A Blog for 2025

January 31, 2025 In spite of the weather we celebrated.  You can sort of see in the first photo what the installation looks like.  This is one of the 9 pods.  People really enjoyed it and I think it looked good.     We were ready when the clock struck 5.  The weather sucked, but the band was hot and the cupcakes were superb.      These guys are really good.  It was so nice to have the room full of a great sound.  I'm not sure how big the crowd was, one probably couldn't call it a crowd, but it was a great group of people.  Tomorrow the weather will behave and more people will come.  Tomorrow we are launching the  anthology; Valley and Beyond.  I'm very happy about that.   I'm hoping people will come out to hear the Farley String Band, stay to hear the authors and then join the improv group. Photo by Shannon Tomorrow there will be more, and some more on Sunday, and then on Monday I will return to my...

January 30, 2025 January 30, 2023 This is what I wanted to do today, but this is what I did, kinda. But this is what I did a year ago.  Talking about pressure, you would have thought I'd learned my lesson January 30, 2024 indiVISIBLE Wall.   From now on I am willing to help with installations, but I'm not willing to lead them.  My abilities are different than they used to be, just no two ways about it.  I love photographing the world, and I love sharing what I document, but I think I'll stick to books. Actually, as I swore off installations I have thought about 2 more books based on the work that we've done at LAVA.  Again, Lindy, no.  But while I was going through the pictorial history of LAVA I revisited ECHO, which was a project we did in 2021- 2022.  The curriculum that we developed putting that together is superb and we should write it up.   Oh well, I used to say that my old home on Federal St., was the home of the great idea, but ...

  January 29, 2025 A lovely day. I spent most of the day being engaged in self caring activities including a ride to the rookery for the first time in a while.  By the time I went up it had stopped snowing, but the wind was strong and it made it feel as though it was still flying.  Also, the temperature was all over the place today,  It has settled at 30 tonight, but earlier we were supposed to get rain.  We only got snow, about 5 inches of it.   It's quite lovely and pristine at the moment and when the sky was blue, quite lovely. There were no otters on the ride today.  I haven't seen any this winter and was beginning to worry about them but a friend has one living out on an island on the lake she lives on.  She's been waking up in the morning to see him.   I guess the rookery is just not lucky enough this year.  I haven't seen any 4 legged animals, thus far.    I'm going to spend more time looking for them in Februa...

  January 28, 2025 This is what is taking all my time.   Should be really fun.  People are doing really neat stuff all weekend.  If you are close, come join us.   David and I had lunch at Mesa today.  Always feels like going home.  I'm not sure exactly why, but it's just home and fresh Mexican food is comforting.  Even when it is ethnically diverse food, like today's Thai Bowl.   Very sweet to have spent sometime in David's company.   We then went over to LAVA to help T. and Skyler finish installing the monster.   Not done, almost, but not quite.  It was much more fun than yesterday, though, I was not feeling so overprotective of my concept and let go a lot more gracefully.  It's good practice. this made me laugh. Came out of LAVA at 4 and then went back in again at 5:15 and out again at 6:15.  I was gonna take this picture all three times, but I forgot.  By the time I got home the sky wa...

January 27, 2025 It's almost over The long awaiting gallery show is on its way up. A lot of people know that T. is my hero and that I believe he is a genius when it comes to hanging a show.  This one has been entirely different in its process and it has been a huge learning curve for me, not only technically, but how to work well with others.  When I build a project with a team I'm really good at giving people a free rein and ownership of the project.  Recently, I've wanted more control, not because I've stopped believing in others' skills, but that I'm having a difficult time producing and need to keep tighter control, just to keep on top of it.  It's so strange for me to feel, what I believe to be my greatest strengths, are fading, I need to adapt, soon.  This project has taken over my life.  It is soon to be.            Happy Birthday Birthday, Karen!!!!! This is a couple years old, but believe me, Eliza has changed far...

January 25, 2025 Drove to Bard and back.  It was a day adventure with friends. It was very cold again this morning but there were tons of song birds in the side yard and on the roof of the garage.  Bluebirds are so skittish, the sparrow land close and they fly away.  Their colors are so lovely on the bright white snow.   We actually made pretty good time. We didn't leave Greenfield until about 12:30; EJ had to chop ice up for the chickens.   But off they went, back to school to do their last year and finish their "project."  I am so proud of them.  I also am excited by their academic life.  I love reading their work and following their studies.  I get a big hit of school by hearing about it, student transference  Diane and I were reminiscing about our Sr. years  at Marlboro.  The size of the two institutions is the main reason for the differences between the two, Marlboro and Bard. But we couldn't remember if we took ...

January 24, 2025  Sorry I missed last night.  I really have been overtaken by this project. I actually took 2 photos yesterday, none today, and I've probably looked at 5000 in the past 3 days.  Your brain starts making them all look alike  I have no idea how this will all come together.   I did go out into the world today, barely.  I went to Copy Cat to try to communicate in a professional way.  I don't think I was very successful, except I did get the job ordered. I need to get my external drives fixed so that I can have a better system for backing up everything.  I crashed the computer the other night and thought I'd lost everything and was wondering how I could melt into the walls never to face it again.   I am no good under pressure any longer.  I am no longer cut out for responsibility to co-workers or time crunches.  I need to have a creative arena and work at my own speed.    Alright, I drive to Bard tomor...

  January 22, 2025 I am a bad friend. Happy Birthday, Diane.  I love you. What is taking over my brain power is this gallery project I'm doing for the LAVA birthday celebration. I have engaged Skyler and T. into helping and they have taken over a lot, but I'm still shuffling 5 years of photographs around and forgetting the decisions I make just before I write them down.  This, my friend, is the aging process.  I actually finished 5 out of nine of the pods today and I think most of the Intro wall.   Skyler may have the most difficult part of the project, he's doing the actual time line.  It's 44 feet long.  I hope we make it by Monday.  And I must remember that I have completed the last 5 years of projects, but it's amazing how stressful it is. This is the only photo I took today.   It was very full and very full of ah hahs.  And I seem to have this on going nagging cough that is just there.  So I'm not going to linger toni...

January 21, 2025 Shot a lot in black and white today. Trying to decide if these two pictures are of the same beaver dam from 2 different angles. But they are not.  I just realized that the summer one is off Butterfield Rd. in Marlboro, Vt.  I sent that photo to Jason in June when he was first released from the hospital.  It was striking how summery it was and how wintery today was. I made it to the Y this morning and was very glad I did, but I came home soon after to work on my project.  Decided it was important to go check in on the rookery.  It's been several days.   It is snow covered and lovely in its own right, but I miss the birds.  It was too early in the afternoon to see any. I went on up and around to the beaver dam.  There was very little happening and shooting in black and white was a little more interesting than grey winter day.  It was 16 degrees on the hill at 1:30 this afternoon.   Something was sliding down the ...