Adhering to the Rules When Using Someone Else's Images aka Giving Credit Where Credit is Due!

So there I was, minding my own business catching up on Facebook posts this morning when I came across one from a friend sharing the link to a post about the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem.  As it's one of my favorite museums I decided to go take a look-see as I'm always up for reading about what someone else's opinion is about places that I go to.

As I was reading the post and looking at the photos - of which there are many but that's quite alright as I'm a firm believer in 'more is better' in this instance - I had to wonder if the writer had taken all of the photos herself as some were definitely more professional-looking and from angles that I was pretty sure she wouldn't have had access to.  As some of her photos had image credit to other places/people I could only guess that the ones that didn't have additional credit were hers.

Finishing that post (which by comparison made some of mine look downright short if you can believe that!), I decided to check out her next post "The Steel-Gray Charms of Salem in Wintertime" as you all know how I feel about Salem and would live there if I could! There were some great photos of the city that I've come to know and love and then the author moved on to The House of the Seven Gables where I soon came upon the following sentence:

"Unfortunately, interior photography is prohibited, but I’ve been able to find photos online which were taken by less rule-adhering visitors than myself."

That was then followed by six of the photos that I had taken during my private tour of the house for a post on The Distracted Wanderer.

Srsly?

 In my post from which the photos were taken, A Virtual Visit to Salem's House of the Seven Gables - Part Two, The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, I wrote:

"Again I should point out that photography is not allowed on the tours - even non-flash photography - but I was invited to return to the house ... by Anita Blackaby, Executive Director of The House of the Seven Gables, and was given a wonderful private tour of the property by Alan Collachicco, the Deputy Director and Curator of the Museum. I was able to ask questions and take pictures to my heart's content so that I could share them with you here and give you a glimpse inside one of Salem's most historic and important treasures."

Obviously I was not "less rule-adhering" when I took the photos and had I tried to take them on a regularly scheduled tour, the guide would have no doubt reminded me rather sternly that photography in the house was NOT permitted.  How the author thought I was able to 'sneak' six photos that don't exactly look like they were shot from the hip is beyond me!

Even though I was less than pleased that my photos were used without permission and there was nary a hint of image credit, I think it just really got my goat that the author assumed I was "less rule-adhering" than she was because she was obviously breaking one of the simplest rules when it comes to blogging and the use of other peoples' images: provide image credit to the website that you got the images from!

Ideally, a quick email to say, "Hi, I found some images of yours that would go great with my post on blah, blah and I was hoping I could get permission to use them in exchange for image credit" is always nice and I've received many of them over the years.  My answer has always been "absolutely" and it would have been the same to this gal had she bothered to take the time to ask.  Barring that, if she had credited the images back to my blog and not called me "less rule-adhering" I would have been okay with that, too as I take the photos I do to share with other people.

/

It's somewhat ironic that this came up at a time when I've been having numerous discussions with friends about image credit and watermarking and copyrights and all that fun stuff.  Just because it's on the internet doesn't mean that it's free and common courtesy calls for just that - a little common courtesy in giving credit where credit is due.  Sure, there are those folks who will ask for a fee to use their images but the vast majority would probably be flattered that you asked and be more than happy with a credit back to them and that's not a hard thing to do at all.

At the very least, when you use an image on your own website, add it via URL rather than right-clicking and saving the photo as your own or worse yet, if the photos are right-click protected, taking a screenshot and then editing the photos for your own personal use which is a more advanced form of thievery.  Once you've added the photo, take the time to also caption it with the URL of the website you found the image on.  Most of us are not going to mind the link back to our website at all - in fact, we like it!

And whatever you do, don't disparage the person that you stole the image from as that's just adding insult to injury!

As for finding my own photos on someone else's website this morning, I left the following comment which last I checked was still awaiting moderation and may very well never see the light of day but which I hope the blog author would address now that her "mistake" has been pointed out:

"Great post about one of my very favorite places in New England however, just one thing … some of the photos you used for the interior of the House of the Seven Gables were not “taken by less rule-adhering visitors than myself” but by someone who had permission to take them for use in a blog post about the property during the course of a personal guided tour by the museum’s curator with the director’s permission. I know because I took them for my travel blog “The Distracted Wanderer”. I really don’t mind that you used them though image credit would have been nice and being referred to as “less rule-adhering” was a bit of sting but I guess that’s what I get for not watermarking my photos. Live and learn, eh? 

Anyway, all of that aside, I quite enjoyed your post as well as the one about the Peabody Essex Museum which is indeed a wonderful place."

I may be allegedly "less rule-adhering" but at least I'm polite!

Update: I took a look at the blog post in question today (Monday, 3/4/13) and am happy to report that the sentence containing the words "less rule-adhering" has been changed to "Unfortunately, interior photography during normal house tours is prohibited, but I’ve been able to find photos online which were taken by visitors who had special permission to take pictures." Additionally, image credit has been given below each photo with the words, "Photo courtesy of The Distracted Wanderer/Linda Orlomoski" There's no back-link to my blog but at this point, I am happy for the corrections to what I am going to chalk up as an oversight on the author's part in her original posting.

Yep, I am polite and gracious both!

This, That, and a Couple of Other Things

First off, I am very pleased to announce that Officer Jonathan Ley was released from Yale-New Haven Hospital today and received a wonderful police escort home.  Law Enforcement truly is a band of brothers and I'm sure that the support and encouragement will go a long ways towards Jon's healing and rehabilitation.  Thank you to everyone for your prayers and best wishes sent his way!

