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Posts Tagged ‘travel’

Belle Isle Marsh

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Belle Isle Marsh Reservation in East Boston, Massachusetts is Boston’s last remaining salt marsh.  It is a family-friendly, dog-friendly (i.e. watch your step!), easy to traverse recreation spot.  Because it is near the airport, there is often the interesting juxtaposition of a plane flying over as a white heron or mallard duck or any number of other seabirds look up at a fellow winged beast.

It is a regular hiking spot for Steve and I.  I enjoy photographing the foliage in silhouette against the sky …

… and the end of season seeds and berries about to hit the ground.

He enjoys collecting juniper berries for one of his special sauces. 😉

You can read more about Belle Isle here.  And, you may read more about Steve’s Juniper Berry Sauce in the near future.  Yum.  Meanwhile, have a good Monday, folks.

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Red Waters, Red Moons and White Butterflies

Posted in Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The Dublin Moon Series … that’s what I’ve decided to call this week’s creations of papery moons and butterflies and tiny poetry-laced leaves.  The lunar inspiration is clear.  Dublin is in reference to that certain scientist fellow I write about on occasion.  In our time together he has been an unexpected source of creative inspiration.  He’s certainly expanded my thinking about light and angles and even about getting grubby to get the best shot.  Earlier this week he traveled to Dublin for business.  As I helped him pack, we came across a small notebook not much bigger than a matchbook.  It lay at the bottom of a bag he’d taken on a previous trip fishing on the high seas.

I remembered giving him that notebook because on that trip we wouldn’t have much phone contact.  And because I love a good story, I told him to take notes so that he could tell me later about all of his adventures with appropriate detail.  Well, upon his return he managed to tell me a very good story without ever pulling that notebook from his bag.  So nearly a year later we flipped through the pages, chuckling as he deciphered his notes.  Then he came to a phrase that made him pause.  Imagining that he had recorded seeing a mermaid, I laughed and shouted, “What is it?  What is it? What did you write?”

Well, what he had written was this:  “Let me try to see the world through her eyes.”  Now, over the years, I had gathered that as he traveled he sometimes took pictures of things for me like rose clouds in the sky and trees reflected in blue waters.  Once he had texted from a different boating adventure, “As I look out over the ocean, I see a lone butterfly and it makes me think of you.”

I did not create all of these paper works for this fellow, but I do recognize that this form provided a creative outlet for me to engage with him.  I was compelled to imagine what it was like for him to be out on that boat and seeing the butterfly over the ocean, and when he’s traveling in Japan, how he sees the red sun.  Anyway …

I think my paper period is done.  He shall be home soon, and I’ve got a backlog of writing, photography and exhibit-related tasks to focus on. Though, I must admit this morning I did find myself humming Blue Moon. 😉  And I do have a lot of blue paper left.

We’ll see …

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Clouds …

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“A cloud over the sun doesn’t mean there is no sun.” — Gregory Orr

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Hidden in Plain Sight

Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

As Steve and I walked through a wooded area this past Sunday, something rustled the dried leaves at my feet.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move.  A pale shape.  Small.  I followed.  Soon I found myself kneeling in the mud inching closer to this little fellow, whose photo I took for a friend who loves frogs.

That same day, at an adjacent park, we walked around a pond and through the neighboring woods.  In the middle of a bustling town the park was well-visited by local families.  So, the animals were quite used to people.  We walked through flocks of geese.  Mallards looked up at us wondering if we had a treat.  A chorus of gray squirrels chided Steve for not bringing them nuts.  He promised to do so next time.  But up high in a tree, more reluctant to be seen, sat a black squirrel.

Around grassy knolls we continued to walk.  Then up a hill, past a little fort.  Tucked here and there, in open spaces and sometimes beneath the largest trees, sat families.  Some picnicked.  I saw one man teaching his young daughter how to draw.  Her little boy threw rocks into the pond and up high into the trees.  I wonder if he noticed the beauty that lay at his feet?

The park was not large.  And, truth be told, there were not that many trees, especially around the pond.  Yet somehow, because it stood so still upon a dead branch, a great blue heron remained mostly obscured.  Even as Steve and I stood there and stared at its quiet beauty, other people walked past us and muttered, “I wonder what they see?”

