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Five in Five: November

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It’s November 5th, and I have my Five in Five for the monthly meme at itchifingers, hosted by Sandie. Tracy and I spent one afternoon last week at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I don’t believe we’ve ever been there in the fall before. Although there weren’t many trees that had turned color, there were many beautiful displays. I’ll be back later in the week with some more photos of these gorgeous gardens. But for now, five (in five minutes) from my favorite display at The Enabling Garden, a hands-on teaching garden that encourages gardening for people of all ages and abilities.

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I loved the stem on this pumpkin.

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The light on the doors is what prompted me to take this photo.

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This last one has a green gourd that looks like an animal with a long tongue!

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You can check out other 5 in 5 projects right here.

 

Five in Five: September

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It’s very warm and muggy here today. The effects of Irma seem to be much warmer weather and a higher level of humidity. A small price to pay given the destruction she reeked on Florida and some of the southern states. Until yesterday it has been, however, much cooler than normal, dropping into the 40’s at night. I’m beginning to see leaves turning color and signs that fall is upon us. The flowers in my garden and on the patio are still going strong. Usually by now I would have replaced many of the summer planters with mums, but not this year. 

For this month’s, Five in Five, I decided to capture some of those gorgeous blooms. I’ll be missing them soon enough.

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Actually the focus is on our new glass hummingbird which hangs with the basket of impatiens which are still going strong. We can see this from our kitchen window and are enjoying the new addition.

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The hydrangeas in our front yard were planted last fall, so this is their first blooming season. These were a deep purple just a few weeks ago. This beautiful transformation was certainly unexpected.

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We’re even getting new buds and blooms in the patio planters.

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One reason I love geraniums is their long-lasting nature. They just keep blooming and blooming, both in our pots and in our patio bed.

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The ornamental pepper plant adds a huge pop of color to the patio.

I’m linking up with Sandie at itchifingers who kindly hosts this meme each month.

August Five in Five: The Front Yard

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I don’t remember the last time I took a two week break from blogging. This one was unintended and it’s the result of just having too many things on the calendar. We’re definitely enjoying the end of summer weather with day trips to Ithaca and the Finger Lakes, and a fair amount of entertaining.

This weekend will serve as an example of our schedules. Friday morning I got up early to start dinner preparations since we were entertaining. I was not happy to discover that the refrigerator was not working. The freezer was fine, but everything in the fridge was warm. It’s a long story, but by Saturday we’d figured out (and solved) the problem but not before having to toss a lot of food, and transfer all our frozen food to my mother-in-law’s extra freezer.  Friday afternoon I spent three hours at our final Cooking Matters class run by Food Link at the refugee center where I volunteer twice a week. We had a potluck luncheon and there were many delicious international dishes to choose from. Saturday we spent with Matt and our granddaughters while Betsy attended her sister’s bachelorette party. We spent a few hours at the zoo, and just hung out playing on the swing set and blowing bubbles in their backyard, but let me tell you, a one-year old, a two-and-a half year old, and a nearly six year old can keep you really busy no matter where you are! Yesterday our book group met for lunch and a discussion, and I attended a going-away party for one of the refugees who is moving to North Carolina. Then I finally got to the store to replace all the food we had to throw out. This week, both of the nonprofits where I volunteer are closed so hopefully, I can get back to a more consistent posting schedule. I spent a couple of days last week playing with a new stamp set, so I’ll have cards to share as well as photos from our July vacation. But now, here’s the 5 in 5 before I miss this month’s deadline.

Nearly a year ago, Matt started working on our front yard. By the end of October, he had replaced our front walks with a new brick walk, and started the new landscaping. You can see before photos here (last September’s Five in Five.) This summer he replaced the the front porch, and we had new railings made that extend down the steps providing needed support for some of our less mobile friends. I thought this might be a good subject for this month’s Five in Five.

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This is the view of our house from the street. We replaced our glider (to the left in the photo,) and Tracy built a brick “platform” for it to sit on.