It's an unusually mild and sunny January day here in Connecticut and as I look out the window and see the snow melting, I can't help but smile a bit.  Don't get me wrong, I don't totally dislike snow and think it looks absolutely beautiful when it first falls but after it's been around for awhile, it rather loses a lot of its beauty and just needs to go!  With a warm rain predicted for tomorrow and a weekend with temps in the high 50s on the way, most of what's left should be gone.  I suspect we'll get more at some point unless we're going to have another unusual New England winter but we'll deal with that when the time comes. In the meantime, the sunshine makes me smile!

Last weekend I took a trip up to Salem so that I could then take a trip up to Kennenbunkport in Maine with my friend Juli, Amanda, and Juli's friend Anita who was a real delight to get to know.  We were supposed to originally make the trip when Barb was up for Christmas but alas, the day that we were slated to go was windy and rainy and snowy depending on what part of New England you were in so we stayed in Salem and went to the movies instead.

This past Saturday was a beautiful sunny day so we took advantage of that and ventured north in search of hats and lunch!  There's a small shop in Kennebunkport called Dannah that Juli had discovered this past summer and they were having a 50% off EVERYTHING in the store sale so who could resist?  Amanda got a few things and I also picked up a nice hat for myself as well as a fascinator which I plan on wearing for tea at the Hawthorne Hotel should they decide to host a "Duchess Tea" for us older folks sometime in addition to the "Princess Teas" that they already do for youngsters.  I quite love the whole concept of tea and what better place to wear a fascinator?  After all, I can't quite wear it to work with my uniform!

Even with the trip up to Salem and Kennebunkport, I still managed to watch the rest of Season 2 of Downton Abbey so that I was ready and waiting with the rest of the country for Sunday night's Season 3 premiere.  As a rule I don't watch a whole lot of TV but everyone kept telling me that I would totally love DA and after watching both seasons - thanks to a lovely Christmas gift from my cousin Amy - I can say that they were right and I do! I just hope it doesn't take that long to release Mr. Bates!

Of course now I have to wait patiently and watch each new episode when it comes on as I'd really rather not watch them online and skip ahead so far that it will seem forever before Season 4 comes out - as tempting as that may be!

Let's see, what else?  Hmm, I got my hair cut today but am less than pleased with it as I really wasn't going for the Dutch-Boy-on-the-paint-can look but that's kind of what I ended up with.  I told the gal cutting my hair that I needed it up off of my collar for uniform policy reasons but I don't think I meant THAT far up off of my collar! Thankfully it still grows fairly quickly and through the wonders of mousse perhaps I can make it look a little better but ew ... maybe it's a good thing I bought a hat in Kennebunkport along with my fascinator as I think I'm going to need it!

Ah well, speaking of work, I'm in for the evening shift today so had best think about getting some lunch and getting going.  I switched shifts with a co-worker so that I could get to my allergy shots on Thursdays as I'm supposed to have them on Mondays and Thursdays but so far the process hasn't gone very well as the shots seem to cause me some wheezing and fatigue so the doctor is having to reevaluate the regime.  With as many things as the testing indicated I was allergic to, I guess I'm not surprised - unfortunately.  Truthfully, though, I'm kind of enjoying only working one 16-hour shift a week now rather than the two that I had been doing. Once you've done 16's, 8's are a real breeze and I still have three days a week off - not a bad deal at all!

Greetings From the Roof of the Hawthorne Hotel!

This weekend finds Claire and I in one of my very favorite places ever as it's the weekend of the big Halloween Ball at the Hawthorne Hotel where Claire will be doing her best Simon Cowell impression and even though there's a potentially major storm bearing down on us in the form of Hurricane (or Tropical Storm if you prefer) Sandy, Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day on the North Shore as evidenced by the following photos that were taken from the roof of the hotel.

View to the west and downtown Salem

View to the south, Hawthorne Boulevard

Essex Street and the Peabody Essex Museum 

View to the east, the Custom House and Salem Harbor

View north with Salem Common on the right

The Salem Witch Museum and the Roger Conant Statue

I'm sure that Claire enjoyed the view of Salem that most visitors to the city will never ever get that was made possible by my friend Juli - hope you enjoyed it too!

The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! Well ... One of Them At Least!

Ever since I had the pleasure of first meeting one Miss Claire Rachel Pitt a bit over four years ago, we've been planning on her coming back over to the States for another visit.  We've talked about places to go, things to see, people to meet while tossing out one itinerary in favor of another several times over but with only two weeks before that long-awaited and much-talked-about visit actually becomes a reality, I think we have finally settled on a rather busy agenda which will pretty much fill up every moment of the six weeks that Claire will be a guest in the United States.  Six weeks packed full of activities and honestly, we could have probably easily planned out another six weeks chock full of things to do and still had more left over on our list!

So, what do we have on that oft-changed, rearranged, and busy agenda?  Read on and you'll see that I need to put vitamins on the top of the list of things I gotta pack!

October 17th - While on her side of the Atlantic Ocean Claire will arise at the crack of dawn, get herself to the airport, and travel back through time as she hurtles towards Boston at about 500 miles an hour, I'll be doing my usual work routine having hopefully gotten all of my packing done so that when quitting time comes I can run home, change clothes, toss my suitcase in the car, and head north to greet her on the other side of Customs with her requested "coffee and vodka".  Lots of coffee, a little vodka, and maybe one of those silly little signs with her name on it just to make her feel important.  Hmmm, wonder if I can find a limo driver's hat by then??

Once we've got Claire's cases tossed in the boot along with mine, I'll point the car north and set out for Bangor, Maine about 4 hours northeast of Boston.  Upon arrival we're going to check into a cheap motel that will hopefully at least be clean and comfortable, let Claire attempt to sleep off some of her jet-lag, and then head out bright and early the next morning for an early morning jaunt past the home of horror writer extraordinaire Stephen King who reportedly has some wicked cool gates that I just gotta get a photo of!  

