Open Window

Spring!

Spring's New residents in Town

After a long winter and an even longer year, Spring, with its warming temperatures and bright colors, is exceptionally welcome and appreciated this year! Despite the lingering chill in the early hours of the day, daffodils and crocuses are braving their new world ... and I for one am immensely grateful.

The world has seemed so grey and bleak for months on end and to my great joy, these ever-so-cheerful and colorful Spring flowers greeted me as I approached the path to my office one morning last week. I just had to share some of this joy with you in this very brief slideshow. Enjoy! And Happy Easter to those who celebrate this holiday.

Photos and Slideshow © 2021 Claudia Ward
Music: "The New Day" by Michele McLaughlin

Spring! from Claudia Ward on Vimeo

Happy Spring!

Snowdrops - First sign of Spring

Finally, there are signs of Spring and the days are now longer than our nights. Before long, the chill in the air will be replaced with those lovely warm breezes that coax everything to bloom and we humans outdoors for hours basking in the warmth of the longed-for sun.

First Spring Morning ©2021 Claudia Ward

Happy Spring everyone!

Spring is in the Air

  Birds & Berries © 2017 Claudia Ward 

The first day of Spring has come and gone and the days are now officially longer than the nights. The croci are croaking, the daffodils are dawdling, and the birds are returning. This winter it appears that the robins remained up north. Apparently, robins migrate more in response to food than to temperature. Fruit is the robin's winter food source and these robins found a veritable feast on our neighbor's holly tree.

Robin Soaring © 2017 Claudia Ward

Some of you may recall that I first saw this feasting frenzy four years ago, was mesmerized watching the flock of robins darting in and out of the 25 foot holly tree, and photographed the scene as best I could. I've hoped to see it every year since and this year my patience was rewarded. Armed with a better camera, a longer lens, and a sturdy tripod I spent one February day parked on our back stoop capturing as much of the action as I could. Four years ago the preponderance of my images were of the birds perched on the snow covered branches snapping up berries as quickly as possible. This year these are certainly some of those images but more rewarding to me were the images I captured of the robins in flight. I hope you enjoy this slide show as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Photos and Slide Show © 2017 Claudia Ward
Music: "Boeuf Bourguignon" by Alexandra Desplat from Julie & Julia
 

 

Fresh Peas

Fresh peas are here and I'm elated. These little green gems encased in a light green pod, taste nothing like the peas I knew when I was growing up. I like nothing better than to eat these sweet little morsels directly from the pod, and if any survive the shelling they are simply steamed and tossed with the smallest dab of butter ... divine either way.

My mother, God rest her soul, wasn't much of a cook although she gave it a good old 1950s kind of try. Most vegetables, and certainly all peas, came either from a box or a can - green peas from a box in the freezer and Le Sueur peas from a can. (Le Sueur, Minnesota is apparently where the Green Giant grows the peas for this canned brand.) Now trust me, we were not deprived in the area of food growing up ... "we didn't starve", there just wasn't much that was natural on our table. To be fair, I should say that there really aren't that many farms on Cape Cod which is where I grew up. The Cape is known mostly for its salty air and fresh seafood, not its produce.

I treasure the day that my mother married my beloved step-father, a former stock broker, real estate broker, and more importantly ... farmer. He focused mostly on dairy when he was farming but there were always fresh vegetables in the kitchen garden, and this man introduced fresh vegetables to our table - fresh peas, fresh lima beans, fresh beets, fresh broccoli, and even fresh carrots, believe it or not. I think he had quite a good time the day he handed me a pea pod and asked me to open it - I didn't have a clue, but I wasn't going to be defeated by something so small and according to my step-father, so normal. Eventually the two of us were shelling a bucket of pea pods, dropping the peas into a bowl that didn't seem to grow in volume half as fast as the bucket with the shells. My step-father preached patience, and oh what a reward there was. The sweetness of those peas I'll remember forever, and when he steamed them ever so slightly they were equally good. They weren't shriveled and limp like those things in the boxes and cans ... they simply popped with the lovely sweetness of fresh garden peas ... the ones I now wait for impatiently every spring.

 

It's Strawberry Season!

Strawberries are in season and in my estimation there is nothing like the flavor of a freshly picked strawberry - there's no comparison to anything you'll find in the supermarket. Juicy, tender, and sweet, and packed with real strawberry flavor ... "who'd a thunk!" I also love the size of these fresh little berries; they have so much more character than those gigantic distant derivative cousins you see all winter. 

