Trying To Find The Road Not Taken

Looking back through Flickr at my most popular photos, I still love this one. It was taken at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. If your a fan of outdoor music, picnics and don’t mind a drive, it’s well worth the trip. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Craig will get lawn tickets for us and we’ll drive up with our chairs, blanket and a book and listen to classical music. Very relaxing.

Sunset on Good Hill, originally uploaded by criana.

When we got back from Maine, I really enjoyed looking through my photos. It also got me thinking, why do I wait for vacation to make time for photography and really enjoy it.

After work I came home, had dinner and then Craig and I headed up to Good Hill and I set up the tripod and just relaxed and watched the sun go down. Snapping photos along the way. It wasn’t a very dramatic sunset but it was nice to not be sitting on the couch thinking about what else I should be doing.

This year we rented a 1800’s cottage on a bay in down east Maine. When we first arrived I was questioning what the heck we rented. Craig on the other hand was very happy and loved the place. After moving our items in, it started to feel more like home. It really is amazing to realize that this house has withstood so much. The guest book went back to the 1940’s.

We had a great relaxing week, visited with family who also rented a home in the area. We never rode our bikes, but did do quite a bit of reading, exploring the area, watching movies, visiting and taking photos.

I drove back to Mount Desert Island on Saturday evening and decided to try to meet up with my group at Thurston’s Lobster Pound, but stopped at Southwest Harbor (Map) to take pictures of the sailboats in the harbor. I tried to take photos here in 2004 but my camera was stolen later in the day and I lost the photos.

When I pulled over, another photographer was out shooting photos already. I took out my tripod, camera, remote and started setting up. I used the graduated filter to keep the sky in color while also getting the boats exposed.

When I walked over to the area side of the dock area, I met Ted, who was the other photographer. We started chatting and it turned out he lived one road over from where Craig and I lived for a year and a half. He shared with me information on the photography class he was taking while in Maine. We swapped contact information and websites. I finally had a chance to give a moo card to someone who did not know me prior.

NYC Waterfalls, originally uploaded by criana.

Craig and I definitely want to go down to NYC to see these. Not sure if we’ll get to see all of them.

Rainbows, originally uploaded by criana.

A nice view to start my ride home.

Harlot @ the Calvin, originally uploaded by upstateknitter.

RantingKnitter, Knitorious and myself went to see the Yarn Harlot at WEBS in Northampton, Massachusetts back on April 27th.

I’ve been following Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s blog, the Yarn Harlot for about 3 years now. Not only is she a gifted knitter, but very funny. She’s written a few books. I’ve read Knitting Rules, Cast-Off and am working on The Yarn Harlot.

The reason for her visit to WEBS was a book signing for her newest book, “Things I’ve Learned From Knitting”. We got to WEBS shortly around 10:30. Did some shopping, bought our stuff and then got in line for the book signing. The time went by quite quickly. The ladies from Knitting Liberally were in front of us. We got “stuck” in the warehouse section of WEBS. I think if I were truly addicted to knitting (not yet) I’d have gone crazy with wanting to buy everything around me.

We did finally make it up to Stephanie just before 1:00pm and got our books signed. I shared a quick story with her regarding my last name. She laughed and said she had a very similar one.

Off we went to the Calvin Theater to see her speak. Meanwhile I had been working on my socks, which I hadn’t touched in quite a while, on the car ride up. I then worked on them some more at the theater. I got a lot done!

Stephanie spoke for roughly an hour. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. She shared some great research studies about the brain, different frequency waves and how knitting puts the person into a state of almost meditation.

Afterwards, we got lunch at FitzWilly’s where I introduced Kelly to the most decadent of treats, Garlic Bread in a pool of melted Gorgonzola and Asiago cheeses.

There was still some shopping to be done at WEBS and then we made the journey back to Connecticut.

To all the Mom’s out there. Happy Mother’s Day!