In the Water

Chihuly sculptures are not the only things you will find in the water at the gardens, This little frog was so still watching me from the water.


And it seems like dragonflies are following me everywhere, even to the gardens

 

Early birds may catch the worm.....

....but late sleepers can catch the dragonfly. When I get up at my usual time few things are out and flying around when I do my Bible reading. But sleep until 9:30am and you find a whole different world out by the waterfall and pond. Today I had to duck and swerve to avoid the dragonflies. I never realized how beautiful and different the dragonflies are. It seems that each day I realize how little I know about the world around me. Now I have to find a good book on dragonflies to learn more...my inner nerd seems to be growing in leaps and bounds.
 

Barbara Stalking

Barbara is one of my favorite SDV friends. We have sort of formed a mutual fan club but I think I crossed the line this weekend with my papparazzi stalking of her with my new camera. It was not safe for her to turn around without a flash going off. But true to Barbara style she took it with a smile. Barbara, you know I love you!! can't wait til the next SDV. Until then I will just stalk you on your blog.



 

Lunch Stop

Shortly after leaving our SDV Anat and I realized we were hungry. Anat spotted a sign for Esther's restaurant alongside the road and we decided it was worth a stop. We stepped into a time warp. I really think we were in the 50's, only the waitress with the punk colored hair let us know that we really hadn't walked through a time warp. After being seated in a booth Anat and I zoned in right away on the same items on the menu- Chicken Crouquette and breaded cauliflower. Both of us felt like it was a trip back to our childhood, complete with the canned greenbeans swimming in buttered water. We ordered potato filling (Mashed potatoes with herbs and egg mixed in and then baked- tasted like mashed stove top stuffing to me,) and each some soup too. We finished with pie- I think they had like 500 types to order from (Lemon for me, peach for Anat.) While not the culinary treat we thought it would be I still loved this place and the memories it brought up for me.




 

What's for dinner?

The last stop Anat and I made was to Dietriche's Meat Store. And what a trip it was. My lungs were wheezy from all the laughing, or held back laughter, while in the store. I have to say that I don't think we gave NY tourists a good name while we were there because we just got out of control as we kept finding unusual things for sale in the store. It started with the sign out front that mentioned Rocky Mountain Oysters were on sale (For those who don't know these are made from what is taken out when a bull is castrated,) I knew we were going to be in trouble. Then the stuff in the freezer case was enough to get me going again. A moment of calm as we pass the case with the steaks- the meat looked so good. But then, just as we are checking out the cold cuts I look up and the case is covered with jars of pickled pigs' snouts, pigs' feet and pigs' tails. There is just something about seeing a jar of snouts looking at you that can cause uncontrollable laughter. Then I turn around and find a whole pigs' head smoked and sitting on a table surrounded by all kinds of pigs' parts smoked. And then there was even a bologna football. I really think I could have stepped into a Twilight Zone episode. It was an interesting ending to a great weekend.

What would you do with a lamb's head or a goat's head for dinner? I just don't get it.

Football anyone? 

just one red paper clip

I just love blog surfing. You never know what you will see. Today as I frogleaped from a link in one blog to another and another I eventually ended up on someone's blog where they brought up this story. You have to love the ingenuity of this guy and what he was able to do. It is things like this that make me smile and enjoy life. I am not this creative but wish I could be.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/07/10/paper.clip.to.house.ap/index.html

Sunday morning at the Celery Farm

It was so beautiful this morning that I decided to head to the Celery Farm before church. I had not been there in a while and it felt so good to be back there, like coming home after being away for a long time. The swans swam over to greet me. I was sad to see there were only 3 young ones, I guess a turtle got the fourth one somewhere along the way. Dragonflies were going crazy all over the place and so I got a few shots of them. And then there was a beautiful butterfly hanging out just waiting to have his picture taken. It was great to see the people I have come to know and like and the beautiful preserve right here in Bergen County.




 

LansBaby play

I was able to spend a little time today playing with my lensBaby. I am becoming obsessed with it. Here are a few shots I got with it today.




 

Lensbaby

I got a new toy for my new toy today. I picked up my Lensbaby!! I cannot wait to really learn how to use this lens, the effect you can acheive with it are so cool. I picked it up right before MahJongg and so as soon as I could I put it on my camera and started playing. Not going to be as easy as I thought but thats OK, I love what it can do. Here are a couple of my first attempts with it.


