Living on Cape Cod it’s hard not to be near a cranberry bog. We are fortunate enough to have one at the end of our street. The bog near us is actually a working bog, operated by Brian Handy, who grows some 180 acres of cranberries in the towns of Falmouth and Bourne that he sells to Oceanspray. Every fall, we see the delicious berries ripen to a glowing red. Cranberry juice just happens to be one of my favorite drinks so it’s pretty cool to know that the juice I like so much may have come from right down the road. Even cooler is being able to watch how the berries are harvested before they end up as juice in our fridge.

Every October, like clockwork, we notice a more prominent redness to the bogs. A few days later, the workers are out there gathering their harvest and we think to ourselves, “We should photograph this.” But, it happens so fast and life is so busy, we inevitably miss it saying, “Next year!” Well, this year, we finally made it out there and spent a couple of hours documenting the process. The guys we spoke with at the bog said this year’s harvest was less abundant than in years past thanks to the dry weather we had in August and September.

The method of collecting the cranberries has changed quite a bit over the years. The days when workers had to hand pick the cranberries from the vine on their hands and knees are gone! Today, only a few workers using large machinery are able to harvest several hundred square feet of bogs in a fraction of the time. These changes have led to some unrest in the town and as a result this bog may not harvest cranberries next year, which made us feel ever better about finally getting out there.

We hope you enjoy the show as much as we did!  Happy Thanksgiving!

It took us until Labor Day weekend, but Andy & I finally got to the beach this summer. Okay, so it was Monday, almost 4PM, but we did manage to splash around in the waves for a bit and just watch the afternoon slip by….it was splendid. Here’s us at Old Silver Beach in Falmouth. Check out those pasty legs…sweet!

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Andy or talking to him on the phone, he is English. Like most of his countrymen (and the world, really), Andy grew up on the game of futbol, aka soccer. He comes from a family of Manchester United supporters and so he watched as David Beckham moved from Man U’s youth program to become a star player on the team, eventually serving as Captain for England.

When Beckham, or Becks as he is affectionately known by fans, left the Premiership to come to the states via Real Madrid in the hopes of breathing new life into MLS, it was bittersweet. But, a few weeks ago, we got to see Andy’s idol close up when the LA Galaxy took on the New England Revolution to a sold out crowd at Gillette Stadium. We got great seats near the tunnel that the players use to enter and exit the field and watched as Becks greeted fans and signed autographs before and after the game. It was disappointing that an ankle injury kept him from playing, but we did each get his autograph. (He really is as beautiful as he looks on TV.) Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our cameras because we weren’t sure we’d be allowed in the stadium with them. But, here’s a photo of Andy with his signed tickets.

Andy also plays futbol several times a week. Although he might not be at the same standard as Beckham, his passion runs just as deep. Here are a few shots of his last outdoor game of the season, held two Sundays ago in Sandwich (Andy, not Beckham!)

He didn’t score here, but he did score in a previous game, I was just a little late and missed it….sorry honey!

Check out this little cutie cheering on her Daddy from the sidelines.

I just thought this was a cool shot as some of the guys were walking off the pitch.

Earlier this year, Chris & I headed down to Nicaragua for a well deserved break after our 4th successful year in business. A lot of you have asked us about our trip, wondering when we were going to show you our images. Well, you are finally in luck! In case you are not familiar with Nicaragua is here are a few details:

It is the largest nation in Central America, but the least populated with somewhere in the region of 6 million people. It is squeezed in between Honduras to its north and Costa Rica to its south. The country has coastline on the Pacific Ocean and the Carribean Sea. In between you can find plenty of volcanoes, a lot of unexplored rain forest, and a country full of the friendliest people eager to talk with you even if your Spanish isn’t the best!

Our trip began in the capital, Managua, which we left as quickly as we could (it’s a bit dodgy!) and headed south to the lovely town of Granada, situated on the edge of the enormous lake Cocibolca, home of the infamous freshwater bull shark. Thankfully, there aren’t too many of them around these days! There was so much to do and so many places to explore around Granada that we used it as our home-base. We chilled out in the central square, went kayaking on the lake, flew through the tree canopy on zip lines, wandered around the markets and cathedrals, chatted to the locals, swam in a crater lake, and bought some much needed supplies to a girls’ orphanage.

After a week in the city, we really wanted to get out and explore the rainforest so we jumped on a small 14 seater plane and flew to the shanty town of San Carlos at the mouth of the San Juan river. From there we took a 4hr lancha (local boat) further down the river to the villages of El Castillo and Boca de Sabalos, where we did a little tarpon fishing with our new friend Pina, a little horse riding, chowed on a bunch of delicious camarones (massive shrimp), and really just hung out and enjoyed the river, its wildlife, and the people. Oh, and we saw a sloth hanging out in a tree!! How cool is that???

Finally we headed up north to the colonial and somewhat political town of Leon, then off to Masaya, to pick up a killer hammock!!! Eventually time was up and we begrudgingly flew back home.

Anyway, here’s the show! Enjoy!