Days like these…

Monday, December 1, 2014

I’m well aware that these may be the last of my Fall images. It was perfect weather until two weeks ago when the polar ice caps did their dance, vortexes (vortices?) brewed, and two unwelcome sets of Arctic winds swept through the East Coast. Fortunately we were in California last weekend and missed a cold Thanksgiving. But the weekend before, brrr……

I’m still sorting through the hundreds of images that I took on our trip to LA – I’ll post a few of those next week. My family can expect an album-length synopsis of every waking minute from touchdown to wheels up. A new camera will do that to you.

I bought my camera as an early Christmas present – to myself – which I never do. But I’ve been lusting after a new camera for years. I’d done the research, I’d picked out the lens. I’d even rented both pieces, just to be sure.

It’s a genius camera and a joy to use. I’ve loved taking it on long walks with the kids, and bought it just in time to catch the last of our Fall colors.

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Travel

Waywayanda State Park, New Jersey

Monday, October 13, 2014

We’ve had several sets of plans to go apple picking this Fall, all of which have fallen through. Rodney had to travel on Sunday and left us with no plans and a full day to explore.

We decided to leave for a last-minute trip to Warwick, NY for some apple picking, worried that the season would slip by without a visit. And after spending 30 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the main thoroughfare that links our lake house in northern New Jersey to the Southernmost part of the Hudson Valley, we pulled the ripcord and made other plans.

We’d passed by a small farm called L&L and rather than sitting in more traffic, we pulled over to see what they had to offer.

Although the apple orchard wasn’t open for picking, bushels of apples were available for purchase, and off in the distance I spotted a pumpkin patch. After our visit to Heaven Hill, we’d bought our fair share of pumpkins, but the kids were eager to find another, having drawn all over our existing pumpkins with a set of highly-guarded Sharpies. How they get a hold of these markers is a mystery; one of their magical talents seems to be finding Sharpies from hiding places that I’d previously thought undiscoverable.

We loaded up on fruit…

And bought a few decorated pumpkins…

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Travel

Skylands Botanical Garden, New Jersey

Monday, July 28, 2014

This is a shorter post this week as I just got back from a busy few days at a family reunion in Alabama. Looking forward to sharing those pictures with you guys next week, but until then I wanted to fill you in on a recent visit to a secret spot near our house on Greenwood Lake, NJ.

We’re lucky enough to live in a lake community that offers a great summer camp for the kids. They’ve been doing archery, cooking, pioneering, and have been taken on some fun local field trips. One of their field trips was to the Botanical Gardens in the Skylands area of Northern New Jersey, which is only a few minutes driving distance from the lake.

The kids came back with so many great stories about our visit that I wanted to see it for myself. So we found some free time on a Friday afternoon and made our way over to the gardens. I wasn’t expecting much more than a few beautiful lawns, but was taken by surprise when we walked into a nearly-private 90-acre wonderland.

We entered the gardens near the teensiest little hut that was apparently going to be used as one of the supplemental film locations for The Lord of the Rings.