Yet another glamour shot. It's pretty neat when they get used to the 'glaring eye' of the camera and start ignoring you.  

Another profile. 

A small painted turtle we happened upon while wandering along the causeway. It took Hal a while to get this shot, as the poor little guy kept retreating into his shell every time Hal'd point the lens at him. 

You had to be there.

The sizing of this series of images does not do justice to the expansive feeling of the actual place.  

Back, but not totally myself.
The weekend would have been perfect, save for the half of my brain I left behind on Friday. Still in all, not bad.

Saturday, we took a trip over to Great Meadows in Concord. It was a bit crowded, as Saturday was gorgeous, but a nice little walk just the same.

Next to the Refuge, we found a very nice little farmstand that we'll try to visit next week as well. The man who ran the farm was wonderful - I picked up about six pounds of assorted grapes (mainly Concords and Niagaras) as well as a head of broccoli and an endive. Broccoli became part of dinner that night. The grapes have been rendered into juice and pulp and are sitting in my fridge waiting for me to process them tonight. The endive will eventually end up chopped up and served with a citrus vinaigrette one of these evenings.

Glorious, clear, breezy day after another migraine.
I'm hoping we'll get out and run around a bit; I really need it.

Enjoy this other gift of a day. Heaven knows how many more we'll be having.

Oh! And Happy Sweetest Day! (How could I forget?)

Here's an update on Tanya's latest needleworking project. It's coming along nicely, isn't it?  

This buycott thing annoyed me.

I got two emails yesterday exhorting me to 'not spend anything on October 19th' as some sort of way of showing the world that, though women have 1/2 the buying power in the economy, they have some miniscule proportion of upper management positions in the corporate world.

Fine and good, but wouldn't more qualified women working their way up the corporate ladder and perhaps applying for said positions be a more positive action than having some sort of 'buycott?' Maybe I'm naive, maybe I'm missing the point (after all, I am not only a dumb broad, but a blonde one to boot), but my figuring is that directing yourself towards attaining certain goals, rather than engaging in meaningless but feel-good gestures tends to be more productive.

(I forwarded the email to a friend of mine who noted that one of the alternatives to spending was 'taking in a museum.' What if the museum charges admission?)

The rest of my evening was spent knitting swatches and enjoying some new music. I'm loving my Hugh Masekela.

In a seperate but related development, Hal has really been taken by Fela Kuti's music. He's quite a powerful personnage. No doubting that. Though I do have a bit of a problem wtih some of the finer points of the philosophy - I am growing to love his work, as well. 

I feel so much better, now that I'm not watching any Red Sox games or Presidential debates.

Last night, Hal met me at work and we took a leisurely walk home. Stopped off at Reliable in Union Square to pick up some produce and other goodies, then went home to throw something together 'a la coreene.'

What did we have? A nice little soup with veggie broth, leeks and 'fish' balls.
A 'bulgoki' over steamed spinach. Cucumbers marinated in hot chili sauce. For dessert - this little treat (Sylveine) from the Bourbon Company. Goodness, they were so Japanese! (Packaged, processed, pretty.)

Unfortunately, no leftovers for lunch today.

So much for silencing the 55,000.

So, which will upset this girl more, the debate or game #2? I think I'm going to just stay quiet and knit tonight. Too much at stake on both these fronts, plus work's getting busier again, and I need to keep rested up for that.

More Images from Topsfield


This little sweetie with the bassett hound ears just loved getting rubbed behind the ears and under the chin. Languid in her mannerisms as she was, I could really see some odalisque potential here. 

King of the Hill! 

Bunny!


Don't let the cute picture fool you. They can be brutes. 

Heirloom Tomato contestants in the Produce Barn 

"There's nothing you can do - OH!" 

I'll clue you in on a little something here: You have to anger them to turn their heads blue and make them display their tailfeathers. I got eye level to this guy and said "teh" repeatedly (turkey fighting word). Instant photo op! 

Topsfield!

A wonderful time was had by all. We looked at animals, giant pumpkins, 4-H crafts awards. Got stuck in crowds, ate unhealthy food (I had a corn dog and shared an apple crisp). Tanya angered turkeys. Keith bought a top as it came off the wood turner's workbench. Heck, Pablo and his sister Anna Maria rode an elephant! Hal, of course, documented what ever he laid eyes on, and beautifully, too.

What were my favorites this time around? My first corn dog ever? The smell of the fried dough? The novelty of the vegetable bouquets? Petting the sweetie pies of llamas? Feeling the cashmere while still on the goat? Finding myself so close to semi-tame peregrines and red-tailed hawks? For a small fair, there was more than enough to see and do, and we all left tired and happy this lovely fall day.

Enjoy the pictures that follow. Hopefully there will be more soon.

Last time we met a llama at a fair, it was at the Eastern States Exposition and the poor beast couldn't get over Hal being taller than it. The resultant shots were of this enraged animal just barely being restrained from beating the crud out of our fearless photographer.

This time around, the llamas were pretty docile and didn't seem to mind being patted, nuzzled, photographed. Very calm. No worries about getting spit at. 

Beautiful, beautiful domesticated pigeons! Some were all snowy white, some were grey, some had chocolate-colored heads. Some were purple. They were all lovely.