Walk with My Camera

 

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Pittsburgh, PA 11/11/14

Yesterday – NOVEMBER 11, 2014 – it hit 70 Degrees F (SEVENTY DEGREES!) here in Pittsburgh, PA!  That is simply unheard of, and surely broke some kind of weather record.

But, alas, today it is dropping, dropping, dropping and currently 39 and continuing down.

Not that this is meant to be a weather report – really!!!  blah blah blah. But still – YOWSERS – it sure made an already great day even that much more glorious!

I was downtown on business, and was OH SO LUCKY to have the opportunity to have a spare half hour to just walk down along the river front of our beautiful city of bridges and take a few photographs.

As I angled my camera to capture the bridge, the water, a few of the building across the way and the beautiful blue skyline, I noticed the homeless man sleeping on the sun-warmed dock.

It made me pause – – –  so grateful for this beautiful day – – – for him.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Lake Erie Wine Country 2014 Harvest Celebration

wine tour 1

After a Friday evening with the gang of “The Best Book Club Ever,” Marty and I got to join some of our favorite fun peeps for a Lake Erie Wine Country Harvest Celebration in New York.

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It was a crisp Fall day,

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but we couldn’t have felt warmer bopping around from winery to winery, tasting and sipping with this gang of folks we love dearly.

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We managed to visit 8 or 9 wineries between noon and 5 pm.

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Each winery – some quite simple  – others more elaboate – had their own individual style, appeal, taste, smell, and “feel.”

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Each one also served a lovely food pairing along with 4 or 5 samples of their best wines.

We ate everything from lasagna soup at our first stop at Liberty Vineyards and Winery to sliced tenderloin on garlic crostini with roasted red pepper aioli at our last stop at Presque Isle Wine Cellars.

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We learned about grape varietals and the fermentation process.

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Packaging sure sells – eh?  These bottles made me think of our dear Jake Henderson, who will be shipping off to the Navy soon.  We are so thrilled to get to have him here for Thanksgiving this year.

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Marty sure had a good time.  He loves spending time with this gang as much as I do.  We are so blessed to have Joyce and Rob, Kathleen and Jack, and Laurie and Ed in our lives.  We have learned and experienced so much from sharing time with this group of retired school teachers experiencing life to its fullest.

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Each winery had it’s own personality, as did their wines.

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My favorite wine of all was at 21 Brinx Winery, where we bought several bottles of the 2012 Noiret.

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But I couldn’t resist getting some photos of the wines names after our dear Ella 🙂

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Marty fell in love with Ports and bought several from different wineries.

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The absolute BEST hospitality and our favorite “snack” of chicken and biscuits was at Willow Creek Winery.  You know the old adage: “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover?”  Well – it sure rang true here.  Marty bought an entire case of assorted reds, whites and Port here, and the people were the sweetest, kindest, and most generous of all.  Keep up the great work Willow Creek!

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Until next time – –

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Reflections

Conneaut Lake Sunrise November 9, 2014

Conneaut Lake Sunrise November 9, 2014

Reflections on

a beautiful place to wake up to on a Sunday morning

after a beautiful weekend

with even more more beautiful people

 

Life is good

 

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

One Word Photo Challenge: Clear

Clear droplets of water slowly drip off in morning Fall dew.

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Descent – Weekly Photo Challenge

descent weekly photo challenge

Here is my wacky take on this week’s #WeeklyPhotoChallenge:  Descent.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

One Word Photo Challenge: Scarlet

scarlett seven deadly zins red zinfandel wine

7 Deadly Zins

This week’s One Word Photo Challenge by Jennifer Nichole Wells is Scarlet.  Oh what an easy one for me.  And what fun I had setting up my photo!  My favorite evening consists of a glass or two or (ahem – never mind) of red wine — typically scarlet in color.  And in case you are wondering….  (Christmas is coming soon you know..) 7 Deadly Zins Red Zinfandel just happens to be my all-time favorite shade of scarlet.  🙂

CHEERS & Hugs & TGIF!

Jodi

 

 

 

Graveyard Walk

grave stone wwMc

On one of our lunch time walks this week, Mikey and I decided to turn left instead of right for a change and visited the local graveyard – in honor of Halloweeeeeeen!

Boos & Spoooooky Hugs,

Jodi

Six Words

looking up at life in between wwMc

The #Writing101 Group I was in had such an engaging group of people from all over the world, and I was sorry to see it end.  I really enjoyed the challenges and felt they stretched me as a “writer.”

So I was super excited that several of the members took the initiative to carry on and continue our team support by forming a new group to offer writing challenges called #TheWritersHub.  Our current challenge is to write a six-word story.

I combined mine with this photo I took on my Walk with My Camera today.  My story sums up my life right now.


Looking up
at
life in between


Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi