Day One Hundred Three. 4.22.11

Crocus in a vase

We had a late Passover Seder at our house last night (late because Seder was supposed to be last Monday and Tuesday).  It was a lovely time, and our friend Bella made up these very sweet vases of crocuses, which she cut from just outside our front door.  Ah, spring.  You are coming after all.  Slowly, and in fits and starts, (it snowed this morning) but you really are coming!

Day One Hundred Two. 4.21.11

Graffiti

This is in the parking lot of the Hunger Mountain Co-op.  I like the colors in this photo and how the background paint fades on the right side.  I also love how you can see the grain of the wood throughout.

Day One Hundred One. 4.20.11

Sink

This photo for some reason reminds me of the art deco vibe of the inside of the Empire State Building.  Don't know why -- perhaps an art historian would be able to tell me why.

Day One Hundred! 4.19.2011

Day 100!

It seems a little ironic that I missed my 100th day.  But also maybe appropriate.  It causes me to reflect a little on the commitment that I've made.  I've missed 4 days, I think, since the beginning of this project.
I could look at that and say, "That's the 4th day I've missed, I need to get better at sticking to my commitments."  (Notice how I generalize there from this to all commitments).

But missing 4 days also means I've stuck to the goal 96% of the time.  That's a solid A.  And I'm pretty pleased with that.  So the second interpretation is how I'm choosing to look at it.

May my next 265 days also result in an equally high commitment, and an equally forgiving self when I err.

Day Ninety Nine. 4.18.11

Train Bridge

I took this out the window of our berth in the sleeper car on the way home.  If I was smitten with train travel before, the sleeper car pushed me into true love.  It was so luxurious and fun to sleep horizontally in our own room on the train.  

The room was so tiny -- maybe 6.5' x 4.5' -- but it fit bunk beds (which turn into 2 chairs), a totally not smelly toilet and a fold-away sink.  It was pretty amazing.  

I can't resist sharing some pics of it.  These were taken when we boarded at 3:30 am, and I must say we look pretty damn good for having spent the first half of the night in the Toledo train station with several screaming children (literally) and a man hacking his lung out (maybe not quite as literally, but sounded like it).  Must have been on account of our true excitement for the train.  We promptly fell asleep shortly thereafter.

He's sitting on the seat that lifts into a toilet in this picture.

Here you can kind of see the two bunks.  The top bunk lifts all the way up to the ceiling when you convert the bottom bunk to two seats.

Here I show off all the luxuries of the sleeper cabin...complimentary spring water, a Sunday New York Times, a bed to lay down on, and you can sleep (hence the closed eyes).  Not pictured here: two complimentary meals in the dining car!  I know, right???

Day Ninety Eight. 4.17.11

Tasty Details

This is the chocolate case at Zingerman's delicatessen in Ann Arbor, MI.  You should go there.  It's quite an amazing place.  I didn't partake in any of these tasty details, but I did have an amazing bagel sandwich, which is not easy to find in VT!

Day Ninety Seven. 4.16.11

Freesia

My sister-in-law-to-be had these beautiful single vases of freesia lined up along the mantle in the living room.  So very spring.  The detail I tried to photograph, but was not able to appropriately capture, was that there were 6 or 8 vases in two different sizes, all of which had exactly the same level of water in them.  That's a level of detail that I rarely accomplish on my own...which is part of why I'm doing this project!

Day Ninety Six. 4.15.11

Blinds

They weren't actually blue, but it makes a much cooler photo!

Day Ninety Five. 4.14.11

Sunset at the beginning of a journey

I took this picture out of the window of the train.  We had just boarded for our overnight ride from Albany to Toledo to Ann Arbor to go to my partner's father's memorial service.  Quite a journey.  It was a pretty sunset, and I particularly like the silhouettes in this picture.  Not long after I took this photo, we went to the dining car and had a lovely dinner -- I had a leg of lamb and my partner had baked trout.  It felt quite luxurious.  I am smitten with train travel.

Day Ninety Four. 4.13.11

Vermont in the Spring

This picture perfectly encapsulates it -- snow, mud, puddles and just a hint of the promise of green.  This massive puddle is on the playground at school.  I couldn't help but also include two more photos I took today.  Neither of them was my detail because they were both human made and set up, but I like them both a lot.  The first one is a swirly puddle of mud that was stirred up by a child in rain boots.  The second is ripples in a puddle made by a child with a stick.  You can kind of see his reflection too, which is cool.

Day Ninety Three. 4.12.11

Sunset

This was not the kind of picture I thought I'd be taking when I originally came up with the idea of noticing details.  The macro function of my camera was off, and it's a large landscape view.  But sometimes details aren't little.  The detail I noticed was that the sun was only just barely beginning to set when I left my Tuesday night yoga class a little before 8:00.  I've been driving home from that class in the dark for many months and it made me incredibly happy to have a beautiful sunset at my back instead.  