Find a nearby farmer's market or, if you're on the east end of Long Island, one of our wonderful farmstands, and pick up a quart or two or three.

Fresh strawberries for breakfast will always put a smile on your face. Strawberry shortcake, made the New England way over a split biscuit with a little fresh whipped cream, will always be a welcome end to any dinner or cookout. Homemade strawberry ice cream will remind you of this devine spring berry all summer, and homemade strawberry jam will remind you of the sweetness of warm weather and sunshine as you're watching the snow fall in winter. This berry keeps on giving and I just love them.

Do you have any special things you do with strawberries every spring?

 

Rejoice It's Spring

Spring Blossoms ©2009 Claudia Ward

Vernal equinox, that's the official name for the first day of spring, one of two days in each year upon which the hours of day and night are equal. Today, the sun rose "due east" and it will set "due west". One might say that everything is going up from here, meaning the days will be longer than nights from now until the autumnal equinox on September 22nd. That's a good thing!

Celebrate! We survived the winter-that-wasn't. Now let's just hope that Mother Nature didn't store up all her blizzard-energy for spring torrents. In the meantime, enjoy all of the early blooms.

Daffodils ©2009 Claudia Ward

Open Window's Second Year

It's official, Open-Window is now two years old. I can hardly believe I began this blog on a cold January day, sitting at the island in my kitchen, 730 days ago. In the past two years, Open-Window has focused my days on creating stories, snippits, and photographs that I hoped you would find entertaining, sometimes informative, and maybe even amusing. We've covered a lot of ground and many diverse topics over this time ranging from Hawaii to Paris, Hamburger Relish to Caviar, Horse Racing to Airshow Acrobatics. As time has passed, we increasingly focused on the images and slide shows that would accompany a post, and have worked diligently to improve the quality of all that we delivered. Peter has continued to emphasize wide-angle HDR (high dynamic range) photography whether on his DSLR (digital single lens reflex-camera) or his, ever-handy, iPhone, and I have continued with my love of all-things-macro, although we each dabbled in the other's specialty just to keep it interesting.

Mexican Train Tiles and Turtles
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward 

Over the past twenty four months, we've made 388 postings to Open-Window which is an average of almost 4 per week, nearly every one containing at least one photograph and 60 of which included a slide show with music. When we embarked on this endeavor, we expected to focus on travel, food and photography. As it's turned out, the focus has been just that ... but in reverse - photography, food and travel. See, we'll photograph nearly anything - food that we eat, games that we play, children at the beach, machines of any sort, flowers and their residents, landmarks and landscapes, moon-rises and sunsets, and even light itself. 

The Outer Banks of North Caroline
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward taken with the iPhone using the Pro HDR App

This year has been quite a journey photographically as well as geographically. Peter and I traveled over 14, 500 miles. We drove the entire east coast from the east end of Long Island to Orlando, Florida, traversing Florida, and turning north to reach Memphis Tennessee. We crossed the states of Tennessee and North Carolina end-to-end (west to east), photographing some of this country's most beautiful scenery in the Great Smoky Mountains. When we reached the Atlantic Ocean, it felt like we'd returned home, for tidal waters are in our veins, and the days on the Outer Banks are now cherished memories. Early morning sunrises over the ocean, wild horses on the beaches, hang gliding from the dunes, and fish tacos are just a few of the things we captured in-frame. With tornadoes nipping at our heels from western Florida, to Memphis and eventually to eastern North Carolina, we headed home just hours before their destruction hit the locales we'd come to know and love. Atlantic City was our refuge from the storms, before returning to the calm, untouched East End.

Spanish Mustang on the Outer Banks
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward

Thirty days and thirty nights, and 4,000 miles on the road gave us a tremendous, renewed appreciation for the beauty and diversity of this country we live in. A couple of hundred more miles were covered seeking out horses at Saratoga Springs in August. For one who isn't known as an animal lover, I do love photographing them. Whether in their stance or stride, they speak volumes to me and hopefully that is being captured by the lens. Finally, the balance of those miles (nearly 10,000) were accomplished by a trip to The Big Island of Hawaii, where we were able to photograph the incredible diversity of this island's landscape and all of its beauty from a helicopter. 