October 18 -19th - After hopefully not being arrested as stalkers, we are then going to continue through Maine to the most northeastern town in the United States - Lubec, Maine. While there we will be staying for two nights at the lovely Peacock House, a historic bed and breakfast overlooking the Bay of Fundy!  While there we've got lots of exploring planned including a tour of the local lighthouse that has long been on my list of lighthouses to see!

October 20 -21st - Passports in hand we're going to continue heading east and cross over the Canadian border driving through New Brunswick to Hopewell Rocks - home of the world's highest tides.  During our time in Canada, we'll be guests of the Innisfree Bed and Breakfast who have promised to make sure we see all there is to see in the area - sending us out with our bellies full from a hearty breakfast first.

October 22nd - 23rd - Leaving the wilds of Canada behind, with hopefully the closest encounter with moose or bear being from a safe distance, we'll start homeward bound stopping first for a night in the area of Acadia National Park with the hopes of catching the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain before we make our way back to Connecticut.

October 24th - 25th - Claire will hang around the house chatting with the girls and keeping Tesla company while I go to work for a few days and rest up for the next phase of our wanderings.

October 26th - 28th - Back to Massachusetts and the North Shore where Claire will get her first glimpse of my beloved Salem - right smack at the peak of the Halloween madness that is the hallmark of Salem in October.  We'll be staying at Chez Lederhaus - home of my friends Walt and Juli whom I can't wait for Claire to meet and vice versa.  On the 27th of October Claire will be doing her best Simon Cowell impression as she takes on the role of judge at the uber-cool Hawthorne Hotel Halloween Ball.  As she gets to take a guest, that will be me along with my trusty Nikon and I'm sure it will be just as much fun - if not more so - than last year's Halloween Ball.  Hopefully there won't be any snow this year but you just never know!

October 29th - November 1st - Back in Norwich, Claire has talked me into a visit to Dark Manor which is supposed to be THE #1 haunted house in Connecticut. Fortunately it's located not too far from home so in case anyone needs to change clothing before heading out to the Harp and Dragon for a pint afterward, it will be easy enough to just pop by the house! I'm sure that on Halloween night, Amanda can find something spook-tacular for Claire to do - zombie makeovers may be included!

November 2nd - November 4th - We'll be trundling southwest to Hazleton, Pennsylvania and staying at the Ramada while meeting up with one of Claire's blogging buddies from Pittsburgh as well as Lisa and her Macs (both big and little!), whom I have already had the pleasure of meeting up once a few years back - of course, that was pre-Little Mac! I believe a coal mine tour and a tour of America's oldest operating brewery are on the current agenda while there, as well as meeting up with Mod Betty from Retro Roadmap who is going to point us in the direction of some of the true Americana that Claire craves!

November 5th -10th - Back in Connecticut for a breather while I'm once again off to work and Claire keeps the home fires burning as she prepares some Doodologist-type things which she'll be attempting to peddle at a craft fair in Rhode Island being held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge in Cranston from 10am to 3pm on November 10th.  We've rented a table at the annual event sponsored by the Rhode Island Chapter of the National MS Society and I'm sure as long as we have Claire do all the talking and mention that the crafts are from England, she'll sell out completely!

November 11th - Off for tea and luncheon at Mrs Bridges' Pantry in South Woodstock with Princess Patricia of Ansonia in the Valley and my friend Paula who is an amazing art teacher and occasional distracted sidekick joining us. Mrs. Bridges is an authentic British tea room but we won't know exactly how authentic until Claire gives it her authentic British seal of approval! I anticipate a jolly good time though I still think we should consider wearing proper hats!

November 12 -14th - A little more hanging around in Norwich while I work and Claire possibly meets up with another blogging chum of hers from nearby New London.

November 15th - 19th - Back up to Salem and the lovely Hawthorne Hotel for five awesome nights with lots of wandering planned so that I can show Claire exactly why I love the North Shore as much as I do.  Depending on if we can fit it into the schedule, we might even get down to Plimouth Plantation for a visit with the Pilgrims if our timing works out and we don't get distracted visiting too many retro-diners and sampling pie and coffee while Claire checks out one lunch counter after another and drops the occasional quarter in a jukebox. Diners, drive-ins, and dives are definitely on her list of "must-sees"!

November 20th - 25th - Off to the lovely Sunset Hill House located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for five nights of ...  free! As Claire says, "Who says social media doesn't get you lovely things?"  Again lots of things penciled in, but nothing concrete other than helping them to decorate for Christmas and being able to take advantage of all the wonderful hospitality of the innkeepers and their staff as we take on the role of "embedded Facebookers".  Make sure you like their page, Sunset Hill House on Facebook, as we'll be live-blogging on both their page and ours during the time that we are there.

November 25th - 26th - Before heading home to Connecticut we'll be spending one night in a place that has been on my bucket list for a very long time, the beautiful Omni Mount Washington Resort which is a member of Historic Hotels of America as it has a truly impressive history - one that Claire and I will be learning all about on our private tour of the resort on Monday morning.  As excited as I am about everything else - and trust me, I am! - I am really looking forward to our one night in Bretton Woods as it will be the perfect way to end our whirlwind touring of the northeast.

We'll be arriving back in Connecticut probably late in the day/evening on the 26th with just enough time for me to catch a few hours sleep before it's back to work for me and a couple days rest for Claire before I have to take her back up to Boston and Logan Airport on the 29th so that she can climb on a plane and jet back to jolly old England. Provided she manages to get back through Customs of course!

Like I said, Claire's going to be here just about six weeks and I've got no doubt that the time will fly but hopefully not so fast that we don't get a chance to enjoy all of the things that we've got planned.  And yes, we do have a lot but you should see the list of things we had to shelve for another time! Yikes!

