Category: photos

a little batty

A couple months back, Phoebe and I discussed what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. I was determined that we’d get things worked out well in advance, and that I wouldn’t turn into a costume-crazed working on things last-minute. (Not that anything like that would ever happen. Nope.)

Anyhow, Phoebe said she wanted to be a bat, a plan both John and I heartily endorsed. She also wanted to make her costume, and I figured we could swing it.

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by a fabric store to get some black cloth. The store also had a selection of costumes, including, as it turned out, a bat costume: a black cape with a zig-zag bottom, and a hood with ears. It beckoned. (It was, after all, a finished costume. Also 60% off, as it was getting close to Halloween.) I was so very tempted. (Last year, Phoebe wanted to design her own witch costume. But when I found a finished witch costume in the second hand store, complete with sparkly, fluffy embellishments, Phoebe was more than happy to give up her own design plans.)

I eyed that finished bat costume, hanging there in all its $5.99-sale-price polyester glory.

And I moved on.

After all, making such a thing from fleece would be a snap. Possibly a stitch or two needed here and there, but no major sewing or engineering.

Come last week, we still hadn’t found a chance to work on it. Our schedule is rather packed what with school, work and after-school activities. But there was a Halloween party coming up on Friday, and a Halloween-themed birthday party on Saturday, so on Thursday night, it was well time to tackle the bat.

I got out the fabric, held it up to Phoebe, and described what I imagined: wings draping down from her arms, much like a cape. Phoebe was not happy. This wasn’t what she imagined. After various rounds of her trying to explain what she wanted, and even a trial version of making a mini bat costume for a doll with some stapled rags, I finally got Phoebe to draw for me how she envisioned the wings. Here’s what she drew:

Not draped. She wanted her arm to go through some straps on a wing shape, which would extend up above the arm.

There was much back and forth that followed, with me saying we couldn’t do it with fleece, at least not without something stiff to hold the shape. She wanted to make something much more complicated than I felt was necessary. (I have no idea where she gets this. No idea.)

Happily, I remembered that I had some bits of upholstery foam left from when I made a spider costume back before Phoebe was born. More remarkably, I was able to find them.

The result was that I managed to make something that was in between our two original visions, with the wings extending up over her arms, and then with the fleece draping down behind.


Wings down.


Wings extended.


The ears are just cat ears, but they worked well enough for a bat. The rest of the costume is just various articles of black clothing she had.


Here is Phoebe swinging at her friend’s party on Saturday. (I don’t know how I managed to get photos with just Phoebe, as it seemed like the swingset was swarming with costumed first-graders.) The foam and fleece combination was flexible enough that she could still easily play in her costume.


This photo shows a bit of the foam peaking through. I had it sandwiched between layers of fleece. If I’d had more time, I probably would have fixed this. But it only showed when her arms were in certain positions.

You can’t see the costume especially well here, but Phoebe is so dang cute. This was during the parade at her school gym Halloween morning. Wow, that was only yestereday. It’s been a crazy stretch.

So, there it is. The bat costume that was going to be simple, but ended up more complicated than expected. (Yes, I should have expected that.)

our pumpkins

Happy Halloween!

As I’ve said before, I love Halloween. It is quite possibly my favorite holiday. I wish I’d had time to post more Halloween-themed things, but so be it. But here, at least, are a few photos featuring our pumpkins. (Carving pumpkins early in the evening on Halloween seems to have become a household tradition. )

Theo drawing a the face for his jack-o-lantern.


Phoebe at work.


Two finished pumpkins.


4 finished pumpkins.

In other news, we came through the storm almost entirely unscathed. (Sorry if I left anyone worried or wondering. Parts of New England were indeed hit hard by Sandy, but we live quite far inland, so we got off easy.)

In other other news, I have once more committed to daily blogging for the month of November. So you will be hearing more from me soon.

sky (friday foto finder)

This week’s theme for friday foto finder is “sky.”

These photos are from 2004, taken during a visit to see my mother back when she lived in Colorado. I took these from the highway that runs from Pueblo to Beulah. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t the one driving!)

