3-11-2018

A bleary winter day – doesn’t mean there isn’t beauty around!

Best of 2017

January

January is typically cold, dreary and snowy!  Sometimes, although, you have one great afternoon after work that just rocks.  This is the Narrows Bridge in Buckport, ME

February

February, another month full of storms and cold, sometimes wind that threatens to toss your car into the snow bank.

march

Icy March!  March, downstate, is all about cold, ice, melt, and then more snow!

April

April showers bring May flowers – and a cornucopia of shells with vibrant colors and a super cloudy day on Sand Beach in Stonington, ME

 

May

More shells!  Flowers and ferns.   

JUNE

June was a lean month, save for one lovely day where the skies opened up and the sun shown for this brilliant rainbow and of course, the lupines.

JULY

Shopping at the thrift places in Searsport and 4th of July on the Island were a blast!

AUGUST

Now, the sunsets in Maine are gorgeous, but for some reason, on this lovely island of Deer Isle – they are spectacular! 

 

September

I bought a bunch of cheap magnification filters.  So I spent a lot of time stooping, focusing and looking at the world, again, in a different light. 

OCTOBER

One of the best days of Oct was going to Mt Kat w/my nephew Rhys, the look on his face when he saw the mountain “up close” was priceless. 

NOVEMBER

I didn’t get out much in November – but I did take a wrong turn one evening while chasing the sun and got this stunner of a picture. 

December

And the last month of the year brings the snow BACK to us.  And – that’s a wrap!

12.24.2017–Christmas Time

Echo didn’t not seem  happy that I was leaving that afternoon.  She was giving me those puppy dog eyes.

There was a weird, almost ethereal light on x-mas even – hard to capture at times. 

Berries and snow! 

On the drive up to the lake, that lovely light kept teasing me to take pictures. 

So hard to get that sun flair! 

Deer Isle/Stonington 2/14/2017

The on thing about the coast, is it’s always changing.  One day the ground is clear, the next 24 inch of snow!

 

We got slammed and are waiting on more in the next 24 hours.  Go down south they said, it’s warmer they said!

 

I love these old places, there is so much character here!

When it snows, typically the next day the sky is bright blue and the water is gorgeous as calm. 

The colors just started to come in through the hazy clouds as I drove home today, snapped a few pictures.  I’ve gotten into the habit carrying my camera with me. 

Savage Wintery

There is something savage about winter, the cold, the pure white that blankets us, the weight of snow that can bend trees that stand against the winds of summer, those branches bow in reverence. 

The way the light flickers and reflects off the snow that crystalizes, like the glint in the eye of the devil who, instead of draping you in heat, cloaks you in cold.

The weight of all that frozen, essentially, water presses down into trees, and earth, roofs and anything standing.  Winter brings many pressures: the clean up, the driving through roads unplowed, roofs that need to be up kept, heating our homes during the wicked cold that the freeze brings.

Snow tests us.  How much we can carry, one slim human or branch can hold before breaking.  We can bend, and sweep the ground, but not break.  When the pressures of life, or of the snow, finally dissipates, and our spring emerges, we stand tall once again – unbroken by the savagery of winter. 

 

Chasing The Light

After a long day at work, all I want to do is sit down and relax.  That’s the light at the end of the tunnel, sit, kick back, read, study, relax put on some mindless TV show for a few hours and bask in the light thrown from the pellet stove.

Instead, today I went out in the chill and fading light to snowblow my drive, while my wife prepared supper. 

I took the dog out for a run, and saw that the sun was setting behind the mountain before the house.  Everyone knows I have a love affair with that mountain.

At this point, the wind started to whip and cool and all I wanted to do was go back inside, but I knew that the light, that ever elusive light was changing.  So I ducked back under some trees to get shelter from the wind. 

I was about to give up.  No.  Really.  I knew my lens was going to be peppered with snow but I really wanted to see if the wonderful clouds were going to yield something spectacular to look at and better yet, take a good picture.

Then it started to happen. The golden moment. 

I quickly played with one setting after another.  Trying different things.  My fingers frozen and shivering rather hard, but I was not moving until I got a few more shots. I like the cold anyway  

A camera can never ever catch/capture/save for eternity what the human eye can see. The 3-D technocolored details.  A photo is flat (No 3-D printer here yet!) 