Hopefully Claire won't wait another four years before she gets back here so we can start work on that next list but in the meantime, I also want to start working on my own list of things I want to see in England as it's my sincere hope to get over there before Claire gets back over here.  Provided she doesn't like it so much that she finds a job and moves over permanently!  If that happens, we'll be making even more lists!

Gone to the Dogs and Back

My plan to leave Massachusetts fairly early and beat the Labor Day traffic rush to get back to Connecticut at a reasonable hour actually worked out quite well though that meant that Amanda and I had to leave Salem before Walt and Juli got back from Montreal so we didn't get a chance to hear about how wonderful of a trip it was.  From the looks of the pictures I saw on Facebook, Walt was having a wonderful early birthday celebration and even though they missed those two little fellas pictured above, I'm glad he and Juli felt like they were in good hands and could relax and enjoy themselves.

Speaking of hands, yep - that's mine to the right giving Dewey a bit of a head scritch - something that I count as a great accomplishment.  Unlike JayJay, Dewey is a bit on the shy side and it takes some time for him to warm up to people and let himself be touched so when he would actually nudge my hand and tap on my arm with his tiny little paw in a "Hey!  Pet me!" sort of way, I deemed that to be a great honor!

It wasn't just all dog-walking and house-sitting for me this weekend though as I managed to not only do some wandering around the North Shore but also make a rather unplanned drive up to New Hampshire early Saturday morning.  I had a phone call from Juli around 10:00 or so on Friday night explaining that she had a bit of conundrum as she and Walt had accidentally left their passports behind and they weren't going to be able to make their planned trip to Montreal without them.  Ut-oh.  They had stopped for their first night at the Quechee Inn about three hours away and it was as Juli was thinking of the day ahead of them on Saturday that the thought dawned on her that their passports were sitting in the kitchen cupboard back in Salem.

Well, I did what any friend would do and offered to drive them up to them as how could Walt celebrate his birthday in Montreal if he couldn't even get through the border crossing?  Juli said that if we could meet halfway that would be great but as neither she nor Walt really liked driving at night it would be better if we did it early in the morning.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not exactly a big fan of early mornings but knowing that the earlier I got going, the better it would be as far as traffic went and the better it would be for Juli and Walt to get to Canada without losing too much time having had to backtrack a bit so I said "Sure!"  I Googled a halfway spot that would be easy for both of us to find, said I'd meet them there at 7:30, and went to bed hoping I wouldn't be too groggy in the morning.

At 5:00 (late by Barb's standards!), I climbed out of bed, took a quick shower, went down and fed the dogs and let them out, watered the plants out front, and then hit the road north while getting a last look at the lovely full moon that was setting while the sun was rising.  If I'd had time I would have stopped to take some photos but I was a woman on a mission and there simply wasn't time.

After meeting up with Walt and Juli at a Hampton Inn just outside of Concord, New Hampshire, hugs were exchanged all around as I handed them their passports and then they insisted on buying me breakfast at a nearby little restaurant.  After breakfast, more hugs were shared and they started towards Canada while I headed towards Ipswich in Massachusetts.  As I came down I-93 southbound through New Hampshire and saw all of the traffic backed up at the toll booths that I had practically sailed through about an hour earlier, I was quite glad that we planned to meet early and avoided all that.  Whew!

I got as far as Epping, New Hampshire when my gas light came on so I stopped to fill 'er up at prices that were .40 cents a gallon cheaper than here in Connecticut; not that $3.63 is anything to dance a jig about but it sure the heck beats $4.03 a gallon!  In celebration I decided to splurge on a car wash - as pictured above! - before continuing my journey south. En route I stopped at one of the New Hampshire State Liquor Stores and picked up a few bottles of wine - one for myself and one as a thank you gift for the gal who was checking on Tesla for us while we were gone - as well as a bottle of 12-year old Jameson that my dispatch partner has been hankering for.  Granted, he's going to pay me back for it so it's not like I'm some wonderful partner who bought the bottle for him but he was still very happy to pay the discounted price that the store was offering and he was very happy that I thought of him while I was there.

Continuing southeast, I soon arrived at the destination I had planned to visit that day - the Crane Estate on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  Just a little "summer home" for an industrialist from Chicago who made his fortune on the advent of indoor plumbing and would spend a whopping six weeks a year there with his wife and two children.

Uhm, yea, summer home - sure, if you say so!  I won't write too much more about the house here as I'll be writing a full-blown post for Travels With Nathaniel  (hopefully soon) so if you'd like to learn more about the stately English manor house and the beautiful grounds surrounding it, you are invited to stop by there at some future point.

I will say that photos were NOT allowed inside the house however, they didn't say anything about taking photos of the grounds from the windows of the house so I took the one above with my iPhone just to give you an idea of how beautiful the Grande Allée is. Following my house tour, I walked the entire half-mile uphill/downhill stretch to the end where one gets an absolutely beautiful view of the ocean and a much welcome breeze, too!

Of course, once I was all the way out there, I had to walk all the way back!  I bet on a nice crisp, fall day it's a great walk but on a hot, humid end-of-summer day I could have really used a bottle of water! And lighter clothing! Ah well, it was good exercise and the view was certainly worth the walk!

Once I finished walking around the rest of the grounds and taking more photos than I'll ever need or use, I decided that it was way past time for food so I drove back to Rowley to do some "research" for another Travels With Nathaniel  post at the historic Agawam Diner.  

Now, I know that a lot of you have been posting pictures of your food and talking about all of the fantastic healthy eating that you've been doing so I almost feel guilty about posting the following pictures - almost! - but in the name of research, sometimes a gal just has to make some sacrifices and eat things like grilled beef franks with a really delicious potato salad and tasty cole slaw ... 

