Sometimes it just takes a change of venue to open your eyes!  We went on a vacation–something we do about every 4 years–this past month.  Back at the beginning of middle school, when our younger son came home with honor roll grades the first quarter of 5th grade, hubby made a deal with him:  if Eli was on Honor Roll for all 16 quarters of middle school, he could pick the destination of his choice (in the continental 48 United States) for a family trip.  Well, Eli did it, plus added in three individual championships in three sports his 8th grade year (Cross Country, Wrestling and Track)!  He is interested in marine mammals and the ocean, so he picked the Florida Keys and off we went!

I opted to lug my heavy DSLR (new, this is its first out-of-studio major excursion), and am so glad I did.  I took a deep gulp (hoping not to get dumped into the water) as we sat on a small kayak and paddled into the warm waters offshore our first day in the Keys and (thanks to rapid fire shutter speeds!) got  fabulous photos of a cormorant–several duds, two great ones:

Cormorant taking flight

and

Cormorant airborne. Granted the horizon is tippy, but I was on a kayak!

We stayed at a gorgeous, fancy resort…nicer than any place I’ve EVER been…for just the first night.  The grounds were amazing…I wandered with my camera in the Florida heat (90+ degrees, 90+ percent humidity…drip!) and found inspiration at just about every turn:

I love looking up at palm trees, and I love those berry-like things that change in habit (upright, drooping), size and color depending on the palm tree.

A palm trunk like this makes you want to grab some fabric and Shiva painsticks and do a rubbing. In the absence of those supplies, a camera and making a thermofax screen for printing… or using just the shapes for a filler quilting design. Or use the shapes and make a modern quilt in undulating strips…..

Fan Palm…again, reinterpret in cloth….

I had never seen palm trees with silver-gray leaves/fronds. As you can gather by these three photos, I REALLY liked them. They were beyond round, so the center would fold in on itself…this is just ONE frond! The light part in the center is where the frond folds in and tucks into the center of the beyond-a-circle shape.

Close up of the silver-gray palm frond…love those curly rivulets of leaf peeling off from the edges of the frond

And another–going for symmetry this time.

And the canopy of fronds overhead…can you tell these just grabbed me?

An employee spotted me and said she, too, was a photographer, and sent me off in the direction of this cool path.  The trees were trained to grow diagonally across the walk, and there were tiki torches along the path to light your way at night.  On one side you look back through the arch/tunnel to a pool……sigh!

The palm trees are trained to grow at this angle to form this tunnel!

I’ve got TONS of photos to share, but I’ll try to alternate between Florida and what I’ve been doing the past couple of months!  TOO MUCH catching up!  I’ve been busy DOING life and not blogging about it <grin!>!!!

We got home two days ago from a lovely trip to Florida.  While away I was able to post a few pics to Facebook, but I’ll make up for that here soon!  Just wanted to check in and let you know I’ve got lots coming–I just need to nail my seat to the chair and process photos and blog about it!  One of the nicest things about coming home is seeing the Camden Hills — once you spot them, you know you’re almost there!   Florida was hot and humid, and we were looking forward to a respite here in Maine.  The temps have been about 20 degrees cooler (in the 70s not 90+) but it has been mighty humid–the weather should change (PHEW) tomorrow!

This was my first flight coming in at dusk, with the lights of the coast visible. The town you see in the mid-ground is Rockland, a dozen miles or so south of our home. The Camden Hills are in the distance, and Camden town itself if off to the right of the photo. BEAUTIFUL!

One of the reasons I love flying in is seeing the familiar places from a bird’s-eye perspective.  And flying in at sunset gives you great pics of the sky…..

And as always, there is quilting inspiration.  As I was lolling in bed this morning, I was thinking about a quilt I want to make–something Quilt Modern-ish:  equilateral triangles in blues and aquas and spring greens, and how I would quilt it (bed size this one will be!).  I want the quilting to be easy and approachable (thinking ahead to a book on quilting design) for the beginner or the advanced-but-busy quilter, and was thinking about the patterns of the currents on the surface of the ocean:

Looking southwest over the peninsulas of mid-coast Maine as we approached Owl’s Head / Rockland airport at sunset.

Now I need to go get some exercise, run some errands, then get home before the next downpour adds to the already 100-percent humidity outside!

After 3 1/2 days of teaching, Judy Woodworth, Bonnie K. Hunter and I went into downtown Burlington for dinner to relax and celebrate. We had dessert at—where else of course (we’re in their home state)–Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream!

Just a quick note to check in and say hi and share pics of a few of the highlights of the days here in Colchester/Essex Junction, Vermont, where I’ve just taught 3 1/2 days of classes at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  WOW–what an amazingly run (by volunteers!) quilt show, with some stunningly beautiful and top-notch quilts from traditional to modern.   I’ll do several more posts, but Burlington is a charming small city–I am enchanted with the bike lanes and all the folks from college age to seniors riding bikes to and fro, parking for bikes in the downtown core (just a couple blocks up from the shores of Lake Champlain).  I had an absolute blast and would SO love to return to teach again, and know for sure I’ll now come as a “tourist” quilter, too!  It is about 6-7 hours from my home in Maine, so a day visit requires two nights away from home, but it is worth it!

Ben and Jerry’s is on Church Street at the corner of Cherry street…. Look at the sign! I TOTALLY love a town that has a sense of humor!

An internet friend, whom I met in one of my online drawing classes with Jane LaFazio, Dana B. came up to Burlington to meet me for dinner on Wednesday, the day I arrived.  Susan Brubaker Knapp, whom I initially met over the internet as well was also teaching, so the three of us had a most fanatabulous dinner at Leunig’s.  I’ll share more pics of the restaurant in a future post.

