Author: alejna

keeping my head above water

Okay, this really isn’t about me. I just wanted to use that line for a title to go along with this photo of this cute little alligator baby.

Though things have been quite hectic the last few weeks, and I seem to have been able to mostly keep my head above water. (My kids, though, have actually been taking swimming lessons, so they have been learning to keep their heads below water.) (Really that doesn’t have much to do with anything, aside from being one more thing in our only super-packed schedule, at a time when there are big things going on in our lives. Thus making it harder for me to keep my own head above water. Metaphorically speaking. Happily, the swimming lessons don’t involve dunking me. Wait, did I saw that this wasn’t about me? It totally is.)

But I also do really like this photo of this cute little alligator baby.

the ruined abbey of Howth, Ireland (friday foto finder: ruin)

During my trip to Dublin in May, I went on a little excursion to the seaside town of Howth with a friend. (A few other photos are posted here and here.) The town was beautiful, and the weather was perfect for a casual stroll. After we walked along the harbor, we decided to head up into one of the townhouse-lined roads that cut into the hillside. We could see glimpses of a ruin here and there between the rooftops.

It was quite striking looking, but there wasn’t any obvious way to get up there. (At least not obvious from the street. Probably people with maps and/or guidebooks could find the way obvious. But it was more of an adventure to explore without these things.)

Soon enough, we came across this intriguing little stairway that climbed through a narrow canyon-like space between some stone walls. There were no signs that said where they led. On the other hand, there were also no signs that told us not to go that way.

The stairs led up to another road, or perhaps another bend of the same winding road, up higher on the hill. And a quick walk led to an overlook and entrance to the ruins and cemetery.

It was quite a beautiful and dramatic place to wander and photograph.

The moral of the story: Climb any intriguing stairways that are not marked with signs telling you not to.

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This week’s friday foto finder theme is “ruin,” which gave me a nice opening to share these photos. To see what other ruins have been discovered, pay a visit to the fff blog!

an assortment of leaves wearing water drops

After yesterday’s dried out and rather monochromatic leaf images, I figured I’d branch out to some more colorful and much less dry leaves.


Periwinkle leaves (and flowers).


English ivy.


Leaves of a blueberry bush.


Hydrangea leaves.


Fallen oak leaves.

Have I mentioned before that I’m a sucker for water drops? Oh, right. Yup.

curled up and dried out

Following through with the leaves, these leaves are some different maple leaves that I came across back in April.

I found that they had retained a surprising amount of shape after a long harsh winter.

Indeed, I quite admired the graceful way they had curled up as they dried out.

My macro lens let me get in close to the crisp edges that had been nicely highlighted by the low afternoon sun.

I actually came across these leaves around the same time as I gathered up images of bright fresh spring leaves unfurling. Tonight, in the midst of a hectic stretch and feeling a bit used up, I seem to be identifying more with the dried up leaves of last year…

leaves of pink

I mentioned yesterday that a Japanese maple tree in my neighborhood, now looking quite orange, once produced fall leaves of a surprising pink color. Here are a few photos I took in the late fall of 2012.

Two fallen pink and purple leaves among the duller hues of the oak leaves.

I was also quite taken by the complex pattern and varying shades of pink, on the leaves, looking like a mosaic, or fish scales.

These photos were from November, so there is clearly quite a bit more time for this year’s leaves to change color. I’m rather curious to see what they’ll do.

Japanese maple in the morning sun

My neighbors’ Japanese maples are a regular source of enjoyment for me. The look of the leaves changes so dramatically from season to season, and even from hour to hour. I have photos from previous years where the red leaves had turned a purplish pink. This year they look a bit more yellowy orange. Or at least they did in the morning light a few days ago.

Really these are all crops of the same photo, but I wanted to show the beautiful color variation.

I especially love the way some of the leaves cast their shadows on other leaves.

It’s really feeling like fall these days. The nights have gone cool, and the air has a freshness to it. I do really love fall in New England.

speaking of tomatoes

Speaking of tomatoes, which I have been doing often lately, I came across this bit of news:

Dutch stage tomato fight against Russian sanctions

I had heard of people throwing tomatoes in protest, but more in a public shaming of a politician or performer sort of way. Not as a mass political protest. Especially where the protest involves protestors throwing tomatoes at each other.

And then in trying to find the link to the above-described story, and googling “tomato throwing,” google kindly filled in “tomato throwing festival,” thus leading to the further discovery that there is even an annual tomato-throwing festival in Spain: La tomatina.

I am currently coping with an excess of overripe tomatoes myself, but the only throwing I had in mind for them was towards the compost pile…


An almost overripe tomato from my kitchen counter. I have no plans of throwing this tomato at anyone. If I don’t manage to include it in some sort of tomato sauce, it will be thrown in the compost pile.¹

¹ Truth be told, I am only including this photo because I have been posting so many photos lately that it felt somehow wrong to not include a photo of something. And seeing as I don’t have photos of actual tomato-throwing activities, I took this rather uninteresting photo just now in my kitchen.

Picked a peck

It is said that Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, but this never quite made sense to me. How could the peppers he picked already be pickled? Perhaps the peppers he picked were potential pickled peppers, or pre-pickled peppers. Possibly they were pickling peppers?

These were some of the questions I pondered while picking pecks of peppers at the farm where I am participating in a CSA this year. None of the peppers I picked were pickled.

They were, however, quite pretty.

fresh tomato photos (friday foto finder: tomato)

This week’s friday foto finder theme is “tomato.” While I certainly have taken many a tomato photo in recent years, I have also already posted many of them. Happily, here in New England, it is the season for fresh tomatoes. Indeed, this year, they are especially bountiful. I have joined a CSA again this year, and the tomatoes have been plentiful there. In addition, a close friend and neighbor has been experimenting with growing hydroponic tomatoes on her deck.

The experiment has been very successful, and she harvests many tomatoes each day. When I stopped by her house this afternoon, she had these guys all lined up to get a bit more time ripening in the sun. They caught my eye, and jogged my memory about the theme for fff this week. So, for a change, instead of digging through my photo library, I have some fresh photos.


I like the tomatoes’ rather menacing shadows.


Here, I liked the the low angle of the sun lit up the leaves.

Somehow, tomatoes have made very regular appearances on this blog, both in terms of photos and as a topic of discussion. Tomatoes, in fact, seem to be a running theme in my life, what with my use of the pomodoro method. It would seem that this is (at least) my 12th post with a tomato base. And it is probably safe to forecast that tomatoes will appear again here.

To see what other tomatoes have been served up for the fff theme, pay a visit to the friday foto finder blog!