......cold outside, but I do have warm corners within... :D Hope you have a happy holiday season. Stay warm, even if you are in tropical Chennai or Singapore :DD
The light that warms up my home (almost) every morning....
And the light that glows inside (almost) every evening :)
.......came knocking while I have been away from blogging (not 'cuz I wanted to but 'cuz my hard drive crashed :((( and that means all the images from the last 2 years are gone too.......No, despite the common wisdom, I haven't backed up most of my files in 2 years now :((
I am still in the process of recovering the images.....and I am hopeful that I won't lose all of them). Meanwhile, here are some of the newest images!
Waning December-afternoon light
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here ;DDD
The little town (I am yet to find a place here with a zip code other than mine) that I call home these days may not have a lot going for it......but it can't be blamed for not trying hard enough. Have a peek at this mural titled "Inspiration" that spans three walls in downtown and depicts over 300 portraits, most of them locals in settings from our town. You can see what these walls looked like before, here.
Much to my husband's annoyance, I am a total morning person (if I could be dragged out of our cozy bed)....it's hard not to be, when you wake up to mornings as beautiful as these :)
I know summer has been long gone but I just felt like sharing these images of one of my favorite flowers before I lose them amidst thousands of images on my hard disk! Aren't poppies simply spectacular??? :)
"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flush'd print in a poppy there;
Like a yawn of fire from the grass it came,
And the fanning wind puff'd it to flapping flame."-Francis Thompson
"The poppy opens her scarlet purse of dreams. "
I am well aware of my silence on my blogs.....have been busy cherishing every moment with some of the dearest and closest of the family visiting us from India. I hope to be back to regular blogging soon....
The glass sculpture above is from Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY.
Don't be misled by the images below...we have had our fair share of "freaky" weather, just like everyone else...these were shot well before the snow came along in mid-Oct!!!!!!!
And yes, I am a shoes-person.....well, who isn't ;DDD
A farm scene from Lancaster, PA.
The scene this morning from my porch.....
And finally , the reason to love August......goldenrod and queen anne's lace putting a cheery show, blanketing hills in their yellow and white......
Update: For those who are intrigued by the flower in the last shot, it's a yet-to-bloom Queen Anne's Lace......isn't it beautiful how this thing unfurls into a regular Queen Anne Lace.
Remember my friend? Every chance that I get to spend with her brings smiles in my life....can you blame me for loving her so?? :)
"Men build too many walls and not enough bridges." - Isaac Newton
Here are a few scenes from our trip to the lush Finger lakes area in NY, last week.
I love, love, love covered bridges....and someday, I hope to cover all of Penn's. The one above was shot a few miles south of Ithaca, in Newfield, NY.
Rolling green hills and farmlands, on our way to Ithaca.............
I took a well-deserved summer-break (all my breaks, if you go by my claims, are "well-deserved" :D) from work last week to spend some "us" time with my husband. We went tripping a li'l to the north and a li'l to the south and everywhere else in between :) And now I can't get myself back to what I call the "weekday-discipline". Here's a (an???) hastily-edited (read amateurish) image of one of the storefronts that caught my fancy, on one of the trips. The store called Spinfluence, custom frames old record albums to preserve them for times to come! Hope to "get my groove back" soon and eventually return to regular blogging! :)
These days no matter how early I wake up, there's always light outside.....and by the time I am done with wiping sleep from my eyes, and that mug of coffee finally kicking in... the sun outside is just beginning to bathe all that's beautiful on my way to work, in its shimmering pool. This is my favorite part of the day till it's time for sun to set when I am out with my camera again. So no matter how rushed I am in mornings, I still leave with my camera, hoping I will get a chance to stop and click, and if I do get lucky, it sets the tone for the day....a VERY MERRY tone :) These are from yesterday's "trip" to work :)
“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” – Iris Murdoch
Bar-red!
Sunny side up!
One last look...
"I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests." .........Pablo Neruda
I may not have grown up in this beautiful valley that I call home now but locals who did, am certain will find a resonating sentiment in Neruda's words.......:) We woke up this morning to find the fog roll in the valley to greet us. It instantly brought back memories of the precious few days we spent in Northwest (remember the move that never happened!!!). I still remember how the ubiquitous fog would fade away oh-so-briefly to offer a glimpse of the houses, the woods, the road ahead and then return even before we could realize that those weren't the figments of our imagination. What a tease! :)
....I still am one and will always be, no matter how old I grow, how far I go. Love you, papa.
Remember my little friend from the breakfast event that I was a part of not long ago....I am meeting her tomorrow and intend to surprise her with a print of this collage I created for her for the Father's day. Do you think she will like it? I am keeping my fingers crossed!
Update: I gave the collage and earned a hug from the dad (with a joke, "You managed to get my best side" ;D) and a shy "Thank you" from her. Here's the smile she gave me (as you can see, she loves her "treats".....if it's not a muffin, it's a do'nut or a candy). And just one last thing before you do away with me for sounding like a gushing "Julie-Andrews-on-Ecstasy".....don't you just love her dark curls :)))
As sunny evenings and longer days lure me outdoors, I slather a broad spectrum sunscreen with SPF 70 (nothing lesser works) on my skin and cock-a-snook at Mr Sun by facing the camera lens straight into his direction……….More often than not, I am pleased with the resulting haze:) These pics remind me of my childhood summer holidays…....when we (my brother and I) would linger outside in the dusk, long after the little sparrows had disappeared into the thicket........Oh and that reminds me, I am what you can call an “empty-nester” now.......The finch family on my deck..remember the eggs I chanced upon??? Well, little by little they all learned to fly and left :(((
Cherry orchards in Michigan.
An evening in Michigan
Scenes from our trip to Lake Superior shore in Wisconsin (the town of Bayfield), last summer. The gallery "Stone's Throw" with all its cracks and crevices is a very pretty building and the owner's gentle lab (Sweet Georgia Brown) was an added attraction. It may have housed some interesting (read unaffordable) "pieces of art" but I really did not need to step inside..for me the most appealing bits were on the outside. And as if the gallery wasn't charming enough, a used-books shop stood adjacent to it and an "egg-itarian" cafe (where most of the menu was egg-based) called "The Egg Toss" stood right opposite to it :)
Thank you, Sandeepa!!! :)
Thank you, Mark!!! :)
Thank you, JoAnn!!! :)
Thank you, JoAnn!!! :)
Thank u, Catherine !!! :)
