Wordless Wednesday: Our Wedding

May 29, 2010
Crystal Lake
Barton, Vermont

Photo by Aaron Kotowski

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Wordless Wednesday: Wind Towers Over Crystal Lake

August 3, 2011

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Zacchaeus: 2011 Vacation Bible School

A VBS banner

In July, we had Vacation Bible School at the Barton United (UCC & UMC) Church. I was the teller and discussion leader of the story of Zacchaeus who hid in a tree when Jesus visited his town. I worked with the older children. We had quite a discussion about making choices and our faith:

Luke 19: 3-13 [Zacchaeus] was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’ As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds,* and said to them, “Do business with these until I come back.”

Anne's bulletin board for an activity

The tree that Zacchaeus sat in

Snack time behind the church under the ash tree next to Crystal Lake Outlet

Pastor Evelyn gives a puppet show

Agrimony was in bloom behind the church

We sat on the beach of Crystal Lake, at Pageant Park, as the children swam and played

We are all looking forward to our next Vacation Bible School!

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More Views of the Wind Towers

Underpass Road, Sutton
July 12, 2011; sky extremely hazy; 55mm

Same spot, closer view; 55mm cropped

Closer view still on Underpass Road; 250mm

Route 16, Barton, overlooking Crystal Lake
July 12, 2011; heavy haze and overcast; 55mm

Closer view from Route 16.; 250mm

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Fourth of July Fireworks in Barton

The fireworks were shot from a different location on Crystal Lake, Barton, Vermont this year and their altitude was low. These photos were shot from my bedroom window, which used to be the perfect spot to shoot them. But this year, you can see the trees, and even power lines, in many shots. It was a disappointment for me. I used a tripod and a remote shutter, f11, ISO 200, manual focus, bulb. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

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Pageant Park Trail

The start of the trail at Pageant Park.

About two weeks after I got my new glasses, I decided to take a fall foliage hike. Alone. John was busy working on the walls of the house and couldn't leave. I didn't want him to go. I had been having problems with depth perception with my new bifocals and had more problems moving about outdoors than in. So I wanted to take a short hike, get some foliage photographs, and practice walking outside. It sounds bizarre to say that you need to practice walking outside, but that's what I felt I needed to do. I didn't want John to see me make a fool of myself, which is what I felt might happen.

Looking across Crystal Lake to the east side where Route 5 follows the shore line.

I decided to go to the Pageant Park trail. It is only a mile from home (which is comforting when you don't think you can safely walk in the woods with your new glasses),  I knew the trail,  John and I had been married there just four months earlier, and I wanted to duplicate a photograph I had seen on the Internet. Blogger Carol (Carol's View of New England) had taken a beautiful landscape photograph of Barton Village . A wonderful photographer, Carol often comes here to Barton and photographs the area. This photograph impressed me because she said it was taken on the Pageant Park trail. I didn't know of a spot on the trail that was high enough to get the perspective that she had gotten, but I wanted to find the spot where she had shot it. The road above the park would be high enough, but she said she took it on the trail. So off I went on my hike.

Looking north to the beaches from the west bank of the lake.

We were nearly at peak color that weekend in late September. It had rained all week and I was afraid that the leaves had been rained off of the trees, but the color was good. The heavily overcast skies did not make for good lighting. I was grateful to get these shots of autumn color because I knew they would probably be the only foliage shots I would get this season. . The walk brought back fond memories of my life before John, when I would often hike about alone with my camera. Hikes are better with John, but it is good to reminisce at times.

The end of the public trail. I did not stop.

I quickly learned where to look through my bifocal lenses so that I did not stumble over rocks and into trees. I soon came to the end of the short trail where a landowner posted the signs you see above. The trail went around the chain, so I followed. There was a wonderfully secluded camp further into the woods. The only access to the camp besides the trail would be by boat. The people who come there for the summer must have wonderful times. I wanted to get much higher than I was, so I continued following the trail up. I soon came to this dire warnings painted at the base of the cliffs:

At the bottom of the cliffs. I climbed through the woods, around the slippery cliffs.

