The Puzzle Addicts

I had forgotten that we have some puzzle addicts in the family.  Liz and Sarah went out and bought a new puzzle, and set up solving it on the dining room table.  Then Kathy jumped in, and Amy joined them as well.  They are SERIOUS about this stuff!  I was worried about having any meals, when they were working on this.  Actually I was the one who made dinner tonight, so that they would have more time to finish the puzzle.

If You Come to a Spencer Family Gathering...

...You will be photographed!  I am not sure where the photography gene for the Clarke and Spencer families first came from.  My sisters and I first experienced this from our Mom, Ruth, and her sister Jean,  our aunt.  They were always taking photographs of us, and of family events.  And my sisters and I have that gene as well.  There are always "line-ups" of various members of one part of the family or another, and then there is another line - of everyone else with cameras, to photograph the line-up!  We, of course, joke about our obsession with photographs, even as we take them!  I just wanted to warn everyone, in case you ever attend one of our gatherings!

The Apparition

Did you know that fireworks can legally be sold in Connecticut?  I didn't.  We stopped to visit cousins and nieces and nephews and one of them, Connor,  had just returned with a package of legal fireworks.  So he started lighting them off, and I thought it might make a cool picture.  So I got down low on the ground, and used a telephoto lens, and he stayed far enough away from the pyrotechnic so's not to get burned, and I started shooting when the fireworks went off.  He decided to raise his arms in a muscle builder pose, which was perfect for the feeling of the photograph.  Cool, huh?

Reading the Declaration of Independence

For the last 10 years or so, on July Fourth, some Sea Cliff residents have been holding an event where they ring a huge brass bell, and then read the Declaration of Independence out loud, and then tell the assembled crowd what happened to a number  of the signers of the Declaration.  A number of them were killed in the war, others had their houses burned to the ground by the British.  It is a very sobering, very powerful ceremony.  We have always been in Connecticut on the fourth, so this is the first year we could take part, and it was wonderful to finally experience all of this.

Sarah Waiting for a Thunderstorm

Liz and Sarah are visiting from California.  They don't have thunderstorms in seacoast California.  Sarah grew up in Utah, and they do have them there. But when Sarah came to Sea Cliff she was hoping for a thunderstorm refresher.  We had storms in the weather forecast today, and late in the day there was a rumble of thunder.  So Sarah went to the bottom of the driveway, where she could get the best view of the northern and western skies, because that's where they would come from.  Well, about 30 minutes later, she was NOT disappointed.  Bolts of lightning and torrential rains arrived.  By then Sarah was safely on the porch!

Red Ribbons

As I drove to the bagel store this morning I saw a flash of waving red ribbons out of the corner of my eye.  What?  I stopped to look at the scene on the way back.  This is the pond which has been undergoing rehabilitation.  They have done some serious dredging here, and dug out so many phragmites that the pond is now doubled in size.  It turns out that phragmites are an invasive species, so they have removed them all, and are now planting native plants.  The square plastic screening apparently keeps  animals from the young plants, and now they have added the red plastic strips to keep birds away.  The ribbons make for such an unusual landscape.

A Place to Sit

I found this peaceful place to sit in the back yard of my brother-in-law's house in Connecticut.  I love the colors in the picture - the cooler colors of the spectrum.  That's because I took the picture early in the morning before the sun had risen far enough to bring its warm light to the scene.  Peaceful, don't you think?