Rest & Relaxation

Bailey style

Dozing on the porch

Hiding from Friday night's thunderstorm

So cute!

Supervising my beach scarf photo shoot

Hope you're finding time for some R&R, or whatever strikes your fancy, this late summer weekend!

Halibut Point State Park

We just visited Halibut Point State Park in Massachusetts.

Water-filled granite quarry with ocean beyond

Halibut Point was formerly a granite quarry. The quarried granite was used for large commercial projects, including some buildings in Boston and various shoreline projects in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Side view of the quarry

There were once four granite quarries on Cape Ann. The quarry workers went on strike in fall of 1929. After the stock market collapsed a month later, these quarries never operated again.

Visitors Center and Observation Tower

The visitors center contains a museum about flora and fauna, as well as granite cutting history.

The tower on the visitors center must have spectacular ocean views. It was not open during our morning visit, but I believe it's open in the afternoon. It was built during World War II.

Scoop used for granite operations

Remnants of the granite operations are scattered throughout the park.

There are also hiking trails along rocky shoreline.

View from pile of scrap granite

On a clear day, you can see Mt. Agamenticus in Maine from the top of this 70 foot high pile of granite debris. We had a fairly hazy day so we could see about to the New Hampshire border.

Hiking trail and granite overlook

That's the pile of granite forming the overlook.

The shoreline has mostly fairly flat rocks, with tidepools, barnacles and rockweed.

We did see a sunbather surrounded by books and a snorkeler in a wetsuit.

Halibut Point is dog-friendly. Dogs must be on leashes.

Bailey would have loved it - but since it was so hot, we left him at home.

Water for humans and for dogs!

We stopped for lunch at the Lobster Pool Restaurant, very close to the park.

To my New Hampshire tastebuds, the fried clam plate we shared had great clam taste and texture, but the fries were a little too greasy.

But with views like this, who's complaining??

Related posts:
Mixing Elements (more pictures from Halibut Point)

Beachcraft

Two beachy craft projects from our vacation in Maine


A wall of shorebirds made by the cottage owner's wife.


Years ago, she cut up dishtowels with printed shorebird designs


and decoupaged (or otherwise attached) them to these frames.

Ingenious and so beachy!!

Lobster in girls bunk room

I can't resist a few more lobster photos!

Lobster in a wagon

Lobster at rest

The knitted lobsters were a big hit. The pattern designer created the pattern for her 4-year-old daughter, and judging by the cottage dwellers, 4-year-olds played with them the most.

I'm so glad I made them!! Huge thanks to my knitting buddies for their inspiration, support and consistency! Thanks to their comaraderie, I'm a more prolific knitter.

Related posts:
All about knitted lobsters

Mixing Elements

Another Digital Photo School Assignment:

"Your image should show two or more of the basic elements of earth, air, fire and water, not just one. "

I'm not totally sure I get this assignment....air is pretty much ubiquitous here on earth, right? Or do I need the air to somehow show up or be represented in the photo?

Bird flying over waves crashing onto rocks (That little spec is a bird that I waited and waited to photograph flying over this spot!)

Earth: Rocks
Water: Ocean
Air: Flying bird and froth on the waves

Tidepool

Earth: Rocks
Water: Ocean

Snorkeler

Earth: Rocks
Water: Ocean
Air: What he's breathing (I hope) through the snorkel!

Rockweed

Earth: rocks
Water: tidepool
Air: those puffy parts of the rockweed are small bladders containing air

Did you know rockweed is edible? I didn't until I read a little about it for this assignment.

Sue doing her homework!

I kept thinking I should be able to make a picture out of this large slab of granite with a hole cut in the center (earth and air after all). But I didn't like any of the pictures I came up with. Jim's photo of me doing my photo school homework is OK though!

This rock totally reminds Jim of the bracket we had made for my Toika loom!

Earth: rock, soil
Air: everywhere
Water: bonus water - ocean in the background!

Abandoned Granite Quarry

Earth: granite
Water: rainwater and spring water collect in this abandoned quarry
Air: sky

Cormorant drying its wings

Earth: rocky coast
Water: ocean
Air: drying the cormorant

Dog with belly full of water and a bone

Dog sculpture by Dale Rogers. (I blogged about this exhibit on Friday.)

Earth: Ground, metal sculpture
Water: Piscataqua River
Air: bone-shaped hole in the dog

Fire and Ice

I had to set up one shot so I'd include a little fire in my assignment. It's summer here, and super hot and humid at the moment - so fire is low on my agenda!

Earth: pottery, candle and glass
Water: ice water in glass (and humidity on glass)
Fire: candle flame

Phew!!

Glad this assignment is over, so I can stop looking for fire!!

The next assignment is a little more technical. I tend to skip those assignments....but I'm hereby publicly saying that I will do my utmost not to skip this one.

I really want to know more about how to make my camera do what I want....although I'm not sure I want to do the work to acquire that knowledge. If that makes any sense....

Anyway, trying to shake off my summer sloth!

Related posts:
Dog exhibit in Portsmouth
Halibut Point Visit

Bailey Beats the Heat

The Northeast is having its first heat wave of the summer.

What's a dog to do?

Nap upside down of course!

I like how he's keeping his eye on me.

Doesn't hurt that the air-conditioner is blowing right across Bailey's dog bed!!!

Stay cool!

Enough is Enough!

Summer has been fun so far!

Our New England summer is way too short for me to wish any of it away by thinking about whatever seasons come next!!

But my studio is getting to the "too messy to start anything new" stage....which I don't like.


Projects, purchases, flotsam and jetsam waiting on the stairs to be magically transported to the studio.

Everywhere I look there's evidence of knitted lobsters, NEWS, weaving at the beach, and beach projects that didn't come to fruition because we had such great weather.

My workspace, covered with projects and supplies.

I'm firmly in the messy desk camp....ask anyone who's ever worked near me. (And my home office is firmly entrenched on the second floor so visitors don't get scared!)

But, even for me, there's a point where too many loose ends floating around detracts from creativity rather than adds to it.

Evidence of last minute cabinet-raiding before the beach trip

So today, before I took stock of where I left off with various projects, I cleared off the stairs, and sorted things - plus re-stashed items in the cabinets.

I feel better already!

I know I'm not the only one who takes time to enjoy the summer, and lets the mess take over for a while. At least I'm in good company!!

Evidence of Late Summer

Now in bloom - the flowers of late summer.

Purple Coneflower

Goldenrod

Green acorn

Our driveway gets covered with acorns. We hear them crunching under the tires whenever we back out of the garage.

Sumac fruit

Black-eyed Susans

Impatiens

Blue Hydrangea

It has been hot, hot, hot here the last few days. (Don't laugh at my northern sensibilities - but we're having our first temperatures over 90° F, or 32.2° C.)

It's predicted to stay hot, hot, hot this week.

Finally I feel like we're getting our well-deserved summer.