Salem, Massachusetts

I was looking through my archives and thought I'd post these from September:

left, Nathaniel Hawthorne's birthplace

Frozen Pond

I spent the last week in central Oregon with friends and family celebrating Christmas. It didn't occur to me to bring my dslr (unusual for me!) but below are some iPhone photos I took on a bike ride.

I've been picking out my favorite photos from this past year, so I'll have a 2011 recap post up sometime later this week. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

My Desk

This is what my desk looked like earlier this week. Now? Not so much. Time for another cleaning this weekend, after I finish up some projects.

finally found a use for the glass bottle that has been sitting on my desk for months

Starry Night and a Sunrise

I am both a night owl and a morning person (not a very sustainable lifestyle). This post might explain why.

I stood outside late last night in my grandpa's backyard watching a meteor shower:

I think Van Gogh's Starry Night is fascinating because the paint swirls remind me of the motion one photographer recently captured in a series of star trail images taken in the Australian outback.Van Gogh complained that this painting wasn't realistic enough, but I think he was just subconsciously wishing for a long exposure lens.

The following pictures of the sunrise this morning are basically out-of-camera:

Winter Light

All out of doors looked darkly in at him

Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,

That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.

What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze

Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.

-An Old Man's Winter Night, Robert Frost

Only 6 months left of highschool! It seems funny to get excited about graduation when everyone is busy with Christmas, but I am. Things I need to do before then: prepare at least 12 pieces for my senior recital, finish a required reading list, write essays, and complete a biology and Spanish II course. Not too bad! I'm glad that I still have plenty of time leftover to work weekends at a parks and rec center and take pictures.

Anyway, that is what I'll be doing this spring. I rarely write anymore on this blog, which is too bad because reading old posts is wonderful entertainment. On my old blog I used to write about goats, swine flu and bizarre connections between Longfellow poems, and the current state of my clothes closet. Gems, I tell you.

This was the view out my window this afternoon. It seems like it's always foggy up here. And I like it that way!

Harvard in Color

In October I posted Harvard in Black and White. This is Harvard in color...

It was a beautiful September day. My dad and I had a lot of fun people watching on the streets and had coffee in a little cafe where students and professors like to go to study and work. As an Oregonian who has no intention of going to Harvard, I felt a little out of place (I can report that the Harvard Trader Joe's isn't that different, though!)

A few days later, on Sunday evening, we stopped at Cambridge on our way back to Boston and went for a run down by the Charles River. So beautiful.