I get extra points for walking when it’s below freezing outside, right?

After a stressful morning of watching my child get braces put on, some nature therapy was in order.

I’m sure I’ll feel much better (once I can feel my face again).

Haiku

A front coming through

Pushes rain and clouds ahead.

Christ, is it windy!

A whole new world

When people begin to pursue a new hobby in earnest, it frequently changes the way they view the world.  Take, for instance, three people walking on the beach.  The amateur photographer is noting the direction of the light, and the shadows, and mentally framing shots as he walks along.  The surfer is noting wind speed and direction, gauging the swells, and wondering how long she has to walk before she can head for the car for her board.  And the marine biologist is wondering how long it will take the surfer and the photographer to notice the pod of dolphins a few dozen yards off-shore.  Same light, same sand, same water - but a totally different experience for each of them.

I tend to latch onto my hobbies with both fists and a wrap a leg around them, too, so my approach to many situations is, shall we say, unique.  I'm a writer, so I'm always making note of bits of dialog I like and ideas I might be able to use in the future.  I'm a knitter and a crocheter, so I'm likely to pause a movie for five minutes just to get a closer look at the male lead's sweater or hat.  I'm a cook and a baker, so I'm always on the lookout for ways to try foods or techniques that are too complicated or annoying for me to want to make at home.  I'm a photographer with a love of macro lenses, so I'm always getting up close and personal with the strangest, most mundane things in the world ... and usually making a fool out of myself to find them. 

Like skipping part of breakfast so I could wander around in the rain with my camera sheltered under a plastic bag, so I could photograph a drop of condensed fog on a dead grass stem (with bonus upside-down totem pole inside):

I ignored the beach and the boats and the pool at the resort in Jamaica last November, but I came home with 20 pictures of a flower the size of a pencil eraser:

Well, I didn't entirely ignore the beach (there's lots of fun stuff in the sand, like bits of coral):

I also spend close to an hour in the glass house every time I go to the Botanical Garden, communing with the butterflies.  You'd be surprised how close they will let me come ... my lens was less than an inch away from this guy's face:

But most of all, I'm a blogger, a multi-media photojournalistentertainer whose interests range from the mundane (look what my kid did today!) to the introspective (news flash: depression sucks!) to the humorous.  It changes how I look a the world, and how the world sees me.  It means that when I'm having a particularly funny exchange with my doctor, I'm mentally taking notes to use later.  My friends have learned to shout, "You can't use that on your blog!" really quickly when I get a certain gleam in my eye.  And it means I occasionally find myself trying to document a Monarch butterfly migration while wearing only a towel:

Or, like today, when I decided to take a shortcut across the tree lawn to get from the sidewalk to the street, and I discovered that the ground wasn't nearly as solid as one might have hoped.  I stepped, my shoe stayed behind, and I was left hopping around on one foot in the street, fumbling for my camera so I could get this shot:

There are times when my compulsion to photograph and document and fictionalize is annoying - ask Jason how much fun it was in Virginia when I decided I wanted to photograph as many kinds of moss and lichen as I could find, so every hike took three times as long as it should have.  But most of the time, I love the way I see the world, and I pity the people who just see the surface of everything in life.  I love that I look at a forest and don't just see trees, I see shapes and textures and good places to find rotting logs and cool fungus.  I don't get bored waiting for my Butterfly Whisperer to finish in the glass house, I just take more close-ups of foliage.  And I don't have any problem remembering what I did last year, because it's all in my blog or on my photo stream.  There are certainly worse habits to have.

Girl Scout Camp!

This weekend, Luza and I attended her first Girl Scout camp. Four girls from our Brownie troop, plus another 250 girls from the Avon Service Unit (there are something like 400 Girl Scouts in Avon), for two and a half days at a YMCA camp in Pennsylvania.

There were relatively unsuccessful pie iron pies (we blamed the rain, not the cook).

Skeevy bunk beds and restless girls who totally weren't sleepy and were going to stay up all nighzzzzzzz

We learned (mostly accurate ... well, at least partly accurate) facts about Lake Erie, and got to see some of the wildlife that lives near the camp.

We took a hayride to the candy store up the road, then had to confiscate bags of candy when they proved to be too much of a distraction during the rest of the trip.

We played silly, pointless team-building games, often while blindfolded.

We learned exactly how much of a badass you have to be if you want to be Hawkeye.

We confirmed that Liza climbs rock walls just as fast as she climbs gym equipment, playgrounds, and any other vertical structure.

Swings? Even more fun when you get to play on them and your friends don't because they're off horseback riding. Also? All those years I trained on the tire swing at the old house in Maryland mean I am vicious-good at pushing other people in new and vomit-inducing ways.

Giant slide that goes all the way down the side of a hill? Check.

High surf + lots of book-sized rocks = really cool clicking sounds when they tumble in the waves + Girl Scouts who attempt to carry home their weight in stones.

Yep, we enjoyed nature (and almost stepped on a squirrel).

The girls even got into the swing if helping set and clear our table each day, with a minimum of whining.

We goofed off in the cabin we shared with 30 other girls...

...and had enough time on Sunday after the chapel service to practice our archery skills.

There were some missteps, and some things we could have handled better, but overall, the weekend rocked! Thank you, Sybil and Diane, for getting our troop involved in this, and thanks to the Service Unit volunteers who organize this every year. And many, many thanks go to the staff at Camp Fitch, who were unfailingly helpful, enthusiastic, and encouraging. We had a great time, and we can't wait to come back next year!

http://www.avonvillagersgs.org/

http://www.campfitchymca.org/

Building Barry: Day 177

By Day 171, Friday the 18th, we had hardwood, and tile, and linoleum.

By Day 174, Monday the 21st, we had countertops, mirrors, and shower doors.

Days 176 and 177, the 23rd and 24th, saw the electrical and plumbing fixtures, plus the hot water heater and furnace.

 

And Day 177 brought the beginning of the carpet installation!

Liza was horrified by her room...not.

Building Barry: Day 167

Yay! Our trim has been painted, and so have the walls!

I can't tell you how much I love the spindle railing...words fail me.

The only thing I love more than my railings ... is my purple front door!

Sometime later this week we'll get flooring, but we couldn't resist cracking open a box to preview it. It looks awesome, even in really low light!

Got an email from the lender today asking for our final copies of our documents so they can make sure we actually have enough money to pay for this thing. We're going to close in about one month, and I can't wait!

Building Barry: Day 161

Very exciting day today - the carpenters came to play!  Yup, they were busy all day (I should know; I stopped by four times today!):

We got front porch railings:

And baseboards, and railings, and handrails:

We got cabinets to go around the stove:

And cabinets for the sink and dishwasher:

We got windowsills:

And we got doors for the rooms and closets:

We even got nicer steps to go into the garage:

We couldn't be happier with the results. Next stop, hard surface flooring!