... and then follow it up with a slab of some of the best lemon meringue pie I've had in quite some time.  With a crust that wasn't soggy at all!

So ... all of that walking from one end of the Grande Allée to the other and back in the hot sun was pretty much negated by lunch but how could I write a post about how good the diner food was at the Agawam Diner if I didn't actually eat any?  Exactly, I couldn't! However, because it was late in the day, I didn't eat any dinner so this was really two meals. Two very delicious meals!

To wrap up my weekend, I spent most of Sunday writing the post on the Agawam Diner and then at night I drove down to Logan Airport to pick up a friend of Juli's who was flying in from India.  He had a heck of a time getting through Customs as apparently all of the agents were taking a holiday weekend and there were only two on duty so by the time I got back to Salem, it was after midnight and definitely time for bed.

Today we made the drive back home after I took the pups for a final walk around the neighborhood and arrived back home to a cat who acted like we had abandoned him for days on end!  Obviously Tesla missed us as he's been wrapped around Amanda since we got home but I know that he was well taken care of while we were gone as he had plenty of food and water in his bowls when we arrived home.

Heck, I just don't get it - I sometimes wish that people would leave me at home for three-and-a-half days by myself!  I'd sure enjoy the peace and quiet but then, look at all the great stuff I'd miss! 

Good Grief! Where Did August Go?

Rabbits! Rabbits! Rabbits!  Just in case I forget to say it out loud first thing in the morning and set myself up for a month of bad juju!

I get the sneaky feeling I've been pretty busy again lately though this is the first time I've been back to the North Shore since I was here in early July with Barb.  This time around I'm up in Salem for the weekend with a mission - to house and puppy sit for my friends Juli and Walt while they head off to Montreal to celebrate Walt's September 13th birthday a bit early. I'm kinda envious as I'd love to see Montreal one of these days but it's been there since 1605 so I guess it will still be there by the time I can finally visit it myself.  Of course, once I see Montreal then I'm going to want to see Quebec though if I ever get around to doing that, I should probably take someone who speaks French with me just in case!

I guess it's sort of cheating to say that I haven't been to the North Shore since early July as I was up this way last weekend - just not in Salem. I went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire with my cousins Amy and Robin to have lunch at Newick's Seafood Restaurant - a family favorite since 1972 when we lived up that way while my Dad was stationed at Pease Air Force Base. We followed that up with a little tax-free shopping and then drove down to Newburyport, Massachusetts to attend a concert by the Nova Scotia bluegrass band, The Spinney Brothers.  In case you're interested in reading up on either adventure, you can click here and here for the posts on The Distracted Wanderer.

My Travels With Nathaniel  for the Hawthorne Hotel have been keeping me busy also though most of that has been in the form of writing rather than traveling the past two months. I'm hoping to maybe get to a place or two with mini-Nate this weekend if the last-holiday-weekend-of-the-summer crowds aren't too bad.  The weather is supposed to be quite nice so that's a major plus and it's been too long since I've walked through a historic house so it's time to amend that.

Amanda is up here with me and visiting with some of her North Shore friends in between helping out with the pups who are pretty easy maintenance as long as they get their food and their walks and some attention now and again.  Just don't tell Tesla that we're up here with a couple of dogs, he might not like that very much!

This is Dewey and Jay-Jay - the younger fellas who are cute as buttons

Kookie is the older lady of the house who is more interested in naps than walks and is starting to have a touch of dementia - bless her little old heart. 

In other news, Jamie will be coming home from Toronto in about two weeks but chicken that I am, I haven't told Amanda that yet; I reckon I'll break the news to her this weekend at some point. I think she was hoping that her sister living in Canada was going to be a permanent thing but I always hoped Jamie would come back home at some point and figured she'd have to come home after six months at any rate or be an illegal alien. Those two are just going to have to grow up and learn how to get along - and get jobs too, that would be nice!

I hope that everyone has a great start to their September - which I still can't believe is here already.  Time most certainly does fly! 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

So here it is, the "first official weekend of summer" and I keep wondering how it got here so fast!  But what else is new when it comes to time flying lately?  I'd better not blink or next thing I know it's going to be the Fourth of July and then the "last official weekend of summer"!

I hope y'all have something fun planned for this weekend.  As for me, you'll never guess where I am again!  Yep, back in Salem but this time I'll be heading up to Newburyport to cheat on my Nikon with an Olympus for a little bit.  Gasp!  There's a good reason I'm leaving the Nikon in the car for awhile though, I'm going on a Photo Safari with my friend Juli which is sponsored by the Essex National Heritage Commission and a local camera shop. We get to take Olympus cameras and equipment out for a spin as well as get some photography tips from a guest photographer and keep the memory card with the pictures we take. Bonus - it's in the historic area of the town - who'd a thunk it?

I've heard all sorts of good things about Newburyport so I'm really looking forward to fooling around with another camera for awhile and seeing some more of Massachusetts and then spending a little more time in Salem afterward.  I'll be heading home on Sunday, recharging for a bit, and then taking a drive across Connecticut on Monday for a family get-together at my cousin Dave's house.  Whew!  I should be good and tired just in time to go back to work on Tuesday where I start my new shift rotation and will now have Friday through Monday off instead of my current schedule of Wednesday through Saturday off.  Still lots of time for wandering around!

So what have you got planned for the weekend other than remembering those brave men and women who gave us cause to have a holiday weekend to begin with??  Whatever it is, I hope it's fun and safe! 

A Recap of My Last Batch of Days Off With a Warning: Delicious Food Pictures Included!

Are we really in the middle of May already? How on earth did that happen? And why have I only written one whole post for the entire month so far? Why, you'd think I've been busy or something!  Of course, if you did think that then you'd be thinking right as it seems to me that life has been a bit more busy than usual though thankfully mostly in a good sort of way.

