Birds in the backyard

The bird feeder attracts some birds to our backyard. That makes it pretty easy to snap photos of some birds without even putting on a jacket.

Thanksgiving 2022

Stupid COVID. Both Izzy & Emily came down with the ‘rona so we had to ditch our plans to get together with Gwen & Co. Instead, we had a nice small celebration at the house. Emily & I tag-teamed the cooking which was quite a bit of fun for me. It’s been years since I was in charge of roasting the turkey, but it gave me purpose and turned out pretty well.

Halloween 2022

Hmmm…. I’m not sure where the photos are of our actual Halloween, but I did snap a lot of pics at the Roger Williams Jack-o-Lantern Spooktacular.

[EDIT] Found ‘em! Here’s the pics of our own jack-o-lantern carving:

Newport Mansions

Rediscovering Rhode Island sites through the eyes of a newcomer is one of the many fun things about hosting an exchange student this year. One Sunday when Emily was working on a film (she got her IATSE card over the summer), I took Violet & Dani to see the Breakers and Marble House in Newport. It is hard to imagine how many people earned their livelihood maintaining these mansions and serving the owners.

WaterFire 2022

Yikes, it’s been a minute since I posted some photos. Life is busy and I’m a little less enthusiastic about the editing & posting of photos. Taking photos? No sweat: click, click, click. The rest of that process… ugh. 😆

Alrighty, catching up. This fall we managed to make it to at least one WaterFire celebration in Providence. It’s always fun and unique to Providence, so it feels like something we should enjoy while we can. With Violet’s college years coming fast, soon there will be little left to anchor us here.

Bees again

Earlier this summer I stepped out of my front door in the morning and saw bumble bees swarming around the flower beds. I ran back and grabbed my Fuji to snap some shots. The images are noisy since I was pushing the ISO with a slow lens and a fast shutter, but it doesn’t bother me too much (well, a bit…).

Smorgabord Fall 2022

I got behind. I’ve been taking loads of photos, but seldom bother to edit and post them. This is a mish-mash of the past months starting around June 2022. Here we go…

Spring Concert

Violet graduated from middle school last summer! Her bandmates were the first to perform in the new school’s brand-new auditorium as 6th-graders in winter of 2019. The next time they got to play on the stage was as 8th graders at the end of 2022 thanks to the COVID restrictions. It was bittersweet to watch their second performance in 3 years of middle school. Violet has since declared that she will not be playing flute every again, and evidence suggests it’s not an idle threat.

24 years

Emily and I celebrated our 24th anniversary in June. She had to attend IATSE Union training in Boston on the day, so we met in Jamaica Plain to revisit our first apartment. We tromped around our old haunts and had a great weekend. I took 1, nondescript photo in a T station.

Dance Recital

Violet had a dance recital for tap & ballet in June as part of the year-end wrap up.

Welcome Dani!

This year we’re hosting a foreign exchange student from Spain. Dani joined us in August and will be part of the family until June 2023. She speaks English impressively well, has an outgoing personality, and shares Violets love of synchronized swimming. I’m impressed at her courage and ability to adapt to a different culture at such a young age for a substantial amount of time.

Scotland 2022

In April, we took a trip to Scotland. Izzy had a pile of work to complete for the end of her college semester, so she didn’t make the journey. The last time we were in Scotland, Izzy hadn’t yet started elementary school. It’s been a few years! But, we were joined by Eli who has been eager to see Scotland for years!

We stayed in the city of Inverness, which sits in the southerly edge of the Highlands. It was absolutely gorgeous and a great spot to use as a basecamp for day trips. We rented a lovely townhouse that overlooked the Inverness Castle and River Ness.

On our first day, we went to a craft fair and later a cafe in the nearby Muir of Ord.

A short walk from our townhouse, Craig Phadrig rose up over the town with great views of Inverness and Beauly Firth. The walk through town took us over the Caledonian Canal, then up the steep hill to a site that at one time held a fort of the Pictish king Bridei mac Maelchon. Emily and I made the walk one evening, and I returned a couple of days later to catch the sunrise on the hill.

We made a day exploring Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. No sea monsters were spotted, but the remains of the castle were spectacular.

Violet and I explored the Ness Islands which were a quick 20-minute walk from home base. The city islands have benches and bridges and trails that give you a natural respite in the heart of the city.

The Old High Church near Leakey’s Bookshop has a serene beauty and bloody history. It was used by the British to hold captured Jacobite soldiers after the Battle of Culloden. The captured soldiers were executed in the graveyard and their bodies rolled into the river below.

While wandering through Inverness one evening, we were treated with a rainbow. The gorgeous clouds at sunset were worthy of a couple snaps as well.

The Victorian Market is maybe something to miss, but a quick stop for a photo of the old iron work was worthwhile. While waiting on the sidewalk while Emily, Violet, and Eli shopped, I caught some pics of birds with my 70-300mm lens.