 

Best sound

I got a phone call today from Shelby. She is in Ireland right now and we have not heard from her all week. I cannot describe the joy in my heart when I heard how happy she is. She is having the time of her life, not missing us at all. I couldn't ask for more. I asked her about baking Irish soda bread, part of their program today and she said it was cool but her favorite thing today was jumping into a big puddle of mud. Can you say happy as a pig? LOL She is so happy and that is all I can ask for. I love you Shelby and am missing you.

Bodies at the Seaport

Today Jay and I took Kyle and Meg to South Street Seaport to see the Bodies exhibit. If you haven't seen it and have no idea what this is click on the link to check it out http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/


First stop was a street performer. This is Jay's favorite thing when we are in the city. This guy was popping and miming at the same time, pretty cool.


They don't allow any photos to be taken in the exhibit so let me try to explain this ........ OK I can't. But imagine seeing each part of the human body seperate from every other part. I think the coolest was the circulatory system. These exhibits are all over the place and if you get the chance go to see it, it is so cool in a weird way.

From there we went accross the street to look at the boats and see the mall on the Harlem River. And then there was this wild contortionist performing. The guy totally freaks me out, it just isn't natural.
 

Quiet, Quiet House

Jay and I are getting to know what an empty nest feels like the past couple of days. Shelby left on Saturday for 3 weeks in the UK and Kyle has been working 6pm to 6am for Hackensack Hospital. So no lights on late at night, no doors slamming, no loud phone calls......jus tpeace and quiet. A little too peace and quiet. One thing about being childless for a couple of days is the ability to clean house. Shelby's room is now clear of junk and dirty laundry (Shelby if you are reading this from over there YOU OWE ME BIG TIME.) I had forgotten her carpet was green and I am not quite sure what clothes she has with her over there because I had to do around 8 loads, big loads, of laundry. How did a child who wears uniforms to school get to have so many clothes? But I miss having the kids around. I miss the noise, the junk and the dirty dishes. I am looking forward to Kyle's days off this week and and counting down the days until Shelby comes home.

Ali Edwards

It felt like Christmas today after the mail lady came.... I got two album kits from Ali Edwards in the mail!! What is even better is that I only ordered (well, Anat really ordered them for me) just a couple of days ago. So not only does Ali design the most amazing albums kits (and a whole lot of other things too,) but she also must run right out to the post office to get them out. I am having so much fun right now dreaming up what I will do with these kits. Christmas in July..It doesn't get better than that.

A few more pictures from the stone barns center

I had to take a ride up by the Stone Barns to pick up my book of photos from our class (It came out great) and so I headed over to the center to play with that new camera. Here are a few of the shots I got there.




 

First shots

Here are a few of the first photos I took with my new camera. There are Meg's eyes, Kyle's eyes and yes, Shelby's eyes. Kyle took my camera and turned the tables on me and those are my eyes..... how did they get so old?




 

Crossing over to the dark side

I have been a self admitted film snob, "No digital cameras for me," I would say with a sneer. Then last year I went with a small point and shoot digital, just for fun. If I wanted to take serious shots I would pull out my beautiful 35mm. I loved that camera (still do actually). As I started hanging out at the Celery Farm and spending a lot on pictures of geese, the idea of digital entered my brain. But it took my class at the Stone Barns Center and shelling out $100 a week to print images that would mostly end up in the garbage I started to really see the light. "Jay," I said, "I think I am ready to go into the world of full digital SLRs." I think the earth started shaking and there were some snowballs being thrown in Hades. I had already played with the idea a bit and so when I walked into Bergen County Camera- the best camera store ever- I had an idea of what I wanted. Paul spoke wisdom to me and told me I didn't have to go as far as I thought and showed me the D200 ( I was thinking I needed the DX2 or something like that.) Fast forward 4 months Here we are in July and Jay said to me Wednesday night that it was time (Can you hear the music playing?) So now I am the proud owner of a digital Nikon SLR. It would be more accurate to say I am the completely overwhelmed and intimidated owner of a Nikon SLR. I figure I have to live to 500 to figure out all the things I can do with this camera. I am starting slow and playing a bit. I told Paul I will start coming in mext week with a ton of questions and become a weekly fixture at the store. I went out today and took a ton of pictures with it and am loving the freedom of shooting all I want and then just deleting all the junk.