I’m on my way back home. Typical commute. Flight delays, short connection, scrambling for carry-on baggage space, hoping for an upgrade to that last seat in 1st class. Bleh. Thank goodness for the Admiral’s club. 🙂
I’ve been using the in-flight wireless on most of my business travel legs. It helps me keep from getting behind on email and todos.
On this flight, I decided to knock off early. Well, i *is* 6PM on a friday night!
I was taking photos out the window after we had leveled off at 35 thousand feet. I had a nice view of the moon above the clouds, and some pretty blue sky, and then I had the brainchild … hey, i should just post it now while I’m online. 🙂
As I was driving past Concord on the way to my hotel on Tuesday night, I saw signs for Walden Pond. THE Walden Pond. You know, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond, from his 1854 book Walden. I remember reading that book back in high school, over 30 years ago. It made a deep impression upon me at the time, but I haven’t thought about it again since then. Thoreau decided to live in the woods and did so for over 2 years, from 1845-1847. He later wrote the book from his notes and observations from the time he lived simply amongst nature.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” – Henry David Thoreau
I really wanted to see Walden Pond for myself. So, after my last meeting today, I drove there before closing time and took a walk. It was interesting to see how close the pond is to town, and actually in his book he says that even back in the 1840’s the lot where he built his 1 room cabin was only about 1 mile away from neighboring farms.
There’s a walking trail around the lake, about a 1 3/4 mile loop. The pond is now a state park and when I arrived it was packed with people sunning on the banks and swimming in the lake. A little bit more bustling than when Thoreau lived here.
I walked to the site of his cabin. It’s not there anymore, but the foundation is marked, and there is a huge pile of rocks next to where it stood. A pile that visitors have been adding to over the years – one rock at a time. I placed my rock atop the pile before I left.
The picture above is a view from the edge of the pond closest to where his cabin stood – about 100 feet behind me. I like that I accidentally captured the gibbous moon in the top left corner.
The picture below is one that I took looking up as I was standing in the spot that would have been right outside the front door of his cabin.
Very beautiful.
This is a quote from the park brochure:
“…my friends ask what I will do when I get there. Will it not be employment enough to watch the progress of the seasons?” – Henry David Thoreau
You got that right, Henry.
I’ll have to dig up a copy of Walden to re-read, for old time’s sake.
I flew to Boston today for work/meetings for the week. As usual, I waited until this morning to pack, and since I had a morning flight, I was rushing a bit.
In my haste, I left my phone charging on the shelf in the pantry, and didn’t realize it until I got to the airport. Argh!
It will be interesting to see how I can get by without it. I’m not even that attached to it for connectivity – as I really only use it as a phone (not for internet connectivity). But, I have gotten used to being able to make a call from anywhere, without having to make arrangements to use a land line. Interestingly, the biggest inconvenience so far is not having something handy with a clock on it so I know what time it is. 🙂
I’m staying about 30 miles outside of Boston. After arriving, i had the pleasure of driving through the Ted Williams Tunnel at rush hour. It strikes me as odd that they spent so many years with the Big Dig only to have ended up with at tunnel that has about 8 feeder lanes that have to merge into only 2 lanes to go through the tunnel. That was fun (NOT – slow going).
Tomorrow, Spain plays Portugal in one of the semi-final matches of the UEFA Euro Cup 2012 soccer (er – futbol) match. I won’t be able to watch, as I’ll be in meetings, but i’m definitely rooting for España!
The marina has many of these blooming plants that seem to thrive in the dry rocky soil. I don’t know what they are called, but I like the flowers…they look a bit like a bursting firework.
Update: 6/25 – I found out that this flower is called a buttonbush, in case you were wondering.
We headed to the lake today to spend the night. Before going we spent time in the yard watering, trimming and tidying. This is one of 2 zinnias that Monte cut to bring in the house. These were the first ones to bloom. Many more to come.
Yay Friday! This was a great Friday though. I got to sleep in until 7:30AM (!). Then I finished my last meeting at 3:00, so that I could run to a couple of non-work related appointments, one of which was a well-deserved, self-indulgent, overdue pedicure. 🙂
Then we went to dinner at one of our favorites, and the best Indian restaurant in Austin, in my opinion, Bombay Bistro.
Monte planted a huge patch of basil from seed earlier this spring. Today he thinned out the patch and brought some inside. It’s gonna be a great year for basil!