While you could be forgiven for skipping the Victorian market, the Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre deserve a visit. The exhibit at the visitor centre houses an enthralling retelling of the Jacobite uprising in 1745. The information is conveyed on opposing walls through several galleries, with one side telling the history from the Jacobite perspective and the other telling the history from the Government, and those loyal to the British crown.

Clava Cairns are ancient stone structures near Culloden. Little is known about their history but there are several structures built over centuries dating back as far as 2000 B.C.

Surrounded by water, and hailing from Rhode Island, we just had to get out on a boat and see the Beauly Firth ourselves. The wind was brisk, and there weren’t any sea creatures in view, but the scenery did not disappoint.

Violet and I took a short drive over to Rogie Falls on our last full day in Inverness. We hiked the short, steep trail and caught some lovely views of the water falls.

After Scotland, we packed up and headed to Spain for a quick, but jam-packed visit to A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela. We met the family of the exchange student we will host in the fall and they gave us an amazing tour of Santiago, the Cathedral, and A Coruña’s Tower of Hercules (an ancient Roman Lighthouse). We also enjoyed scrumptious tapas and jamón. The hospitality was overwhelmingly generous, with the only sadness being the brief visit. We’ll have to go back!

January Sunset

Last weekend I got off my butt and made it to the water for golden hour & sunset. Nature did not disapoint.

Violet's Swim Routine Dec 2021

Before the holiday break, Violet and her teammates showed off their progress as they continue to ready for competition in the Spring. The routine is really coming together!

Christmas 2021

The House

This was our second pandemic Christmas, but also the first Christmas without Roger, Marsda, or Ted. Restarting a tradition from years past, we rented a house out in the country and gathered to celebrate with the Providence, Boston, and Vermont clans. Emily picked the house and it was a winner! Loads of space, beautiful fireplace, and plenty of snowy grounds to waddle around after eating a bit more than advised.

Games

Before, and after, some truly tasty, gut-busting meals like:

  • veggie feast (shepherd’s pie, “meatballs”, brussel sprouts)

  • beef tenderloin with potatoes and asparagus

  • chicken pot pies

  • taco night

we’d gather by the fire or scoot up to the kitchen table to play a game, or four. Some of the hits:

  • Pandemic

  • Scrabble

  • Boggle

  • Time Stories

  • Sushi Go

  • Uno Attack

  • Gin

  • …and probably some I forgot.

Presents

It was a bumper crop of presents this year! So much fun to see all the gifts and the tearing of wrapping paper and the swapping of Yankees 🤣

Pets

Our four-legged friends provided endless amusement. Sprocket remains dauntless in his pursuit of food and Booger was the chillest cat I’ve ever seen. Sprocket was even unfazed by a vicious encounter with a drone that left him briefly bloody in the snout (sorry Sprocket!).

Hanging Out

And of course, there was plenty of time to just sit around and gab, catching up on the comings and goings of 2021. What a great way to put a bow on the year. Here’s to 2022!

Fall 2021

A few shots at the shoreline…

We had another quiet Thanksgiving (thanks, COVID). This year Izzy stayed up at college to host her own dinner, so it was just us 3. Emily made a bunch of plant-based, whole foods dishes, and I cooked a slimmed down traditional meal of Turkey breast, green beans, sweet potato casserole, and stuffing. After our small family meal, Violet scooted over to a friend’s house for dessert. Nice, but very quiet. Looking forward to a less quiet 2022 with more friends and family :)

On Saturday after Turkey Day, the Boston clan came down to Rhode Island to enjoy some QT together. We kept the activities outdoors: walking through the brilliant holiday lights at Roger Williams Zoo and then s’mores and hot toddies around the fire pit at home.

Purgatory Chasm Oct 2021

WIth the fall colors in full effect, Sprocket and I took a trip to Purgatory Chasm.

Hawaii Summer 2021

In late July, we took a (partial) family vacation to Hawaii. I say partial because Izzy decided to stay in Boston, so it was me, Emily, and Violet. I’ve been holding off posting the photos because I had grand plans to transfer photos and my journal entries to the blog, but I don’t quite have that motivation. Instead I’m just going to get the pics up!

Kona

We spent the first few days of our trip in Kona. Fun town, very touristy, but we’re tourists so that worked out. We spent time on the beach. We visited a coffee farm. And we took a kayak tour / snorkeling tour in the bay where Captain Cook was killed.

Volcanoes National Park

Our second leg of the journey was spent in Volcanoes. We had a lovely cottage and spent a couple of days hiking through the National Park. If we were to do it all over, we would have spent more time here and less time at our 3rd stop.