The other detail I'm grateful for in this picture is the place where I work - that's the view just outside the front door of the school and it's a beautiful view, sunset or otherwise.  

As a final note, I would like to point out that I did nothing to enhance the color in this picture.  

Day Ninety Two. 4.11.11

Ice

I love the pattern of layers in this ice cube.  It looked especially cool in the seltzer because there was a contrast between the trapped bubbles in the ice cube and the moving bubbles of the seltzer.  It was hard to capture that movement in the picture, but you can kind of see it in the blurry bubbles in the lower left corner.

Day Ninety One. 4.10.11

Pouring

I took this as we walked home from seeing a movie on an incredibly rainy Sunday night.  There were lots of very cool rainy night details, but they were very hard to photograph. I like the way the light calls attention to the water pouring off the roof.

Day Eighty Eight. 4.7.11

Oops.  Missed it again.  And I didn't even take a silly oops picture.  I'm slippin'.

Day Ninety. 4.9.11

Moss on a wall

Today really feels like spring.  We went for a walk and it felt so good to be outside.  This photo is taken looking up at a stone wall along our walk.  I love moss.  And spring.

Day Eighty Nine. 4.8.11

Numbers on a telephone pole

I wonder what they mean...?

Day Eighty Seven. 4.6.11

Lantern

This lantern sits in the window in our spare bedroom.  The light was hitting it so beautifully.  Somehow it made the day feel like spring.

Day Eighty Six. 4.5.11

Painting Detail

It's cool how much the paint sticks up off the canvas of this painting.    So I took a picture. 

Day Eighty Five. 4.4.11

Mouse and his shadow

This was an unusual moment.  I noticed Mouse's shadow and wanted to take a picture.  He actually let me do so without moving too much -- he was a patient subject, just this once.

Day Eighty Four. 4.3.11

Door to Nowhere

This is at the Barre Opera House in Barre, VT.  You can sort of tell in this picture that this door is on about the 3rd floor level, with no indication that there were once stairs there...but there must have been something there...right?  I had been here before, but never noticed this door.  Oddly enough, I went for a walk later today and I noticed another door to nowhere at the middle school right down the street from my house.  Another spot I had been many times before, but never noticed the door to nowhere.  Universe, what are you trying to tell me?

Day Eighty Three. 4.2.11

Keyboard

A lot of the pictures I take of details around my house make me realize that it's dirty (note the dust on the piano keys).  

Day Eighty Two. 4.1.11 Part Two.

April Fool's!  Here's my photo of the day.  This is not camera trickery...can you tell what it is?

Day Eighty Two. 4.1.11

I give up on the project.  I just can't keep it going.  It's getting to be too much for me and I don't have the will to continue.  I'm so sorry to my faithful followers for letting you down.  But on to the next, I guess....

Day Eighty One. 3.31.11

Wicker

I like this picture because it's tricky.  I told my partner that it was a picture of something in our house, and even though it's a set of drawers that we see every time we walk up the stairs, he couldn't figure out where in our house the picture was taken.  He knew it looked familiar, he just couldn't place it.  And I think I would have had the same experience.  It's just tricky enough.

Day Eighty. 3.30.11

Tulip

Spring IS coming.  Even though this tulip died and shriveled a little before it ever opened.  Spring will not do that to us.

Day Seventy Eight. 3.29.11

Reflection

I took this picture of a mirror we have hanging in our dining room.  The light was out in the dining room, but on in the living room.  It made the reflection in this distorted mirror really stand out.  I particularly like the light in this one.  And the misshapenness of the circular saw blades hanging at the top of the wall.  And the odd assortment of objects you can see.  It makes me appreciate my living room just a tiny bit more.

Day Seventy Seven. 3.28.11

I'm breaking my typical pattern of posting just one detail per day.  Riding the train all I could do was notice details.  It's quite a mesmerizing activity, looking out a train window.  I was amazed at how well the pictures came out.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, the light was perfect, and somehow they weren't blurry.  You can see dirt from the windows, and sometimes a little bit of distortion from the glass, but they lend a nostalgic feeling to these pictures.  I think some of them look like old postcards or movie slides.  So here they are -- scenes from a seat on the Lakeshore Limited.

Day Seventy Six. 3.27.11

Light Fixture

This was taken in the wee hours of tail end of Sunday in the Toledo train station.  We had arrived via bus from Ann Arbor at around 11:00 PM and were waiting for our train, which left at 3:20 AM.  The train travel experience is not for the more kvetchy or particular among us, but it's definitely well worth it!

Day Seventy Five. 3.26.11

Fan

What cool colors for a fan.  They're usually so drab and tan.  I like this one.  You might even say I'm a fan of it (or a huge nerd).

Day Seventy Four. 3.25.11

Sunset on the Lakeshore Limited

We had just gotten on the train from Albany, NY en route to Ann Arbor, MI (via Toledo, OH).  I love when the light is like this -- you know when you turn your head you're going to see a beautiful sunset.