Montana may be the state nicknamed “big sky country,” but Colorado has pretty big skies, too. Out on the plains, especially, where there are no tall buildings and few buildings or trees of any size, the sky seems somehow more immense than in other parts of the world I’ve seen.

When summer storms come, the sky can look particularly dramatic.


A particularly ominous mass of clouds.


Look up!


I love the way rain in the distance can look like a bit like clouds hanging down in curtains. (Or like the sky is falling.)


I am partial to this photo for the way it captured a very s-like shape in the side road. But the sky looks pretty cool, too.

These photos were from June, which, up in that part of Colorado, is Spring. The bright green grasses you can see in these photos are mostly brown by July.

To see what the sky looks like in other people’s worlds, drop by the friday foto finder blog.

rock (friday foto finder)

Once again, Archie has kindly hit on a theme that is very well represented in my photo library. This week calls for “rock.” Continuing down my path-filled path of the last few weeks, I felt this was a good opportunity to show another path. This was a section of a path I went on during my wonderful hike with YTSL of Webs of Significance–now shockingly over a year ago!

Most of the trails we went on during our hike were not paved, but there were a few stretches that were. The rocks¹ in the path below were quite interesting. Many looked like they had patterns, which looked to me a lot like the fossils of ferns. However, I’m not convinced they are. In the 3rd photo you can see very linear cracks in the rocks with the dark fern-like patterns appearing to be growing out from the lines. I’m intrigued, and would love to learn more about what might have caused this. Anyone more versed in geology² than I am?

A stretch of path paved with flat stones somewhere on the Sai Kung Peninsula of Hong Kong.


Don’t these patterns look like ferns?


But look at the very straight-lined cracks, and how the dark fern-like patterns seem to grow from them.

¹Really, I’d be more inclined to call them stones, but you know. Theme.
² Geology rocks. It had to be said.³
³ Actually, I do really like learning about rocks. We collect lots of rocks in this house.

tracks (friday foto finder)

Back in March, I attended a conference in New York City. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip, and I managed to fit in visits with several dear friends in addition to the time spent at the conference.

I had a poster to present the evening of the first day of the conference, and after a morning of watching talks, I realized that my brain would be completely full if I sat through talks through the whole day. I decided that even if I missed out on some good material in the afternoon, I’d be better off if I had sufficient brain function remaining to allow me the power of speech by the time I was to present my poster.

In other words, I opted to play hooky. For totally legitimate and not at all irresponsible reasons that had nothing to do with the beautiful spring weather.

I started by meeting up with Magpie for a lovely bit of lunch and conversation. I told her that I didn’t have plans to rush back to the conference, but she still had to get back to work. She suggested that I check out the High Line. Actually, upon hearing that I’d never been there, she told me in no uncertain terms that I was required to visit the High Line. And that she expected to see photo documentation.

The High Line, in case you haven’t heard of it (and I hadn’t) is a stretch of elevated railway, a former freight line, that has been converted into a park on Manhattan’s West Side. It stretches for many blocks, with the former tracks converted to a combination of path and landscaping. There are many interesting sights to see along the way, provided by views of the river and skyline, interesting buildings and architectural details and the occasional sculptural installation.

As is my way, I have been slow to share photos. But take photos I did. It was a perfect day for a walk, and I enjoyed the scene and the scenery immensely. There were lots of people out enjoying the surprisingly sunny and warm March day, and the views from the elevated path were intriguing. I took many, many photos. Below are a handful of them.

It was also a great way to spend the day refreshing myself, with fresh air and a bit of exercise, before presenting my poster.

So, Magpie, I don’t remember whether I ever thanked you for your most excellent suggestion. So, thank you!

Lots of people out for a stroll, enjoying a nice long walk above the traffic. (It was so great to be able to walk for blocks in Manhattan without having to go through a single intersection!)

Bits of the old tracks were left here and there as part of the landscaping.

It was very early spring when I visited (technically not actually even spring yet), but there were already some signs of fresh growth among the well tended plantings. (Of course, this was the winter that wasn’t.) I’d love to go back at other times of year to see how things look.

This meandering post was inspired by this week’s friday foto finder theme of “tracks.” It seemed a fine follow-up to my previous paths, too.

keep on path

This sign seems to offer helpful advice, but sometimes I’ve found myself with doubts I’m on the right path.

There is also something to be said for being a trailblazer, and heading off the path. You do need to watch out for hazards like poison ivy, though. Or other pitfalls. There might even be actual pitfalls! I’ve never seen a pitfall, other than in movies or TV shows I saw as a kid. It might actually be cool to build a pitfall, but if you did so, you should probably not do it on the path. For one thing, you’d probably get noticed by others who are out on walks on the path, and they might get suspicious of you out there with your shovel. You did bring a shovel, right? Because you’re not going to make a very effective pitfall if you just try digging a hole with your hands or a stick. Or even a spoon. It would take you a really long time with a spoon. Unless it’s a really big spoon, and unless the ground is really loose. So that’s another reason to go off the path. The ground’s going to be really packed hard on the path, and even if you had half a dozen friends there to help you with their grapefruit spoons, it would take a long time to build a pitfall big enough to catch something. No, I don’t know what you’re likely to catch. If this were a bikepath, you could catch a biker, but we already decided you should go off the path for this. So maybe a raccoon? Because, let’s face it, you’re going to get pretty tired of digging that pitfall, and I doubt you’ll keep at it long enough to make a hole big enough to catch something big like a bear. What were you planning to do with a bear anyhow? So just plan to keep things small and simple. A little hole, covered up with some sticks and camouflaged with some leaves. But not those leaves! I’m pretty sure those are poison ivy.

Come to think of it, it’s safer to keep on the path.

Better yet, keep on the couch and put on an episode of Gilligan’s Island. I’m pretty sure there was an episode where someone tried to make a pitfall.

–
This photo was taken at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, one of my favorite places in the world. I was remembering this photo with Friday’s theme of “path,” and thought I’d post something about the Japanese Tea Garden, or possibly something more meaningful about my path in life. I may have…strayed.

path (friday foto finder)

This week’s friday foto finder theme is “path.” Archie has been hitting on a string of themes that work really well with my photo collection. Once again, I had dozens of photos with paths to choose from. (And they were easy to find as “paths & roads” is one of my tags I use in iPhoto.) I settled on this pair, and was amused to find that they were taken 6 years ago to the day. (And further, this day happens to be John’s birthday.) These were taken at Storm King Art Center, a large sculpture park near my in-laws’.

To see what paths others have wandered, please pay a visit to the friday foto finder blog.

street (friday foto finder)

This week’s friday foto finder theme is “street.” This is a tough one for me in that I have taken many, many photos of streets over the years. After selecting a half-dozen or so of my various favorites that I had taken over the year, I instead chose this set of three photos that I had forgotten about. These were from our 2007 trip to Paris. Here is a scene that caught my attention while wondering some of the older streets of Paris, on the Ile de la Cité:

It just didn’t look like this car could possibly fit into this narrow street.

And in fact, here is about when the cars tires got jammed between the curbs, complete with much noise of squeaking rubber and revving engine.

Amazingly (to me, at least), the car did make it around that corner and down and out the street.

If you look closely, you can see from the street signs that this was Rue des Ursins. If you find it on Google maps and zoom in on the satellite view, this particular part of the street is too narrow to be seen between the buildings.

I have to say, looking at my street photos gave me some pleasant trips down memory lane. Mostly involving trips. Also, I found myself getting a medley of songs with streets in them stuck in my head. (I feel a list coming on.)

To see what other streets have been wandered for this theme, go check out Archie‘s friday foto finder blog.

6 unrelated photos

Here are 6 unrelated photos taken over the last 3 years.

From top: 1) a doorknob on a caboose 2) a roll of plastic barrier material 3) macro of a dandelion, 4) plastic bucket with ice, 5) jellyfish in the Boston aquarium, 6) a view from the roof the roof of the garage at the Boston Museum of Science.