the ocean

These days, when I am feeling a little stressed or down a bit, I am always craving the ocean. I guess it has become such a part of me, because I was around it so much growing up. There is no place like it for me. It is difficult, really, to put in words. I can say, though, that I love seeing the ocean at any time of day and in any season. In fact, most of my enjoyable ocean viewing moments are usually when it is not packed, blanket to blanket, but later in the day or really early or in the winter.

Every time we go to RI, I am always saying to Mike, I want to stop by the ocean. But most of the time, our days home fly by with no time for the ocean. This past short trip to RI, for Declan's birthday, we were only there for about 30 hours but we managed to fit in a quick ocean viewing. It was beautiful. I took Mike to Hazard Rocks, just down a few blocks from Narragansett beach, an old hang out and one of my favorite beaches anywhere. SInce the main part of the beach was completely packed and surfers were all over waiting for waves from the hurricane, Hazard Rocks is always a great place to ocean watch with less crowds. I got a little wet when a random wave washed over me. I forgot the name was given for a reason. It is so beautiful there, though. The sound...I should have taken a little video just so I could here the waves. Well, try to imagine the sound of the waves through these photos. Ahhhhh. It is a beautiful thing.

treasure foods

In the spirt of my 'treasures' project, I wanted to note some foods that have been a real treat this week. The first treasure was an adventure, making homemade Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream with coconut milk instead of dairy milk and agave nectar instead of sugar. I am trying to avoid sugar as much as possible and agave has given me a way to still enjoy ice cream! Coconut milk ice cream is delicious and you can buy it in whole foods or other natural foods stores but it is sooo expensive. It is very exciting to find a way to make it myself! I used a recipe from this book, roughly. Lots of love in this ice cream thanks to the help of Kevin, Holly, and my hubbie. I mean, they watched really, and experienced it.


Then, the first green beans of the season were picked in my garden this week. They are Mellow Yellow beans and I think we will be eating a lot of them in the coming weeks. They ended up in a yummy dish with whole wheat pasta, other veggies from the farmers' market, basil from the garden, oil and balsamic, and goat cheese. No pictures of that finished product but it was a treasure for dinner!

It warmed up quite a bit this week, finally feeling like summer. Since I can't crack open a cold beer these days, I decided to make myself an ice cold yummy treasure drink - watermelon lemonade (and yes, with agave instead of suger!). I adapted this recipe.

vacation at the ocean

Grandma gave us a week at the beach house in mystic. Stonington, really. It was a wonderful week. After 2 months of rain in NJ, the sun came out our first morning there and stayed out almost the entire time.

Mike and I had a great week. We got to see the family and have some fun alone together. It was a very peaceful week. I didn't even have to meditate, because it is just automatically happening when you are there.




It is amazing how the cottage feels after all of these years. The smells of the flowers as you walk up the beach path hill, the sound of the screen door in the front and the fog horn. The feel of the funny grass in between the rocks in the driveway, how that grass feels on my barefoot. The feel of closing the outside shower door and the sound of the water echoing in there. I have been going there since I was born. And some things are exactly the same. There is no other place like it when you wake up in the morning and see the ocean all around. And to go outside early with a mug of tea and just sit out there, seriously nothing like it. There is no other place like it.

a challenge - it begins with colour

I came across a blog with weekly color-photo challenges. This week, the challenge was to capture "wild card" or as much color as possible. It was tough since every day seems to be grey or dark grey but I decided to try it.

When I think of color at this time of year, I do always think about farmers' markets. I love going every week at the beginning of the season and watching how new colors are introduced each week. About a month ago, it was all mostly green and pink. This past week, blue came to the scene. I love going to new farmers' markets. Some fav's - Berkeley, Ithaca, Union Square...I enjoy mine too, it is just down the street. And next week, when we stay in Mystic, we will check that one out.

this is less of a creative shot and more of a documenting shot. in posting this, i realized that a lot of the time, i use photography to document. i know photos are about capturing but my eye is doing something specific, for documenting...i have done a lot of documenting, in mexico, in south america, and at different moments of random days. i wonder which is better...

life's treasures

I follow a few blogs here and there and I like when people come up with monthly or daily or weekly 'projects' for their blogs.
I have been doing a lot of thinking and being mindful of my life's treasures these days. In a book I keep going back to, Here for Now, the author has a great chapter on treasures. She talked about how our treasures are usually right here, right near us, or within us, even when we try to look far away for them. She asked the reader to think of your treasures. Listing them or thinking about them helps to remind us that treasures are present within us always, no matter where we are or what we are doing.

So as a blog project, I think once a month, I will post a 'life's treasures' entry. We'll see how it goes.

minutes before the ceremony - the photo is a little dark but i do love that face. it might be hard to see, but i see the love in his eyes. he has the best eyes.





my niece and nephew watching a frog eat grass, they have no idea how cute they are!

May, foggy days and sun with flowers

A visit to the Montclair Iris Garden
It is still in bloom if anyone wants to go! SO many kinds.










A foggy day in Ocean grove. I do love it when it is foggy and quiet at the ocean. Just before the mad summer rush...my favorite time for the beach, I think...

life Really is dynamic...to hair