Author: alejna

dancing flames (friday foto finder: fire)

We have some local friends who use a fire pit sometimes in their yards. It can be so relaxing to sit around the fire on a chilly night, and watch the flames put on their ever-changing show of light and color and shape. I took these photos using my telephoto, which allowed me to look deep into the flames while keeping my safe distance.

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to find photos of fire. These have been burning a hole in my photo library since September. To see what other photos are on fire on other people’s blogs, please visit the fff blog.

beach day (friday foto finder: coast)

While we live on the East Coast of the United States, our partiuclar town is quite far from the coastline. It’s sadly rare that we take the kids to see the ocean. Last August, following an overnight stay in New Hampshire to have Theo’s birthday at Canobie Lake Park, we made a detour the coast before heading home. Here are some photos from our largely unplanned day at Salisbury Beach.


The boardwalk.


Looking over the colorful beach crowds.


Buried treasure.

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to share photos on the theme of “coast.” Coast on over to the friday foto finder blog to see what other coasts have been cast.

3 shop window displays

Here are 3 displays I’ve come across in unrelated shop windows in the past few years.

Buttons. Paris, France. August, 2007.


Sewing machines. Boston, MA, USA. December, 2010.


Thread. Shanghai, China. May, 2012.

oft-travelled roads (friday foto finder: road)

Over the past few years, my family has made many road trips, especially between Massachusetts and New York. I tend to be the passenger more often than the driver on these trips, and sometimes I will entertain myself by taking photos. I love the way certain stretches of road will wind, following the curves of the landscape in these hilly regions. Here are a few photos taken on various road trips to New York state. (I don’t know exactly where the first two were taken–we follow highways through parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. The last two are definitely in New York.)

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to find a share photos of roads. Once again, my photo library overflows with photos to fit this theme. To see what roads others have travelled, and to see the theme for next week, check out the friday foto finder blog.

3 silhouettes of statues

Here are 3 statues I’ve come across in my travels, and in my wanderings closer to home.


At the de Cordova Museum in Lincoln, MA. (August, 2012)


In Lowell, Massachusetts. (July, 2009)


In Bath, England (January, 2005)

Picking strawberries (friday foto finder: red)

Now that June is around the corner, that means that we are approaching strawberry season here in New England. The days of strawberry picking come and go quickly here, with the picking season typically lasting only a couple of weeks.

I love to take the kids to nearby farms to pick fruit. I love that it lets them see where their food comes from.

There’s also nothing quite like eating a freshly picked ripe red strawberry, warm from the hot sun.

The local berries don’t last as long once picked as the store-bought ones–they can spoil in only a day or two after being picked. Happily, we have no problem using them all. They always disappear far too quickly, seemingly no matter how many we pick!

This week’s friday foto finder challenge is to present something red. Red things abound in my photo library, yet I had a hard time choosing. I find I have too much to say about too many of my photos. I want to have time to tell the stories that go with the images. So I picked these red berries to share with you.

If you feel like seeing (more) red, check out the other entries on the friday foto finder blog.

3 photos of animals stuck in cages

Whenever I’m feeling stuck in my life, I like to go to the zoo to remind myself that I am not actually trapped in a cage like those poor suckers.


This monkey has lost count of the number of days it’s been stuck in the cage.


A family of lemurs are plotting their escape, if only they can get their paws on the right tools.


A porcupine struggles to smell the sweet scent of freedom outside the cage.

One year and half a world away

This is where I was, one year ago today:


I took this photo on a walk along the Bund in Shanghai.

I’m finding it hard to believe that another whole year has gone by. I feel like I have very little to show for it. A year ago today, I presented my research at a prestigious international conference. (Here I am, giving my talk. I even won an award.) Two days earlier I had walked along a stretch of the Great Wall near Beijing, one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life.

Two days ago, I barely left my house. The past year has been a blur of holidays and birthdays, laundry and grocery shopping, illness and death, laundry and grocery shopping, celebrations and family visits, and more laundry and grocery shopping. I know that I have been working and busy, but once again I feel like I don’t have enough to show for it. I’m really not even sure what my point was other than…damn. A whole ‘nother year. And I haven’t even posted my trip photos!