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Here’s a closer look at the new front porch and railings. The house was built in 1931, and the stones on the top of the porch had worn away.

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Last fall, Matt planted a total of six hydrangeas (three on each side of the walk) and a hydrangea tree, all of which are blooming this summer. He also left some bluestones on which we’ve placed some planters.

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The planters on the front porch.

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And, finally, a closer look at the planting closest to the house.

Matt also redid all the landscaping to the right of the driveway which is so much better than it was before. Now we’re working (again) on the back of the house. Tracy’s laying a small patio below our shade gardens for our fire pit (only used once since we bought it two years ago), and a set of red Adirondack chairs. I’m not expecting it will all get done this summer. I’m linking this up with Sandie, who kindly hosts this monthly meme.

Five in Five at The Heritage Gardens

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Although I don’t often check my email on my phone, as we approached Cape Cod last week, I decided to see if there was anything of interest, and indeed, there was. Anne from Artful Journey had sent me an email suggesting we stop at The Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts if we had time. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to line up for the ferry to Nantucket, we decided to explore. It was a fabulous suggestion. The gardens are beautiful and it’s just the beginning of hydrangea season there. I’m a huge fan of hydrangeas, and need to take some photos of the beautiful hydrangea tree Matt planted in our front yard last fall as well as the more traditional ones that now grace the new landscaping. Even my huge hydrangea that has failed to bloom for three years is loaded with blossoms this year.

Here’s an introductory photo from The Heritage Gardens, followed by five photos of the gorgeous hydrangeas. I have more photos from the garden that I’ll share in later posts.

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In addition to the beautiful gardens, they also have a lovely outdoor cafe where we had an excellent lunch, an art gallery, a carousel, and an antique car museum. Plenty to explore on another trip. I also found two more items for the Summer Scavenger Hunt. I can’t think of a better way to have spent our time.

I’m linking this post to Sandi’s Five in Five. Take five photos in five minutes; you have until the 25th of the month to link them up to Sandi’s post, and you can check in there for more inspiration.

Five in Five: May Edition

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It’s May 5th, and I’m here to join in with Sandie at Itchifingers with her Five in Five meme on the 5th, no less! The goal is to take as many photos as you want in 5 minutes and choose 5 to post. It rained all day today, but finally stopped around dinner time, and lightened up for a little bit. I grabbed the camera and went out in the yard to find some signs that show that spring is definitely here. 

The first photo is actually one of Gerber daisies that were purchased at the grocery store. It’s a good size container with three brilliant colored daisies—all for $7. It’s finally warm enough to keep a planter like this outside.

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Next up, one of the last of the daffodils. Tulips are in bloom in many yards, but the deer eat ours every year, so we’ve stopped planting them.

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Our rhododendron is as beautiful as I can ever remember it. We had a less severe winter this year, so I’m wondering if that’s why it’s so lush. We have another one that is just budding now.

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As I was taking photographs, a large bee showed up. “Buzz” was a prompt for the Project 365 in April, so I’ll be posting this one for today. It’s like the scavenger hunts. Even when I can’t find it on time, I keep looking, and usually I find what I’m looking for eventually.

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Finally, a shot of the hostas which are coming up as well. 

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There’s nothing but rain in the forecast for Rochester. Well, a snowflake is the icon for one of my weather apps for Monday. But we’ll be in Chicago by then which (unusually) seems to have a much brighter forecast for the next week. I’m anxious to hold that baby girl that we last saw when she was 3 1/2 weeks old, and to catch up with Caleb, Sarah, and Adam. 

 

April Five in Five: Looking for Color

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It feels like spring, the sun is shining, the daffodils are blooming, and there are a few crocus popping up, but still no leaves on the trees nor any flowering trees. The tulips aren’t out yet either. But I did know where to find a riot of color just a mile or so from our house. So this afternoon, I walked over to the Highland Conservatory. It’s easy to get five photos in five minutes in the Spring Flower Show room. There was, as I expected, lots of beautiful spring color.