Before I get to me, though, just a quick update on my mom ... she's doing very, very well and will hopefully be able to go home sometime early this week.  She was moved from the hospital to a nursing home last Tuesday for some rehab in order to make sure that her right leg was working properly and that her balance wasn't off and to tweak a few other little things here and there that one doesn't even think about for the most part.  When I stopped in to visit her Saturday evening being that I would be working all day on Mother's Day, she said that she thought things were going really well and that she'd been practicing walking with a cane and chewing her food and fun things like that.  Her therapists all think she's doing wonderfully well so I'm hoping  for a trip home soon for her and then progressing on to that "you'll never even know you had a stroke" that her doctor at the hospital promised her would happen.  And I am ever mindful and thankful that it could have been so much worse of a stroke than it was as well as very thankful for all of the good thoughts and prayers that you folks sent her way.  I've got no doubt that they all helped tremendously!

Now, as for myself, this week was another quick trip up to Salem to touch base with some folks at the Hawthorne Hotel regarding a project that I'm working on for them.  Hopefully I'll be able to say more about it soon as we're getting close to I guess what you could call a "launch date".  I just need to finish a few things here and there but so far it's been a lot of fun - though a lot of work - and has given me all sorts of reasons to go up to the North Shore and explore new places while also spending some time with Juli and her husband Walt who are just two of the nicest people ever.  Add on the fact that Juli really knows the area and she has pointed me in the direction of some very cool places to explore.

For this last trip I took Amanda with me being that Jamie and I will be heading to Vermont on Friday for the Annual Work Weekend at the Inn Victoria which we are both totally looking forward to.  On this trip I figured that Amanda would be able to meet up with some of her friends from up around Boston while it gave Jamie some nice quiet time to enjoy herself at home as I traipsed around the North Shore with my Nikon in hand. A win-win for everyone!

During this visit to Salem, Amanda and I stayed in a lovely room on the second floor of the Fidelia Bridges Guest House which is part of the Hawthorne Hotel and which you may remember me telling you about before when Jamie and I stayed there last April. Formerly known as the Suzannah Flint House, the 1807 guest house is now named for one of the few successful female artists in the 19th and early 20th century.

Fidelia Bridges, born in the house in 1834 to a sea captain and his wife and who later moved to Philadelphia and studied painting for three years under William Trost Richards, was an oil painter who later took up watercolor painting with her work consisting mainly of very detailed pictures of flowers, birds, and plants in their natural surroundings. Most notably, Ms. Bridges was the only woman of six men in the group of notable 19th century artists in the American Watercolor Society before her death in 1923 in Canaan, Connecticut. For examples of some of her works, click here. 

The room we stayed in is called the Red and Gold Room and it's easy to see why!  My back thoroughly enjoyed the very comfortable queen-size bed while Amanda, after initial doubt, was very comfortable on the fold-out twin sleeper that the love seat becomes at night.  It was so comfortable she was rather hoping we could sneak it out to the car and bring it home with us but that obviously wasn't going to happen! 

One of the most interesting features of the room - aside from the really comfortable bedding! - is the fireplace which Juli told me is one that was quite possibly designed and built by Samuel McIntyre - a Salem native who was one of the earliest American architects specializing in the Federal style. McIntyre built almost exclusively in New England and Salem has a very large historic district named for him which contains 407 buildings and is the largest collection of pre-1900 domestic structures in all of America. Having the chance to stay in a room with a possible McIntyre piece may seem geeky to some but I thought it was pretty darned cool! 

When I wasn't oohing and aahing over the fireplace in our room, I was spending some time up the road from Salem in Gloucester while Amanda was spending the day with her friends. While there I took an awful lot of pictures - go figure! - including the ones below:

I spent several hours in different parts of Gloucester - and I could have happily spent several more just sitting and watching the waves crash on the rocks - before I met up with Juli and Walt for dinner at a little Mexican restaurant in downtown Gloucester called Jalapeno's where the food was más excelente!

Juli told me that she and Walt had been eating at Jalapeno's for about 13 years going there maybe 6 or 7 times a year and that even though all of the food is good, nine times out of ten she'll order the same thing so I followed her lead on the soup and we split an entree before the three of us shared a dessert. 

Tortilla Sopa - Julienne-cut tortillas in a light chicken broth with shredded cheese and avocado; it had just enough of a bite to make it perfect! 

Steak Gaonera - Charcoal-grilled steak, pan baked with Chihuahua and Monterrey Jack Cheese, topped with chilled guacamole. Oh my gosh, looking at this picture just makes my mouth water something awful remembering how delicious this was! 

A side of vegetables and rice with our steak was a very nice accompaniment; I thought the rice was done to perfection and probably the best Mexican-style rice I've had on the East Coast.

And to finish off the meal, the most delicious chocolate mousse ever served in a fried tortilla bowl!  I wish I'd had more room at the end of the meal to eat even just another spoonful or two but alas - no way Jose! 

Everything was really, really good and it was easy to see and taste why Juli orders the same thing most of the time!  The guacamole was so good that I would have been happy just eating a bucket of it and maybe a few chips as it was just that  good!  As I was looking around the room I have to admit that everything I saw the servers bring out and put on other diners' tables looked awfully darned good, too!  Jalapeno's is definitely a place I'd love to go back to sometime!  Why, oh why, can't Connecticut get decent Mexican food like Massachusetts?!? 

After dinner I climbed in the car to make the drive back over to Salem from Cape Ann and being that the clouds were providing such a lovely show in front of the windshield, I decided to snap a few pictures from the driver's seat of the road and scenery ahead of me.  I should probably point out that I don't hold the viewfinder up to my eye when taking these shots but simply put the camera on the steering wheel and hope for the best as I do try to be safe when doing this sort of thing - and I never do it when there's a lot of traffic.  Fortunately for me, the drive on Route 128 south from Gloucester to Salem wasn't bad at all Friday evening - it was actually very, very pleasant which isn't something I normally say about driving on the North Shore! 

