Ah, a staycation. Wait, say that again? Haven’t I been on a staycation for months now, you ask? Why yes, yes I have. And don’t I hate the word staycation? Why yes, yes I do. It’s called LIVING in your own town or city, people. So why am I talking about staycations? There’s no reason, really, other than to point out the fact that I feel I’ve been on one since last year. Without the –cation part.

I’m still sick here and have been feeling up and down trying out different medications. The reality is that sometimes I feel good (85%), and the next day (or hour) I can feel 30% and barely function or walk. Luckily, several important gigs and events occurred on mostly “up” days this month.

There was the huge Fancy Food Show from June-July. Though I couldn’t eat all that much, I still was able to enjoy seeing new food trends and meet some great people at the sofi Awards, hosted by chef Marcus Samuelsson.

I also found one of my photos from a Food Network/Cooking Channel shoot of Kelsey’s Essentials on giant posters throughout the show. No, I didn’t get credit, but it still was pretty neat (photos below)! After looking through posts on her site, I found several collages using my photos, so below I’ve posted one of them.

There was walking to my pond and watching the dragonflies some afternoons. Or going to a garden and catching the butterflies (pictured above).

There was using my new 9-stop ND filter to achieve a tranquil upper Manhattan waterscape.

I had a few sessions with clients, which went pretty well.

And finally, there was my first foray back into tick land, when I took a 10-minute walk to see a nearby waterfall. Man do I miss nature. The bug spraying/tick checking did indeed take longer than the hike, but when your health is at stake, you gotta do what you gotta do. Coming up soon: water droplet photos I’ve taken during house arrest. Well it feels like house arrest! I try to put on a good face, though.

Enjoy all the photos by clicking on one to view it close up; use the arrows to navigate the photo mosaic.