Just A Few Extra Wedding Photos

I was able to track down a few of the photobooth photos from Cuz K. and A.'s wedding.

So, also, in early November I finally got the tattoo I had been thinking about for quite a few years. It took almost four hours and by the end it was painful (the first hour lulls you into a false sense of low pain security), but the tattoo artist I chose after much due diligence, did an excellent job. It's got two main meanings to me. First, I am trying to push myself to be more optimistic in life, and so now I have a blue bird on my shoulder, which I associate with such optimism (zippadeedooda etc). Also, along the branch I asked the artist to include a sort of 'etched' set of my mother's initials. When my parents moved to Tennessee she got really into having a few blue bird houses around the house, and while I can't say that they were her favorite bird, hearing her talk about the progress of the birds is something I remember about many of our phone calls during the Tennessee years. The craziest part was that the artist, who travels between a number of different studios in very different parts of the company, could only schedule the actual work during a very small window. While I asked for a weekend, he only had a Monday...and that was actually the same day that my mother actually died. Coincidence probably, but still and interesting turn. I would never assume that Mom would actually be on board for this, and I imagine she probably wouldn't have wanted me to do it, but I do think she would probably have understood the sentiment and I really did think about it for years before committing. Now I just wish it was easier to see one's own back.

I'm still in need of getting a better photo of the tattoo in order, there really is some nice detail and coloring worth seeing, but I did take the photobooth opportunity to at least get a basic shot. Also, look at that braid (and ignore the jowls)!

Hummingbird

So one totally cool thing about the grounds around the cottage was just how much life was going on. There were the wild and free resident rooster, chicken and chicks who generally took a perimeter stroll around 7 in the morning, there were a range of birds, lizards of course, a frog in the outdoor shower, and hummingbirds. I quickly saw the hummingbirds but was too lazy at first to get my slightly better zoom lens out to try to capture one flitting about, but eventually one morning I did. This first photo was supposed to be of a bird, but it vamoosed before I could take the photo...but look at that lizard on the tree! I had no idea that sucker was even there until I looked at the photos later.

Bird!

Birdy bird bird!

Mmmmm. Bird.

So neat. I think this hummingbird was roughly the same size as the moth!

Turkey Vultures, Breakfast and Fall Foliage

One of my favorite parts of spending so much quality time outside of the city is just how many animals I can see. As I already noted, turkey vultures are a pretty common fixture in the air during the afternoons...but one morning I got up early enough to see a gaggle of them all still roosting. I imagine they were airing out/drying their wings before getting down to business. It was a strange and striking thing to come across.

Sun and leaves. No complaints.

I reheated some of the cheesy rosemary leek and potatoes and added a fried farm egg on top. This was one of my more brilliant ideas.

Another day and more woods walking.

I'm going to be sad when the leaves all fall off and everything is bare.

But for now it's golden. Literally.

Brisket, Charades and Catan

This last afternoon was perhaps the sunniest of the days I was up in the Adirondacks, which was ideal for the preparation of that night's dinner: smoked brisket.

A number of us sat around as the fire was built (helped along with the aid of grease) and the brisket was positioned for a good number of gentle smoking hours.

At some point I roused M. and we went to Lampson Falls. This is something we've done in previous years, and which I planned on properly documenting. Unfortunately I forgot the camera in the car. This is basically what it was like. The big excitement of the excursion was when I accidentally allowed one of my flip flops to float away from me. I accepted it would never be seen again. Then, maybe ten minutes later, a strange swirl of a current boomeranged the flip flop back to our general pool area and M. was the heroine of the day....jumping into the water and swimming further out than either of us usually do to retrieve the dang thing. Seriously. I was very impressed and grateful. It made walking back to the car far more pleasant than it otherwise would have been. On the drive back we saw this bird.

We arrived just in time for dinner. That brisket and its accompanying sauce, salads and stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon were just the way to end a lovely day.

Then it was time for charades. A game that I do not consider myself particularly good at, but which I played nonetheless. In fact I managed to successfully get my team to guess a Japanese film name. I wish I could remember exactly what it was so you could then consider whether you would have found an effective way of acting it out. Alas. In any case, here is W. getting her team to guess something. Maybe a bird?

In between turns the two youngest kids would dance for the crowd.

T. taking his turn.

M. being intense and expressive.

I forget exactly what the circumstance of this was. V. may have disagreed with some word guessed or decision made. Whatever the cause, it was decided that she needed to be sat upon by M. to calm her down. It had the opposite effect.

V. and I had a nice separate chat about finances, which I'm grateful to her for having with me...even if at this point I still couldn't really tell you what a mutual fund is...a fund made up with bits of stock shares?

Father and son. A. was very displeased with all the photographing going on, so I didn't take any photos of him.

Three of the G. bros in various versions of profile.

Dessert.

And once charades was concluded, with my team winning, A., C. and I played Catan while a larger group played Trivial Pursuit.

Then there was the thing with the canoe.

Hawks and Tacos

The weekend following my time in New York found me in Bucks County. I left after work and made my way through gnarled traffic and misty rain, which was not so pretty in Philly or on the highway, but substantially more picturesque when driving down country roads and passing hovering misty fields and the like. By the next day the misty/rain was but a memory. I spend the majority of that day  enjoying a quiet weekend alone with plenty of sun, a very loud hawk that kept on flying around and shrieking and reading the fifth book of Game of Thrones. My day was occasionally punctuated by a quick woods walk, or bite of cheese. And at some point I went to a farmer's market.

In the evening I created myself some lamb/beef tacos and enjoyed them very much.

Morning Walkabout & Afternoon Sandwich

First off, find the chipmunk in the photograph below!

The chipmunk and the other photos that follow are from Sunday morning. I took a stroll south along the lake road. Everything still had that real new green look to it. Or newer than you might see in Philly? More spring than summer? But late spring?

This set of stairs from the hill/cliff above seems as if it has seen better days, that you'd need legs that defied gravity to actually climb them.

But they also have a certain mystery and beauty. What is it about things falling apart that evokes beauty?

Greens.

Iris? Lilac? Swallows.

Sandwich! This was a mix of provolone cheese, shaved smoked turkey, salami, lettuce and tomato. And maybe a slice of Muenster for good measure. A hearty, happy sandwich, which I enjoyed on the shores of the lake.

Roasted Chicken

D. was nice enough to leave a chicken in the fridge for me to roast to my heart's content. I spent a part of that Saturday morning brining the chicken a little and then after a few hours, stuck it into the oven. I managed to find more patience than I sometimes do, which led to a bird that browned nicely in less time than it sometimes takes when I'm constantly opening the oven to check the internal temp of the meat. The skin was especially crispy/crunchy.

Also, the geese kept flying around in droves.