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As always, I rarely get this meme posted on the fifth of the month, but I’m happy to be participating in Sandie’s monthly challenge to get 5 in 5, and grateful for an excuse to get to the Spring Flower Show.

5 in 5: Shore Birds

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This has turned out to be a last minute post. Entries to Sandi’s 5 in 5 meme are due by tomorrow. Not that I don’t have photos from our road trip, but 5 in 5 minutes hadn’t happened. Yesterday as we took our daily walk down the beach there were an unusual number of birds on the beach

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We spotted a bird we’ve never seen in all our trips to Florida. It’s a Black Skimmer—identified with Tracy’s iBird app. They’re the ones with the two-tone beaks–black and orange.

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I rarely manage to catch the birds in flight, but yesterday I did. All these were taken with my iPhone 6.

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And finally a photo of a bird we knew as a Pilot Tern (black heads), but we’re now not sure since we can’t find a bird with that name in our bird library. Our friend thought it was a Royal Tern, but a Royal Tern doesn’t have as much black on their head. 

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This is our last full day at the beach. We’re meeting friends of ours for lunch who are also on Longbeach. Tuesday night we had dinner with another couple who are also here. Amazing that we can have such a nice social life here as well as the wonderful weather! You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Five in Five: Taken on the 6th; Posted on the 7th

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I’m not quite sure how the 5th of the month escapes me over and over, especially when I’ve been participating in Sandie’s meme for over a year. But it wasn’t until I saw Mary-Lou’s photos yesterday morning that I realized that, once again, the 5th had passed me by. I was determined to remedy my neglect as quickly as possible, so yesterday I took a detour between two appointments and visited the Highland Park Conservatory. My membership had expired, so I was overdue for a visit there. Much to my surprise, I ended up with as many animal photos as plants or flowers. They have always had a covey of quails and a bale (I had to look this term up) of turtles, but both had greatly increased. The quail scurry around so quickly, it’s hard to get a clear photo even with a decent shutter speed. I had two five minute segments to choose from, and decided the animals were far more interesting than the plants and flowers.

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One group of turtles were having (or thinking about having) lunch.

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This group was playing in and around the pool of water, and playing piggy-back.

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A croton, just because there should be one plant in the mix. Love the colors and the beautiful veins in the leaves.

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A few quail having lunch.

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And perhaps hunting for lunch. This one is my fave. Love the bench legs and pot along with the cute little quail.

Linking up with Sandie at itchifingers with thanks for hosting this meme once again this year.

 

January 5 in 5

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I’m joining in with Sandie at itchifingers for her 5 in 5 meme again this year. We took Caleb to the Museum of Science and Industry today to see the Brick By Brick (Legos) exhibition. It was amazing, and Caleb and his Grandpa were in heaven. I’ll be sharing some photos from that in the near future. We had some time to kill after lunch today before our tickets for the movie on the National Parks (also wonderful) so we headed to the Art of the Bicycle exhibit.

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I’m counting this one as the title photo, not one of the five. I loved the graphic look of this piece. Rather than take photos of whole bicycles, I chose to focus in on the elements that attracted me. A couple of these work for prompt 13, cogs/gears, in the Winter Photography Hunt, as well.

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I loved the shadows this bicycle cast on the wall.

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This was a wooden bicycle, and one for the WPSH.

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I’m always a fan of red!

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More cogs and gears.

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And although this also is a candidate for the WPSH, it was the bright green that attracted me here.

It turns out that a museum exhibit is the perfect place on a cold, gray day in Chicago to find five photos in five minutes. Thanks, Sandie, for hosting this in 2017!

 

Five in Five on the 5th

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I planned this post in my mind early this morning before it was light, and I got so busy during the day I almost forgot to take the photos before it got dark this afternoon. (Yes, afternoon. There is so much less daylight in December, and I keep forgetting.) Earlier today I posted a photo of the shopping cart filled with flowers at The Garden Factory on Saturday. I thought it would be fun to see where they ended up in our yard, and in our house. Actually there are six photos, but I’ll stick to the rules and just post five of them. 