Wednesday with Dana B. and Susan Brubaker Knapp at Leunig’s restaurant on Church Street.

And the classes…OH MY did I have fun, and my students were so wonderful!  I won’t share any pictures now because there are just so many that I need to do a post or two just on those!

And one of the highlights for me was being able to share at Saturday night’s Show and Tell–I’ll post the whole wonderful story, but here’s a picture of me with my Oceans Alive quilt, made from Mary K. Ryan’s Mariner’s Compass pattern, WITH Mary K. Ryan!   It was just such a thrilling, wonderful thing, and I think you can tell by how happy we both look!

Me and Mary K. Ryan, with my quilt made (pieced in 1990-91, hand quilted and finished in about 2000) from Mary’s Mariner’s Compass pattern.

Tomorrow, I’ll drive home with a couple hour detour to the south to visit my dear friend Jacquie Scuitto, the Quiltmuse (I did a post on her book of light verse, here and blogged about her visit to Camden here and her verse in A Black and White Tale here), and hope to have more pictures and blogging for you later in the week.  Cheers, from a very happy and not-nearly-as-tired-as-I-expected me (tho I may collapse once I get home!)

Well, number two son Eli had a phenomenal end of season!  He won the Busline (local) League individual Championship, with his friend Ben coming in right behind him!

Eli wins the Busline League (midcoast Maine) Middle School Championships; friend Ben is not far behind

The boys team wins the Busline League as Undefeated Champions (second year in a row!)

The girls team wins the Busline League as Undefeated Champions (second year in a row!)

Happy Coach Morse and Happy kids!

Then they went to the Winthrop Invitational (thanks to a wonderful Coach, Jim Morse, who kept seeking more opportunities for the top runners), where Eli won with a new course record (!!!), and both teams won!

To our delight and surprise, Eli came charging up the final hill IN THE LEAD--and no one in sight behind him-- and won the Winthrop Invitational with a new course record!

Next was a larger invitational about 90 minutes north of here so the kids could experience a larger field.  Eli came in third, and both boys and girls teams won!

Aurora meet...Eli comes in third! and fourth is not even around the corner of the building....

While I was teaching at A Quilters’ Gathering in New Hampshire, there was a State-wide qualifying meet in Augusta.  Runners who placed high enough would get to compete in the USA Track and Field Association Junior Olympics Northeast Regional meet in Queensbury, NY.  Eli placed second in the STATE!

The last big event, the Sunday before Thanksgiving…get this!…. Seven of our runners went to the Junior Olympics Regionals!  A few more made it, but they were in 6th grade and the parents decided, maybe when they are older (smart!).  All of the kids raced, some ran their best times ever, and all came in somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Eli was the highest finishing middle schooler for Maine except for the kid who beat him at both Aurora and Augusta meets.  There were some older boys from Maine, Freshman, in the same age group, and they came in a bit ahead.  Eli was 63 of 116 which is pretty amazing since runners came from Maine, NH, Vermont, parts of NY, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. WOW!

Junior Olympics Northeast Regionals, age 13-14 boys; Maine kids are at the far right--taking off! As Eli put it, the leaders shot out, went into the woods, and weren't seen again!

Eli heads down the chute for the finish line at his first Junior Olympics race

Our Camden-Rockport kids standing under the finish line. It was great...we had kids in three or four separate races, and all the kids and all the parents stayed for all the races and finishes! We're so proud of ALL of them! Eli is the boy to the right, his friend from first grade on, Ben, is at the left.

It was a 6+ hour drive from Hope, Maine, to Queensbury, NY, so we drove  over Saturday for a midday race Sunday, then drove home after the race.  And slept in Monday–we told Eli he could go to school late!   While waiting to head over to the course on Sunday, I decided to sketch a bit…I’ll share more of this journaling later.

To pass the time on Sunday morning before the race, I decided to sketch Eli's tank.

It was a great season…we are so grateful to Jim Morse for his dedication to the kids, to the school for providing buses to all the meets and letting the kids wear their red uniforms for the after-season meets.

I have to comment the USATF and the volunteers in NY.  Over the course of the day there were some 2000 runners, and this was by far the best organized meet of this sort I’ve ever attended.  And best of all:  ALL the kids were enthused, learned from the reality dose from being the best of the best in Maine to among the best in New England, and ALL want to go back next year!

Time to get caught up on what all I’ve been doing the past month… first, I came home!

Flying in to mid-coast Maine at sunset....sigh....those rays of sun I call angel escalators. When I was 4, we returned to the US from living in Argentina. I had never seen escalators before and was entranced! I was also bundled off to Sunday School where they wanted us to NAP (not!). I wondered how the angels got from heaven to earth, and decided that sunbeams must really be angel escalators, so that's what they've been ever since, and now my kids know about them, too.

The best part of coming home to Maine is, of course, the people and the critters starting with my husband, sons, pug and cats!  But coming home to Maine is pretty amazing.   I flew in from teaching at Quilt Nebraska on July 31 to this…how can anyone NOT want to live and be here?

I love these aerial shots, this one taken over the wing of the prop Cape Air plane (about 9 seats I think). This is the peninsula just south of Owl's Head which is just south of Rockland. The airport designation is RKD, but it is really in Owl's Head and is 35 minutes from home.

Then the sun began to set…OH MY!

Just LOOK at those colors!

And the clouds…oh my oh my…

And a different view....love those curling up wisps and that one dark cloud hovering over the sun

And more...

As we were landing...

And a close-up

The color got really intense and dark when I zoomed in on the sun.

And touchdown…

And on the ground...see the windsock in the distance... I think the blob in the upper right is part of the plane/tail.