first fire in the fireplace

light and clouds

Took this on our drive today through Shenandoah National Park... it was a great day for clouds.

Arnie having a think

memory lane

We took this photo three years ago this month -- we had just gotten engaged, and didn't have time or money for a professional engagement shoot, so we set up the tripod and Henry's little Canon pocket camera in my grandma's backyard and took about forty frames of timed shots. On some of them she pressed the shutter button, but because of the light and angle she couldn't see through the viewfinder! This one turned out the best, we thought, and ended up being the one we included a wallet-size version of in our wedding invitations.

about our doorknob

Last night our doorknob was jammed when we got home, not budging for any amount of key-turning, sighing, pleading, shoving, pulling, or stomping around the porch.

Luckily, we came in the back door. Today we called a locksmith and he spent about 45 minutes working on it -- an interior screw had come loose over what he thinks is about sixty years of continuous use, so he had to screw it back in and put it all back together again. No parts, no replacement. :) I asked him if a newer lock would be safer and he said this was a very good solid old one, just to keep it how it is. Yay.

china cabinet series

I added some new pieces to my vintage china set this week and wanted to take some pictures of the cabinet's contents. Went a little crazy with it, actually.

family reunion

Butler, PA, 7/8/09

Amish wheat

Wheat field, Lancaster Co., PA

hydrangea macrophylla (blue)

Another new addition to the backyard while we were gone.

tiger lilies in the yard

Look who showed up while we were gone for 4 days.

faithful tomato

I reorganized my craft area tonight and rediscovered my old pincushion -- I've had this since I was 13 I think -- 16 years! ;)

I love this place.

St. Patrick's Cathedral
New York City

Amish commuter

Today we drove through Lancaster County's Old-Order Amish areas.

Cathedral Hallway

Washington National Cathedral
Washington, DC
7th Floor Observatory

petal edges

I was playing around with some settings I don't usually use on my camera, this happened, and I liked it.

I'll leave the light on for you.

Today I found a lamp while out bargain-hunting. This foyer has needed one for a long time, but none really seemed right until this one today.

As a side note, this is the first photo I've taken for a while that I popped into Photoshop and couldn't think of a single effect I wanted to try on it. I just liked it how it was for some reason.

After I finish the upstairs bedroom I'm working on, my next project is going to be this foyer: scraping off the popcorn ceiling texture and repainting the burgundy areas of trim to be a pale creamy white.

a new work zone

One unforeseen benefit of us finally getting a table and chairs for the dining room table is that I have a nice big space to spread out my books and laptop and papers while lesson planning for my fall classes. The key will be to see whether I can clean *up* after myself when I'm done for the day. Rainstorms outside today - hence the odd lighting.

heirloom roses after the rain

Took this after a pounding rain today.

a new technique

I should stop using my pocket camera for pictures like this.

I've been trimming off roses in the back yard -- today I decided to leave more leaves attached and let nature do the "arranging."

Eastern Shore

Last week we took our guests on a whirlwind tour of the area, hitting DC first, and then Maryland's Eastern Shore. Sand is one of my least favorite things to touch, but I do like how the light and dark play in its shadows.

table roses

The roses in our backyard are going a bit ballistic -- this is the fifth vaseful I've made up in three days. I'd really like to learn to arrange flowers for real sometime -- for now I just let gravity be my guide.

les chaises perdu

Our dining room finally has chairs -- only seven months later.

roses, roses

The roses are blooming in our back yard.
And on the kitchen windowsill, too.

stairs of justice

This is the spiral staircase at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC.
It is self-supporting, and marble, and great.

The United States Supreme Court

With friends in town, a trip to DC is always a good idea.
I composed this shot, for what it's worth, but didn't press the shutter.

June 1, 1974

I didn't take this photo, but I love it.
It's my parents' wedding, June 1, 1974, in Altoona, PA.
I scanned it today from an old album and had fun with it in Photoshop,
bringing it back to life a little.

one of eight

This is one of eight grocery-size bags of unwanted popcorn ceiling texture I have scraped off the ceiling in the room I am working on.

East Coker

St. Michael's Church
East Coker, England -- March 2009
Final resting place of T. S. Eliot

rainy view of the carriage house

Today is the eleventh day in a row I haven't had to water the garden.
This is the view from our "sun"porch.

Philadelphia

I always like the way light comes down city streets - this was in Philadelphia, yesterday.
I also liked the idea of these buildings going oldest to newest back toward the horizon.

trip to Philadelphia

Yesterday we went on a rather spontaneous daytrip to Philadelphia -- part of the way there we went through an underwater tunnel and it surprised me that the GPS still worked there. Plus it looks like we're driving on water. Coincidentally, Willie Nelson's song "On the Road Again" began to play during the exact moment I was taking this photo.

One year ago

Today I decided to dig in my archives a little and rework an old photo.
A year ago we were getting ready for our trip to Europe with friends.
This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen: the Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace, in the Louvre, in Paris. It is a perfect example of museum setting. The first time I saw it, when I was twenty-one, I sat down on the wide, warm steps and cried.

popcorn ceilings

It's my first full day of summer break, so I began a project I've been planning for a long time -- removing the texture from the ceilings in our house. This is our upstairs front bedroom, partway done. The texture on the left is our goal.

summer might look a little like this

I'm done grading.
These boots were made for stomping around my yard watering my tomatoes without a particular care in the world.

Summer Sink

To Do List

On my last day of office hours I noticed my officemate's to-do list looked significantly lovelier than mine, and resolved to somehow get a similar one as soon as possible.

grading

It's the end of term here on my kitchen table.

Her name was Halcy.

irises

Ricordati che è un film comico.

When Italian director Federico Fellini was struggling to make a film, going through "director's block" they say, he came up with the idea for the landmark film 8 1/2. It is, of course, a film about a filmmaker trying to make a film. While he was filming, during the dark and messy times, of which there were many, he pasted a brown paper label above the viewfinder of his camera: "Ricordati che è un film comico." -- Remember, this is a comedy.