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While I was waiting in line with Matt at The Garden Factory I spied these amazing urns filled with greens—far too large for our yard. Matt quickly noticed that there were smaller ones on a stand just to the left. After I left them, I discovered that they were very reasonable, and one quickly hopped into my cart. When Matt redid our landscaping this fall, he left this wonderful stone which looks great alone, but also holds a good sized pot.

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We’ve had a couple of old sleds hanging in our garage for years, but it’s only been the last year or two that I’ve added some greens to one of them and put them on the (very small) front porch. I added the ribbon at home, and didn’t even notice when I was (quickly) taking the photo how much the wind was blowing.

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Every year we have a bright red poinsettia in our living room. 

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And often a multi-colored one in the dining room.

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It wouldn’t be Christmas without a cyclamen. Actually I bought two, a bright red one that’s in the dining room, and this gorgeous pink and white one for my desk upstairs. When my father was alive, he always sent me a cyclamen at Christmas time.

Linking up with Sandi at Itchifingers for her Five in Five (5 photos in 5 minutes) with thanks for hosting this monthly meme. 

November 5 in 5 and Memorandum Monday

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I’m joining in with Sandi and her monthly 5 in 5—five photos in five minutes. I had to pick up my pace today to get these photos in five minutes, but it was a gorgeous November day, and it seemed like a good time to share some photos from the University of Rochester.

I’m on the campus three days a week this fall for a course, “Introduction to the Old Testament.” I took on the project of reading the Bible from cover to cover this year. Two years ago I purchased a Daily Bible which is divided into 365 readings, and I decided this was the year to tackle the project. I’ve found it fascinating, and when I finished reading the Old Testament I had many questions, so asked to sit in on this undergraduate course. The course covers the historical, social, economic, and political background of the writings of the Old Testament. It’s been a wonderful experience with lots of reading, although I’m not taking the exams or writing the paper.

The last couple of weeks we’ve been reading and studying the prophets, and I must say during this awful election season in the United States, I’m afraid that not much has changed politically since 600 BCE.

Now to the photos:

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The Rush Rees Library; the building where my class meets is on this quad.

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Just around the corner from the library, Wilson Commons, the student union and activity center.

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I couldn’t pass by this beautiful tree. There are Novembers in western New York where all the leaves have fallen by now. This has been an exceptional fall season.

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Even the roses are still blooming, with the lovely leaves as a background.

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I think this is a dorm, but I’m not sure.

The weather this weekend was pretty nice as well. It started with the annual Grocery Run, a 5K race/walk to raise funds for hunger ministries. (More about this on Wednesday.)

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Here we are before the start of our walk.

On Sunday after serving Communion at church, I helped a friend get out the vote for her political campaign. She’s running for the New York State Assembly. I totally neglected to get any photos, but this is my first foray into any kind of political action. She’s a Democrat running in a deep Republican district, but has made a lot of headway, even getting the endorsement of a very conservative radio host. It will be interesting to see tomorrow what kind of impact her campaign has had.

This morning we learned that our dear friend, Bob, passed away peacefully early in the morning. His wife and daughters were with him. He had been admitted to hospice on Saturday. After church we visited with the family; by then he was not aware of our presence. Just 10 days ago, we had lunch with him at one of our favorite restaurants. It’s hard to comprehend. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers, and many thanks to those of you who have asked about him in recent weeks.

Memorandum Monday and September’s Five in Five

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There’s a bit to report this Monday. We’ve done quite a bit of work on our house in 2016. All the bathrooms have been refurbished, and all of them received new plumbing. We’ve added a new chair to the living room, a new bed in the guest room, and a new sleeper sofa in the den. The last of the big projects was replacing our front sidewalk. It’s been in the planning stage for several years, actually. At one time, we thought we’d relocate the front walk, but in the end, decided just to replace the cement sidewalk with a brick walk that would match the one on the side of the house which was there when we moved in 31 years ago.

