Scattered Thoughts . . .

My health took a nosedive more than a week ago... and then, more recently, took a deeper nosedive with terrible nausea, weakness and general malaise holding me back and keeping near the bathroom. I'm still recovering but, as always when I am recovering, I am now trying to find little things around the house that I can actually accomplish without triggering my health to crash yet again.  This time around, I decided to scroll through some old photos to see if could find anything worth salvaging. All three of these photos, below, were shot at Oakledge Park on Lake Champlain. These photos were shot back a number of years ago when I was shooting with a couple of cameras that did nothing but cause me grief. I always seemed to struggle to get decent shots and especially when the light was not ideal. Ironically, the light was terrible for all three of these photos below. I really had to search to find good, interesting light. This first photo was shot from a rocky beach looking towar...

I've been laid up for the past two weeks. Actually, the past few months have been pretty lousy but the past two weeks have been significantly more limiting. I've needed a cane to get around and I've needed to be off my feet unless absolutely necessary. I have a medical appointment early next week so, until then, there has been a bit of a shift in my activities.   I've watched a lot of movies over the past two weeks... done some reading... I did a lot of research online... I wrote some additional to-do lists (like my current to-do lists weren't long enough)... and I fiddled around with my photography gear with time at the lake in mind. I even spent some time at the piano everyday which, I must admit, is a rarity.  Since most of the past two weeks have been spent on the couch, I've had a chance to scroll through thousands of my old photos. Tonight, I'm sharing a few photos from 2009 and 2010. Back during this period, I was shooting photos with a Fujifilm...

A Cessna flying into the sunset over Lake Champlain surrounded by the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Look closely... is that Champ's head sticking out of the water in the middle of the lake? I hope to get to make a short climb to the top of Owl's Head at Lake Groton this summer and that got me looking for photos from the last time we did any hiking. Hikes, no matter how short and easy, can be a dangerous thing for me. Systemic Mastocytosis can cause anaphylaxis at any random time but especially when my body temperature rises.  This makes hiking difficult for me. Another issue for me when it comes to hiking is my energy level. My energy level has been so low that any sort of hike is difficult. Trying to hike uphill and then downhill is a lot of work.  All this stress on my body also causes a risk of anaphylaxis too. Needless to say, hikes have been few and far between since my health has started struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis....