“A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.” -Ansel Adams
I wrote a report in high school on the naturalist photographer Ansel Adams. He was a fanatic about light and how it affects the world through the camera lens, and since then I have been enamored of watching the changes light creates on landscapes. Continue reading
Even though February was a dreary month, I did get out for some spectacular hikes. If I am here another winter I definitely need to figure out better footwear for the snow and ice hikes. I have loved the Brooks Cascadia trail runners that have climbed mountains and descended canyons with me, but they just don’t quite cut it in the wet snow. Things are starting to thaw here and mud season is coming. I have been forewarned that it will not be a pretty sight. Just the name “mud season” sounds bad. Continue reading
“The truth is, I am free, I am happy, I am healthy and I am utterly miserable.”
George Bernard Shaw wrote this in a little play called Too True to be Good, and I have no trouble at all relating to it. The statement seems like a conundrum, two opposites of reality. How can I be all that great stuff and miserable at the same time? But it has been my emotional state for the last month.
Darling Lenox on a snowy night
Rockport, MA
After a hearty breakfast and playing with the resident B&B dogs we walked into town and browsed in the seaside shops and contemplated the views and philosophized with an artist that thought my divine feminine girls were as “beautiful as the pom poms on my hat were happy.” It was so very quaint, quiet and cold, though the sun was shining with welcome. Continue reading
Susanna, Audrey, Alicia and me
My daughters arrived by plane and the laughter, stories, and excitement have been palpable to all around. The dynamic of being with three lovely young women is so enlivening. I don’t want to go to bed, I am so awake, who wants to sleep? I don’t want to miss a moment. So I sit up and write while they sleep. Continue reading
Ms. Sparkle is back. The moon has changed or something because I’m back on track, feeling positive, happy and being productive. As I was coming out of the Shakespeare & Company office I saw three people in the lobby looking lost and curious and I asked if they needed any help. We chatted for a while, they were tourists and had been to Lenox years ago and saw the company perform when they resided at the Mount. I told them about the shows in performance now, waved my arms in direction of the theaters, mentioned that I was on my way for a walk to the Mount and fluttered a cheery good-bye. 
Is there a difference between meandering and wandering? Without looking it up in a dictionary I am finding myself defining them in my own terms. Wandering seems to be stumbling about without purpose, seeking and lost. Meandering, as I have been experiencing it since last April, has become an exploration of sorts, not from a place of being lost, but from a place of new adventure. Those are my definitions anyway as I am struggling this week to not feel lost. Some change has come over my days in that I am no longer feeling “meanderest” but astray and wandering about blindly. I am hoping this is a temporary condition and am combatting the aura with writing, reading, walking and mundane tasks that need to get accomplished like taxes and bills. There is an unsettled rest about my week, as I am recovering from an intense two weeks of teacher training in the Shakespeare & Company Month-Long Intensive here is Massachusetts.
As this year ends, my heart is bursting with thanks for the amazing journey I have enjoyed and shared with you all. There has been an incredible 7500 views (from 79 different countries) of my 87 blog posts. I have fallen in love, with my country and Canada, the mountains, the sea, the National Parks, so many people who are now irreplaceable friends, country music, dancing, writing, sharing Shakespeare with youth, acting with open honest people, a canyon, a pond, mountain tops, fringe boots and above all myself. I go into 2013 a braver, more empowered, confident, sassy, flirty, fabulous female. Here are just a few photo memories to relive but there are so many, many more that I could include of the amazing world that has embraced me this past year. May our 2013 bring more love, more encounters, more adventure, compassion and peace. Happy New Year my friends!
Yosemite NP, California in April 2012…the beginning. Continue reading
It looks like a Christmas picture postcard outside my window. Just the perfect amount of snow to make it beautiful, but not treacherous to drive. I am still in the Berkshires, having survived my first Thanksgiving without being surrounded by family. I went to an “orphan’s Thanksgiving” at my director’s house. He and his wife open their home every year to people like me that are away from their loved ones. It was glorious. I cooked with girlfriends and we took our favorite dishes and joined with about 20 people to feast and watch movies. It was just what I needed; relaxing, homey, a dog, a fireplace, and friends falling asleep on the couch. We were all exhausted after the long hours of working at the Fall Festival (see “Shakespeare on their tongues…” ), so to have permission to kick back and do nothing was pretty grand. Continue reading
I got up at 6am on Sunday to get to my pond. After such a tremendous response from being Freshly Pressed on the WordPress homepage, I was motivated to get back to my bliss and continue my love affair with the natural wonders at Benedict Pond. I was very rewarded by my early rising. I stopped at Stockbridge Coffee on my way and as it shows in the picture, I was delighted to have something warm to join me in the very chilly morning air. Continue reading
meanderest 