Here’s a look at the sidewalk in mid-September:

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Notice that my beautiful Korean pear tree is already dark brown. Sadly, it’s not from the change in weather, but a fungal disease for which there is no effective treatment.

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About a year ago, Matt and Tracy pulled up the cement sidewalk that led to the kitchen door. At that time, we still planned to move the sidewalk toward the center of the yard. Tracy laid down pavers to get us through until the new sidewalk went in.

Last spring, Matt started his own landscape business, and he’s doing all the work himself. It’s very nice to have him around every day, and I have lots of photos of the process. For today, however, I’ll stick with the photos I took this weekend.

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You’ll notice the Korean Pear tree is now gone. If I were a crier, I would have cried the day it came down. We’re not sure, but we think we’ll replace it with a Kousa Dogwood in the spring. I had no idea what was involved in replacing the walk, but it was much more involved than I imagined. Matt is meticulous so everything was done very carefully.

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This week the lawn has to be regraded, and a new bed will be designed for the glider and the new tree if we choose to replace it. He’s also going to resize the bed around the light pole. One thing I really wanted was to have some of the existing beds cleaned out and replanted with a lot fewer plants. Matt has two of them done, but there are still some hostas that need to be moved from the front of the house behind the holly. I love to look out my studio window (top left) and see the new sidewalk. It’s a bit of a consolation for no longer being able to watch the birds in the pear tree.

On Saturday Matt and Betsy had an out-of-town wedding to attend, so we babysat for Skylar and Ella. Maddy went to her Aunt Pam’s. We had a great time, and I took the opportunity to collect some photos for Sandi’s 5 in 5 monthly meme. Here’s Ella writing and drawing at 23 months old.

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Five photos in five minutes; it’s a fun exercise and you can join in right at Sandi’s blog, itchifingers.

5 in 5 and Memorandum Monday

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I’m waving to Sian and her friends today. It was an incredibly busy weekend here filled with all kinds of new experiences. Tracy’s high school class celebrated their 50th High School Reunion this weekend, and he was the chairperson of the event. He and the committee have been planning this event for the last several years, and I actually know more people in his graduating class than I would in my own. (Granted I only attended my that high school for two years.) There was a Friday night gathering at a local bar, a Saturday night dinner, and a Sunday picnic. In addition, we hosted breakfast for seven Saturday morning–friends who had arrived from Florida, England, New Mexico, and Illinois. I took almost no photos of the events since there were several people taking lots of photos. But here’s a snapshot from the Saturday night dinner of the planning committee.

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I learned lots about his classmates over the course of the weekend, but nothing of great interest to share here.

Squeezed into Saturday was Skylar’s fifth birthday party, and as always, Betsy planned a wonderful event with face painting, and balloon animals. I did take LOTS of photos there. Here are five in five minutes during the breaking of the pinata for Sandi’s September 5 in 5 meme:

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You can see the amazing face (and arm) painting in this one. The woman who did these was a wonderful artist.

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There will be more birthday photos come Wednesday for SNAP! For now, I’m off to get my homework done for class, and wrap up some odds and ends that need to be finished this week.

 

 

5 in 5: August

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Each month I like to participate in Sandie’s 5 in 5 photography meme. I was quite sure I’d be able to come up with five photos in five minutes somewhere on Nantucket, and it proved easy to do. I finally chose these five from the village, Siasconset, commonly referred to as S’conset. On earlier trips to Nantucket, Matt had sent me photos taken with his phone, with the comment, “You’d love it here, Mom.” And indeed, I did. The village is very small—a lovely market, a delicious sandwich shop, and a small cafe and wine shop. The rest of the village consists of quaint cottages, all shingled, all with beautiful flowers. Some of the cottages were built in the early 1700’s and are still in excellent condition. Later in the day, after these photos were taken, several of us walked the Bluff Path, and I’ll share some photos from there later. Along the bluff, overlooking the ocean, are much larger and more elaborate homes, equally beautiful. 

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In the last photo, I love that you can look through the window and see the ocean beyond. It seems like a pretty idyllic place to spend a summer!