The new camera

As you can tell, I have been having lots of fun with the new camera. I still have LOTS to learn to use it to its full potential. I tried to learn more about using different settings while I was on vacation--I bought a book about the Canon XT that is really helpful, along with the manual that came with it and experimented with taking the same picture with different settings and so on. But mostly I've used the auto setting and the setting for action--most of the fair pictures were taken with that as were the butterfly pictures.

The one thing that has frustrated me is not being able to zoom in. The only reason I was able to get the butterfly pix is because I was standing only about 2 feet from the butterfly, and even so, they are cropped--as are most of the others (which is fine, really). My old camera had 10x optical zoom, though, and I was used to being able to zoom in on things farther away. I could still use the old camera for that, but honestly now when I use it , it seems so SLOW that it makes me crazy. Am I a bit spoiled here? No doubt.

At any rate, I had a little cash I'd been saving for a while, so today I order a telephoto lens. I was going to wait a bit longer, but delayed gratification only works so long for me. Our parish retreat in nearby state is in two weeks, and it will be a good opportunity to work with the camera again. I do feel a bit guilty for spending so much money on myself, but it's done. At any rate, stay tuned for more pictures.

Here are a couple more from Maine:

Butterflies and bumblebees

From a late afternoon walk in the church garden...

The end of summer

It's Labor Day weekend, and in New England that definitely marks the end of summer. In honor of that, here's a RGBP Friday 5 on season's change.

1. Share a highlight from this summer.

This may seem like a weird choice, but preaching this summer has been very satisfying. As has being on my own for a month while my boss was on vacation.

And I was able to visit three of my favorite places--New York City, Vermont, and Maine.

2. Are you glad to see this summer end? Why or why not?

Summer's end is bittersweet, I think. Summer isn't really my favorite season, but I've enjoyed the more relaxed pace at work and my time off. Summer is so short here, though, that it feels sort of unrealized-but that may be the result of my own slowness.

It hasn't been all that hot here this summer, but I won't miss the humidity--or the tourist traffic!

3. Name one or two things you're looking forward to this fall.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons--I love the weather and the way things feel subtly different as we move into a fall rhythm and get ready for winter. But this year, honestly, my thoughts are already moving to spring--specifically to March when my first grandchild will be born and (I hope, hope, hope) LD#1 will come home from Korea.

4. Do you have any special preparations or activities to mark the transition from one season to another? (Cleaning of house, putting away summer clothes, one last trip to the beach)

I've never packed up clothes for different seasons, but now I have two closets in my bedroom, so I have one that is mostly for warm weather clothes and the other mostly for colder weather clothes. I do need to make sure all my sweaters are clean (yeah, I should've done it already!) and send coats to the dry cleaners. And check and see what mildewed over the summer, despite my best efforts to prevent it (ugh!).

5. I'll know that fall is really here when the leaves change and the air gets nippy enough that I have to close the windows.

Vacation photoblog 3

I played with my camera and took literally hundreds of hummingbird pictures, but only ended up with a few decent ones. I've never seen so many hummingbirds in one place before.
The red squirrel was cute and not at all shy about coming right into the feeder just on ther side of the window from two dogs and four cats.




We visited a friend's ginormous garden








We picked some veggies for dinnner


and saw flowers, too


Including Queen Ann's lace, which always reminds me of my grandmother.

Vacation photoblog 2

We went to the fair...

Where we saw chickens and sheep (this one was being shorn)


And rode rides on the midway




And played games


And saw Galaxy Girl do insane tricks on top of a VERY TALL pole--here she's swaying in the breeze...


And here she's on another platform being pulled around by the motorcycle


But it gets crazier...


Meanwhile a tamer act--50 hula-hoops


After eating yummy fair food (sorry, no pix of that) we went back to the midway








And then, very tired, we went home.

Like sands through the hourglass..

