Morning Sun.

The winter so far this year has been either warm and wet or cold and dry. It did afford us a nice view recently one morning as the sun emerged from behind us to warmly illuminate the hills to our North and West.

Snowballs

Hydranga at night...

Winter Rainbow

We were blessed with this amazing rainbow recently during this very strange winter...

Christmas!

Jaipur.

Our sightseeing in Jaipur started at the City Palace. It is a large palace in the heart of the city and is currently inhabited by the son of the last Maharaja. It's also home to part of the Maharaja Sawai Mansingh II Museum which contains an amazing collection of carpets, paintings, photos, books and other crafts.

On entrance to the palace, we encountered a couple of cobras, which we gave a wide berth!


Belowis a picture of the Mubarak Mahal or Welcome Palace. It's a covered open area built for receiving and entertaining dignitaries.



Near the City Palace is the Hawa Mahar (Wind Palace). It is five stories high and only one room deep; a true facade. The rooms are designed to allow the ladies of the harem to observe the happenings down in the street without being seen. We took this picture the evening we pulled into Jaipur.

Qutb Minar.

On our trip to Jaipur, our first stop was just outside Delhi at a place called Qutb Minar. It's a World Heritage Monument site containing, among other things, the highest tower in India. This tower, built as a symbol of military might, was constructed in 1196 AD (!!) and rises 237 feet above the ground. The grounds contain a number of ancient structures including several mosques but it's the tower that your eyes continually return to. For better or worse, the interior of the tower is closed to visitors so we had to admire it from the ground.

India!

Meg and I just returned from a trip to India. She was there for two full weeks on business while I followed a bit later for pleasure. While there, we stayed in Noida outside New Delhi, we visited the Pink City of Jaipur by car, and we flew to Hyderabad (and it's high tech suburb HiTec City) in Southern India.

It was my first trip to India and it's safe to say I was overwhelmed. The vast numbers of very colorful people, the crazy roadways filled with everything from water buffalo and camels to modern SUVs, the extreme poverty of the streets juxtaposed with the extravagance of the temples and Hyderabad's High Tech City (Cyberabad), and of course the broad variety of wonderful food are but a few examples of the new experiences I had.

We were the recipients of tremendous hospitality from our hosts and without that, our experiences would not have been the same. Our thanks go out to all of them.

I’ll try to post more from the trip before long but right now I’m still trying to adjust from the long trip home and I think I need to take a nap. In the interim, I’ve included a picture from my first day of sightseeing in Delhi: the amazing Lotus Temple near sunset.

Fox Alert.

Sunday morning I woke up to see a beautiful bushy tailed fox in the back yard doing some hunting. I had time to shoot a bunch of pix, but he never got close enough for a real good one. Now I know why Zach is not interested in going outside some mornings!

Snow in October.

Yesterday was one of the stranger weather days we've seen here in Vermont. It was raining again in the morning when we went to work. I don't know the rainfall totals here for October but it must be about 12" or 14" of rain. However, mid-morning it started turning to snow and snowed fairly steadily through the afternoon. We traveled East to Canaan after work and there was even more snow there (we had to wait for a flatlander to give up trying to climb a hill into town - glad we had the Ranger!).

The trip home from Canaan is over a road we fondly call the Canaan Turnpike. It's a stretch through the woods between Lyme and Canaan that is ... very lightly traveled. This night, we met nobody on the Turnpike after leaving Canaan proper and for the next 8 miles or so we trundled through 2" to 4" of extremely wet snow. The snow bent the young trees on either side of the road - especially maples - down forming gentle arches over the road and trailing still vibrant fall leaves over the car like the dancing scrubbers of an automated car wash. Luckily no big trees were down and we were able to get all the way through to Lyme Center and back home where ... wonder of wonders... there was absolutely no snow on the ground.

The Aliens have landed.

We found these two off to the side of our driveway plotting an attack on the main homestead. Luckily, we caught them in time and robbed them of their essence via the newly discovered T5 diopter lens.

BTW: Tyler Kepner - who reported so accurately on the Sox decimation of the Yankees last year - had this to say about Sunday's game: "They bludgeoned the Yankees, 10-1, with homers from Bill Mueller, Manny Ramirez and Doug Mirabelli and six strong innings from Curt Schilling."

On to Chicago...

Foggy Mornings

We continue to have beautiful Indian Summer type days here in Vermont. The "new" house is only a mile or so from the Connecticut River though and that, combined with the cool nights have been producing some very foggy mornings. This shot looks down Asa Burton Road from the end of our driveway.

Cheers to the Sox for thumping the Yankees 10-1 yesterday and clinching the Wild Card spot!

No Excuses Now.

After much deliberation, I took the plunge this afternoon and purchased my first digital SLR camera. It's a Nikon D70, recommended by my friend Jerry and I'm looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship!

This is a basic auto everything shot of our late summer Dalia which barely survived hibernation last winter but thrived in the Vermont sun this summer.

Dad's "new" PA-11

I just returned from an all too quick trip up to Skowhegan to see Mom and Dad. We took a trip out to the airport on Tuesday morning and I got to see Dad's new sport plane in the flesh. It's of course very reminiscent of Dad's PA-18 which he recently relunctantly parted with. The new PA-11 is newly restored and just gorgeous!

Well that's done.

My time with Microsoft came to a close this past Friday. I'll be starting work at TeleAtlas North America on September 19th.

Ghent!

Meg took this picture on her recent journey to Ghent, Belgium. A rainbox (actually a double rainbow) over the "Toreken", a guild hall built in 1483.

Vacation's End

Our week in New Harbor flew by just as you would guess it would. We spent time with Stu, Bogusia, Robert and Konrad during the first part of the week, fit in a dinner with Meg's family friends Vic and Midge Hart, and then enjoyed a visit from Rod and Val during the last part of the week. We fit in visits to Pemaquid Beach, day trip to Monhegan Island as well, and a wonderful emotional return to the Bradley Inn for dinner.

All that said, my favorite part of the week was the quiet time that Meg and I had together. It took some time to slow down and get used to just 'doing nothing', especially given the modern amenities of our 'getaway cottage' including broadband wireless and cable television. But we did get used to it. We spent more time reading than we have in a long time. We watched a couple old movies late into the night. We biked around McFarland Shore, New Harbor and Pemaquid Point and of course we sampled the Shaw's raw bar together.

The need to get away - to break from the daily routine and to get new perspectives on your own life and the rest of the world - is so easy to underestimate. We've taken alot of wonderful "busy" vacations - the marathon trip to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic comes to mind - but I think these get away vacations are equally important in a different way. We're already working on booking a cottage for next year - and thinking of an off season visit as well.

The picture was taken one morning from the deck at Sail Away. The mornings would start with the bright sunlight streaming in from the ocean and the sound of lobster boats moving through the sea of traps. The picture below is also from the front deck.

New Harbor Maine

We are blessed with being on vacation this week in New Harbor Maine. We arrived Saturday evening to find our rental house - which we had taken sight unseen - to be even more than we had hoped for. Since then we've been delighted to awake to gulls and the occasional lobster boat in the morning with a beautiful oceanfront view the rest of the time. Truly a delight. The week is already speeding by... perhaps two weeks next time...

Another K-Man

Meg got this shot of Konrad at the door of Louise's screened in porch this past weekend. He's a cruel combination of cute that reminds me of another young K-Man.

A Work of Art

We found this wonder of nature on one of our potted plants this morning. One of billions of such wonders that get created and destroyed every day.

Tuned In.

This fellow showed up at the house the other day. Meg noticed him on the front porch as she was watering the plants. He agreed to stick around for a photo op.