Gratitude Monday-- A Good Year

I am grateful for the year I had and for the year ahead.

We had a lovely trip to the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania in late May and early June.
It was a pleasure to see those former Soviet bloc countries and to hear the stories of the people who lived through those times.


And for me it was a grand treat to have pickled herring for breakfast.

My husband had a rental house he fixed up and sold. Rental income is fine, but this is a headache we no longer need.

My best friend and I went to Portland, OR for the weekend in August to see a local theatre company's "Star Trek In The Park."
They put on "The Trouble With Tribbles," and it was a blast.

As readers here know I got off my prescription heart meds back in November. I only take daily low dose ASA  now. My cardiologist said this was non-negotiable and I am totally cool with it.

An independent publisher in the UK has offered me a book contract. The papers have yet to arrive as I write this, but it counts and it's a win.

It was a great year. I am sure some not-so- great stuff happened, but I have long forgotten. This is also a win.

Life in 2013 was good.
In 2014 it will be even better.

Photo-Finish Friday -- An Evening in the Sun

A young house finch enjoys the setting sun of a warm spring evening.

 It has the right idea.

Help Wanted

Today I woke up full of love and completely clueless as to why and what to do about it.

Suggestions?

The Merriest Happy, and the Happiest Merry

Merry Christmas to all and a very Happy New Year.

For all those who celebrate something else, may your Something Else be the Something Elseiest.

Gratitude -- Each In Its Season

On the whole I have to say I am grateful for everything.
Each event adds its own special spice to life. Good, bad, or indifferent, as we perceive it, it is all different.
It is this difference that makes the difference.
Without change, without adversity, and diversity, and a good dollop of plain old fashioned boredom thrown in from time to time, we'd have no baseline for assessment.
With no way to assess our lives we'd never change or recognize that we must.
Thus my reasons for being grateful for it all.

What do you think?

Looking to the Light

Happy Solstice all.

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Full disclosure, the above is actually the moon, but it gets the point across.

Photo-Finish Friday --Good Morning, Moon

This was yesterday at about 7:30 a.m.
It started like this:



And then this:



Then it got really interesting:



One last freaky bit:



Then it went all normal again.
It lasted less than five minutes. I suspect there were some particles in the air having a bit of fun with us.
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This is with my new Nikon. It has a night landscape setting that I used for most of these.
The last image was done at 3200 ISO.
All photos were handheld rather than with a tripod.

Gratitude Monday -- A Different Handle on Things

A handle came off a saucepan quite some time ago. It sat, waiting, in an inconspicuous spot in the kitchen for many a month.
One day I decided to see if glue would work to fix said handle.
It did not.
But it did move my husband to construct a replacement handle over the weekend. A bracket, a pipe, and assorted nuts and screws later we have it: Frankenhandle.
It is strong and sturdy and will outlast everything else in its class.
It hardly took any time to do and I am grateful for my husband's creativity, skill, and abilities in getting this done.
 For comparison:
 The original handle on a pot from the same litter.

The new, improved will-last-until-the-end-of-time handle.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Wagon Wheel at Fort Assiniboine

Fort Assiniboine constructed a fort many long years ago. It includes a community meeting centre and a museum. Outside it the worlds largest wagon wheel and pick has been put up as a tourist attraction. The photo looks toward the north and west toward the school and the edge of town.
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And a very happy Friday the 13th to all my blog guests.

Gratitude Monday -- Caught in the Act

I've been on the receiving end of a few good deeds lately, and I am very grateful.

We've had a stupidlot of snow. Last week along we had nearly a foot (in the Old Tongue) and it snuggled on top of what was already there.
On the weekend we had even more.

Last Tuesday I ventured to the store for big deal percentages off days. I was going to alter my usual behaviour and turn north out of the garage heading up the alley. At the last moment, intuition be hanged, I went south as I usually do.
My car trip went south along with it.
I tried to dig out, but couldn't so asked a neighbour for help. He dug and sanded and sanded and dug and eventually I was free. I backed up, turned around, and headed north like I was supposed to.
He's a very kind man. I owe him sand at least though he insists he wants nothing.

Yesterday with fresh snow on the sidewalk and husband out ploughing the highway I caught my next -door neighbour shovelling the sidewalk in front of my house.
She was smiling.

I didn't let her see that I'd seen her. When people do a good deed for the sheer joy of doing good in the world they don't like to be caught. It's embarrassing.
I will thank her when I get a chance anyway,

Photo-Finish Friday --Chickadees At Sunset

I get that this is very similar to the photo in the post below, but this one has birds.
If you look on the branches you'll see two chickadees resting between feeder forays as the sun goes down.

December Sunset

Because December sunsets are beautiful.

Gratitude Monday -- Roots

An icicle as it melted from the roof  in the afternoon sunshine Saturday.
For this I used my Pentax.  It was feeling lonely.

As of Saturday I've lived in Rocky for 25 years.
A quarter-century is a long time to be anywhere. It's important to like where you are, and I do. For that I am grateful.
I recall clearly the day I moved here: Wednesday, November 30, 1988. It was a mild day, no snow on the ground, and sunshine, blue sky, all in all a pleasant autumn day.
After the last load was hauled up to my third floor apartment my mother said to me, "Maybe you'll put down roots here."
Good call, mom.