Antique Hood Ornament
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward 

More locally, we visited Belmont Park just a week before the Stakes were run and attended the Hampton Classic Horse Show every single day it was held over Labor Day weekend. There were at least three Antique Auto Shows, one Road Rallye and a Mini Cooper Scavenger Hunt that we shot as well. Our beaches on the east end of Long Island are some of the most breathtaking in the country (right up there with North Carolina's) and we spent many happy hours either hip deep in snow in January or ankle deep in sand in August, capturing the undulating shapes of their dunes draped in snow or the power of their seas after a storm.

Light Painting for New Year's
Photo © 2011 Peter Tooker 

The holidays that dot our calendars were also not ignored. Memorial Day is always an homage to the "Opening" of the Hamptons season. Flag Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the Christmas season were all duly noted and celebrated with photographs too.   

Meaty Tomato painted by Barbara Andolsek

Let me also add, ever so humbly, that I have once again been thrilled that Barbara Andolsek continues to make paintings based on some of my photographs. Barbara and I have yet to meet but feel a friendship beyond pen-pals. Nearly 3,000 miles apart but with a shared appreciation for the beauty of the world around us, Barbara and I have forged a friendship that could only occur in this wonderful 21st century. It still astounds me at how incredibly open and selfless so many people are using the internet to connect, communicate, and share. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to be a part of it.

The word "blog" is derived from the expression "web log", which originally was an online journal of sorts and has morphed, over time, into a platform for communicating and exchanging information and ideas. I want to thank you all for your enthusiasm and support over the last two years but more importantly for your participation - "communication and exchange" are exactly what has occurred when you've left comments for us, and you've made it just that much more fun and interesting.

So here is a slide show which represents a snapshot of Open-Window's second year. It's shorter than last year's and yet still longer than most at just under 10 minutes. Perhaps you can set aside a little time next Sunday morning. We've made this for you, to enjoy and remember a year that we shared, and for that I want to say with great sincerity "Thanks for the memories". 

  

Photos & Slide Show by Claudia Ward & Peter Tooker © 2011
Music: Concerto in E-flat Major for Trumpet & Orchestra: 1. Allegro Con Spirito by Wynton Marsalis, National Philharmonic Orchestra & Raymond Leppard 

 

P.S. Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you thought of year two and if there is something you'd like to see more of in the coming months.

 

 

Tulips After the Rain

It's been raining a lot in the northeast and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Trust me, I'm not complaining because these rains aren't producing here any of the drastic results they've produced for the states along the rivers in the midwest and east. In fact, the rains have made everything exceptionally green and I think rather pretty dressed in necklaces of rain drops.

Tulip Trash?

We came to City Hall Park to photograph the gardens but most had yet to bloom. It's still in the mid-40s here in New York today. But I was determined, and low and behold look what I found poking out of the trash. It never had a chance to truly blossom but I bet it would have been pretty.

Tulip Trash ©2011 Claudia Ward

Tulips

Who doesn't love tulips and the colorful cheer they bring to the world around them? I personally know of no one. 

Peter and I are off to the city (New York that is), to shoot the gardens at City Hall and around Trinity Church at the head of Wall Street, which are filled with tulips of all colors right now. So if you're in Manhattan and see some woman crawling around the flower beds on her hands and knees - just say hey!

Spring is in the Air

Truly, it is ... Spring's just very slow in coming in the northeast this year. So to pick myself up, I picked up some tulips at the market. Surely the world of color will bloom soon ... just not soon enough for me.

 

Snowdrops

Snowdrops ©2011 Claudia Ward

The snowdrops are blooming, putting Peter and me in the mood for spring. Bring ... it ... on ....... please. These tiny garden treasures are no taller than three inches and the flower itself is only a half an inch long. They must be tough to arrive when it's still so cold but they look so delicate and fragile - makes you believe in the resilience of nature.

P.S. Another sure sign spring is coming is trucks are unloading flats of plants onto the empty lots of the nurseries. They're filling in slowly but they are filling in. Before we know it, the flats will be filled with flowering plants.

 

Roxanne's Gardens

Gardening is taken up every spring by many a novice but none more enthusiastically than a friend of mine. Renovations completed on their Indiana home, Roxanne turned her attentions to the landscape and with a voluminous tome on the topic in hand, she began planning the gardens. The results are a glorious symphony of color that performs for nearly half the year.

