Photography

Merry Christmas

~ MaryG ~ 15 Comments

OK, I’m back in a good mood now. I had a lovely Christmas Eve.

I felt profound gratitude for four things last night:

1) I have a good son. Mothers of good sons, you know what I mean! Last night my son drove me to church for choir practice and came back an hour later to sit with me during the service, which was especially meaningful as my husband couldn’t make it to church this year due to his knee surgery. My son offers his arm when we walk through icy parking lots together. ❤️

2) SINGING: I just love it. Especially on Christmas Eve at our beautiful candlelight service.

My church on Christmas Eve

3) My husband felt well enough to go out to dinner with us after church. It was his first time in a restaurant since his surgery a month ago.

4) A negative mammogram. Ladies, you know how good that feels. Even if you’ve never had breast cancer, we all have friends or family members who have had it. (I got my results on Christmas Eve at 10pm.)

And now we await the arrival of our “celebrity guest” (as my son is calling her)—my precious one-year old granddaughter and her parents.

My husband preparing his famous Lasagna Bolognese with an ice pack strapped to his new knee

Merry Christmas!

Happy Solstice

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

Yesterday I participated in a sacred circle dance where we honored Yule and the winter solstice.

AI depiction of our sacred circle yesterday, which included a 90+ year old woman and her 5 adult daughters all dressed in white for her birthday

The sun set at 4:16pm yesterday so we lit a fire in our fireplace in the evening. I had a memory of how much we really wanted a fireplace when we were house hunting. (Our first house did not have one.) We only use our fireplace occasionally, but it IS special to have an an indoor fire on these longest, darkest nights of the year.

As the embers burned down, I made myself two s’mores for dessert.

And now, on Winter Solstice morning (December 21) it is still pitch black at 6:30am and I’m awaiting the replay of the livestream of the ancient chamber at Newgrange in Ireland, which we visited in June. (I wasn’t up at at 3:40am to watch it live.) We saw a demonstration of how the sun lights up the inner chamber on the solstice when we were there, but I want to see the real version.

Finally, if you missed this year’s Lucia Morning broadcast from Visby, Sweden on St. Lucia Day (December 13), it’s a great thing to experience during these dark long nights. I watch it every year. The second children’s choir (the younger kids in the adorable wool coats and sweaters) are particularly enchanting.

Wishing all of my fellow Northern Hemisphere dwellers a light in the darkness this December solstice day. It only gets brighter from here.

🔥

Internet Chicken Parm

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

I wanted to make things easy on myself yesterday as I am doing all the cooking, while my husband recovers from total knee replacement surgery. (His leg still aches too much to eat out in a restaurant.) I had the idea of making chicken parmigiana with store-cooked chicken cutlets, but the price for TWO of them was $16.99, so I decided to make them myself.

Believe it or not, it was my first time making chicken parm. I looked at NYT Cooking’s version of the recipe, but then decided to go with something simpler that Google turned up:

The Best Chicken Parmesan (Parmigiana) – A Simple Palate.pdfDownload

I like how there’s a baked version of the recipe (if you don’t want to fry the cutlets in oil first), but for my first time making it, I decided to fry the cutlets.

I didn’t have sliced mozzarella, so I used about 8 ounces of grated mozzarella and it was yummy. I also didn’t have basil, so I topped with a bit of fresh parsley leftover from my Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken.

My husband was very appreciative (as always) of my efforts and I liked it too. I used store bought marinara sauce (Rao’s), so it was really pretty easy.

I recommend buying high-quality organic chicken breasts (like Bell & Evans) and slicing them into cutlets yourself before pounding.

Buy the good chicken breasts for best results
Served on leftover pasta with a salad

Healing stew (hopefully)

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

The healing process for my husband’s knee replacement is ongoing. Sadly, we had to cancel dinner with our son for his 25th birthday tonight, because my husband just isn’t ready for restaurants yet. There’s still a ton of pain, swelling, and stiffness, which apparently is normal at this stage (3 weeks post-op), but he’s never dealt with anything like this, so it’s pretty hard.

I decided to try a recipe I saw on NYT Cooking “most popular recipes of 2025” list—Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken. It looked easy and it was. My husband loved it. He said the flavor was great and it really was. I even made my own croutons, which soaked up the delicious sauce perfectly.

New England is experiencing real “depths of winter” cold right now. (It’s giving late January vibes.) Given the very cold weather and the knee, I think this was a success. And so easy.

Next time I’ll put the croutons in the dish first to absorb as much sauce as possible 😋

Here’s the recipe:

Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken .pdfDownload

Slow cookers (aka crockpots) are the best, right?

December Past

~ MaryG ~ 23 Comments

Posting for Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: Holiday Fun

I’m afraid the 2025 holiday season will be forever remembered as the “Year of the Knee.” Arthroplasty is rough, people. My husband is doing OK, but the pain is quite brutal. Thank goodness for opioids. I honestly don’t know how anyone gets through this without a partner. (I know they can and do, but it would be really hard.) Outpatient PT has started and now I get why folks call the PTs “Physical Terrorists.”