Today as I was running an errand at lunch time, I noticed how much it looks like September already -- something about the angle of the sun or the color of the sky or the just-beginning-to-fade green of the leaves. Where has the summer gone. Time is going by so fast, and a number of things have conspired lately to make me feel old(er)--well, sort of, because I swear inside I'm not a day over 35.

~While I was on vacation, my mother turned 80. 80. Amazing. My grandparents lived into their 80s, but my father didn't make it. There's just something about realizing your parent is 80 that makes you feel a bit more....well, older.

~I went to pick up the Kid's bus pass this afternoon (yes, school starts tomorrow) and as I walked out it hit me that I will only have to do that one more time. Next year he will graduate. This is startling enough (didn't he just start kindergarten?) but when you consider that because there are almost 16 years between Elder Son and the Kid, I've had a child in school every year for (if I count right) the last 27 years. So when the Kid graduates, it will be a major milestone for ME. I won't know how to act come September. Yeah, I know: He's only a junior this year, so I still have two more years, but the impact of his graduation really hit me today.

~If you've read NSLS's announcement, you'll know that I'm going to be a grandmother. I'm thrilled and excited and all that, but really, me? A grandmother? Couldn't be possible, could it? Truth is, I'm old enough and my kids are old enough that I could've been a grandmother years ago, but as I said, inside I'm not a day over 35.

~When my dad was my age, he was getting ready to retire; I, on the other hand, have barely started this career. I can't imagine retirning, but I suppose others my age are thinking about it. Too weird.

~Could we slow things down here, please?

Vacation photoblog 1

We went to a boat show....

where we saw some incredible wooden boats





and saw a "dogs and water trial" that included dogs swimming to fetch


and running across lobster traps


and dancing on the dock


Then we went to the Transportation Museum...

where we saw an ornithoptor


a car designed for Maine winters


a car with training wheels


a very early helicopter


and took a ride in a (rebuilt) Model T woody

Another one falls

Another one of Bush's cronies has resigned!
And not a moment too soon.

Could we hope for more?

ETA: The President accepted the resignation "grudgingly"? Another sign of his complete idiocy.

End of vacation blogging

~Tomorrow morning we head back home after two great weeks in Maine with our friends. Saturday I go back to work, and Wednesday the Kid starts his junior year of high school. Summer, where have you gone?

~The weather here has been a foretaste of the fall to come--cool, brisk nights and days just warm enough to be pleasant. There are apples falling from apple trees around, and a maple on the way into town is beginning to show fall colors.

~Despite two very full weeks (bird watching, kitten finding, boat show, golfing, a fair, more golfing, hanging out, movies, cook-outs and picnics, board games) there are still things we didn't get around to doing. Isn't that always the way with vacations? The good part of that is all the things we can look forward to next time.

~It's funny how thoughts of work start creeping back in as vacation winds down. I woke up this morning thinking of details that needed to be attended to for the funeral I'm officiating at on Saturday, and spent part of this evening working on my sermon for Saturday night and Sunday.

~I still have more vacation blogs--and pictures!--to come. D and J's niece is visiting from England, and she asked me to write a post about her, too. But all that will have to wait until we're home and the sermon is finished.

~Thanks, D and J, for a great time!

Back to normal

~Internet service was restored about 20 minutes ago. Two of us are now busily checking blogs and email. YAY!!

How we went bird watching and came home with a kitten

Here is the story of the found kitten seen in the previous post:

~Last Saturday, we set out to go bird watching to see migrating shore birds. As it turned out, however we were unprepared for the marsh mud and cut our expedition short, although we did manage to see a few birds--yellow-legged marsh birds, an ibis, and a merlin (a small hawk). Driving off we were debating on what we should do next when J realized the map she wanted was in the back of the car. We pulled off the side of the road, J retrieved the map, and was just getting back into the car when she paused and said, "Shhhh.......I just heard the strangest bird call." The sound came again, a slight "meewwwww"

~"That sounds like a kitten." And at just that moment a small velvety gray kitten emerged from the weeds, damp and rumpled. J swept her up and cuddled her. Guessing that she had been abandoned, and checking at the only two houses close by, J and D determined that there was nothing to do but take her home.

