Clouds

At least with all the rain we've had some super cool clouds, especially at sunset.

 This reminded me of a mountain.

Snowy owl cloud

This could be a pig or a rabbit.

Thunder was rumbling in these, directly over my house.

Mid July and Nothing to Show For It

This hasn't been a banner summer, thus far.  Haven't been anywhere since Newport a month ago, partly due to weather and partly due to my car needing to pass inspection this month.  I didn't want to push it....as it is I had to get a new headlight.  Fortunately it passed.  It's either been rainy/cloudy, or hot/humid, neither of which are conducive to day tripping.

And then our fridge decided to start dying right before July 4th.  Home Depot was having a 40% off sale so the morning of July 4th, we're down there begging a sales associate to please sell us the floor model because our food was going bad really quickly.  The guy did us a solid and sold it to us.  I sang his praises on their customer survey after I got home too.  Buying and getting the thing home went relatively quickly.  Getting it in the house was another story.  It got stuck in the door way so we took off the fridge handles.  Still wouldn't fit so we took the coat pegs off the wall.  Still stuck, so off came the door.  Finally get it in and I had to transfer what was left of the food we could salvage, and all the fridge magnets cause we had to get the old one out before putting the door back on.  We were supposed to have my stepdaughter & her hubby over for a cookout but she was under the weather and we were just too tired and sore, plus I had to throw out most of the food.

After the holiday week, Russell got sick....and then of course I got sick.  Worst sore throat I have every had without it being strep.  I was at urgent care 2 days in a row.  We're both finally getting back to normal but it's been very slow going.

But I have had some time for crafts this past month.  Broke out my driftwood & beach glass stashes and put this together.

Birthday card for Marsha.

Marbles in driftwood.

This was a project that my stepdaughter tagged me in on FB.  I loved the idea of a blood splattered glass but I am not a horror show fan so I wasn't sure what to do.  Then realized I love The Shining, so why not do an Overlook Hotel glass.  It's done with enamel paint and baked in the oven to set it.

I love Makit Bakits.

First 2 pages done of my Grateful Dead butterfly cross stitch.  I've gotten fairly far on the next page's outlining but I've made a mistake that I have to backtrack and figure out where I went wrong.  Been too sick to concentrate on that so that's been put aside for a bit.

I couldn't resist buying a bag of letter beads.  

Made a bracelet for our daughter in law.

I wanted a wide angle lens but I really don't have the cash to get an expensive one.  So I got this $35 lens off Amazon and you get what you pay for.  It does have potential for artsy shots so I'll keep it, but it's not something I would seriously use when out on a day trip.

Canada's Sesquicentennial was on July 1st.  I ordered the commemorative coins from the Canada Mint.  

I am not a coin collector, but it came with a special  Northern Lights toonie that glows in the dark.

Pretty cool, no?

I never realized how much housework I did until I got sick.  I still have a lot of catching up to do with cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.  Hoping to salvage what's left of the summer.

Finding Seaview Terrace

Continuing along Cliff Walk, I arrived at the Vanderbilt's Breakers mansion. 

This gate is sooooo cool.

I heard about this lock on a fence thing from France but I didn't realize they were doing it in Newport. It's supposed to be a symbol of love or something, as couples put their names on them.  

As I understand it, whatever preservation trust that now controls this still allows members of the Vanderbilts to occupy the top floor.  Journalist Anderson Cooper is Gloria Vanderbilt's son, but I don't know if he visits.

Then I arrived at Ruggles Street and exited the Cliff  Walk so that I could try and find #207.

The blocks are incredibly long because the properties are huge, and I soon realized there was no way I could possibly reach 207 on foot, so I started the approximate mile walk back to my car. 

Now I was super thirsty and couldn't wait to get my hands on the bottles of water I knew were in there.  It was starting to get a bit toasty in the warm midday sun.

Oh yeah....I saw tons of Stop signs that had 'Trump' spray painted on them.  Surprised this part of of town hasn't cleaned them off. 

That tree was HUGE.

Got to the car and pulled out my map and headed to 207 Ruggles Street.  Fortunately for me I had spent some time on the street view of Google Earth so I had a really good idea what to look for.  Seaview Terrace is a super private home.  Part of it was built in Washington DC, disassembled and moved to this property where it was joined to an existing building.  For awhile it was leased to Salve Regina College, but the lease terminated and now a descendant of the owners lives there.  However, you might know it as Collinwood Mansion, from the original 'Dark Shadows' show.  I was never a fan of the show but I always loved the opening credits showing the mansion and the crashing sea.  There is a fence and hedge all the way around and just a tiny opening in the bushes where you can jam your camera against the fence to get this shot.

It was time to head on home and I got hopelessly lost driving all around trying to find the way out.  I was starting to panic when I somehow found my way back to the main road out.  I was quite happy to see this sign!

I am planning to go back as I missed quite a few things!

Day Trip to Newport, Part 1

So happy to report a beautiful day, finally, with perfect temps, clear skies and a delicious breeze.  Of all the local bucket list items, Newport, RI was the closest so I hopped in the car and headed down there.  First, let me say that the streets in that town confound me.  Whoever laid them out must've also done Boston, another city in which I do not like driving.  To say that I was winging it in Newport was an understatement, even with a map.  

After the highway ended onto the city street, I just kept driving south about 10 miles and ended up downtown.  It was still kind of early and a weekday, so free two hour parking was pretty available. 

Didn't venture up and down the side streets or anything but the downtown core is pretty cool.

Funky blends with historic.

Newport City Hall

The back of this building intrigues me.

Friends Meetinghouse (Quaker) which is now a museum.

White Horse Tavern, oldest in America.

I had no idea where the mansions were in relation to the downtown core, so I asked someone who gave me really great directions.  But it sent me through another cool part of town so of course I had to stop and check it out.  Stay tuned.