Since you just clicked on a site called SaltyHedman.com, I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re at least slightly interested in what we Hedmans were up to?… Well Friday night included a planned run around West Barnstable with girlfriends, followed by a spontaneous bonfire on the beach in Sandwich with a larger group of pals – what cozy fun!

Saturday was a day of errands and food prep for the big adventure we were to embark on Sunday morning. Months ago, we reserved our spot on a small island off the coast of Falmouth/Mashpee, MA. Washburn Island is part of the larger reserve called Waquoit Bay Estuary…. and it is approximately two miles long with 11 primitive campsites. As luck would have it, and the season winding down, we actually were one of only three or four boats overnight on the first night, and Gary and I were alone with just our dogs on the second night! What an incredible heaven for the dogs (we had four total), who ran around mostly off-leash to sniff trees, splash in the ocean and – in Bromley’s case – roll in human feces and eat dead bunnies. Blech.

If you are interested, make your reservations very early in the year next year. Particularly if you’re looking for a Friday and Saturday night, which we obviously didn’t get this time around. The island is now closed to campers for the season. We shared the trip with our friends Jess & Nate and Alicia & Tim, and dogs Kenai, Shiloh, Brewer & Bromley – but we look forward to being able to include more of you next time!

By the way, Washburn Island is one of those things that makes me completely doubt my first 18 years on this peninsula. I don’t know what the heck my friends and I were doing all those years that we never kayaked Scorton Creek or camped on a desolate island.

Anyway, I hope you had a relaxing and uplifting mini-vacation yourself over the weekend, and that you’re enjoying the crisp September air that blew right in!

I thought I’d share a few scenes from the beautiful evening my girlfriends and I shared with BIRTHDAY GIRL, Cindy. We had originally tossed around a bunch of picnic-by-kayak types of ideas, but with the whole hurricane “thing” going on, we found ourselves on the Yummy Goods-inspired farmer’s porch of our friend Melissa’s home.

Note: I’m pretty sure the deck doesn’t always look like this, but trust me when I say that the inside of Melissa & Stuart’s home is indeed that yummilicious.

That’s Beth in the corner, who just minutes before these festivities had posted a most lovely blog post about ME and Cold Nose Photo – thanks Beth!

Cindy, we hope you had a marvelous birthday eve in the company of your fine friends and bread n’ cheese – and wine and that heavenly chocolate peanut butter cake! Oh, and unicorns.

This isn’t my usual bus…

I’m typing to you from the bus up to visit my friend Jessica in Portsmouth, NH! But this isn’t just any bus… First, I printed out my ticket directly from the C&J website. I arrived at the gate and was handed a bottle of ice cold water. Walking down the aisle of the bus, I turned from leather chairs to televisions (with headset jacks at each seat) to the ample leg room, and right to the jewel of it all – CUP HOLDERS. Why is this the first bus I’ve been on with cup holders? How awesome that would be in the morning for our coffees.

We start to pull out of Boston’s South Station and – what’s this? – we have WIRELESS INTERNET??

Anyway, Jess moved to Portsmouth recently while beginning an exciting job opportunity in Newburyport, MA. I look forward to getting up there, taking her dog for a walk (her other dog is home with Gary and the boys right now), and walking around town with only margaritas as a goal.

So what have you been up to lately, my friends? Are you enjoying these lovely two weeks of summer before it all disappears again? Exciting to be talking about hurricanes already…

I’ve gotta say, the photography biz just took an extreme turn for the sky in this beautiful weather (that means it’s gone “up”).  I have booked six dog gigs over less than three week’s time, and that’s not including a spontaneous session at a family reunion with four families (and three dogs) on the coast of Rhode Island! My press release was picked up for the first time today by the new BostonPetLink.com, and I even interviewed with the Barnstable Patriot yesterday. How funny, because my friends and I used to be in the Patriot for local rec and high school sports.

Gary’s been doing a ton of fishing, and we’ve been eating a ton of fish. Our garden is finally catching up and we’re seeing lots of cucumbers, tomatoes and hot peppers forming. Unfortunately, our many dog walks through the woods and ponds has led to us both having poison ivy on our hands right now – ITCH!

These photos are from the recent annual trip Eric & Jill made to spend a week on the Cape with the kids and friends!

In anticipation of what would surely be a great hike with friends… this was us trying to dry out.

But thankfully the sun did come out and we managed to hike Pico Peak and some of the Appalachian Trail! This is Jess with her adorable little Shiloh pup.

No, it has nothing to do with sunshine or anything – don’t be crazy. June has now passed with 30 days of rain, rain, rain. Honestly, even July has sent us packing for the hills of Vermont this 4th of July weekend. I haven’t been on the boat once, but Gary’s been squeezing in some excellent fishing with pals whether rain or shine, daylight or midnight.

Heather was in town from Arizona for the last few weeks, which is always awesome. We managed to hit a couple of our regular spots to catch up and eat ice cream, but the time went fast. Here are her girls playing at Craigville Beach one evening:

The Pashbys came into town one weekend as we also kicked off Emily’s bachelorette weekend in Wellfleet and Provincetown! Drag-queen karaoke is the perfect bachelorette festivity, FYI. Highly recommended. It was great to have a bunch of our friends meet each other that weekend, all cozied around the back deck sharing laughs and that now-so-familiar bottle of Hound Dog iced tea vodka (classy). We also got to meet Otis that weekend, the adopted little boxer brother of Toro Pashby!

In the meantime, a local animal hospital is ordering up about 10 to 12 of my prints in art gallery canvas and they look incredible! Check out the first trial order  below, and you’ll see this 30×20″ vision of Brewer above your bed when you visit next. It’s so exciting to see these and to be able to start showing them to clients.