~The new kitten is a lovely velvety gray manx with a spunk personality. After a little over a week she is becoming fully incorporated into a household of three other cats and two dogs, cared for by two loving humans. Little did she know what a lucky day it was for her when she mewed in the bushes and was taken for a bird!

~Still posting from the internet cafe; this afternoon, the fair!

In which we discover just HOW addicted to the internet we are

~So we're staying with our friends D and J in Maine and having a wonderful time. There is one small hitch, however. Their internet access went down four days ago, and we're talking a household in which there are four internet addicted people currently in residence and in which you will often find two or three people hovering over their computers at any given moment.

~ The first day we checked our computers every few hours, ever hopeful that the satellite link would soon be restored. The second day we rebooted the router periodically, still hopeful. By the third day we were twitching. What's the weather going to be? We don't know--can't check the internet. What's on at the movies? We don't know--can't check the internet. Did X email? Don't know--can't check the internet.

~Yesterday afternoon D and I went to the public library for a quick internet fix. And this morning, D, J and I are in a local coffee shop with free wifi because we JUST COULDN'T STAND IT ANY MORE! Really, it's absurd--speaking for myself, anyway--just how dependent I am on internet access. It is astounding how often one of us will say, "Just google it" or "Go look it up on the internet" or "Email so and so and ask them..."

~At this point, we have given up hope of quick resolution to the internet crisis. So while the vacation is providing many good, bloggable moments, they may or may not be posted.

~But while I'm on I'll leave a few pictures:


Hungry, hungry caterpillar


Found kitten




On the golf course

Vacation blogging light

~We arrived in Maine Friday afternoon, after a day of beastly traffic, and we've been on the go ever since. And although I have internet access and we've had bloggable adventures, there's been little blogging time. Pictures and stories later!

Playing with the camera

More is not better

One of the books on my to-read-on-vacation list is Bill McKibben's Deep Economy. Truthfully, I don't know anything about economics, but the premise of this book is that we cannot continue to sustain an economy (and concomitant lifestyle) that requires constant and ever-increasing growth. Since wondering how we could do that is something that has long puzzled me, given my naive understanding of capitalism, I am intrigued. I've only read a few pages but one of the things McKibben says right off is that despite what almost everything our culture tells us, more is not better.

I thought of this when I read Corndog's comment about 57 channels and nothing on (and it could be 157 or 957 depending on your cable package). I thought about it when I was in the grocery store trying to choose from the eleventy-seven different kinds of orange juice Tropicana puts out now. And I thought about it when I read this article in today's NYTimes.

I know all things are relative, but as someone who will never make a million dollars in her ENTIRE lifetime, the idea that people can be worth several million and still feel like they don't have enough is a bit mind boggling, and well, troubling. A big part of the American dream has been having more--more than our parents, more than our neighbors, more than we had last year. The drive to have more has contributed to innovation and technology and education and my ability to lead the comfortable life that I have. But when is enough enough?

Of course there are times when more is better: For a person making minimum wage, more is definitely better. For a person just beginning a career, more is better. For a growing family, more may be better. But what is the breaking point? When do we get to that place where we have enough?

I pride myself on living a pretty simple life. I drive a small car, I don't own expensive jewelry or clothes, I don't have cable or even a TV; I don't want a big house (in fact, I was really happy in my 700 sq. ft. apt. in NYC). But I still fall into the same "more is better" trap. I already lust for another lens for my new camera, and a new computer for the Kid, and I often think "if I just made X more dollars a year, life would be so much easier." But would it? I'm not so sure.

Because I'm an idealist I long for a world where everyone has enough to live comfortably and everyone has equal access to things like education and health care. Achieving such a world would require a radical rethinking of what "enough" means, however. Despite some local grassroots efforts to live simpler and more sustainable lives, lives that don't depend on "more," I'm not sure we as a society are up for that challenge.