A Day In The Life

People, Places, Nature, LIFE!

09/17/2021
DailyMusings

7 comments

Sunday Stills: Going #Back … ?

“Going Back…” implies going back to something, whether a place you’ve visited before, going back “in time” as you view your photo archives.. however you want to interpret it.

I couldn’t decide what to do with “going back”- my first thought was my BFF- we go WAY back, becoming friends at age 12, and here we still are these 50 years later. So there’s that.

Going back made me think of my favorite place on the New Jersey shore that I have returned to over and over and over for many years. How I love it there.

Going Back

09/13/2021
DailyMusings

10 comments

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Going Wide

View life through a wide angle lens attitude and see your horizons broaden.― Stephen Richards

This week for the challenge we are invited to “go wide”- a view that shows a broad vista like a landscape, seascape, or cityscape.

A walk around one of the many lakes in Deal, New Jersey, a NJ shore town. I loved the sky and wanted to capture the full expanse of sky, street and the entire view.

The New York City skyline. This photo captures the West Side of Manhattan from the New Jersey side.

Here is a closer capture honing in on the buildings, but cutting out that wide view

This photo was taken on the panoramic setting on my phone. It takes in a view of Ocean Grove, NJ from the balcony of the room we were staying in. Far left is the Great Auditorium, you can make out the steeple, and panning right the Victorian homes that line the street to the ocean far right.

Going Wide

09/07/2021
DailyMusings

20 comments

The Weekly Smile

Trent invites us to share our weekly smile as he does each week. Well, school started for me September 1st, which I can’t say gave me much to smile about. It was a very early start, as I felt summer hadn’t really ended yet. Here in New Jersey masks are mandated for in school learning, as they were last year. With the variant running around I am happy that everyone will be masked, as the children I work with are only 8 and 9 years old. I am an assistant teacher in one class all morning, and split between two classes in the afternoon.

On the first day of school it is already possible to tell the different personalities of the children. Who will be easier, who may present more of a challenge. We have one girl who does little else than color. She has piles of markers and pretty much chose not to participate in what we were doing, choosing to color instead. She actually is very artistic. We will have to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. In any case, mid morning the first day, she came over to me and handed me something she had drawn.

So that was my smile for the week. I didn’t have that much contact with her that first morning of school, but I am glad whatever I did that was how she felt about me. So as they say, she turned my frown upside down. 🙂

The Weekly Smile

09/06/2021
DailyMusings

10 comments

Weekend Sky

The sky was was coming to life as I sat at my kitchen table Sunday morning, framed between the trees.

I headed out for my morning run to find the sky more beautiful when I was able to see it all.

As I traveled farther west I was able to see the sun breaking through from my new vantage point.

And then as luck would have it I could hear Eagles calling to one another and one flew by overhead. Captured with my cell phone, not great quality, but a welcome sight against the morning sky. Even as he flew out of sight I could hear his call.

https://videopress.com/v/BzU4QPHY?resizeToParent=true&preloadContent=metadata

Weekend Sky

09/02/2021
DailyMusings

8 comments

Last on the Card: August 2021

Brian invites us to share the last photo we took in the month of August. No editing, cell pic or camera. As is.

There is a Jewish custom to visit the graves of loved ones before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. Last Sunday, August 29th, we made the hours drive out to the cemetery in Long Island, NY where members of our family are buried. It was a drizzly, overcast and gray morning, and I was struck more than usual by the quiet surrounding me. I felt it humbling. I took a few photos with my phone as I stood there, capturing the stillness. Those were my last photos of the month.

Last On The Card

08/30/2021
DailyMusings

29 comments

Lens-Artists Challenge: Keep Walking

This summer my husband and I covered a lot of ground. We took one night overnights discovering many new parks and small towns in New Jersey . We traveled to New Hope Pa. We walked and walked and walked. Trails along rivers, in the woods, boardwalks along the ocean. We walked through the streets of the towns we visited.

And after all that walking I put my feet up in front of my favorite view.

Keep Walking

08/23/2021
DailyMusings

20 comments

CBWC: Bridges

Living in New Jersey I am surrounded by many bodies of water within New Jersey and in New York. We always seem to be crossing bridges no matter where we go.

This is a view of the Williamsburg Bridge in the foreground, and The Brooklyn Bridge behind it. Both lead into different sections of Brooklyn, NY, crossing the East River. The Williamsburg bridge can be crossed by foot car or subway. It connects the Lower East Side of Manhattan with Brooklyn, stretching over the East River and carries three subway lines, a bike path and a walkway, in addition to its eight lanes of vehicle capacity. Opened in 1903, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. The Brooklyn Bridge also has a pedestrian walkway. Many used it on 9/11 to find their way out of Manhattan to safety.