The gardens begin revealing their treasures in late March and will continue to do so on cue throughout the warm spring and summer months. In May when we saw the gardens, the yellow and white daffodils had already made their exit from the stage, replaced now with tulips et al dressed in royal purples, blues and pastels. Demanding attention at center stage however were bright red peonies planted along the walkway - sentries to all who might come. 

These are some of May's "performers" in the gardens at Bye the Beach Cottage.

Photos & Slideshow by Claudia Ward, 2010, All Rights Reserved

Music: Presto, Roberto Fabbriciani, Orchestra Da Camera Di Santa Cecelia, Vivaldi: 6 Concerti Per Flauto

Remember to click the four arrows to make the slideshow larger and change the 360 to 480 for the best possible quality.

How do your gardens grow?

Dancing with Daffodils -The Slide Show

Spring and flowers, what a glorious way to come out of winter's doldrums - I find it intoxicating. Sunday morning was lightly overcast, with little to no wind - perfect conditions for photographing flowers. So if you were in the vicinity of Sagaponack on Long Island yesterday morning and saw a woman sitting cross-legged on a plastic tarp around 6:30 a.m. in front of a diamond of daffodils ... that was a very happy me, despite the damp and chill in the air!

The results are assembled in this slide show - as you all seem to respond most positively to them. "Dancing with the Daffodils" was a wonderful way to spend the day and I hope you enjoy the music as well. It's a song called "Si Do Mhaimeo" sung by two members of a group I adore called Celtic Woman.

Photos by Claudia Ward 2010 All Rights Reserved

Note: Change to 480 to maximize quality; click on the four arrows to enlarge the show.

Please leave a Comment here and let us know what you think, or how you spent your Sunday, or just say "Hey!" We love hearing from you, as always.

Slide Show-Fog on Sagg Pond

Early morning is a very special time of the day, particularly around water. Add a little fog as it's just starting to burn off and it's a magical way to start the day.

Photos by Claudia Ward 2010 All Rights Reserved

Enjoy your morning ... but be sure let us know how you started your day by leaving a Comment here. 

Remember to change to 480 from 360 (lower right corner of the slideshow) and click on the four arrows to make it bigger.

Happy Easter

Photo by Peter Tooker 2010 ALL RIGHT RESERVED 

Art or Photography?

It's a busy week for us with lots of "to-ing and fro-ing". Head in to the city, New York City that is, several times so posting every day will be a challenge. As we all seem to have a good case of spring fever, we'll be sharing "spring photos" this week and hope you find them a pleasure to look at and maybe even inspirational.

 

Crocus Photo by Claudia Ward 2010 All Rights Reserved

 

Snowdrops Photo by Claudia Ward 2010 All Rights Reserved

So, what do you say, art or photography? Let us know your thoughts.
  

Croci

Crocuses a.k.a. croci bring joy to their beholders and that's evident from the photos we're including in today's post. These are Peter's photos from this morning's shoot in our neighbor's back yard. It must have been a real hoot to see grown (very grown) adults lying on their stomachs on the damp ground taking pictures of very small flowers. (If you thought beached whales, you're now in the penalty box.) All joking aside, aren't these spectacular? Spring art! 

   

 

All Photos by Peter Tooker 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Let us hear from you, send some encouragement (or criticism) our way. What do you think, do these tickle your fancy or not? Let us know either way, we love hearing from you!

Happy Spring!

Photo by Claudia Ward 2009 All Rights Reserved

This daffodil reminds me of a bugler heralding the coming of spring. At 1:32 p.m. EDT today, spring will finally arrive and our temperatures may break records, in the mid 60's. Peter and I are thinking of packing a picnic and going to the beach for lunch today. I wonder if it's improved at all since last week's storm. Will keep you posted - literally!

In the meantime, smile ... winter is officially behind us and warmer weather is overtaking the cold! Yeah!

Want to share any springtime cheer? Please do it here. Even if you simply say hello ... we'll be glad you joined "the party".

Happy Spring everyone! 

Nice Weather for Ducks

A friend and former colleague phoned this morning, we're going to have lunch out here in Bridgehampton despite the weather and a two hour drive for him in the pouring rain. It started raining late yesterday and it's not meant to stop until Monday. No complaints mind you, it isn't snow and it's good for the water table, and what better way to spend a rainy day than catching up with friends over good food.

