Category Archives: Photography

Adventures in Apple Picking

Happy Sunday friends! I hope you are all enjoying the holiday weekend! Last week, I told you how much I love this time of year and how I try to make the most of it by spending time outdoors when I can, enjoying some of the activities traditionally associated with fall.

And this weekend was no different! We ventured out all the way to central(ish) Mass. to do some apple picking. By ‘all the way to central Mass.’, I mean roughly 40 minutes away. Not exactly a hike, but feels like worlds away.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

If you’ve never been apple picking, it’s great fun!

In addition to being loads of fun, you end up with bags full of delicious apples to eat and bake with!

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

Don’t those look delicious? I haven’t bought any apples at the supermarket in weeks in anticipation of these. They’re just so flavorful and juicy. I’ve had like 6 apples since yesterday. No joke.

The apple picking party consisted of myself, my adorable mom (pictured below), my aunt, and cousin. We had a lovely time walking around the orchard, snapping photos, eating freshly picked apples.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

There was also some pumpkin picking.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

I love visiting farms in the fall. Big mountains of pumpkins, brightly colored potted mums, the smell of cinnamon in the air. It’s such a lovely scene.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

Shelburne Farms has it’s share of activities for the whole family! Apple picking, hayrides, farm animals, and apparently, live music.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

There’s also a little store selling cider, pies and caramel apples, among other things. Including the best cheddar cheese EVER.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

Oh, and fresh apple cider donuts. These things are amazing. If you do end up going to an apple orchard and they sell fresh apple cider donuts..do not, under any circumstances, leave without trying one of these puppies. If a cinnamon sugar option is available, make sure you get that. Eat them there, they’re not as good when they cool down. You’ll thank me later.

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

I hope you’re enjoying this beautiful time of year! What are some of your favorite fall activities?

Apple Picking - Tulips & A Terrier

Daytrip To Castle Hill

Hello friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Seeing as how it’s my favorite time of year and all, I’m avoiding spending my two precious days off in the house and instead trying to get out and enjoy all of this New England fall-ness.

Yesterday, we drove up to the charming town of Ipswich to visit Castle Hill. If you’ve never been to Ipswich (as I had not before yesterday), I highly recommend it! It’s quite picturesque..and has a million antique stores, apparently.

Part of the expansive Crane Estate, Castle Hill was once the summer residence of Richard T. Crane. We knew it as the filming location of Flowers In The Attic. The mansions sits atop a hill overlooking Crane Beach (which was unusually pretty for a Massachusetts beach).

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to tour the inside of the mansion as there was a wedding taking place (which obviously means we’ll need to come back).

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

We did have a chance to explore the grounds, which were quite stunning (especially with a hint of fall in the trees!)

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

I love visiting old mansions. They’re just so grand! A trip to Newport is long overdue. It totally makes my head spin that someone would go through the trouble of having this built to use it only as a summer house. Like, where could you possibly live the rest of the year that you would leave this?

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

Anyways! Stunning architecture combined with a touch of foliage makes for a pretty good daytrip.

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

I just love the fall. The colors of the trees make me want to throw on a pair of boots and whip up a pumpkin latte

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

Daytrip To Castle Hill  - Tulips & A Terrier

We have lot of fall-ish activities planned over the next couple of months, so you can expect to see more of these weekend excursion posts.

What’s your favorite fall-ish activity or destination?

Iceland, A Road Trip

Today marks a full week since we’ve been back from our trip, and we kind of miss it already. It’s hard not to miss this place! From the never-ending stream of stunning scenery, to the feeling of freedom that comes from knowing that the only thing you have to do today is explore the nearly uninhabited Icelandic countryside..I have to say, readjusting to a life of cubicles and rush hour traffic has not been easy. With that said, I have an abundance of photos (roughly 1200 or so) that I can use to transport myself back in time as I await our next (currently unplanned) vacation.

Before you hit ‘unsubscribe’, don’t worry..I have no intention of posting 1200 photos. But I have decided to break up the photos into a couple of posts. You know, so as not to overwhelm you with the remarkable beauty this country has to offer.