A view of the George Washington Bridge from below on the New York side. It crosses the Hudson River.

The Driscoll Bridge, spanning the Raritan River near the Raritan Bay in New Jersey. It is located on the Garden State Parkway and when I reach it I know I am close to my beloved NJ Shore. It is 4,000 feet long with 15 lanes, making it the widest bridge in the U.S.

Looking west as we crossed the Driscoll Bridge with the sun setting, a beautiful view.

The Ocean Avenue Bridge links Avon and Belmar New Jersey. We happened upon it one day while a boat passed through it. Quite amazing to see the bridge open and then close.

Sunset view crossing the Triborough Bridge taking us home from Queens, NY. It was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008, but it will always be the Triborough for me.

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Bridges in Black and White

08/15/2021
DailyMusings

16 comments

Out for Walk with Mr. Blue

Last week I visited a beautiful nature center that abuts the New Jersey Turnpike, with views of New York City in the distance. It is easy to forget the surrounds along the periphery of what is called the Meadowlands, when you begin to walk the paths and take in the sounds and sights, the nature of the wetlands. There are pathways along the river, and then docks that allow you to actually walk out along the water.

The reeds are high in many spots, and the effusive sounds of the Marsh Wrens are all one can hear.

As I came around the bend along the walkway, I was startled to see a Great Blue Heron standing on the path.

I began to walk slowly but he didn’t make a move. Finally he began to WALK along the pathway. Not fly away, but walk. I was maybe 15 feet from him, but we continued our slow paced walk for almost five minutes.

He did eventually step down off the walkway and then took flight.

Landing in the water near a friend.

Nature is full of surprises, and the opportunity to be so up close and personal with this magnificent bird was a wonderful surprise.

I posted it on my TikTok with music…

08/06/2021
DailyMusings

15 comments

Sunday Stills: Bugging Out

This week Terri invites us to share what bugs us.. which in my case is pretty much a dislike of bugs. There are exceptions though, and Dragonflies are one of them. They can be seen in abundance on the local ponds this time of year in my area, and here are a few of the ones I have spotted.

Bugging Out

08/05/2021
DailyMusings

35 comments

RDP Thursday-Marathon-5K Finish Line!

Three years ago  I participated in my first 5K run sponsored by the school I work in. A 5K is 3.1 miles in length. We got our entire class involved, some of the kids would participate in the 5K, others in the 1 mile fun run.

I have been running for the last few years, 2 miles every couple of days. Running in this race required me to train for that extra mile, which really was a push for me. My usual average running time per mile was about 12 minutes, and I decided to try to up my game and go for a faster mile per minute average. I was able to run between 9 and 10 minutes a mile by race day.

Thankfully the sun was shining that morning, unlike the previous few Sundays. I arrived early for registration and ran into one of my students.

The race began at 8:45, and off I went. The course was flat, the outer roadway of a local mall. I had told myself not to start out too fast as I wouldn’t have any strength left to get me through that final mile. I found that challenging as I set out with runners all around me. I checked the app I had open on my phone and found I was running at a 9 minute pace. Too fast! What seemed to be happening was setting out with so many runners my natural inclination seemed to be to keep up with the pace they were setting. I slowed myself down a bit, finding my own rhythm. The other challenge was feeling the hot 9 o’clock sun beating down on me. When I train I run at 6:00 am. It’s cool out and even as the sun rises higher it is not so strong. I was happy for the blue skies above, but that sun made it hot!

I completed the first 2 miles, passing the sign markers, thankful I was now in the home stretch. There was one person running alongside me, otherwise there was a big spread between those ahead and those behind. I rounded a curve and the finish line came into view. That made me push a little harder, even though I was pretty hot and a bit tired. I could hear people cheering for those crossing the finish line. As I began my ascent to the finish line, a slight incline on the way up I could hear people yelling “GO MISS LISA!!”  Talk about motivation! That got me going and I gave a thumbs up to to the coworkers and students cheering me on.

I made it! Final time 10 minutes 33 seconds per mile, race completed in 33 minutes. I won the first prize medal in my age group for best time.

I felt a real sense of accomplishment having decided to run and finishing in a time I was happy with. Great morning with my fellow co workers, and  the kids.

Marathon

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