On that note, I dabbled in my first-ever family photo session on the beach for a college friend, and I actually loved it! While I don’t expect to change the business name to ‘Warm’ Nose Photo any time soon, please do spread the word to friends and family that I’m available! Click on the photos to go through to the larger portfolio.

Stay tuned for more photos from last weekend, when Gary, Eric and Jill all ran the Fairfield Half Marathon in Connecticut, and the nieces and nephew had their uncle build them a big sand box in the back yard!

I hope you all have something exciting and dry planned for the holiday weekend ahead!

You can see the picket fence in the background here, but rest assured there is also wire fencing behind it to keep the four-leggeds on the inside.

I love that everyone’s laughing and happy in this photo:

Tracy’s kids are so incredibly used to having dogs around. Charlie decided to spend some quality alone time with Brewer in the grass.

Sister Michelle thoroughly enjoyed playing in our sandbox… She doesn’t need to know it was actually a veggie garden, to be planted today.

It was soooooo wonderful to be able to hang out with friends, stuff ourselves with food and merriment, and know that our “kids” were having fun nearby. No one was home alone in a crate. Every pup was getting their exercise and socialization. All were laying down, exhausted at the end of the evening. We counted 11 dogs in total!

This morning was another momentus occasion! We woke up, opened the door, and joined the dogs in the yard while sipping coffee! I’m still in my pajamas!

Hope you’re having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend where you are!

The girls – myself, Sarah and Hannah – went off for about an 18- mile bike ride through the hills of Waitsfield and Warren. Sarah’s doing amazing, after having knee surgery just a couple of months ago! When we passed a tractor bringing hay down the road, I thought “this is a Vermont bike ride.” Little did I know, just a few miles down the road, we would be pedaling for our lives away from a galloping bull in rut!

(okay, maybe not for our lives, per se, but he really was chasing us down and breaking what was left of the fence!)

We had a great time walking around Church Street in Burlington on Sunday, meeting up with Dave & Leslie. The weather was warm enough for margaritas outside at Halverson’s, but one of those days when you put your coat back on and take it off again a million times. Either way, the afternoon set the mood for us to – yet again – bail on leaving town that night. We left at 4am Monday instead, and I was at the office by 7:30am. Well worth it!

Rich & Sarah smirking on Church Street:

Among us all weekend were four dogs, one cat, one adorable 8-week old puppy, and this little guy, Theo:

Lots going on in life lately, but that’s no excuse – it means I should have more to say!

My role at work has changed dramatically – not only am I working for a new client (one of the top 15 most cash-rich companies in the world, phew!), but my roles and responsibilities have taken quite a turn as well. BUS-Y. I’m happy to report that I’ll be able to work from home more, though, so we’re taking steps to formalize my office space a bit. We even connected a land-line phone!

Our weekends have brought us off on some more ski trips – we always tend to cram them in when the sun comes out! We were up in North Conway, NH, this past weekend with a group of Gary’s colleagues. Due to conditions, we skied Black Mountain, which is a smaller, south-facing mountain that seems like it has a ton of great promise and terrain during the more snow-covered season! We really look forward to getting back there. North Conway’s outlets were all having end-of-winter sales, so that was exciting as well.

Our new goal might be to cover the Yakima rocket-box with stickers from second-rate ski mountains… totally awesome. Black will start, Bromley soon to follow, we’re huge fans of Magic and I probably still have tons of paraphernalia from Bolton Valley. Who wants to tour with us in 2010?

Gary is off to hike and ski Tuckerman’s Ravine this coming weekend – very exciting for him on this annual boys ritual (I’ve done it too, so shout-out to the ladies!, but this one’s more for the crotch-scratching, off-gassing, pee-higher kind of boy crowd).

We’re also welcoming a few babies into the world! Our friend Amy gave birth to Lily this weekend, Michelle had baby Colin, we had the pleasure of meeting Ellenor & Mike’s daughter Anna, we look forward to meeting Mike & Peg’s first-born Theo next month, and we hope to soon greet Chrissy & Adam’s little boy, Gavin. You guys have been verrrry busy!

No. Don’t even think about it.

Aside from all that, it’s SPRING. We’ve been running more, stepping up the bike training, cleaning up the yard and I’m ready to plant all of my vegetable seeds from SeedTrust.com! Move over, Michelle Obama!

I hope you’re all enjoying the bright sunrays and new beginnings!

Our weekend was filled with running (with dog), a great hike out at Chequasset Neck in Wellfleet, and some more local walks through the conservation lands. Like any young pup, the key to Kenai’s heart is through exhaustion!

In addition, I went to two sessinos over the grand opening weekend of a new yoga studio in Sandwich, MA – the Sanctuary. It’s a pretty tiny space, but I enjoyed the staff instruction so far! I hear there’s a new studio in Falmouth too?

It was a gorgeous 55-degree weekend, and the coming weekend brings the vernal equinox! We still have a big ski weekend ahead with 12 of Gary’s colleagues, and maybe another spring ski weekend squeezed in there somewhere, but it’s always nice to declare that HOME = spring. Hope you’re enjoying!

This one was mine – all sixes (this is starting to sound weird) – to start off the lucky streak! Chris rolled Yahtzee twice, however, which meant Kevin was the only one to miss out. But you can imagine we roared and cheered enough for everyone each time!

I’ll come back to share the link with you, because we highly recommend this particular ski house the next time you’re looking! All features, decor and amenities were perfect and well thought out.

Hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!