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Wanderjahr: a meander through life

January 7, 2023 Clancy McKenna

Cover design by Kerry Watson @ fiverr.com

So, what did you do during the lockdown in 2020? Baked sourdough bread? Learned or practiced and instrument? How about fabric arts? I did plenty of embroidery, for sure, and I am still stitching away. Yes, I can stab something 1,000 times!

Here are a few of the pieces I hand-embroidered from my photographs of birds. The loons are not my photo, but a piece of art from the Pacific Northwest.

But the real accomplishment of that time for me was that I met with some writer pals on Zoom four or five afternoons each week and I finished this memoir. It took about three years of work all told, but I’d never have completed or published it without the help and support of my Zoom writing group friends and the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute instructors I was fortunate enough to take class with.

Just one of my many writing classes made possible via zoom.

A few of us continued to meet as an online writer’s group. Four or five afternoons each week we would show up on Zoom, silently wave hello to the others and do our work. At 4:30 or so we would open up a breakout room for any who wished to discuss their work, or any other topic. If you happened to be on a roll, you could just keep on writing until you felt finished for the day. In this manner I finished writing and began the editing process on the memoir.

It’s been strange to be in the post-publication phase. That is new, and I realize I’m going to need new material to share around the campfire. All my best stories are in the book, and I don’t want to bore the girls with my glory days tales.

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Sistahs Stitchin' Britches

March 10, 2022 Clancy McKenna

Kennebunkport, Maine. Martha ran the workshop and Michelle ran the house. We stitched and ate, drank and laughed, went for numerous swims in the pool barn, and played a killer, mean-girls game of Sevens with tons of talking smack and acting out. My ribs hurt from laughing by the end of the game.

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Vermont 2022

February 4, 2022 Clancy McKenna

My sister friends in Vermont were making a plan to get together for a lunch, half-way between Craftsbury and Pawlett, about a two-hour drive for each of them. Lucky me, I was able to join in!

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Renaissance Faire 2021 Sterling, NY

August 3, 2021 Clancy McKenna

Jane, Clancy, Leeann, Kathryn, Sue

Last year we camped out at Fair Haven State Park, but the Ren Faire had been canceled due to Covid-19. We still had fun, especially when we took over one of the pavilions to have a Renaissance evening complete with food, decorations, and provided our own entertainment. This year the Faire was back, the weather was perfect, and the crowds were enormous.

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We began the day with a wedding

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The Queen and her court open the jousting

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Merry Mischief

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Pirates

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Ocean Ontario was roaring while we were camping in Fair Haven. We had a lovely small group of friends camping together. An easy and casual get together camping week in Fair Haven.

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5 Comments

Ponies, Pearls, Pies, and Sisters!

May 26, 2021 Clancy McKenna

May 2021, I was finally able to check camping at Assateague off my bucket list. Tanya, our Sisters on the Fly wrangler hosted seventy-two sisters at this event. Camping with horses walking, charging, moseying, and galloping through our campsites was quite a trip.

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Visiting Nomadland

February 22, 2021 Clancy McKenna

Frances McDormand in a gorgeous shot from the film.

Frances McDormand knocks it out of the park once again with her performance in this film. Anyone who has full-timed will recognize the authenticity of the performances and personalities here.

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Farewell to 2020 and Good Riddance!

January 6, 2021 Clancy McKenna

Time IN NY? It’s a new day.

Time IN NY? It’s a new day. Whoohee! This has been a doozy of a year! I’ve never done an end of year recap, but think this is a good one to reflect back over. It’s been a year that changed just about everything.

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Early Morning East Side Walk/Ferry Ride

October 5, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Saturday, I had an early breakfast on the Upper East Side with Ed and Nicole. We finished just after nine and I had brought along my camera to take advantage of the gorgeous early morning light. New York City architecture, and my ferry ride from East 90th Street down to Wall Street are my subject today.

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A Fabulous Summer

September 8, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Dock in the clouds

After a scary and confusing winter and spring, I never expected to have such an excellent summer. My sisters and friends welcomed me into their homes, into their “pods” up in the North Country. I dropped in on their lives for a week or two. I love those kind of visits, the day-to-dayness of it. So great to be with friends, run errands, go swimming or fishing. I felt like a kid again. Summer. Nothing particular I had to do. There was nowhere else I needed to be except right here. Right now.

