Using my super power…

Being on Facebook, I have learned that there are lots and lots of t-shirts available for photographers.  Those are the advertisements that pop up most often when I go on to check on all the odds and ends my friends and family are posting.

  The t-shirt I like best has a camera printed on it and says, “I can stop time.  What’s your superpower?”  One of these days, I may just click on that link and buy one of those, because in many ways that is true.  Photography does give us the ability to freeze moments in time.

Still, I find myself wishing this superpower of mine didn’t require a Nikon and, in fact, wasn’t just a catch phrase on a t-shirt, because this has been a ridiculously busy month and a half for me.  I cannot put my finger on why exactly, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I was born a slow and deliberate person and as I age, I’m just getting slower and slower and more deliberate.  Things just take me a lot of time and I can’t seem to change that.  So when I add in appointments and other obligations, the things I actually enjoy doing get shoved to the side…like this blog, for instance.

Yesterday, I thought I would have time to post something, but my yearly eye exam was scheduled for the afternoon.  I was happy to learn that my eyes are not showing the normal signs of aging that other parts of my body are.  I was told that there is no sign of cataract or glaucoma.  And the doctor was polite enough to not mention that when he looked though my dilated pupils, he could see that my brain was starting to atrophy and lose its elasticity.  I thought that was rather kind of him.  But those drops he used did put an end to me doing anything useful for the rest of the day.

Anyhow, thanks to the Nor’easter that passed through here last week, our fall color is pretty much gone.  Sure, here and there, you may spot a nice bright red tree, but mostly what’s there now are the coppers and browns of the oaks.

  Of course, the oaks never really completely let go of their leaves until the new ones come in.  Isn’t there a saying that says, “Stubborn as an Oak!”??  If not, I may have that one printed on a t-shirt, too.  There are probably people I know who would find that pretty appropriate for me.

Well, since I have it, I might as well exercise my superpower!  Here are a few shots of autumn that I have frozen in time.

Autumn!

The stripped and shapely

Maple grieves

The ghosts of her

Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,

As hard as stone.

The year is old,

The birds are flown.

And yet the world,

In its distress,

Displays a certain

Loveliness---

-   John Updike, A Child's Calendar

I love it!

Confessions of a closet peeper…

We complain a fair amount about leaf peepers here in New England.  This time of year, the traffic gets heavier, people drive like maniacs and there are more busses on the road.  Getting from point A to point B can sometimes be challenging.  Even so, Greg and I are not above doing a little leaf peeping ourselves.  In truth, it was our plan to load Olive, the pug, into the car and to drive up into southern Vermont this weekend to see how the leaves are changing there, but things conspired against us and we never made it.  So yesterday, even though the weather was a bit overcast, we went ahead and did a short tour of Vermont.

Starting out here in south central Massachusetts, the day was pretty nice.  The sky was mostly blue but the leaves are quite a way from being at peak.

Still even here, now and then, we saw patches of true autumn color.

As we traveled north and west, the sky got more and more overcast, but the leaves were more and more colorful.

Of course, it is my humble opinion that Vermont is the most beautiful place in this country no matter what the time of year, but in the fall, it has beauty that is beyond words.

Driving around staring at all that color makes one a bit peckish, so as we were heading home, we pulled into a little place that sold ice cream and each had a small cone.  This is what a pug looks like when she thinks that she deserves a lick of your ice cream.  She can hold that pose for quite a while.

It was a nice day in spite of the less than stellar weather.

  I just love this time of year!

Good Rock Fences…

We have no shortage of rocks here in New England.  Greg and I found that out the hard way when we bought our first house here.  It was new construction and there was no landscaping done so we, in our naiveté, attempted it on our own.  We managed to get grass growing eventually but we never had then, and I don’t have now, any luck with any other kinds of plantings.  I’m sure that much of it can be attributed to lack of patience and perseverance on my part and, yes, maybe a lack of real interest.  But I am going to put a good deal of the blame of my giving up on gardening to trying to dig around rocks and having to get rid of rocks.

Even though I’ve said that, I must admit, that I really like rocks.  In fact, I love rocks.  I have rocks sitting around all over the house for no good reason except that they please me…rocks sitting on their own and rocks sitting together in bowls.  Okay, so maybe I’m a little weird.

Having lived here in Massachusetts for more than thirty years now, I’ve come to think that New Englanders actually had the right idea about rocks.  There are not so many traditional farms around these days, but the remnants of the old farms are everywhere in the form of rock walls weaving their artful way almost everywhere out here in the country.  The farmers dug up the rocks and used them in a practical way.  And in spite of Robert Frost saying that “something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” these walls don’t seem to be going anywhere. And I sometimes wonder how long the walls will continue to stand?  Probably long after I am gone and my personal bowls of rocks have been dumped back into nature by my kids who wonder why their crazy mother was keeping all those rocks around.