This last shot I took while I was waiting for the light to change on the bridge between Salem and Beverly so I was at a complete stop.  The sky was definitely more dramatic in person but being that you weren't there with me, this is the best I can do to share!

As you can probably tell, it was a another very nice visit to Salem and the surrounding area and a lovely way to spend some days off - even though I was sort of "working" at the same time but work that's a lot more fun than dispatching ambulances!  Now if I could just somehow finagle making a living out of staying in beautiful accommodations, taking pictures, eating good food, and wandering around Massachusetts I'd be one very happy woman! 

Sometimes All That Wandering Can Be a Sweet Thing

Last week I had occasion to make a trip back up to Salem, Massachusetts (where most of you seem to think I should just go ahead and move to but then where would my "Go To" place be??) and while I was there I had the chance to make a visit to Ye Olde Pepper Companie - an unassuming little building on Derby Street directly across from the House of the Seven Gables.

It might not look like much from the outside but once you pass through that door you become like a kid in a candy shoppe because that's exactly what it is run by America's oldest candy company as a matter of fact!  I'm not going to tempt you with all of the chocolaty and sugary goodness to be found at Ye Olde Pepper Companie in this post but if you'd like to pop over to The Distracted Wanderer I certainly will as I show you around inside and introduce you to America's oldest produced candy - the Salem Gibralter.

So what are you waiting for?  You're not going to gain any weight just looking! Honest!

A Distracted Promo With a Tidbit of History That Would Have Made Scrooge Smile!

1937 Photo of The House of the Seven Gables
from the Library of Congress
Photo Credit

Three weeks ago I made my second visit in less than two days back to Salem's House of the Seven Gables since my original visit in 1975 as a high school junior - and no, the picture from above isn't from that original trip!  On my most recent visit I was given a private showing of the property and given permission to take photos inside the houses - something that is not allowed to visitors on the regular tours.  The reason for that was so that I could share both the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace House with readers of The Distracted Wanderer.  Finally after several late nights and long hours, both posts are finally up and running so should you wish to see the inside of the house that is believed to have inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his 1851 Gothic Romance novel The House of the Seven Gables, you may do so here.

As an added bonus, the house was decorated for Christmas - a holiday that was illegal in Massachusetts for many, many years following a law passed in 1659 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony that banned Christmas celebrations and required a five-shilling fine from anyone caught "observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way." The law was repealed in 1681 but it wasn't until 1856 that Christmas Day became a state holiday in Massachusetts. Gosh, if Ebeneezer Scrooge had known that, maybe he could have moved to Massachusetts where he would have been within his legal rights to "Bah Humbug" as much as he wanted and no one would have condemned him for it in the least!

Speaking of Christmas, I've got lots to do before Sunday so I'd best get to it!

Santa, Santas Everywhere!

The last post in my series on the Historic Salem, Inc. 32nd Annual Christmas in Salem Historic House Tour is up at The Distracted Wanderer featuring more Santas than you can shake a yule log at!

I hope you'll take the time to read The Clarence S. Clark House in Salem, Massachusetts - A House That Santa Would Be Proud to Call "Home" or if you'd like, just go look at the pictures of a home that Martha Stewart would envy that was completely decorated by the homeowner herself featuring wonderful crafts and artwork that were done by herself and her very talented mother.  Add on the fact that the house is one of Salem's best examples of Colonial Revival architecture and I'm sure that Santa would be more than proud to live there - heck, there's even enough room for all of his elves and a 1796 barn in the back for the reindeer!

Christmas and History and Houses ... Oh My!

Last Friday evening I was fortunate enough to tour four beautifully historic homes that were part of the 32nd Annual Christmas in Salem Historic House Tour that is presented by Historic Salem, Inc.  In addition, I was granted special permission and given the extreme privilege of being able to take photographs in the houses - something that is not normally allowed on the tours.

The houses were all located in the beautiful McIntire District of Salem which contains the greatest concentration of notable pre-1900 Federal and Colonial Revival style domestic structures in the United States. The district is named for Samuel McIntire, a woodcarver by trade who developed into one of the very earliest architects in America.

For those that weren't aware, Salem was once the sixth largest city in America and one of the richest in all of the country due to its reputation as a world famous seaport and involvement in the China Trade. Appropriately the city's motto, adopted in 1839, is "Divitis Indiae usque ad ultimum sinum", Latin for "To the farthest port of the rich Indies."

To be able to tour some of the beautiful houses from Salem's heyday was a real treat for me - to be able to take pictures (or pass the picture-taking duties over to my friend Juli due to my lack of planning skills!) was a real honor.  I hope you'll be able to take a moment to visit The Distracted Wanderer and take a small tour of the houses yourself with my posts, Christmas in Salem Historic House Tour, Part One and Part Two.

I'll have one more post in the series soon with photos from the 1895 Clarence S. Clark House that Juli and I were even more fortunate to get a private tour of on Friday afternoon. The home is a beautiful Colonial Revival style house that also just happens to currently be owned by the President of Montserrat College of Art - Amanda's school of higher education for one wonderful year and where I'd really like her to be able to go back to someday - and his wife who is one dynamic woman!  It's a gorgeous home that was beautifully decorated for Christmas by the homeowner herself who has a collection of thousands of Santas in all shapes and sizes.

Speaking of which, I do believe I need to get to work on that post now what with my triple double shifts looming on the horizon! Sigh, this darned real life job of mine is always getting in the way of my love of history but I guess I need it to keep paying for gas for my wanderings! And I do love to wander!

