Scattered Thoughts . . .

I am just now getting back into a groove at home which finds me making some progress in our home renovations. As everyone already knows, much of this is completely dependent upon my health. I only manage to get a little bit accomplished each month. Not only do I struggle with my spinal injuries when trying to accomplish things around the house, but I also struggle with Systemic Mastocytosis. Avoiding anaphylaxis is a top priority which means avoiding overdoing it, staying hydrated, staying medicated with a huge cocktail of medications, and trying not to overheat my body. There are many things which can cause my health to become unstable and ruin my week... or month... and any activity compounds this risk.  You can't really see it in this small photo but all that dirt between the stones is now seeded for grass.  This weekend, however, I managed to make some headway on our stone pathway that connects the house to the area where I intend to build an outdoor kitchen grilling ar

Back a few months ago, I picked up an older used camera to use for my long telephoto needs. The camera was dirt cheap so I figured it was worth taking a chance in the hope that I could improve my long telephoto photography... capturing photographs of birds, loons, ducks, and all wildlife. I even use long telephoto gear for shooting photos of the sailboat and kayaks when they are across the lake. I have to admit that the telephoto range is impressive... the camera and lens is relatively small (compared to dSLR's with monstrous lenses)... but I am still left feeling disappointed.  I did manage to capture my best loon and duck photos to date but it really was a 'hit or miss' proposition. Many of my photos were lacking the clarity and crispness I had hoped to capture. Perhaps the lens was the problem... perhaps the tiny body made it difficult to hold steady enough. I don't know. Maybe it was a combination of both problems. This Panasonic camera in the Micro Four Thirds

We had a small, quiet birthday celebration at home yesterday. Although small and quiet, I am still exhausted today and in need of a long nap. I think I am still recovering from our time at the lake house as well as being in need of some recovery time after overdoing it a week ago.  My birthday started with a very nicely written note and card from Sheila... then a nice letter from a friend at the lake informing us that two loon chicks were born that morning. The chicks were named Janice and Janet. I had been concerned about the seemingly low numbers of loons at the lake thus far so it was nice to hear we have two new young additions to the loon population at the lake... coincidentally born on my own birthdate. This was actually a nice birthday surprise. The grandchildren were with us for dinner and cake. They had some fun with the O gauge trains on the living room floor for most of the evening. We set up a diagonal oval of track across the living room floor that went around and

The moon... crisp, clear skies with no light pollution help in capturing some crisp crater detail. For the most part, the weather at the lake has been beautiful. Most of the clouds and rain have been at night. Getting the rainy weather only at night has been great and makes for a lot of beautiful, sunny days but it really puts a damper on any photography of the night skies. Fortunately, we did have a few nights of clear weather at night... very few. On one such night, I grabbed my tripod, my best camera, a couple of good lenses, and a wireless remote shutter release and headed outside to the dark and very buggy deck. One of the newer cameras I have been using is amazing for low-light work but I am still learning what it can do and trying to figure out how to do different things such as shooting night skies. The unique thing about shooting night skies is that each exposure requires a few minutes plus a couple of minutes of adjusting settings... over and over... until you get

UPDATE, 1 July: I received a letter this morning from one of our friends at Lake Groton which alleviates some of my concerns about seeing fewer loons thus far this year. I was a bit concerned that perhaps the population of loons was again dwindling. It turns out that there are a few more loons on the lake than I had counted, plus... Just this morning (coincidentally, my birthdate), two loons were born on the north end of the lake. These two loon chicks have been named Janice and Janet .  Since the wildlife at our home in Waterbury has also been slow to appear this spring/summer, I am going to assume that perhaps weather patterns account for the timing of the appearance of summertime wildlife being a bit slow this year around our neck of the woods. Now, I'll need to see if I can capture a photo of Janice and Janet as mom and dad acquaint them with life. Original Blog Entry, 29 June: Although the wildlife has been very quiet and elusive this year, I did manage to capt

As we do on many evenings, Sheila and I headed out on the kayaks for an evening paddle on one particularly beautiful evening. It was sunny and warm... the lake was calm... the sun was getting low in the sky illuminating everything in that soft evening golden glow. It was the perfect evening for paddling and I was hoping for some good photography. We headed down toward Boulder Beach at a very relaxed, slow pace. As we approached the beach, we were surprised to find that the beach was quiet. Not a single person was on this beautiful beach on this perfect evening. We paddled around the swimming area and approached a rougher beach area intended for boats which is adjacent to numerous picnic areas. As we were paddling by this beach, a tiny bit of movement caught my eye...  As I stopped paddling, I dipped my paddle in the water to turn my kayak so I could look more closely... I could just make out two young duck chicks on the beach. Although they blended in with the sand quite we

We had a brilliant, colorful sunset last night that lit up the stormy skies...resembling a distant forest fire or even a distant bomb blast. The colorful, bright, fireball setting sun contrasted perfectly with the stormy clouds looming overhead...

We've been so busy that I haven't had many opportunities to share some photos so, while it is raining and the house is quiet because our guests haven't arrived just yet, I thought it would be a good time to share some photos... We had a really nice visit with Tom and Karen for a couple of days. We kayaked the longer length of the lake and explored some marshes and the dam...  Our young airman visited a few times (the one wearing the dog tags)...  One of our many sunsets as viewed from the deck... This shot, below, is a long exposure shot. It was almost completely dark outside but I kept my shutter open for 10 seconds which brightened the sky considerably and it also smoothed out the surface of the lake... a nice landscape shot... The loons (and all wildlife, for that matter) have been rather elusive this year. My latest loon count is at only four loons on the lake this year. Last year we had at least seven... I know this s

Today was another stunningly beautiful day. We expected the rains from the remnants of the tropical storm (named "Bill" according to Sheila) to cause problems for much longer than we experienced. Fortunately, this storm hit us through the night and left us with a beautiful day today. Last night, however, was brutal!  We had high winds and heavy rains while the winds blowing across the lake and toward our house caused a bit of a rise in lake elevation on our side of the lake like a mini-storm surge. The lake completely covered our beach and even made its way up a few steps toward the lawn.  This storm reminded me of terrible storms on the waterfront of Long Island when I was growing up. I laid in bed worrying about the power, the roof and the boats while wondering what the high winds were blowing away from our deck and yard. This house is sort of like a houseboat as it is perched out over the lake so the house was also making many unusual sounds as it was battered by

Whenever we are at the lake house, I try to get up out of bed between 6am and 7am so I can get out on the lake in the kayak. At this time of day, the lake is often so calm it is like smooth glass... there is a mist rising off the lake as the sun rises... it is completely quiet until wildlife slowly wakes for another day... and, after all, it really  is the only time to get the chance to see the lake come alive as it does only each morning. This past week we had one particular morning which provided us a beautiful morning on the lake with the grandkids. This is something I typically do alone with my photography gear stowed on my kayak but this past week we had a chance to get out with the grandkids too (unfortunately, the grandchild used up the space for my photography gear). To capture this first time early morning excursion with the grandkids, I had a camera mounted on the bow of my kayak. Lukey was in my kayak while Kenzie was with Gee in her boat. Sheila's parents met us on th