I found the trail that safely climbs through the woods and around the cliffs. I climbed until the trail ended and I could go no further. It was then that I confirmed that Carol had taken her photograph from the road above the trail. I know that road and did not want to take my car there. The rain would make the extremely steep, dirt road dangerous and I didn’t feel like taking the risk. I decided to return to the car and go to the village cemetery where I had gotten some wonderful photographs one other year.

The trail down and around the cliffs. The steep descent began past the two trees here.

Hiking downhill is always worse, for me, than going up. Bad knees, and now bad vision, make me very cautious. As I descended this day, I regretted coming up here alone, or without a rope. It was a treacherous walk downhill on the wet, slippery forest floor. I was successful, though, and got down without incident. The small hike had shown me how to use my bifocals in the outdoors, and I had gotten some foliage photos. I considered the afternoon a success.

Cabbage white butterfly

Back at Pageant Park, this cabbage white butterfly confirmed that it had been a good day!

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Vacation Bible School Part 3: The Ducks

I'm glad that it is October for only one reason: Crystal Lake State Park is closed. The reason I'm glad about this is simply because I am confessing that we fed the ducks. The park rangers are gone now and won't harangue us! There were two duck families at the beach on the day that we went for Vacation Bible School. They were so engaging (even though the mother ducks tried to prevent their ducklings from mingling with people!) that we couldn’t resist feeding them. The mother ducks would also yap at each other and would nip another mom's duckling if it tried to join her brood or eat her duckling's food. These are my favorite duck photographs of the day.

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Vacation Bible School Part 2: The Seagulls

There are no photographs of children swimming and playing at Crystal Lake State Park. I was so busy photographing ducks and seagulls and talking to all of the other women there (after moving back to Barton and being recently married) that I'm afraid I neglected my duties of archiving the children's fun. The cookout was fantastic. The minister's husband and some others cooked the hot dogs and hamburgers, and they were perfect!

I tried to get seagulls soaring and diving about us. I got a couple of good shots and a couple of bad ones. The worst ones you will never see!

The photo above is not photographically good but it shows enough of how a seagull swoops and changes course in midair. Her legs are set out in front of her while her wings are forced back so that she can brake and change direction. I am fascinated with this photograph.

The photo above is my favorite of the bunch. The gull is actually above us but you can see Hardscrabble Mountain behind him on the right. Hardscrabble is at the far southern end of the lake in Sheffield. It is the site of the wind farm that has just begun construction after years of legal fights trying to prevent development of the ridge line.

I hope we return to the lake for Vacation Bible School next year. I need more seagull photography practice!

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Fireworks!

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They did fireworks from Crystal Lake this year, which meant that I could stay home and photograph them from our bedroom window with my 250mm lens. I watched a YouTube video for my camera settings (Camera: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi; Exposure: 2 sec; Aperture: f/14.0; Focal Length: 250 mm; ISO Speed: 400), set up the tripod and was ready to go. I was supposed to use manual focus and set it on infinity, but there is no such setting on my 250mm lens so I used autofocus. I also forgot to set ISO to 100 and white balance to daylight. There were not as many fireworks this year, but it was good enough for me. After looking at professional photos of fireworks, I feel that these are very squiggly, but I'm satisfied. Next year I'll do better!

      Barton, Vermont 2010 Fireworks Set

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Bullets in Midair!

Memorial Day Honor Guard Salute

The parade route on Memorial Day leads directly to Crystal Lake State Park for a memorial service for our fallen sailors and soldiers. In the photo above, the Honor Guard is saluting those special Americans with volleys from their guns. I purposefully tried to capture the bullets in air when they shot. And I did it! Below is a cropped section of this photo showing two of the bullets in the air.

Bullets in Midair

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Wedding Photos by Matt

l to r: Andrew, John, me, Anna, Amelia

Me & John

l to r: Dan, Anna, Aaron

Amelia & Nate

Matt & squinty-eyed me

Amelia & Matt

Dan (left) & Andrew

Anna & Andrew

Little Ironman

John, me, Wingnut

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