All posts by laurahinnj

Snapshots, Wanderings

Famously remote

9 Comments

Accessible only by ferry, Georgia’s Cumberland Island is said to be one of the least developed places in the US.

Designated as a National Seashore in 1972, most of the island is managed by the National Park Service which limits visitors to 300 at any one time.

There are no stores and no paved roads. The only full-time residents are park service personnel and maybe a couple descendants of Thomas Carnegie who owned the island at one time.

You walk or bike everywhere. Carry your PB&J sandwiches and water in your backpack. If you’re smart, you pack a bikini along with your camera and binoculars for the inevitable mid-afternoon swim.

Georgia is hot!!!

There’s a necessary death march across the island, through its ruins, saltwater marshes, maritime forest and dunes before you get to dip your toes in the ocean.

It’s worth it, though… and there’s neat stuff to see along the way.

It’s remote.

And wonderful.

And very, very hot.

😉

I’m not sure how many days into this trip it was before I stopped feeling dumbfounded by the sight of palm trees. Is that normal? I mean, do they have that effect on everyone or just people from NJ or just silly me?

Birds, Snapshots, Wanderings

Have you ever?

8 Comments

stepped on a plane and found yourself transported to another world?

where wild horses wander amid the ruins of a great island estate?

where the shadows of trees hold anhingas and wood storks?

and life birds fly past in squadrons of color or shades of gray?

where gators smile to lure the unknowing closer to the edge of their world?

where pelicans pose dockside for a portrait?

have you ever lost your breath to the beauty of a sunrise?

 

(I have!)

I’m like an 11 year old just back from sleep-away camp with a hundred run-on sentences about everything I saw, everyone I fell in love with, every little thing I did… words and photos are just beneath the surface… just waiting for my head to stop with all the spinning.

😉

I’m also painfully slow to process new experiences which is why I talk in lists and pictures, sometimes.

Bear with me…

In the new neighborhood, Seasons

The best season ever

15 Comments

Dear Summer,

For a few weeks after Labor Day I pretend you won’t leave me. I stroll along the empty beach and wade, alone, in the still-warm water. Trees somewhere else might be screaming with color and light, but here at the shore, the sky is higher and the sea darker. Tiny sanderlings dart from the waves at my feet. I close my eyes and breathe you in, thinking you’re the best season and I will love you forever.

Then, with a quick sweep of goldenrod over the dunes, you’re gone.

I’ll admit to having feelings for Fall, but left as I am, now, with earlying evenings and doles of rain, I’m tempted to flee south and pursue you elsewhere. It’s nothing serious, yet, but there will be apple orchards and pumpkin farms to visit and cranberries ripening in the Pine Barrens. I think you should know that Autumn will tempt my heart away if you’re not generous enough with sunny days.

Icy arrows are pointing the way. Egrets and plovers and laughing gulls blend feathers with sky and are gone with you.

I want to go, too.

I want your misty dawns and searing afternoons, your shimmering lakes and dusks freckled with fireflies. I want sun-warmed tomatoes and fresh strawberries.

 

Missing you already,
Laura.

Snapshots, Whatever

Reluctant Chicken Farmer revealed

8 Comments

When he’s not tending to his chickens or garden, or ranting about something or other, my brother Kevin moonlights as a computer geek.

Isn’t he cute?

We got together tonight so he could load PhotoShop onto my shiny new Mac, but there was a technical snafu, so that didn’t happen.

My computer geek brother brought home the Windows version of PS rather than the Mac version.

(rolling my eyes)

I took the opportunity to harass him some about not updating his blog in weeks. I helped my niece with her math homework. I got a tour of his new barn, but the chickens were already asleep.

Early-risers apparently.

Do you have a sibling with a skill that makes them your *go-to person* for something? What is it? Do they usually come through for you?

😉

In addition to his computer skills, I can always count on Kev to keep me laughing.

Whatever

Back among the living

11 Comments

I’ve been pretty out of it the last couple days… funny how not feeling well can so easily reduce one’s *to-do list* to the barest of essentials, things like:

finding the very softest spot on the pillow to lay my head

keeping the tips of my toes under a blanket; my upper body was alternately (maddeningly!) hot or cold, but those toes had better be covered!

dreaming up something (anything!) that would make my sore throat feel better… chocolate pudding (somewhat)… popsicles (didn’t last long enough)… warm saltwater (ick, but effective)… coffee (felt awful; you can imagine the state that had me in!)… chicken soup (nice, but the noodles felt like they were getting stuck way back in my throat)

TMI, I know.

Anyway… I was at the doc in a box place before they even opened on Saturday morning.

And back at the pharmacist on Sunday morning wondering if the darn antibiotics shouldn’t have me feeling at least a little bit better by now?

I have to be desperate before I’ll see a doctor. Once I’ve taken that risk, I expect to be rewarded with feeling better pretty quickly. Waiting on meds to work their magic is hard when you’ve hardly slept or ate or done anything without a small measure of pain for a few days.

Builds compassion for others who are genuinely sick though, I think.

I felt the first tinges of an appetite returning late last night and managed a whole bowl of cream of broccoli soup.

Then I slept like a zombie and this morning there was coffee again.

Yum.

Today I’m aching to be out with my camera capturing more of that late summer light.