture on the right is my youngest daughter, Becca. The girls came by to make an enchilada dinner in my honor tonight. I couldn't love them any more if I tried.
Happy Mother's Day to all!