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Visit with Jane and Leeann

July 11, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Beautiful skies!

I went from AJ’s in Evans Mills to Jane and LeeAnn’s place near Harrisville, NY. They have a lovely home in a sweet spot in the Adirondacks. They have a pond stocked with large mouth bass and other fish. Have I mentioned how much I love a screen porch?

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Visiting AJ and Marta in Evans Mills

July 9, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Marta, AJ, and Bo’s first taste of lemon! (He liked it!)

I left Sue’s place and drove a few hours to AJ’s near Watertown. I arrived on the day that, due to the shutdown around Covid-19, AJ’s friends had to close their business, a 9Round Fitness Franchise. A plan was made to go out to dine and hoist a couple beverages to…celebrate/commiserate? Julie and Keish’s daughter, Donna, joined us and brought along her son, Boaz.

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Sue's Place on Twitchell Lake

July 6, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Sue driving the party barge

After three months on lockdown at home in my little Manhattan apartment, I called my North County friends and asked if I could come for a visit. Fortunately for me, they all said yes. My first stop was Sue’s camp on the far side of Twitchell Lake.

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Upper West Side Birdwatching

June 5, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Cormorant

On a recent trip to the Upper West Side to a doctor’s office, I drove along Broadway and saw a large sculpture of a bird on the central median. I made a u-turn, parked and walked over to photograph it and read about an artist I hadn’t before heard of, Nicolas Holiber. The Audubon Sculpture Project and the Broadway Mall Association sponsored the installation. From 64th Street all the way up to 157th Street.

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Fort Tryon Park Meander

April 18, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Way too many weeks into this isolation, and my down days were becoming more numerous. Alice, my daughter-in-law loaned me her car, so today I took a joyride uptown to the top of Manhattan searching for some joy. The cold and rainy morning led me to suspect that the park wouldn’t be crowded. That proved true. The spring flowers, mosses, trees and rocks don’t mind the rain.

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Nova Scotia? Let's go!

April 9, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Dawn ferry awaits

I fell in love with the state of Maine in the summer of 1969 when my dad took us camping to Acadia National Park on Mount Dessert Island. I returned there many times in the following years, sharing the park with friends and family. We’d make the ten or eleven hour drive—two whole days of vacation shot with the length of the round-trip. But the smell of the ocean and the pine trees made it all worthwhile.

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Tired of Being Indoors? Let's Go!

April 7, 2020 Clancy McKenna

In a Zoom conference with Kathy Curto this morning, she suggested that I alternate my work on the memoir with some other kind of writing project. The idea of publishing some of my favorite travel photos perhaps with some flash nonfiction was a brilliant one, and I am grateful for this mini vacation.

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Tiffany Lamps @ New York Historical Society

March 14, 2020 Clancy McKenna

Dr Neustadt’s collection of Tiffany shades was donated to the New York Historical Society.

Amid the hysteria and cancellations early in the Coronapocalypse I went to the Upper West Side to visit The New York Historical Society collection. I’m a member, so I’d had an email saying they’d remain open, at least for today. This past week, the warmer weather had allowed me to go hang out by the Hudson River park with a book. Reading, people watching—at least not inside the apartment around the clock. But today it was pouring rain, and I just had to get out. To get away from the news. I took my metrocard onto the C train up to West 81st street.

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The Great Canon vs. Nikon vs. iPhone Test

September 17, 2019 Clancy McKenna
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I recently acquired a Nikon D90 camera body with a couple lenses. In chatting with my dentist about the differences, he said that Canon runs blue or cooler, and Nikon is warmer. I was curious, hence the field test.

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The Vessel and the Visitors

May 11, 2019 Clancy McKenna

The Vessel at Hudson Yards and The High Line

We returned from our cruise to Bermuda, had a lazy day at home, and went to The Vessel for sunset. The architecture is very MC Escher. After a time, the people were at least as interesting as the design.

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Bermuda Cruise With Sisters On The Fly

May 9, 2019 Clancy McKenna

On April 28, 2019 Sisters at Sea left for Bermuda on the Norwegian Escape.

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