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Tag Archives: Ellen’s Lens

Thru Ellen’s Lens: New Mexico Potpourri

12 Thursday Aug 2021

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

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Ellen's Lens, New Mexico, New Mexico Photos, Sangre de Cristo Mountains., Sante Fe

Ellen and I have long wanted to spend a month in one setting outside of Washington.

An opportunity to do just that occurred recently (in part because of COVID-19), and we were fortunate to return to a wonderful house 15 minutes outside of Sante Fe in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

We have been returning to the Sante Fe area ever since our first trip there in the late 1960s, and we continue to be enchanted.

We mixed having visitors join us, including some Peace Corps friends from the mid-sixties, our younger daughter and her family, and several long time friends. We hiked, talked endlessly with our guests, explored previous haunts and new ones, ate well, and had some time to ourselves. (In particular, I enjoyed simply sitting on one of the many porches – Ellen termed it “Richard’s Porch” – admiring the landscape and never tiring of what was before me.)

In Ellen’s words, “what you see in the 10 photos below, and in the attached slide show, represents so much of what we love about New Mexico: the ‘Santa Fe blue’ sky and particularly the clouds; the absolute simplicity of adobe architecture, a landscape which ranges from flat green volcanic fields to rugged and impossible to imagine sandstorm formations; deep gorges and hiking trails forested with aspens. I’ve taken pictures there over the years and am not yet finished with that part of the country.”

To see Ellen’s entire slide show, use this link: New Mexico Potpurri.

For the best viewing, click on the little arrow at the top right of the first page of the link to start the slide show. If the slide show appears to start in the middle, scroll to the top of the page where you’ll see the little arrow in a box. Click on it.

See all the photos in the largest size possible (use a laptop or desktop computer if you have access to either). They are much sharper and the larger format presents them in much more detail than the ones above.

** ** **

PS – If you haven’t seen an earlier post of Ellen’s photos from the Bisti Badlands of New Mexico, you’re in for an unusual treat.

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Thru Ellen’s Lens: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

30 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

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Blue Ridge Parkway, Ellen's Lens, Great Smokies/Great Smokeys, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Smokeys, Smokies, Smoky Mountains, The Swag, Thru Ellen's Lens

Thanks to our travel agent, aka Ellen Miller, we were able to get away from DC for five days after almost five months of staying at home. Ellen found a small mountain inn – The Swag – in the Great Smoky Mountains near Waynesville, NC. It turned out to be just what we hoped for – individual, lovely cabins, just a few guests (we never saw more than 20 people the four days and nights we were there), good food, careful attention to virus safety precautions, and best of all, a wonderful setting.

Ellen had never been to the Smokies – they are called “Smokies” for short but are often spelled “Smokey” Mountains by those on the western North Carolina side of the mountains. I had only once drive through them on a trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway many years ago with our younger daughter. So a week ago, Ellen and I set out on a seven-hour drive and arrived at the inn late in the afternoon to find both a setting and place to explore that more than met our needs and expectations. Plus the 70 degree temperature was almost 30 degrees cooler than what we left in DC.

Each morning, following a healthy breakfast on a porch overlooking the spectacular landscape, we’d pick up our packed lunch, a walking stick for me and two cameras for Ellen and head out for a three or four-hour walk-hike in the mountains. Several days we were accompanied by two naturalists — a husband and wife team that knew the Smoky Mountain area well and were able to introduce us to the flora and fauna (mostly flora, tho we did see one non-poisonous snake and bear scat and footprints). Other days we headed out on our own along ‘well defined’ trails and didn’t get too lost, though one day we didn’t make it back before the heavens unloaded on us.

In the late afternoons we hung out and read on the porch of our cabin and watched the afternoon rain, sometimes by a fire in one of the two fireplaces in the cabin. We’d join other guests for a ‘masked’ drink and then socially distanced dinners at the main lodge, usually on the porch. Returning to the cabin, we’d again ‘build’ a fire until either it went out or we fell asleep.

The short trip ended all too soon, and we are already planning to return to this “most visited National Park in the US,” which did not seem to us to have many visitors at all.

Although Ellen had not planned to create a slide show or do one of her many photo books, once home, she found she had enough worthy photos for us to post. Below are a half dozen, and if you want to see more, which I strongly recommend, you can link to a slide show at the end of this post.

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is FLOWERS-WITH-MOUNTAINS-1-2-1024x683.jpeg
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is LANDSCAPE-ON-KNOB-DSC_2978_edited-11-3-1024x666.jpeg
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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is RAINBOW-TWO-DSC_2659-2-1024x457.jpeg

To see Ellen’s entire slide show (33 photos), use this link: Thru Ellen’s Lens: Great Smoky Mountains.

For the best viewing, click on the little arrow at the top right of the first page of the link to start the slide show. Definitely see all the photos in the largest size possible (use a laptop or desktop computer if you have access to either). They are much sharper and show more detail than the ones above.

Enjoy.

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In Case You Missed Some Summer Posts

29 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

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"Between the World and Me", "Cartel Land", "Go Tell a Watchman", "Love & Mercy", "Me, "Mr. Holmes", "Soy Cuba" ("I Am Cuba"), "Spy", "The Precious Ordinary", "When Marnie Was There", Early & the Dying Girl", Ellen's Lens, Ellen's Photos, Harper Lee, John Hersey's "Hiroshima", Kent Haruf, Marilynne Robinson, Movies, National Book Festival, Pico Iyer, Ta-Nehisi Coates

I thought I’d gather in one place a few of the posts you might have missed while you were enjoying the summer.

DC Area Book Lovers – Save the Date:  a reminder about the National Book Festival that takes place here next Saturday, Sept. 5.

Why We Travel – Pico Iyer: one travel writers thoughts about why we enjoy travel.

Broadway as You’ve Never Known It: One very good and one terrific musical that are different from the ones you’ve known.

John Hersey’s Hiroshima: The New Yorker’s free on line release of Hersey’s recounting of what happen to six ‘survivors’ of the Atomic explosion.

Three Very Different Films: Mini-reviews of Cartel Land, Mr. Holmes, & Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba).

A Novel & a Memoir: Each Tells a Story Worth Discussing: Mini-reviews of Harper Lee’s Go Tell a Watchman and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me

Japan Through Ellen’s Eye: Photos from a recent trip.

Travels to Japan: On Being Schooled by the Younger Generation: Why it’s sometimes a good idea to listen to our kids.

Movies Movies Movies: Mini-reviews of Spy, When Marnie Was There, Me, Earl & the Dying Girl, and Love & Mercy. Plus, links to eight other films we saw in various film festivals over the past year that have now been released to the public.

Baseball Through Ellen’s Lens: Ellen takes her camera to a baseball game (Red Sox, of course).

Through Ellen’s Lens: A Weekend of Baby Sitting. More on the three grand children.

The Precious Ordinary: Reviewing four books by Kent Haruf.

Summer Fiction Update: Reviewing three by Marilynne Robinson.

 

 

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