Sometimes sitting in the snow is worth it. 

JMC

This Moment–4.6.2012

 

 

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A photo or photos – no words – capturing a moment. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

If you have a ‘moment’ to share, leave a link to your post in the comments for all to find and see.

This Moment–3.23.2012

 

 

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo(s) – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

If you have a ‘moment’ to share, leave a link to your post in the comments for all to find and see.

this moment-3.16.2012

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

If you have a ‘moment’ to share, leave a link to your post in the comments for all to find and see.

Back in the Day/Our House/Our Life

So today I went for a walk behind our house, snowshoeing. I was reminded of how many times I’ve been back there in my life.

I have walked in those potato fields, along those tracks, by the river, all my life. I have always walked the tracks, it was where I could go to think, and it was always there, I made up many characters while I was walking. I loved walking to the island, going around the potato fields.

I then started to think of all the other times I’d been back there as a kid. See, when Julia and I found our house I had simply brought her down the road where I had grown up. The small trailer I had lived in until I was 8ish was still there, as was the house next door. Which was for sale…..

I loved living in Lille when I was a kid. It was quiet (most of the time) and no one bothered you (most of the time). It’s eerie in a way to look at pictures from when I was younger and see OUR house in the background. Of course it’s different now, inside and out, but if you drive by you’ll know this is our home. The porch is now enclosed and the red trim is gone, but it’s the same house that was there when I was a kid. (that’s me and my younger sister, Lisa- someone was telling us to hold hand, this was NOT normal activity for us)

(That’s our back yard in the photo; the barn is gone as are the trees) Why my dad ever let me drive that tractor is beyond me! I was a terror on it. I never wrecked it though.

He did say, however, that I wrecked his car.

I maintain, to this day, that I had NOTHING to do with it! I was to short to reach the clutch. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. (Taken next door to, that’s right, OUR house).

So whenever I go outside, or walk across the backyard I think of all the things I used to do back there. Like mow the lawn (we actually mow my neighbor, Dean’s lawn, so I’m STILL mowing that lawn) or ride my kitty kat (we didn’t have much when we lived in Lille, but Dad always seemed to find beat up stuff and make ’em work).

Or riding in the back yard in this hopped up weird car thing that my Dad had built until I was sneezing so hard I couldn’t breathe (thank you, hayfever!)

So that day, almost 6 years ago (4 years into our relationship) we saw our house for sale. We didn’t talk about it, it was a done deal. We talked to the older couple, the Bechards that lived there and went to see the house. Yup, it was old. Yup, it was small (we don’t have kids, nor have we ever wanted any) But it was manageable, with room to expand later on where the garage was. It wasn’t perfect, but what house is? It was well in our price range (at the moment we pay less than 200 a month for our home, I won’t freak you out with the actual number). Rachel knew Julia’s family, and of course, they knew me since I had lived next door. Rachel and Roger’s granddaughter had the same birthday as I did. We went home to our apartment and in a few days we were on our way to being home owners. It was “our” house. Small, with a garden and raspberry bushes. You have no idea how giddy I was about the raspberry bushes.

Now! Owning a house isn’t easy. Sometimes it isn’t fun! Each time something happens it panics Julia, but it seems to end up for the better.

Our 2^nd winter here, well, we had a whole lotta snow.

Then it melted.

We live like ½ a mile from the river. And it was in our back yard. Fun, huh?

Then the water left and brought the wall along with it.

Storm was very depressed.

Then! We had a leak. Usually that’s not a big deal, right?

That’s our ceiling, we had a leak and the ceiling came down. Yes, thrilling. This is when I nicknamed our house Matilda. I don’t know why, but at about the time I was losing my mind, and water was pouring from the ceiling, I just called her Matilda. The name stuck. This ended with us having to redo the kitchen. And here came the improvements!

Add storage, new walls, new trim.

New staircase. New bookshelf

But it’s our house, our back yard, our place to go to. It’s home.

Where Tyler played with his Tante Julia.

And whenever Rhys comes over, he heads off to the tracks – because, well, he’s my brother’s son!

It still has some of the best sunrises.

It’s home. Where we plant our roots, where we are safe, and where we love. No matter what is falling apart, how much it costs to heat (not that much!) it’s home.