The weather here has been hot and sticky, and the air quality index keeps reaching into unhealthy levels, so I haven’t looked for quite as many adventures in the past few weeks as I did in the beautiful breezy days of May and June. Luckily, I still have a backlog of little trips to share from those days!
Come with me, back to that lovely June afternoon, when I told Neil about my idea for having a Summer of Adventures, and he said, “sounds great, where are we going today?”
That was honestly more enthusiasm than I expected, so despite it being a random Tuesday afternoon, and despite the fact that I’d already put in an 8-hour work day, I looked at my map and said “How about Cross Estate Gardens, followed by supper by the water, and we don’t invite the kids?” He was on board for that 😜
Cross Estate Gardens is a small section of the Morristown National Historical Park that I had not even heard of until earlier that day. There’s a stone water tower, an old house, and a community-tended garden among many stone paths and old vines. It was a beautiful place to wander around for an hour or so, and less than 30 minutes from home.
When we were done there, we headed to the Black River Barn for some burgers near the water. We were a few tables away from the actual water’s edge, so we didn’t get a close-up view of the animals, though the two times we’ve been there before we’ve seen fish and turtles. This time there was a Canadian goose family, and I was able to get up near the end of our meal and take their picture when some fellow diners vacated their table.
I didn’t bring my fancy digital camera on this excursion, just my phone (Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra) and my film camera (Canon EOS Rebel 2000 with Kodak ColorPlus 200 film). I wonder, can you tell the difference between the phone photos and the film photos? I can, but then I’ve been fully immersed in this film stuff for a few months now. Maybe it’s not so easy if you’re not living and breathing it like I seem to be lately 😀
I don’t know how interested you are in the technical photography details, or if you’re really just into seeing the final pictures, but if you want to know more about the cameras I use, take a look at my Camera page. I’ve had this page for a while, but I recently updated it, since I’ve been finding my feet with film. I don’t have any information there yet about the lenses I use or my favorite film stocks (so far), but I want to add that one of these days. If you do have an interest in the details, please leave a comment and let me know. I’m much more likely to talk about things like that if I know you care 😁
Anyway, this was a nice spontaneous evening out, somewhere not too far from home, and totally doable after a full day at work. It’s such a nice thing, to be able to take advantage of the long days of summer like this!
