Mount Desert Island

I was so lucky to perform the opening recital of the Bar Harbor Music Festival this summer. It was, of course, lovely to program and perform a recital, as song recitals these days are unfortunately a dying art, mainly relegated to graduating conservatory students and the few lucky opera stars with the clout to sell well at Carnegie.  Not all opera singers enjoy performing song recitals, as they are innately somewhat minimalist affairs -- no grand orchestra, no costumes or props to hide behind. But something about the sparse, pure, intense aesthetic of this form greatly appeals to me. And even more, I love the repertoire that has been written for these recitals so, so much, so it was an honor to have the opportunity to sing it.

It was so lovely to get to travel for Maine for a week. For two summers as a middle-school aged person I went to a summer camp in inland Maine, but never developed a great love or appreciation for it. A bit later, in high school, my mom and I spent a few days with my piano teacher and her husband in their Maine island summer home. I remember chilly days of unrelenting fog, and a sweater-clad walk through reams of scraggly pine trees, which I found atmospheric, but for all the wrong reasons. "Pine trees are creepy," I privately declared. I kept waiting to stumble on a corpse or for a ghostly woman in white to emerge from the fog. In any case, I decided, for the record, that Maine was pretty, sure, but it was an alien beauty that didn't exactly warm my heart.

I don't know what's changed, but it must be me, because this time, for the first time, Maine hit me squarely in the heart. Sure, the first two days were glum and gray, but then the sun broke free, and I was struck by the beauty of it all... the bright blue skies, the rocky beaches, the clear, sparkling lake water, the heady scent of pine trees, the fields of wild flowers, the slight chill in the air at nights.

1. Somewhere in Somesville

2. White daisy fields forever

3. Hiking in the southwest

4. Sunrise on Somes Harbor

5. Acadia walk

6. Boats on Bass Harbor

My Weekend in Pictures

Winter landscape through my aunt's windows

Array of iron objects

Goose in the East Hampton Duck Pond

Dog-running at Wiborg Beach

Crab claws and other finds

Snow dunes

Montauk lighthouse, passenger-side

Neon Lobster at Shagwong

Real Estate Swoon

420 Park Avenue

Thanks to the amazing truffle-hunter, Molly for digging up this listing in my hometown of Huntington. I can count one hand the amount of times I basically wouldn't change a thing when moving in. This couple is seriously stylish! Guh, I'm drooling over the kitchen with the mix of wood and marble and farmhouse sink and antique stove! Love the rustic black-white modern monochrome that is going on as well. And of course, I love, love the old bones of the home (the wood floors, the pitched ceilings and beams, the beautiful windows and large wood burning fireplaces). Plus, the beautiful outdoor patio and grounds and "barn" (c'mon, shed) that could later be a studio or guest cottage or what have you! If it wasn't on a hugely busy road, I would dragging Molly out to the suburbs post-haste!

Dreamy Huntington Oldie

San Francisco

Inverness

Ain't no mountain high enough

Calistoga! Our beautiful morning coffee views. #honeymoon #finally #nofilter #chateaudevie

If you're going to San Francisco...

Calistoga here we come!!! #honeymoon #finally

Mini-trip to Adamstown, PA

We had high hopes for this mini-trip to the supposed "antiques capital" of Pennsylvania. While it is true there were more antiques stores per square inch than we knew what to do with, there were mostly of the my-grandmother's-dusty-tchotchkes-variety and no great steal either. We had hoped to find a charmingly-beat-up (possibly drafting) desk that could accommodate Kate's art, as well as a coffee table or a trunk-cum-coffee-table, but returned, after one night in an odd inn, a terrible breakfast at a diner where under-boiled potatoes and onions constituted "hash browns," six hours roundtrip in the car, and countless tolls, empty-handed. While the town and surrounded area were not especially scenic, seeming like the example of the ruined rural area or depressed exurbia (I had a strong sense of rural Ohio deja vu), we made the best of things by experiencing it together, and going to a Mennonite-run farm and orchard on our way home (www.brecknockorchard.com) and vegetable/apple picking. We also visited a hill-top goat farm and took photos from the car window of some of the prettier things we passed. When we got home, Molly made a delicious ratatouille with all our Lancaster county produce!