Street Art: Turkeys and Misfits

$PoliticsNReligion$

"Meet me at the skate park on Saturday."

Potting Sheds, Tiny Studios, and Other Delights

Little blue house next to the "Mommy" house.

Check out this adorable little house that sits next to the bigger "parent" house, a local fine dining restaurant that's been around since I had friends in high school who waitressed. Yeah, that long. So cute!

Painting studio

This will appeal to any artist, crafter, or carpenter with two hands (or maybe just one that works well, but you're still creating): the space to do it. I've tried to incorporate studio space within every home I have, and it is very hard to do. You need tons of natural light, time alone, and space to work. The fact that they turned this tiny back house into an actual business cheers me.

Wee gardening shed? Done!

This baby garden shed is every little girls' dream. Think of the tea parties with Teddy Bears you could have. So adorable, I'm done.

Neighborhood gem.

I often walk past this beauty, and the way it peeks out of the shrubbery at different angles just kills me. It's a small house with big personality; can't beat that.

Cabin in the park.

The local hidden park (http://mariedoucette.blogspot.com/2013/08/gardens-dr-henry-v-borst-park.html) has this rustic log cabin that reminds me of Scout hikes on the Adirondack trail, with  campfires and marshmallows roasting on sticks. I have no idea why the good doctor built it, but it's funny that's it's still here in his old grounds.

Got any good cottages in your area? If not, take heart. I've got a beauty collection of them right here: http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/cottages/.

Small Town America: Walking to Town

Up the hill from the library...

One of the best aspects about having a defined town center with an actual main street is that it makes life easier for humans. You'd be surprised how many people do not know this simple, easy fact about their own existence. 

...past the stone wall...

If you can walk to everything you need, you'll be healthier, feel better, and waste less time on weekends running errands and shopping because stores are accessible to you, but don't take it just from me. Try it for yourself.

...and the Methodist Church.

A Walk in the Park: Kennedy Dells

Mushroom Tree

One of the nicer aspects of any homecoming is revisiting those areas we have fond memories of. 

I discovered Kennedy Dells Park years after I moved away out of sheer necessity. My very large and energetic Malamute anxiously needed lots of space for his urgent morning walk, and like any harried parent, I rushed to the computer for an online search of just such nearby places in Rockland County.

Out of the woods

Growing up in New City, I mostly hiked the Harriman State Park system because of its' close proximity and enormous intersection of trails; infamous, historic ones at that, like The Appalachian Trail and The Long Path, overlooking nearer spots, or maybe this park just wasn't around at the time. Whatever the case, I come back to this place time and again throughout the seasons, and I'm always struck by the beauty of New York's wooded paths, with its' variety of nature so close at hand.

Field of green

Path through the thicket

I honestly had my heart set on hiking High Tor State Park yesterday, but it was closed. More on that trip later in the summer. In the meantime, here's some of the wild lush beauty I saw on Memorial Day, so alive and teeming with growth, that the very vines seemed to grow before me, like magical apparitions out of a child's fable.

Nothing but blue sky and fields to roam

The happy hiker

It was the perfect Spring day: warm and sunny but not hot, cool in the shade without a chill, and a bright, crisp, cloudless blue sky overhead. Add in the burger and fries I had, followed by a hot fudge Sunday, and you've got one healthy slice of the American pie. That’s the kind of day it was.

Treeline and sky

Around the Way: Clouds Across the Sky

walking down third street