But on to happier things…

I have been enjoying looking at the lovely, happy holiday posts and photos from Scillagrace and others.

Last year was such a special Christmas because we had my brand new baby granddaughter—so perfect in every way. After the sting of the horrible election in November 2024, she gave me so much hope. She was—and is—a miracle. All babies are. I thank my wonderful daughter for the greatest gift of all last Christmas. Infants are pure love, pure light, pure joy.

My granddaughter and me last December
Our tree last year
The new mom managed to decorate—and even bake—last year.
Hand-dipped and decorated Oreo cookie balls
White roses for Christmas last year
I got Christmas “crackers” from the British imports store and did special napkin folding last year.

Related post and pics, also from last December:

Winterlights

I hope everyone can find some way to enjoy the season this year, despite whatever pain or hardships burden you. I recommend watching Sweden’s National Santa Lucia Day broadcast this Saturday, December 13. It’s always such a beautiful celebration of light in the darkness, with gorgeous choral music—including young children singing in tune. It’s typically available on YouTube the same day.

December Rx:

Music, lights, babies (if you can’t get your hands on a baby, watching young children sing is a good substitute)

Thursday Doors—Portland, Maine

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments
165 Congress Street in Portland is a John Calvin Stevens building. Stevens (1855-1940) was Portland’s most prolific architect. He was known for Shingle-style and Colonial Revival designs.

My son and I took a trip to Portland in July 2021, when he was a 20-year old college student. We rented an AirBnB in the historic Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland (which is where these cool indigo doors are located). We had a nice time walking around, eating, and shopping. We also went to the outlets in Freeport, Maine and got a bunch of clothes.

A lot of mothers say that it’s hard to stay close to adult sons once they get busy with their own families and careers. I hope that doesn’t happen to us. My son turns 25 next week. My baby. We’ve got a shopping trip planned for next Friday.

Posted for Dan’s Thursday Doors

Progress

~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

Yesterday I went to a concert by the world-renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston’s historic Symphony Hall.

Boston’s Symphony Hall yesterday afternoon

My friend Eileen and I had wanted to attend this particular concert because the planned guest conductor—a young man we knew from our days working together at the Conservatory—was making his Boston debut.

AFTER we bought our tickets, we were notified that he wouldn’t be conducting due to “ the recurring effects of a shoulder injury.” Instead, 29-year old BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Handler would be making her Symphony Hall debut. OK, well at least we were seeing someone’s debut!

The first piece was “The Imagined Forest” by 31-year old British composer Grace-Evangeline Mason. It was atmospheric and beautiful.

Something about seeing these two young women—the conductor and the composer—take their bows together felt like Progress. I’ve seen plenty of women take their bows as soloists, but not as conductors and composers—the artistic leaders—at the very highest level of classical music.

There was no mention of it being a historic first or anything like that, but you could feel that the audience was 100 percent supportive. Partial standing ovation (unusual for the first piece in a concert). Many cheers.

Brava, ladies. Well done. Respect.

29-year old Anna Handler commanded the podium in a focused, confident way as she stepped in for an ailing guest conductor of one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras

Thursday Doors—Winchester, Massachusetts

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

This is the pic that came up today when I searched the ginormous folder on my computer for a “door.”

There was no geographic info in the file name or photo data. All I know is that it was taken with my old Canon PowerShot camera in June 2011 and that the two kids on the balcony are mine.

I had no recollection of this moment, but Google Lens figured out the location (amazing). It’s downtown Winchester, Massachusetts (my husband’s hometown). My father-in-law was alive and still living there at the time, so it makes sense.

It’s an area now called “Winchester Terrace.” AI found this photo on Apartments.com that shows the exact spot:

At the top of the staircase on the right is the spot I posed my kids in 2011.

This discovery sparked a memory of my very dear father-in-law—“Nonno” to my kids.

He was most the wonderful man who enjoyed life’s small moments like no other. Martini time, a beautiful operatic aria, an excellent meal, a grandchild’s kiss (he called it a “buzz”), a friendly joke with a stranger (especially waitresses!), and random bits of foreign languages sprinkled into any conversation. He always made me feel like the most amazing, interesting, gorgeous woman who ever lived. A true charmer. He lived well into his 90s.

My son with his wonderful Nonno (2003)

Dan’s Thursday Doors

Alizarin Crimson in nature

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments
Fallen leaves from our Japanese Maple

Alizarin crimson is a deep, cool, and transparent red color with a blue or magenta undertone that has been a staple for painters for generations.

Why is it called Alizarin?

Google’s short answer:

Because alizarin was originally the principal red dye extracted from the madder plant, and the name comes from the old word for madder root dye.

Madder plant with roots (image source: https://www.naturesrainbow.co.uk/2021/04/harvesting-madder-from-a-large-planter/)