Autumn Love

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. I’m loving it even more now that we’re back in New England. Unfortunately, some of the most spectacular fall colors take place while I’m driving with no place to pull over and take pictures. Those sugar maples with their bright orange and fiery red leaves are just mind-blowing.

We’re still settling in. Spent over four hours at the DMV (which was already an hour drive away) getting our new CT driver’s licenses and registering my car. We’re officially Connecticut residents now! I was a bit sad to have to turn in my California driver’s license, but glad I could keep my CA plates. Weird sentimentality, perhaps.

Sharing some photo love:

Trixie and I are still taking 2 or 3 walks a day while we can – while the weather is nice!

A huge perk of living on the point is that we get both sunrises and sunsets! This is sunset.

We finally had some downtime to go hiking in Bluff Point State Park. We didn’t get to walk all the way to the bluff (which is ranked as one of the top ten birdwatching sites in the state) because we had a house hunting appointment to make. We’ll definitely make a point of getting there next time! Trixie seemed to really love her time out in the woods and on the shore.

Loved walking through the woods, watching leaves rain down like flecks of gold in the sunlight.

This is the view from one of the houses we looked at today. Lovely, yes???

As I write up this blog post, Bob is across the street on a pier fishing on the ocean. Heavenly! Yes, I do have moments of extreme home-sickness. I miss my CA friends and family tremendously, and I miss our home there – but I have to say if we had to move anywhere, I’m glad we moved here!

Taking A Break From Unpacking

I’m still unpacking boxes. I hope to be done by the weekend (and enlist Bob’s help). I take a lot of breaks to walk along the shore.

It rained most of the day before and it was super windy last night. This was our shoreline this morning – nice waves.

Brandt’s cormorant airing out his wings and greeting the new day.

Belted Kingfisher – I love this guy!

Our New Home

As some of you know, we have (temporarily) left our lovely Northern CA home for a fabulous stint in coastal Connecticut. We moved into our new home right on the water, yesterday.  We are awed by the glorious sight of the ocean right in front of us, the smell and taste of salt in the air, and we were lulled to sleep by the lullaby of the waves. This morning, we rose in time to walk Trixie as the sun rose above the horizon. We watched cormorants, gulls, and egrets on the water, and were surprised by a large red-fox crossing the street in front of us. I think we’re going to love it here, and I’m going to love sharing our new adventures with you!

I enjoyed the view from the porch rail.

This was my view late Saturday afternoon.

This morning, in my half-awake state, I forgot to bring my good camera. The following photos were taking with my iPhone 4S.

Sunrise on our walk.

Our morning walk.

I can’t believe I get to live here (for the next few months, at least, we’re temporarily renting an house at off-season rates).  Yesterday, I watched a wedding party on a far-away pier and got this shot. I do love the zoom on my Canon! They look very happy!

Cheers and here’s to a fabulous adventure!

Japanese Tea Garden

A few days ago, Bob, my 17yo daughter, and I drove into San Francisco to spend a few hours in Golden Gate Park. We started off at the DeYoung Museum (of which we’re members) to see the Real to Real: Photographs from the Traina Collection exhibit. We enjoyed the photographs immensely. My daughter was thrilled to see photos by Lee Friedlander displayed, including one of her favorites.

After wandering the museum, we headed over next door to the Japanese Tea Garden. I have fond memories of visiting it often as a child and love being able to revisit it as an adult. We started off having tea and snacks and then leisurely wandered the garden.

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A lovely way to spend the day!

Hipstamatic and Me at the Farmer’s Market

Thanks to Urbanarchiver for inspiring me with amazing photos from around the world and for recommending the iPhone photo app Hipstamatic. It’s a fun app with multiple lenses, flashes, and “films” that takes interesting photos – not ever quite what you focused on nor expect. I had a blast on Sunday taking photos while Bob and I shopped at our local farmer’s market.

Artichokes are one of my favorite veggies to eat – steamed and drizzled with Brianna’s Zesty French Dressing.

Bob grilled these onions for dinner – they were sweet and delicious!

We didn’t buy any carrots. We’re growing our own (Kyoto carrots) in our garden.

I could have snapped photos of the fruits and veggies all day!

I love orchids. My sister gave me one once, but I couldn’t keep it alive for long. Sigh.

Fun topiary plants!

We sampled our way through the market. We bought some delicious local cheese. (I was too distracted nibbling on samples to take photos, unfortunately.)

Till next week when we shop again!

From The Car

Bob snapped this photo from the car as we were driving to downtown Wilmington our last day there. I cropped it and added the sepia tone.