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.