Scattered Thoughts . . .

Another one of our annual excursions crept up on us again this past weekend and we found ourselves in southern Vermont for a train show. Throughout the year, we attend various events around the northeast. Every fall, we attend a train show in southern Vermont. This particular train show is so small that it isn't even the main purpose of this annual weekend getaway. It is a good reason to get out of town but it takes up so little of our time that it is hard to call it a train show weekend! What I can say about this annual excursion is that we enjoy traveling through the fall foliage, visiting other restaurants, visiting stores we don't get to normally visit and it's nice to simply get out of the house for a bit.  My health keeps me close to home almost every day so it is nice to get out from under this roof every now and then... really nice. We actually try to get out of the house for a few hours every weekend but it rarely works out... between things needing to get

I'm taking it easy again today after another rather miserable night of poor health last night so I'm looking for things to do which won't worsen my health.  As I was looking at the photography gear on the shelves, I remembered that I wanted to try to use some extension tubes the next time I head outside with my camera... so, I evaluated the situation... I no longer felt miserable... the weather is nice although still slightly too warm for me for extended periods... and the camera gear was just sitting there doing nothing too. It was a good time to attempt to do some photography.  I grabbed a Sony camera body... a 70-200mm lens which wasn't long enough without the use of extension tubes the last time I attempted to shoot flowers with this lens... and I grabbed my extension tubes.  Every lens has a minimum distance you need to be from your subject in order for your lens to focus. If you get too close, it won't focus on your subject. I think the minimum distance

Plain and simple, this past week has been brutal. Whenever we have a busy weekend of activities, it affects my health for the next week... or month. Last weekend was exceptionally busy from Friday through Sunday. We had squeezed in about three activities and three different places each day... I skipped my daily two hour naps... I was on my feet throughout most of the weekend... and we were on the go all the time. This is a recipe for a long bout of miserable health in my foreseeable future. In preparation of the long, busy weekend, I rested up in the days leading up to the weekend (longer naps each day and did virtually nothing each day in an effort to preserve energy). I also squeezed in more medications in the days leading up to the weekend as well as all through the three day weekend. I can get away with this particular plan of attack if I don't do it too often. It allows for fairly decent health for a few days but there is a price to pay... the price is exceptionally

As most of the east coast deals with a wet and windy tropical storm, we are experiencing beautiful, sunny and mild weather here in our neck of the woods which is really nice. There is definitely a feel of autumn in the air now. The past couple of times that I cut the lawn, I was mowing a leaf-covered lawn... mostly dry greenish leaves but definitely a sign of our approaching autumn season. I wandered outside yesterday morning with a camera in hand to see if anything was worth photographing in the backyard. I found a few things to photograph as the season changes... (I just remembered that I still have photos from earlier in the summer which I have not written about nor shared here... If my health continues to struggle and limit my activities, maybe I'll spend some time collecting some of those photos to share.)