Brownington VT/Brownington Pond

 Sunday morning of our VT trip was a beautiful Autumn morning. There was a touch of fog in the valleys, and there was bright sunshine above. The first stop we made was to photograph this beautiful tree tunnel, along Hinman Settler Road in Brownington.

A few miles up the road from here, a beautiful view opens up to the West, with views of Jay Peak off in the distance. You can also see the morning valley fog, which is typical for the time of year.

After a few miles from here, you will eventually approach Brownington Pond on your right. This is a sleepy little pond, but I got lucky on this particular morning. There was a fisherman out in his boat which provided me a nice subject to photograph. I was shooting into some harsh light, but am happy with the results of this shot.

There were also a pair of loons swimming and feeding which I was able to photograph as well.

Here is another view of the pond. This was taken with the sun over my shoulder, so the lighting was easier to control. These little cabins look to be such a peaceful get-away.

And this was just part of our beautiful Sunday morning drive. Next I will share with you some images from Holland! :-) *wink*

Backroads of the NEK

The previous images were from Saturday morning, and I will now share some of the images taken on Saturday afternoon. We took a drive through the Mid and North Eastern areas of the NEK of Vermont. Here is a beautiful farm we stumbled across in our travels. This is Lone Pines Farm in Kirby VT:

Cows grazing on a hillside in Kirby VT:

The foliage was peak and it was beautiful. Just some random scenes from out travels:

Victory Bog which is located in the Victory Forest....a very remote area in the NEK

And an old mill replica located in Guildhall VT. I was happy to find a few sheep grazing here.

It was fun traveling the backroads of VT with Mr. S!!!

Vermont Foliage!

Back from a wonderful 8 day trip to photograph the beauty of Vermont in the Fall. I've been home for a week and feverishly working on my images. So many to go through and process. I don't even know where to begin, so I guess I will begin posting on the blog from the beginning of the trip through the last day. Many posts will follow. I'm happy about that!!!

Here is an image taken the first morning in Barton VT. This is a boggy area along Rte 5. It's typically shrouded in fog in the early morning in the Fall.

It was a nice start to a great week!

Here is Dolloff Pond in Sutton VT, taken just after sunrise. This is a beautiful remote pond located on a dirt road that I would not advise to be driven on in a car. A high ground clearance vehicle would be the best bet to get you up this road. But once you make it to the pond, your efforts are rewarded!

Here's an image that I softened to give it a dreamy feel. The colors were so beautiful in the NEK of VT this year.

More foliage posts to follow!!!!

First day of Fall!!!!

Feeling very excited. Welcome Autumn 2014!!!!! I can not wait to see what Mother Nature is going to delight us with this year!

Ryleigh One Year Old Pictures

Let me begin by saying sorry for not blogging lately. I promise that as Fall is approaching  there will be a lot more blog posts. Please bare with me, and thank you!!!! Speaking of Fall......holy macaroni there is such a Fall feel to the air here in New England. I had to shut my windows and I have my couch blanky wrapped around me as I type this. It also has started raining here, which is welcomed, because we are in desperate need of some rainfall here in SE MA.

So, let's get to business. Ryleigh is one year old today. I can't believe how fast the past year has gone by. She is amazing in every way and she has brought so much joy into our lives. Here she is in all of her birthday prettiness....tutu and all, of course!

She melts my heart......

Another milestone to celebrate......drumroll please........I used my Nikon to shoot these images....the first time I have used it since May!!!!! Didn't use a heavy lens.....just used the lightweight 50 mm lens but I did it!! Woo-hoo!

The Early Signs That Fall Is Approaching

I love the feeling of anticipation that I get this time of year. Each year in late August, as the days get shorter, and the temps get cooler (except for today which was 90 degrees here in SE MA), I always get a feeling of excitement....knowing that Fall, my favorite season, is just around the corner. It's hard to describe this feeling of anticipation. I suppose I could relate it to the feeling I got as a child, as the Christmas season approached.

I hope you noticed the Fall Countdown at the top of the page here. I love to count down the days each year!

We are in desperate need of rain here in SE MA. The ponds and lakes are very low, the grass is burned, and the trees appear a little stressed. The early turning trees that I keep an eye on each year, have already started turning here.......it's the earliest that I can remember. This makes me a bit worried about the upcoming foliage conditions here in Southern New England. I hope it's not a disappointing show of color around here.

On the other hand, conditions up in Northern New England are looking great!!! I am hopeful for another stellar show this year. Here is an image I shot last Sunday along Rte 91 as we were heading home to MA. You can see fog in the valleys......another reminder that Fall is just around the corner....and you can see some early season color changes in some of the trees!

Oh how these sights make me happy!!!!!!!!

NEK VT and The Orleans County Fair

Spent a very nice weekend up in VT with my family. Jay couldn't make it because he had to work. He was disappointed and so weren't we. We missed you Jay!!
We went to Lake Willoughby Saturday on a cool cloudy day. But we still had fun, because who in their right mind would not be happy to be in one of the most beautiful places on the planet?

All of these pictures were fun to take and share, but this next image is a landscape that I am really happy with:

Saturday evening we went to the fair. We watched the tractor pulls for a while. Mr. S loves the tractor pulls. Me, not so much. They are very loud and scary.

 It started raining about 20 minutes after we got there. But that did not stop me from eating this!!!!! Those close to me know that I have been obsessing over this for the past few weeks This is what it is:

And this is what it looked like:

And this is what I felt like after I ate it:

But it was sooooooo worth it!!!!