If you are considering visiting Iceland, road tripping is totally the way to do it! The self-drive option that gave us the opportunity to explore at our own pace was perfect! It’s virtually impossible to get lost, since the major highway is a single road that goes around the entire country. And it’s always fun to get to discover interesting things off of the beaten path..it does feel like quite the adventure!

As far the view, I’m not sure it gets any better. Somehow, I don’t think that the camera captured it though. Actually being there in the vast emptiness felt surreal.

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

This would be the major highway I’m referring to,Ring Road. Two lanes. And parts are unpaved.

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

Sometimes it was difficult to focus on navigating because all I wanted to do was take pictures of everything we drove by (this is probably how I ended up with 1200 of them). Doesn’t it look a little bit like you’re in one of those race-car video games? Nothing but road in front of you! I don’t know about where you’re from, but I rarely see such pleasant driving conditions in the metro west region.

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

Please note the lack of other cars in the above photos. This was the case more often than not. We definitely encountered far more horses and sheep than we did people. The Icelandic horses are quite beautiful..and really friendly! Seeing packs of them running in the fields was such an incredible sight! We stopped so that I could take a photo they trotted on over to say hello! This funny guy kept sticking his tongue out at us. The sheep were not as personable. While I’m sure they’re very nice, they run away when you try to pet them.

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

While traveling, I was also recruited by Mazda to photograph a series of print ads. Just kidding, this is our rental. Due to the striking surroundings and lack of people or cars, we kept joking about the fact that our photos looked like a car commercial.

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

At this point you’re probably wondering if we did anything but drive around. Yes! Our first day was spent exploring the famous Golden Circle! Iceland’s popular tourist route that allows you to see several of the country’s famous sights in a short driving time (often done as a day trip from Reykjavik).

Þingvellir National Park holds much historic significance for Iceland as it was the site where the parliament was founded. It’s also one of two places in the whole world were you can actually see the continental drift between the Eurasian and North American plates!

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

Geysir was a short drive from the park. We didn’t actually get to see Geysir erupt, but this is the smaller and more reliable Stokkur! It erupts about every 6 minutes (Geysir erupts 2-3 times a day).

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

Followed by Gulfoss waterfall! The sheer size of which left us pretty awestruck.  See those little lines near the top to  the left? Those are people.

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

Iceland, A Road Trip - Tulips & A Terrier

And yes, the person I’m standing with here is the boyfriend you’ve heard me mention from time to time! I’ve recently realized that he’s yet to make it into a single photo here on the blog and at this point you might be suspecting that I’m making him up. So please give a warm welcome to the boyfriend, otherwise known as Jason!

If you enjoyed these, stay tuned for a volcanic beach, a glacier lagoon, and another 60 waterfalls!

P.S. – what do you guys think of the new header? I tried to get fancy with Photoshop.

An Overdue Yoga Update

First off, I’d like to apologize for my inconsistency with these yoga posts. Surprisingly enough, I’ve actually been doing the exercises consistently but my progress in the book seems to have stagnated. Truthfully, there’s a bit much going on right now and I haven’t quite gotten around to reading the third chapter. This might take me longer than the intended 6 weeks. Nothing wrong with tweaking something to suit your lifestyle, right?

And by ‘doing the exercises consistently’, I mean about 75% of the time. I understand most people may have a different idea of consistency. Sometimes I choose the extra 20 minutes of sleep (often involuntarily by sleeping through my alarm).

Ready to hear what I learned in lesson 2?

Exercises:

In addition to those laid out in lesson one, there were 6 more exercises introduced in lesson two. This became a little much for me to keep track of and I found myself spending a good portion of time flipping through pages, re-reading directions, missing steps. I decided the sensible thing to do was to make a cheat sheet. Everything on one page, in a Word document I can add to as I make my way through later chapters. I’m big on efficiency.

As Indra promised, the poses did become easier as I continued to do them… AND…wait for it…I managed to maneuver myself into an actual lotus pose!! In case you’re not sufficiently impressed, this is what it looks like. Right. And it was painful as hell! Don’t let the serene expressions of the individuals in the Google image results fool you. They’re obviously all double jointed or something.

