Light Painting, Long Exposures

I spent a week at Lake Ontario in Jefferson Park, NY. It gets pretty dark up there at night, so you can see more stars than we can in even a small town like Beacon. Light pollution blocks out stuff. But a long exposure up north in a darker area captures a few more stars.

With such a dark backdrop we could also do light painting with various light sources such as burning wood, sparklers, or small light sources like flashlights. Here's a sample of our work:

Directness

I came across this article while tripping around the web at lunch, today. I love one of the concluding paragraphs for it speaks of language needing to be utilitarian, in some respect. It speaks to my love of direct, elegant writing, if not blunt writing:

At 20 I congratulated myself on my awareness of the subjectivity of aesthetic judgments, the arbitrariness of critical proclamations, the folly of received wisdom. I pored over the Deconstructionists and the French feminists and advocated, in complete seriousness, the overthrow of language. (Also, the patriarchy.) Then I went to law school and was forced to confront serious practical and ethical questions — Brown v. Board of Education, for instance, and Roe v. Wade — that managed not to be resolved by the insights of Derrida. Now, having entered and abandoned the practice of law and spent roughly a decade straddling legal publishing and the blogosphere, I’m increasingly drawn to directness, which precludes neither nuance nor irony. (For details, see the essays of Mark Twain, who believed that “plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.”)

Beacon Roundhouse

The Roundhouse At Beacon Falls is just one part of a large development project started this year to revitalize Beacon's East Main Street Area. So far they have cleaned up a lot of the area near the falls and the Main Street bridge, and the bridge has been replaced or fixed.

Just a few weeks ago, the Roundhouse opened up for customers. I stopped there and got some pictures this morning.

Here is a quick video of the area. I apologize if you can hear the guy yapping on his cell phone.

Beacon Farmer's Market

The Beacon Farmer's Market is held ever Sunday - even in the winter - at the train station parking lot. In foul weather, it is held indoors at the Beacon Sloop Club, same location. We stopped there yesterday on the way home from grocery shopping to complement those purchases with some fresh fruit and corn.

Migliorelli Farm is from Tivoli, about 30 miles north of here. We got peaches and corn from their stand, which is hardly a sampling of all their produce.

 Tierra Farms has all manner of dried fruit and nuts.

We get stuff from Pickle Licious from time time. Today we got Kalamata olives and pickled mushrooms.

There's also fresh bread...

...and iced coffee and ground coffee from Tas Kafe, which is in Beacon.

This gentleman was selling SerenDipiTea.

 A florist!

I had never heard of vegan ice cream until this day.

Jennifer got two boxes of ravioli from Bongo and Capacci (website not found!).

Occasionally there is someone selling handmade jewelry, such as It's A Wrap.

Another interesting vendor for whom I could find no web info.

Did you know we made wine here in Dutchess County? Millbrook Winery is in Millbrook (of all places), a beautiful small town with such residents as Ric Ocasek, Paulina Porizkova, Liam, Neeson, Timothy Leary (OK, he's dead, but I finally get to say "Timothy Leary's dead!"), Daryl Hall, Faith Hill, Sigourney Weaver, Rufus Wainright, and Mary Tyler Moore. The Cars recorded their latest album there in 2010. Golden Earring named their album, also recorded there, after the town.

Gotta love 'exquisite tarts' from Dutch Desserts.

Walnut Grove Farms.

Didn't catch where these folks were from, but their sandwiches smelled great.

Common Ground Farm is a community farming project run out of Beacon and Fishkill.

They have a cool bus!

What Is This Plant?

If you can tell me what it is, I'll buy you a pizza.

It looks like a lily, but we don't recall planting one - specially in the vegetable garden.

Film Crew In Beacon

A search of IMDB shows that this is not the first time. I remember seeing "Nobody's Fool" with Paul Newman because it was filmed here, but that was a long time ago. I see that some part of "War Of The Worlds" was shot here but I did not recognize anything in the movie when I watched it. 

They have some serious equipment here, so I don't think this is a YouTube production. 

When Finn and I tried to go to Riverpool, this is what was saw that tipped us off that something is going down in town.

The woman in the yellow skirt seems to be an actress, but no one that I recognize.

That looks like an old (1970s) car there - perhaps a Pinto? In any case, it has Indiana plates.

  I hope they don't catch the mountain in the background because it is likely higher than anything in Indiana.

Relaxing In The Woods

Jennifer had never been camping, and this year she said she was ready for it. We got her some nice outfits to go along with task, and happily drove up to Woodland Valley Campground to stay two nights. Here are some selected shots.

Before we go on, a shameless plug here for our favourite outfitters, Mountain Tops in Beacon, NY. The young couple that owns and runs the store is always friendly. Their staff is always enthusiastic, and they have a great selection of good merchandise. I got our bed rolls, compass, MSR fuel, and many other little items there, and that is where Jenn purchased all clothes you see her wearing (including our Vibram shoes). If you are ever in Beacon, be sure to check out their store.

Jenn proved to be a master at building fires. She got them just right for every meal. 

Pictures of our Vibram Five Fingers shoes, which make walking a rocky stream bed much easier.

Enjoying one of five very successfully cooked meals. Jennifer loved creating and cooking over the open fire. 

The hammock I got her for Christmas.

A water strider