Scattered Thoughts . . .

My health has been less than stellar lately so I have not accomplished a thing on the house in weeks. The exceptionally wet weather isn't helping get any renovations accomplished either. For a change, however, my health and the weather are in sync... they are both on the bad end of the spectrum but they are in sync. Needless to say, I'm not getting a thing accomplished on the house.  I'm doing a lot of sleeping and resting so my health can heal but I'm also searching for things to keep my mind occupied. One of the things I often do when faced with this particular dilemma is to sift through recent and old photos.  I came across a few loon photos and thought I would write a bit about them here. This first one isn't too bad.  The early morning sun was up because we had no fog on the lake this particular morning. Although it is quite early in the morning (around 6:20am), this loon has some light on him so I was able to capture a decent photo. It could be crisper and

Although the lake house is fairly close to our home (only an hour away), it is still a bit isolated. Being isolated means that we must travel over to New Hampshire to do our food shopping. This is only a half hour away but it is still quite different than our usual five minutes to the market from our home in Waterbury so , whenever we are at the lake house, we plan a trip to Woodsville, NH before and after every weekend so we can refill our pantry and refrigerator.  Woodsville is a nice little town so we actually enjoy making this food run twice a week. Plus, the prices in Woodsville are only 50-60% of the prices in Waterbury where we usually shop and the quality of the produce is far better in Woodsville! So we actually enjoy this little excursion from the lake house. Here is a short two minute video of the kids in the back seat of the car on the way to Woodsville... it is abundantly clear that they really do enjoy this trip to Woodsville... no fighting (okay... there is a little

Back a few months ago, I wrote about the grandchildren playing with bubbles with Gee as they went for a walk. I even recorded some video of that outing and shared the video here on my blog.  The kids were liking the bubbles so much that we decided to go a bit overboard with bubbles while the grandchildren visited us at the lake house this summer.  Below are a few photos from one evening of bubble fun!  The sun was getting low... the temperature was just right... and we were all winding down from a day on the lake. Gee filled a stock pot with some overly slimy bubble mix and placed it on the dock... the kids were like jumping beans filled with boundless energy and excitement but careful not to slip in the soapy water on the dock... I grabbed a camera, leaned over the railing of the deck, and shot a bunch of photos... Kenzie managed to create a bubble Genie... A big bubble beginning to pop after hitting the deck railing... This is what happens when yo

I have a little bit of time to kill before heading to another medical appointment this morning so I thought I would add a few more photos to my blog.  I'm heading to a new specialist this morning... a type of appointment which is never really 'fun' and with a new doctor you never know what to expect. There is a lot of unnecessary crap hanging over my head right now including the threat of losing my Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Actually, this really pisses me off and adding in this new specialist isn't helping any.  So, I have a bit of time to kill this morning and thought I would share a few photos from last week... This first photo is of a slightly uncooperative loon. Although he was paddling away from me, he kept looking back to see if I was still there photographing him...  This was an early morning photo. The contrast was low because I had to bump up the exposure quite a bit to capture some detail in this mostly black loon. Now the loon

We hadn't seen the resident Bald Eagle pair in a couple of days so we were wondering where they were hiding. We also hadn't seen any other significant wildlife such as bobcats and bears so I was feeling I needed to wander out to find something worth photographing. Sheila and I headed out on our kayaks yesterday morning. I had three cameras in my kayak... a Sony action video camera, a Sony full-frame camera with a 70-200mm lens, and a Sony crop camera with a 400mm F5.6L lens which gives me an equivalent of 600mm. I also brought along a wide angle lens for any landscape photos that may present itself. With these cameras, I was confident I could capture photos of loons, Bald Eagles, bears, bobcats, turtles or whatever wildlife appeared.  About a mile from our lake house, I pulled to the shore to check a nice sandy beach on State land for any tracks... I saw none. We continued on down toward the dam at the end of the lake.  As we approached the end of the lake, I noticed a r

Yesterday was perhaps one of the most beautiful days we've had at the lake. The visibility was noticeably crystal clear... the sun was bright... it was warm... the water was warm... it was quiet... and I was in very nice company! Today, weather-wise, was fair but both Sheila and I were exhausted. We ended up sleeping away most of the day. I had some health issues last night too and that always has a tremendous bearing on the days afterward. Today was no exception. We pretty much just slept and rested all day.  This evening, however, I had some time to sort through some of yesterday's photos... At this point in sharing these photos here I must ask, "Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Sony cameras, microphones, stereos, mp3 players, and televisions?" These photos here remind of just how much I love Sony electronics. It is a joy using cameras which produce such beautiful tonality and color while also providing the fastest and most accurate au

Up until this afternoon, we've had some brutally hot and humid weather with temperatures nearing triple digits and the same for the humidity. Since my health does not do well in warm/hot environments, it is fortunate that the weather changed this afternoon. Now we are experiencing rather cool weather with some scattered showers.  The skies appear to be clearing up again and the warmth is returning but it is significantly cooler than we've experienced thus far. I think we are supposed to have some clear skies through the night tonight so, if the biting flying insects are a bit more mellow tonight, perhaps I can capture some photos of the starry night sky. This morning we arose at 5:30am and were out on the kayaks by around 6:15am. The lake was placid and the temperature was comfortable for a change.   By mid-morning, the wind had whipped up to be perfect for sailing. Adam spent a little time on the sailboat skimming through the white caps. I haven't found the energy to