It's nice weather for ducks! 

Photo by Peter Tooker, 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We hope this photo brings a little light to an otherwise dreary day here in the northeast. It's one of my favorites of Peter's taken last spring in East Hampton; he caught incredible texture in the feathers and light in the water! Remember, you can click on the photo and it will expand. What do you think, about the photo, about the weather, ...?

Snowdrops in Spring

Determined to beckon spring, we started our spring cleaning today and by Jove we think it worked. Rising at 6:30 a.m. and working until 1:00 p.m., we broke for lunch and when we returned look what we found just outside our front door - snowdrops!!

 Aren't they brilliant?

They are no taller than 3 inches, but they've made our hearts sing! 

What a great day!

Any comments? ........ anyone?

Slide Show-Winter to Spring at the Beach

Someone asked me today, "What do you do all day?" These days the answer is learn. Learn Adobe Photoshop Elements, learn how to calibrate a color printer, learn how to back-up all of our photographic work, learn how to sell photos on stock photo sites, learn how to set up a website, learn how to set up a business, learn when and where the art fairs are around the region, and of course learn how to blog. I have yet to learn how to get more of you to leave comments, but hopefully that will come with time.

Today I've been experimenting and learning how to make exportable slideshows from iPhoto to post to this blog. I've made one that I hope you enjoy showing the transition from winter to spring at the beach using some of my favorite subjects - shells.

Photos and slide show by Claudia Ward 2009 All Rights Reserved

To watch just click the arrow at the center of the picture above, sit back and enjoy. But of you really want to have some fun, click on the arrow, then look to the lower right at the bottom of the picture. See the number 360p with an arrow next to it? Click on the arrow and select the other option - 480p. Once it's done adjusting itself, click on the square that really looks like arrows going in four directions, that will enlarge the slideshow to the size of your screen. Now sit back and really enjoy! What a hoot ... and I didn't know how to do this this morning!

Some of you have been kind enough to point out that lots of other YouTube stuff is offered up after you see the "videos", apparently that's unavoidable, at least we have yet to find a way around it, but rest assured we're working on it! Perhaps that's what I'll do tomorrow.

Please let me know what you think! Leave a comment by clicking on the word Comment at the bottom of this post or if that's too far to go, just click here and you'll be transported to the Comments box (that's like a mail box not a penalty box). Dialogue and Comments are what blogging is all about!

Dancing in the Rain

It's a dreary day here in the northeast in the aftermath of this week's storm, and I have a day of paper work ahead of me so I thought I'd share with you something a friend shared with me after reading "Stop and Smell the Roses" earlier this week. It rang true to my ears and brought a smile to my face.

"Life is not about how to survive the storm, but rather, 

how to dance in the rain."

Photo by Claudia Ward Copyright 2010 - Taken in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard

Thank you John, and rest assured, when I captured this rose last spring ... I was dancing in the rain!

Have a great day everyone, and let us know your thoughts, on anything, leave a comment by clicking on these words or the word "Comment" below ... let us know you're there. 

The Spring Thaw? When Pigs Fly!

When I used to work ... by that I mean when I used to go to an office everyday, I so wanted to stay home and not work on the days of a snow storm. I love the feeling of being inside while all that white stuff is falling all around you. I look forward to the snow covering everything that was brown and barren with this pristine, wind-swept blanket and the variety of shapes and shadows the drifts will make. So haven't I felt fortunate this winter when the northeast has gotten more snow than we've seen in years. Peter and I have made the most of it cooking up a storm, simmering a pot of hot spiced cider nearly all day and hiking around town taking pictures of anything that caught our eye or our sense of humor.

The frozen wind catcher of our wind chime looking like a boat afloat.

An icicle looking like a ballerina's foot "en pointe".

But friends in the hard hit "central" belt are crying uncle. Their fascination with the white stuff ended long ago. A friend reported to me today, "we have 36 inches of snow" and we're supposed "to get another 3-6 inches by tonight" and ... there's no thaw in sight. For these stoic souls, I provide this photo as a "preview of coming attractions". In a mere 9-10 weeks the world will once again look like this. The fields will be green, the daffodils smiling and, believe it or not, even pigs may be flying!

Chin up everyone, the thaw is on its way.