Neck Stretching

Diet:

According to the book, the yogi way of life consists of more than contorting yourself into pretzel form. In the previous lesson, Indra promised us a ‘lengthy discussion’ on food regimens. And a lengthy discussion it was! Most of what was discussed shouldn’t come as a surprise to most of us that have not lived under a rock for the last couple of decades. Eat more fruits/vegetables in their natural state, avoid saturated fats and foods that are processed or contain added chemicals.

While most of us know this to be true, this is easier said than done. Realistically, I’m not going to be able to maintain a diet free of all saturated fats, processed foods, and bleached flour. I can, however, agree to a compromise. Small steps, you know.

So, this past weekend, I was in the frozen food aisle picking out a couple of Lean Cuisines and Smart Ones (don’t judge, they are convenient to take in for lunch and save me from having to spend extra cash buying lunch). I was poking around for a flavor I didn’t dislike AS much…and in a wildly bold move, decided not to buy any. Suddenly, it didn’t make sense to buy something I didn’t particularly care for that I could easily recreate with probably 10% of the sodium. So I left the frozen foods aisle, with not so much as a package of Lean Pockets. Instead, I decided go get a little adventurous with produce (as in, bought Brussel sprouts).

A couple of diet tidbits I found interesting and noteworthy –

  • Drinking room temperature water and never during meals. I guess iced water inhibits proper digestion. If you can see yourself drinking room temperature water in mid August at least half an hour before or after eating, more power to you!
  • Warming up or reheating meals with fat or oils in them renders them more indigestible with each reheat. Good to know.
  • ‘Milk is a food, not a drink’. I would have to agree. I guess this makes coffee a perfectly acceptable breakfast.

There were also sections devoted to rhythmic breathing and meditation. I continue to fail at meditation. For some reason, my mind doesn’t stay still. I’ll let you know how that works out.

I’ll stop with the babbling now. Let’s be honest, most of you are here for photos of a dog on a yoga mat…and I would hate to disappoint.

Meditation

Meditation

Tulips & A Terrier

In case you are sick of seeing photos of a dog on a yoga mat, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some photos taken on a recent walk! I’m learning to use the manual modes on my camera a bit more in preparation of our upcoming trip.

Tulips & A Terrier

How pretty  are these clouds?

Tulips & A Terrier

Think my photography skills have improved at all? My first post featuring nature photography can be seen here!

 

Day At The Beach

Having spent the last couple of weekends mostly indoors and busy with spring cleaning and various home improvement projects, we knew Jack wasn’t terribly happy with us. He absolutely HATES cleaning. I’ve never seen anything like it. He seriously sulks on the couch the whole time, every now and then letting out a very loud sigh.

So, with an entire Saturday afternoon at our disposal, we decided to grab the little bugger and head to the beach! I was under the impression that you could take dogs on the beach up until Memorial Day. This is false. It’s actually until May 1st. There  weren’t too many people out so we decided to ignore the signs and head on in. We live right on the edge.

Beach-1

At first, he was a little weary of the water. And the sand. Come to think of it, I think this is the first time we’ve ever brought him on the actual beach.

Jack-on--beach

He got the hang of it soon enough! These two were having a grand old time! Jack’s rather bouncy. He sometimes looks like he’s bouncing as he runs. Note that he is actually completely airborne. Not one paw on the ground.

jack-in-air

Honestly, it’s like he’s flying!

jack-in-air2

Oliver joined us a short while later! Handsome little guy, isn’t he?

oliver2

These two go way back. Oliver was actually Jack’s first ever play date! He made three-month-old Jack feel badly about his inability to jump on the couch…

oliver

They had such a great time together! Running around in circles, taking turns peeing on things, terrorizing an elderly woman walking down the beach…

Outside of the single incident with the elderly woman and Oliver’s attempted escape, they were surprisingly well-behaved! It makes me so happy to see the two of them having such a ball together!

friends