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Returning to the Blue Hills

Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged , , , , , , , on April 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

In Fall 2009, Steve and I visited the Blue Hills Reservation, a state park covering 7,000 acres south of Boston.   There we climbed an observation tower where I was able to snap these landscape shots, including one of Boston from afar.  With the weather warming up, we ventured back there recently.  Here are a few images from the day.  No tower shots … yet. 😉

 

 

 

 

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Japan Road Notes: Aquired Tastes

Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged , , , on October 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I think they must be an aquired taste, octopus balls.  I have seen them each morning in the hotel buffet.   I even placed one on my plate and was encouraged by the golden crispy exterior.   It looked like hushpuppies from my youth.  Except hushpuppies are just deep fried bits of seasoned cornbread.  Pry apart an octopus ball.  Then the truth is revealed:  pale puffed bread steaming fragrantly and nestled saftely therein , soft pink-gray tentacles.  I stared long and hard at the little suction cups imagining how they might feel against my tongue.  Not exactly the experience I wanted for breakfast.  Though I consider myself a fairly adventurous person, I could not do it.  I could not bring the fork to my mouth.  I did take a picture.  Stay tuned. 😉

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Fall Update

Posted in Contributing Writer, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, Publication Updates, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2010| 5 Comments »

Watching me from a nearby oak tree is a large male cardinal with bright black eyes.  My camera is across the room.  He will surely be gone before I can grab it and race back to the window.  What to do?  Just remain still and enjoy my unexpected encounter with a red-feathered friend.  Unexpected.  There is no better word to describe my life at present.  Since my last update, there have been lots of unexpected experiences.  Some have been as simple as spotting the cardinal at my window, or the above leaf as I walked to the grocery store.  Others instances have been more complex.  Their creative impact and outcomes remain to be seen.  Meanwhile, here are some brief highlights of experiences from the past month, with a focus on recent travels.  Enjoy! 😉

***

Virginia

In September I traveled with Steve to Virginia and West Virginia.  Virginia is my  home state.  While there, I visited one of my favorite nature trails along the Blackwater Creek.  See the little fish at the bottom of the picture?  Other sights along the trail:

And in a neaby national park  …

 

West Virginia

In Virginia, I showed Steve my old haunts.  In West Virginia, we journeyed to one of his, Seneca Rocks.  There I had several unexpected and memorable experiences, first attempting to climb a mountain, and then riding a horse.  When I wasn’t afraid of tumbling, off the mountain or the horse, I managed to snap a few photos. 😉

 

On the Horizon

Well, one of the most unexpected opportunities is an upcoming trip to Japan.  I don’t expect to encounter any horses, but Steve is determined to introduce me to octopus in all its varied culinary forms.  We’ll see about that one!

Also, I’m pleased to share that I will be making a guest blog appearance November 1st on The Evolving Critic, A Metro Boston Blog for Art, Architectural, Urban Planning and Community Explorations.  I’ll be sharing words and images about one of my favorite Boston sites, the Charles River Esplanade.

That’s the quick scoop from me.  Wherever you are in the world today, I hope you are healthy, happy and feeling inspired!

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Butterflies Everywhere

Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged , , , , , on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Recently I traveled from Massachusetts down to Virginia with a side excursion into West Virginia.  More to share about that journey in a later post, but for now, I’d like to share this picture. 

Butterflies seemed everywhere, in every color and size, especially Monarchs which appeared as big as birds in the sky.  This creature is certainly not a Monarch.  If you know what it is, please let me know!

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Views from a Train

Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged , on April 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Recently, I had the pleasure of traveling by train from Boston to Virginia.   Here are a few images, seen through the train window.

In Delaware

In Delaware

In Maryland

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And Then There Was Costa Rica

Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged , , , , , on November 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

For a while, after successfully navigating my way through Thailand, I thought that I would do an annual solo trip to some exotic place in the world, with exotic defined as any place not here. The next really big trip I took was to Costa Rica. I didn’t have the same finances nor drive to travel there for a month. Finally I sketched out a one-week trip. Again, I wasn’t really into photography then so most of the images I have available today are in my head or included as part of my postcard collection. I still need to sort through the journals from that period, but even off the cuff, I can remember two things quite clearly, the taste of fresh made Costa Rican coffee and my first sight of the Blue Morpho.

Photo by RainyDays3

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