"Autumnal Acceptance" and 4 Free Textures for Fall

Ok, Ok. I understand the magic of Autumn! I just wish it would be followed by another summer...instead of the New England winter. That's all. That's my only problem with the season.

The golden and light orange colors are everywhere now. You know that golden hour just before sunset? It suddenly seems like that is every hour of the day. Also I am noticing a lot of Monarch butterflies around here. I'm assuming they are on their yearly migration down to Mexico. Sure wish I were going with them...maybe having a few Margaritas..

So I'm giving in to the season, reluctantly, like I do every year. In the spirit of Autumnal Acceptance, I have decided to keep my camera busy this season. Some of the things I'll be doing...if you are interested and/or in the New England area:

• Taste of Block Island weekend, Block Island, Rhode Island. Our first time going.
• Cranberry Harvest festival, Wareham, Massachussetts.  This one we went to last year and it was awesome. I plan to bring my new lens and get better pics of the Owls/ raptors they have on show there.
• International Oktoberfest, Newport, Rhode Island. This one's a maybe; this is a busy weekend, and depending on how the foliage report is I may want to go up further North and do some leaf- peeping!
• Scituate Art Festival, Scituate, Rhode Island. We go to this every year, usually on Columbus Day. I buy lots of my Christmas gifts here and the foliage is usually peaking around this time; the village of Scituate is gorgeous during this time of year, with old churches and lots of maples, natural lakes and the reservoir. Warning- don't go if you don't like crowds!

Here are also a few more textures I made in Photoshop for autumn...you can download them here by opening in a new window: (and I will be adding them to my Flickr textures set as soon as I can.)

Peak Autumn texture

Blush Bokeh texture

Vintage Sepia Bokeh texture

Warm & Grungy texture

All textures are for your personal use or for use in finished creations. :)

Enjoy.....:)

Mom and Mary's Day-cation to Block Island

My mother and I decided to spend the day Saturday bonding and sightseeing. We took the ferry over to Block Island to enjoy a gorgeous day...warm and sunny...here are some pics from our day!

 So, arriving by ferry this is the first sight- the cliffs of Block Island. You can see the far off North Lighthouse on the cliffs.

We visited the Southeast Light, which is more accessible by foot.

We went inside the lighthouse...it was about 110 degrees. The light is blinking here. Our tour guide told us this light is worth $3 million and it is riddled with bullet holes and cracks dating back to the civil war.

Looking down from the spiral staircase at the small museum below.

We then headed over to the next bluff down, to go to the cliff's edge and view the lighthouse over the water. If you look carefully you will see a staircase built into the cliff below the lighthouse and people on the beach below. It is a crazy walk down, but worth while.

The sun cooperated more toward the left of our view- the water looked almost tropical, not like New England at all.

We drove back toward town...

Where I convinced my mother to stop at Abrams Animal Farm....we had so much fun feeding the animals, especially this cute llama who nuzzled me the whole time.

We found this strange, giant broccoli-eating emu/ ostrich bird there...

Along with this otherworldly creature...the "Zedonk" (right). Half donkey, half zebra.

We then spent a few lovely hours at the beach...

Before heading back on the ferry.

Bye bye, Block Island!  (That's the National Hotel in the near left background, a historic site, where we ate lunch.)  Ahhh....so peaceful! Thanks Ma for a beautiful day!