Oh, and lest I forget, I am very happy to say that one of the photos that I submitted for the 2011 Destination Salem Photography Contest made the list of finalists.  First, second, and third prize are decided by voters like yourself so if you've got a moment, I'd love to have you go over to their website linked above and take a look at the seven finalists and then cast a vote for your favorite - no registration is required. If my picture just happens to be the one you choose then 'yay!' but if not, I'm sure that whoever took the picture you did vote for will be happy.  I've got my fingers crossed that my picture of the Tall ship Friendship will make the cover of the 2012 Salem Guide as that would just be uber-fantastic but if not, I'll keep plugging away at it and try again next year.  Gives me more good reasons to go back up to Salem which I have adopted as my very favorite city in the country!

Today's Day Off From Work is Brought to You By the Words "Catch" and "Up"!

Today starts my four days off from work for the week and it's a darned good thing I've got no plans to wander anywhere further afield than Plainfield for our annual Dispatch and Scheduling Holiday Gathering on Friday evening as I've got more than enough things to catch up with from my last trip up to Salem, Massachusetts!  I'm still in the process of editing pictures from the Historic House Tour as well as the House of the Seven Gables but at least I've managed to catch up on two things over at The Distracted Wanderer:

Santa Claus Came to Town and He Did It in Style!

A Devilishly Delicious and Fun
Mexican Restaurant in Massachusetts' Witch City

I hope you get the chance to check one or the other post out and in the meantime, I'm going to do my best to try to get caught up with some of my very favorite bloggers before diving into more editing and writing and stuff! Wish me luck!

Previews of Coming "Distractions"!

I returned back from my latest jaunt up to Salem, Massachusetts late Friday night after having a totally fantastic overnight trip that was filled to the brim with wonderful things to see and do. I've got lots and lots of pictures to edit but that's a good thing as it means I got to see lots and lots of things to take pictures of and boy, do I have stories to tell once I get the time to properly write them!

For example, I had the opportunity to go back over and do a private walk-through of the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion - aka The House of the Seven Gables - with a fine gentleman named Alan who is their very knowledgeable and talented Curator. We ended up spending just a little over two hours walking and talking and taking pictures (something that is normally not allowed) and I can't thank him enough for all that he showed me.  Alan has also made me want to start reading more of Nathaniel Hawthorne's works as well as reread "The House of the Seven Gables".

The picture above is the main room of the Ingersoll-Mansion decorated as it might have been for Christmas.  See that couch just peeking out from behind the Christmas tree?  Hawthorne sat on that while writing "The Scarlet Letter" - something I thought was very cool!  There's a lot more to the mansion as well as the birthplace home of Hawthorne which sits on the same property and as soon as I get my act together, I'll be telling you all about it at The Distracted Wanderer. Just give me some time to edit pictures please!

Following my wonderful time with Alan, I had a quick meeting at the Hawthorne Hotel to discuss a very exciting project that I can hopefully write more about soon and then met up with my friend Juli so that we could get a preview tour of one of the homes on the Christmas in Salem Historic House Tour.  Juli and I were lucky enough to be treated to a tour of the home by one of the homeowners who did an absolutely stunning job turning her house into a showplace that deserves to be featured in "House Beautiful" rather than just my little old blog.

The gorgeous white tree above was jokingly referred to as the home's "mall tree" but I gotta tell you, that would be one very upscale and swanky mall!  If you think that one tree is nice, wait until I show you pictures of the the other three trees in the home as well as all of the other beautiful Christmas decorations throughout.  Juli used the word 'smitten' in reference to her husband's reaction to the house when he saw it and I've got to agree with him completely as smitten I was - and enchanted and awed and ... well, you'll see!  

Following our private house tour, I drove Juli back to work and then I did a quick bit of shopping at Treasures Over Time, one of the eclectic little stores that Salem is chock-full of, in search of a few Christmas presents. I had a gift certificate that I had won from Destination Salem to use and it seemed like the perfect time!   With a few Christmas presents to bring back to Connecticut we me, I then went back over to the Hawthorne Hotel to grab a quick bowl of Steve's Seafood Chowder (just as delicious as I remembered it to be!) before meeting up with Juli again to take a trip to the rooftop of the hotel.  Why?  To meet up with Santa and a couple of his "elves" of course!

When Santa arrives in Salem each year, he does it up right by descending from the top of the Hawthorne Hotel into the enthusiastic crowd below with the assistance of the Salem Fire Department and that's why these guys were up on the rooftop - click, click, click!  Watching Santa being greeted by the throng of children below, I almost felt like I was watching the ball drop in Times Square as I don't think the crowd could have been more excited. I'll be posting more about that also very soon!

From the rooftop Juli and I then made our way back over to the historic McIntire District to visit the other four houses that were participating in the Friday night preview of the Historic House Tour.  Making our way in and out of the homes along with the rest of the good-sized crowd, we got to see even more beautiful rooms and decorations.  And yes, I'll be posting about that also once I get my act together and photos all straightened out.  Like the House of the Seven Gables, photography was not permitted on the tour but I was given special dispensation by Historic Salem, Inc. to take pictures and I am honored to have been allowed to do so.

Finally, after what was a whirlwind day of activity, I went back to the home of Juli and Walt where we had a delicious meal of pasta and kohlrabi (the plant that looks somewhat like an alien) before I had to make the drive home in anticipation of working an overtime shift on Saturday.  As always, as good as the meal was, the company far exceeded it and it was tough to put my coat on and head out the door but alas, home was calling and I couldn't ignore it.

Now ... to get to that photo-editing so I can share some of my trip with you.  It's my goal to make you love Salem as much as I do and I certainly don't mind trying!