So today I decided to post a couple pictures of rock walls that I have come across around here.  I think they are just the most beautiful kind of fence.

I'm linking up with Theresa at The Run*A*Round Ranch Report's Good Fences.  Thanks, Theresa!

Time for Turtles...

Today I had a very fun morning thanks to my friend Fritzi.

Last week, Fritzi told me about a free program that was scheduled today by the Turtle Rescue League (click on the green words, if you want to learn more about them).  They are based here in New England and located in Southbridge the town next to where we live.   The program was basically a Turtle 911 class.  It covered what to do if you see an injured turtle, if you see a turtle digging in your yard, if you see a turtle in the street and if you see a baby turtle.

I was pretty sure I would enjoy learning more about turtles, which to me are some of the coolest creatures on the earth, but I was unprepared to be so totally engaged by the presentation.  We learned a lot of facts about the turtles that are residents of Massachusetts, but we also got to see a lot of them up close.  And that was fantastic!

Here is a Painted Turtle.  They are pretty common around here.  When Olive, the pug, and I walk down to see the horses, we often stop by the Turtle Pond to watch them sunning on the logs and rocks there.

This is an Eastern Box Turtle, a less common turtle than the Painted Turtle.  He has protected status in all the New England States.

And here’s the much misunderstood Common Snapper.  This young turtle (whose name I can’t remember.  Sorry, Turtle!) was raised by the folks at the Turtle Rescue League for the purpose of education and seemed very comfortable with the people in the room.  She sat and watched us watch her for a while.

Then I guess she got sick of looking at us and did an about face.

We were told the proper way of handling a Snapper.  It’s easier than you think and can be done very safely.  They are not nearly the scary turtles I always heard they were.

We got to see a very small baby Painted Turtle…

This is a poor picture, I know, but I was impressed by the small size of this little fellow.

…and turtles in various stages of rehabilitation, most of who will eventually be released into the wild.

I was so impressed by the knowledge and enthusiasm of Alexxi and Natasha who are the principal staff of the Turtle Rescue League.  I would like to thank them and their volunteers again for the tireless work they do for these special creatures.

I promise to put together a turtle rescue kit for my car.  I must say though, helping a turtle cross the street is one thing. I’m not sure how I would react if I ever found a turtle who has been hit by a car.  I hope I would have enough pluck to do what is necessary to get the turtle safely to the folks at the Turtle Rescue League so that they can nurse it back to health or in a worst case scenario, humanely euthanize it.   On the bright side, they actually harvest eggs from mortally injured female turtles and have released very many of the surviving turtle babies back into the wild.  And that is just so cool!

You know, it’s very uplifting to meet people who are so passionate about nature, even this small, but important, part of it!

PS.  I am informed by my friend Diane O-J who accompanied Fritzi, Fritzi's daughter Emily and me to the Turtle 911 class that the Snapper's name is Nibbles.  I can't believe I forgot that because just last week I was doubled up with laughter at this video of Joey Votto (of the Cincinnati Reds) being interviewed on Fox Sports.  If you watch it, you will see why.

The Things You See Along the Way: Why I love New England…

Earlier this week, Greg asked me and Olive, the pug, if we wanted to go for a ride to do a little Leaf Peeping.  We both said yes, of course, and off we went.  I let him decide where we would go and Olive and I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

We headed up north toward New Hampshire where the leaves are nearing peak.

  Here are a few things we saw.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man...

Was there ever any doubt?

When we got close to Hillsborough, New Hampshire we saw a sign indicating that the Franklin Pierce Homestead was close by so we stopped to admire his beautiful house on that fine fall day.  For those who don’t know, Pierce was the 14^th President of the United States from 1853 to 1857 and the only President from New Hampshire.

Moving on, we finally made it to Keene, New Hampshire where we had a nice lunch outside with Olive at a local establishment called Local and then a little after two o’clock, we turned around and admired the leaves all the way back to Massachusetts.

I love fall in New England!  It simply sings and dances with color.

  What can be better than that?

Nothing, in my book.

Bumper stickers of the day:  Do you think this woman likes horses?

Facing fabulous fall fence for Friday Fences...

Just wondering how many "f words" I could use in one sentence and still stay family friendly...

LINKING TO JAN and JER'S FRIDAY FENCES.