This Time Last Year: A Photo Blog

This time last year, I was living in Southwest Florida and I had flown back home for a visit.  I spent most of the week visiting with friends and family, getting to see everyone I missed, but I also spent a fair amount of time just looking at the place I had called home for most of my life with new eyes.

When you live in one place your whole life, even somewhere as beautiful as this, you tend to take it for granted.  Coming home to visit, I was overwhelmed by how many things I had simply ignored because I knew they were right around the corner.  One afternoon, I decided to drive to Pottersville and go to Natural Stone Bridge and Caves, a place I had always known about, but never visited.

Once inside, I walked a short distance down a path and scrambled up a hill to the first of the scenic viewing areas.  It took my breath away.  After the flatness of Florida, to see the rocky turrain of Upstate New York again was like magic.  I stood there for some time, drinking in the view, before heading back downhill, sweating in the unseasonal May heat.

As I walked along the rocky pathways, I was glad of the shade provided by the many trees along the way.  It seemed like such a lush, interesting landscape.  I wasn't sure how I had made it so far in life without realizing how special "home" really was.

I loved walking down into the cool seclusion of Noisy Cave, listening to the rushing of the water and breathing deep of the damp cave air.  I knew it was a well traveled place and that there were others walking the paths just outside, but for a few minutes it felt like my own secret hideaway.

Visiting a place I had never been before in my own "back yard", I felt an overwhelming love for the place I came from and a resolution not to let this feeling slip away.  Two months later, I was living back in New York.

I promise to continue to visit places I may have overlooked and places I had decided I had already seen and didn't need to pay attention to anymore.  I continue to be awed by the sight of the mountains that are the backdrop to everything in this part of the world.  I won't take home for granted any more.

All photos were shot with my Canon 5D and 24-105mm zoom lens.  I used Photoshop Lightroom to adjust color and exposure wherever I felt it was needed.