Captain Cook

For the last leg of our journey on Big Island, we returned to the west side of the island to stay in Captain Cook, which was close to where we began in Kona. We also took a couple of excursions to the eastern side to visit Mauna Kea and do some stargazing above the clouds.

Honolulu

We spent 2 nights in Honolulu to wrap up the trip and had good fun at the Waikiki Beach, as well as touring Pearl Harbor. That was a great end to a 3-week vacation and filled us with enough memories to stomach the loooong flight home :)

Woods and Pond

Headed out at dusk to nab some pics of birds in the woods. Found no birds, but loads of mosquitoes found me.

After a very brief time swatting in the woods (shoulda brought repellant), I waddled over to the pond to photograph the ducks with significantly fewer biting bugs.

Bugs and Birds

Paddled out on the kayak this Sunday. I took my Fuji X-T4 with me thinking, “That’d be so cool. I can paddle right up to some water fowl and get some good shots!”

Yeah.

I’m not good enough at either photography or kayaking to combine these hobbies. There was a lot of bobbing and trying hold steady and splashing and minor worries of water damage (it’s weather resistant, so barring a full submerging not too worried), but not a lot of great shots.

Back at home, in the yard, on solid ground, I had more success taking photos of bees.

Early Morning Marina

On Friday I awoke before the sunrise with a pit in my stomach dreading an inevitable continuation of the sibling bickering over my parents’ modest, slightly cash-starved, estate. There’s nothing really wrong any more — all the big damage is already done. Since May any shred of familial decency has been torn apart and now all that’s left is sweeping up the shards, taking a few parting shots to get the last word in, and then stewing in silence. My parent’s belongings have been unceremoniously junked, different factions have held different funerals, my mother was buried quickly before the entire family could assemble in Chicago, my father’s ashes had to be stashed at a friend’s house, my youngest sister was evicted from the family home as it was rushed through an unnecessary sale, threats of auto theft have been levied over my parents nearly-worthless jalopy, and just about every promise of good nature has been broken.

It’s more of a tempest in a teapot at this point, arguing over who will sign which contract for reimbursement of some credit card bills and past-due taxes. A bit sad that it took just a few months for 60 years of work that Mom & Dad put into nurturing a family to dissolve into bitterness, mistrust, and arguing. But… not a novel story either. “Really, the kids started fighting after the parents died? Shocking, never heard such tales.” I know, I know.

Rather than dwell in bed, in dread, about the day’s confrontations, I decided to take a trip over to the marina and snap pretty pictures of boats. These were all taken with my Fuji X-T4. For the wide shots I used my favorite lens — XF16mm f1.4, and the telephoto shots were done with my latest toy — XF70-300mm f4-5.6.

And here’s a pic of the moon with my new telephoto.

And a rare photo of our unamused cat, Goldie:

Roger vs Printers

More Dad stories…

I just got back from our parents’ old house outside Chicago. As I went through my Dad’s basement study, I uncovered a surprising number of printers… Too funny to find this email from 2018 about the topic:

Hi, Gareth,

First, let me say that I enjoyed your latest podcast.

Then let me tell you about my all-too-typical battle with my printers.The old, old Canon MX490 in the basement was out of ink from the get-go, and I had no replacement cartridge. OK. So I got 20 copies out of my newish HP 2600 before it ran out of ink. No problem. I did have spare cartridges in plenty—genuine HP’s that I got oping to avoid problems. They thanked me for going brand name. So I was shocked when the first one showed “out of ink” almost immediately. Well, OK. I had them a long time, but they were in sealed pouches, right? So I tried cleaning and then deep cleaning. But no go. Well, all right, I still had others. The second one insisted I do an alignment adjustment before I could use it. Hmm. But THEN THE SAME THING HAPPENED AGAIN! It registered EMPTY right off the bat. I had to try FOUR cartridges before I got one that worked.

So I had worked over two hours futzing with cartridges, dropping things, cursing, learning how to put cartridges in the right way. cleaning each new candidate, cursing, dropping things. When I finally got things tamed, the whole job only took about 15 minutes.

That is the last time I get name brands!

When you have a few free minutes, I’d love to hear about your trip to LA and Warner Bros studios. Maybe we could Face Time and I could also hear about your couple of weeks of bachelorhood. Let me know!

Dad

Wolf Hill

Emily, Violet, and I were determined not to spend another Sunday at home. So we figured we’d go for a nice hike somewhere in Rhode Island. Seemed pretty simple but unfortunately our first few choices were spoiled by either the start of hunting season, or canine prohibition. After a bit of searching for our no-to-bullets, yes-to-dogs criteria we found Wolf Hill in Smithfield. Trading the flat lands of the East Bay for the rolling hills of Smithfield was a fun excursion.

Violet’s Shots

Big V got some great shots today. It was a lot of fun passing the camera back and forth. After we got home we did a little collaborative editing which was also pretty fun.