Month: April 2010

What Would Kannidu?

kanniduba10 Comments

So, here was my early morning Tweet:

Foolhardy, careless, irresponsible, wreckless. All those things I’m not, but wish I could be for just one blazing fun day!!!

Been feeling that annual craving to escape, and the injuries, sicknesses, and traveling husbands (well, one traveling husband to be exact)  have been adding to that feeling of oppression that leads to my soul’s craving for adventure.  This morning the feeling was amplified, thus my Twit, I mean, Tweet.

But it got me thinking…what exactly would I do if I could let go of my obligations and responsibilities, as well as my worrisome, predictable, overly cautious  spirit for just a little while?  (Of course, I got rid of that one day condition.  Oh, yeah….and I went with the assumption that money and physical ability were no object.  lol)  What things would I desire to do that I won’t do because of who I am, because of my personality?  For example, I have no desire to bungy jump.  Even if I wasn’t scared, the idea is not at all compelling to me.  So what would I do?  Hmmm.

As the day wore on,  a few thoughts came to mind….

I would climb the fence blocking off the old crumbling Fenimore Bridge, walk across and take photos of the Hudson River from that vantage point.

I would drink port until I could no longer lift my glass.

I would borrow a boat and camp all alone under the stars on one of the islands in the Narrows on Lake George.

I would sneak past the barriers and lie down  in the middle of Stonehenge and do nothing but contemplate…what I would contemplate?  Who knows, but that’s what I would do.

I would go on an African Safari.

I would hike the Australian Outback.

I would sunbathe on a topless beach.

I would smoke a pipe…just once.

I would hike the entire Appalachian Trail.

I would raft the Colorado River.

I would apply for the show Survivor.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a pretty good start.  So, now you know what I would do…what would YOU do????

Barely Scratching the Surface

kanniduba2 Comments

Now that I have a minute to breathe, I wanted to take a bit more time with those park photos that I posted yesterday.  The three photos were taken in Congress Park in Saratoga Springs.  Congress Park is a particularly special place for me for a number of reasons, the most important being that my wedding reception took place at the Canfield Casino which is on the property.  (Amazingly, it looks exactly the same inside as it did when this postcard was issued in 1907.)  Secondly, we went home to our first apartment overlooking the park, and could see the Canfield from our three little windows for the first two years of our marriage.   Picnics, and walks, and frisbee games, and duck feeding (back when it was still legal) and falling into the pond, and bottles of wine shared in the dark under the stars, and toddling babies chasing ducks…all these memories are mine and make me smile.  A special place, this.

There are so, so many photos I could share of this park, if only I had taken them!  😉  But never fear.  You will see this park again in a later post, likely over the summer.

So, on to the photos I actually did take!  This is a photo of a dome that is part of the Casino.

Of course, this is the photo that I shared with you yesterday…the crop.

I was a bit distracted watching Mister and making sure he didn’t fall into the mucky pond, so I asked Big Girl to snap a photo of the dome for me.  She didn’t understand why I wanted a photo of the dome, but did it anyway.  🙂  I knew why I wanted it…I was curious to see how my new camera and all it’s 12.3 megapixels would handle a heavy crop.  Obviously, it handled it quite beautifully!  My D40 would never have allowed such a drastic crop.  Oh, the possibilities!  I’m a “try to get it right in the camera” girl, but who doesn’t want the ability to chop and zoom now and then?!

Now, Milkay wanted to see this in black and white, and since I’m all about the pleasing…

Now this photo would have been impossible to take back when I lived here.

And in black and white…

This ironwork surrounds an enclosed pond that houses some very big fish…trout?  Maybe?  (I don’t know my fish…sorry!)  It would have been impossible to shoot this photo 17 years ago because this ironwork was buried in the earth.  All you could see sticking out of the grass in a circle pattern were these finials.

We always wondered what it had been way back when, and were thrilled when we visited some years back to see the ironwork unearthed and the pond restored.  Quite beautiful.

As the title suggests, I have barely scratched the surface of what lies within this park.  There are fountains, several ponds, a beautifully restored Carousel, the Casino, statues, springs, and more.  You can look forward to a future tour.  I know my camera is already begging for another outing.  🙂