Snapshot Chronicles

Susan Getgood's personal blog

Hummingbirds and a little sci fi

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In between the rainstorms we were having most of the first two weeks of the month, I finally managed to get some good shots of the female hummingbird.

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SciFi Sunday is pretty much on hiatus. Mostly because there hasn’t been so much to talk about. Eventually I will get around to a review of Stargate Continuum; generally, we liked it but haven’t had time to rewatch to write a decent review.

The end of Stargate Atlantis. A non-event really. I haven’t been gotten into season 5 at all, mostly because I realized that most of season 4 was pretty boring. Really miss the Weir and Carson characters. Carter and Woolsey may share letters of the alphabet with them, but they just don’t have the chemistry with the core characters of Sheppard and McKay.

Sunset

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While rain does seem to be the standard weather pattern here in New England this summer, we occasionally have a nice day. Or in the case of last Tuesday, a so-so day but a beautiful sunset. Followed by more rain. I snapped this picture of the ridge behind the house just before the sun set and the next deluge began.

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It was also a fairly nice weekend, so we went on a short hike to Luce’s Lookout. Read all about it on my post today at New England Mamas.

[tags] sunset, Vermont [/tags]

Sightseeing Sunday

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crossposted to New England Mamas

This week, SciFi Sunday is pre-empted. Instead we bring you Sightseeing Sunday 🙂

Yesterday was my birthday, and to celebrate we drove over to Burlington — about 80 minutes from the house in Barnard — to see the Mary Cassat: Friends and Family exhibit at Shelburne Museum. For dinner, we boarded the Spirit of Ethan Allen III for a dinner cruise on Lake Champlain.  Then today, we went on the “Hidden Spaces, Unique Places” tour at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion in Woodstock. Last summer, Douglas, my mom and I had toured the mansion, but it always bugged Doug that we couldn’t see the 3rd floor. This tour resolved that dilemma. Plus Dave didn’t come last year so he’d never seen the mansion.

In order of events

I always enjoy Shelburne Museum because it has such a great mix of things that appeal to adults and children. This visit was no exception. Douglas patiently (mostly) waited while we enjoyed the Cassat paintings and then he had the opportunity to act as tour guide for his Dad on the Ticonderoga paddlewheeler.

Cassat was an exceptional artist. Possibly the best known American Impressionist painter and best known woman Impressionist, Whistler and Berthe Morisot notwithstanding. But what made this exhibit so exceptional was the way it highlighted the personal friendship between Cassat and Louisine Havemeyer, the mother of Electra Havemayer Webb, founder of Shelburne Museum.

The exhibit will be at Shelburne through October 26th and then at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC from November 21 through January 25, 2009. If you are near either place and you like Impressionist art, I urge you to check it out.

The dinner cruise on the Spirit of Ethan Allen III was fun. The food was perhaps just a notch above typical buffet food, although I would suggest having at least one fish entree that isn’t sauced, but the service was excellent. And the atmosphere — Lake Champlain at sunset — cannot be beat.  I got a special treat as well. Douglas plotted with the DJ and sang Happy Birthday to me — microphone and all — during dessert. I imagine more than a few mums envied me for that brief moment —  that my kid would do that for me. I had a few tears in my eyes.

Then today, we went on the Hidden Place, Unique Spaces tour of the Marsh-Billings Rockefeller mansion. They offer this tour about once a week, give or take, during the summer, and it is well worth it, although the regular tour is excellent as well.

On the Hidden Places tour, you see the third floor of the mansion, the servants’ quarters, a room in the Belvedere (basically the pool house, but what a pool house!) and the Bungalow, a cottage on the property, none of which are included in the regular house tour. I’d recommend either tour.

I do have pictures from all of the above, but the connection here is slower than at home so I’ll try to get them up tomorrow on Flickr.

[tags] Mary Cassat, Shelburne Museum, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park, Spirit of Ethan Allen III, Burlington, Vermont, Woodstock [/tags]