Then, i saw our resident deer grazing in the front yard, munching on grass and the leaves of the crepe myrtles. He, or she, was not very startled by us tapping on the window to get it to look our way for a shot. I think this is the same deer that we saw a few months ago with an injured leg nesting next to the window of our guest room. The leg looks like it has healed, but there’s a huge knob on the knee of its right foreleg. I’m glad to see it grown up and fending for itself.
Faunae.
Unfortunately, the light wasn’t great, as the deer was standing in the shade of the red oak out front. But he did strike a great pose.
Here’s another gratuitous bird pic. Well, same window. Different bird.
I didn’t have a good shot of this guy. For some reason, even though there are four feeding stations on this feeder, they always go to the one that is blocked when viewed through the window. He did take a moment to peer around the side at me. So, that ‘s as good a shot as I got this time around.
Today is the first day of summer 2012. The solstice was about 10 minutes ago, actually. So how’s that for getting in early? 🙂
I’m hoping that this summer brings lots of good times, there’s sure to be more lake fun. And who knows what else.
This afternoon, before I heard or saw any signs of it outside, I noticed a red blob on the weather radar that I usually have running in the browser in the background. We were due for a very brief blow of rain and wind any minute.
So I took a break and walked into the kitchen to look out the window. Sure enough the wind was gusting and the sky was grey. As I was looking out, I noticed this mourning dove sitting in the crook of a tree branch. I realized it was a nest, and that was the mom (or dad?) sitting on a couple of babies, probably to keep them from falling out of the nest as the the branch bobbed in the wind.
The nest was pretty far away, and I had to use digital zoom — so, the the quality of this shot isn’t too good. I wasn’t able to get a good shot of the babies, but in this one, you can make out the mom — looking right at me. 🙂
August 1987. I had just flown across the country to attend graduate school, and moved into a small 1 bedroom apartment. I bought myself a small 3″ potted plant – a dracaena. I thought it would brighten up the place. It didn’t even reach to the bottom of the power outlet when it was sitting on the floor. I christened him Robert Plant.
As I moved from place to place, i dragged Robert along with me – 25 years, 6 moves, 3 states.
In the past few years Robert grew to tower 11 or 12 feet high, with three or four trunks. But, this last winter, I left Robert out one night too many – and he experienced a hard freeze. I thought it was the end for my green friend. He sat in the garage untended all winter and most of the spring with brown leaves, showing no signs of life.
A couple of months ago, we hauled a dead Robert out into the backyard and cut off all his stalks. Monte was thinking about reusing the pot. But we didn’t dump out the pot; left it there for a while, and it was watered along with all the other plants nearby.
And, just a few weeks back, what to my wondering eyes did appear? But a tiny green tuft of leaves growing bigger every day. Robert lives! Welcome back, buddy!
Rachel is back home. Julie is studying. Monte is at the lake. And I’m getting ready for a Sunday afternoon full of work-work.
We went to brunch at Güero’s this morning, then I dropped Julie back at her apartment, before taking Rachel to the airport. This is a shot of some of Julie’s many glassybaby pieces. These blue ones are pretty. I also like the taupe/beige/cream colored ones. But I guess I’m feeling blue today.
We had a nice weekend. But we all have a busy week ahead.
Tomorrow is Rachel’s first day as a surgical resident (u go girl!). Julie has a test. And I have a full slate of meetings and presentations.
Here’s to the next girls’ weekend.
And, Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there! My dad is gone – for several years now. But he would be very proud of his progeny, especially the two very talented, determined and self-reliant granddaughters that I got to spent the weekend with.
Today we headed out to the lake: Monte and I, Julie, Rachel and Rachel W. We schlepped everything down, piled aboard, and sailed out of the cove. We beached ashore in Arky South. There were lots of boats out today.
The air and water temps are getting just right. Whew, HOT!
We floated for quite awhile. Long enough to watch the boats come in to tie up for the raft-up.
We made it back to the marina before sunset, and then home in time to fall asleep on the couch after dinner.
Monte made a beautiful dessert tonight: tarte aux pommes. Right out of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Fantastique!
My niece, Rachel, arrived today for a few days visit. We made cedar plank salmon and leek & mushroom risotto for dinner. The apple tart topped off the evening.
Julie’s birthday is tomorrow, so we’ll have to celebrate in style.
When I planted the carrot seeds, I put them way too close together. They really need to be thinned out. This is the first batch of carrots from the garden. They are small, but this will hopefully help thin out the bed, allowing the others to grow bigger.
Sheila365 