As I See It

A month into the new year already and this is my first blog post of 2016. I’ve been full of inspiration for blog posts and they just haven’t come to fruition. My favorite bloggers have been inspiring me and I’ve seen some really great things that have been making me go, “Oh I should do something like that!” Amy over at PlainMama has started blogging regularly about gratitude – I loved what she had to say in this post. Two bloggers came back from semi-retirement recently as well: Scott at Views Infinitum was first to re-enter explaining about a challenging 2015 and then Gerry, of Torch Lake Views, much to my delight popped back on the scene. Sybil, up there in the north, moved from Eastern Passage to Sacksville and has started sharing the romps of her and her fourlegged friends once again. Katie the princess sheltie and her mama Dawn at Change is Hard, have had all kinds of adventures to report on in recent weeks. Despite being harrassed by Winter Storm Jonas, Robin has kept a steady stream of beautiful photography and well wishes and thoughts over at Breezes at Dawn. And who can forget Carol of Wanderings of an Elusive Mind – blogger from the other side of this country, but with whom I so often agree with her sentiments, sometimes I feel like we must have been related somehow in another life! Then there’s Mike at Picture Day – carrying on with the things I always say I want to do – get out there with the camera and get better at photography.

Look at all that inspiration! So many ideas, so much lack of blog post writing.
In the context of a walk I took today with Teddy, on a fairly mild January day, here are some of the thoughts that have been meandering through my mind. I took the Rebel with my 50mm lens attached on this walk for two reasons – its a nice lightweight lens so I didn’t feel burdened on the walk and they say 50mm is approximately the view of how we see with the naked eye, so you’ll see my walk as I saw it, for the most part.

Teddy at the first place we always stop on our walks. Missing Daphne here as no matter the weather she always wanted to lay down in the water

Gratitude. Joy. Confidence. These are concepts I’m doing my best to focus on for 2016. Time to really put the work into discovering and taking care of me. Does that sound selfish? I hope not. It isn’t meant to be. The joy of having my girls home for their winter break from college, and their subsequent returns to school, have redoubled my determination to find my true happy place, who I am outside of being a mother – motherhood defines me, but not every part of me.

“Daphne’s” creek (how I will think of it from now on) not frozen over

Heartache happens but it doesn’t stop the world from going on around us. Like this creek, we continue flowing with time. My wishes are to keep progressing and getting better in a holistic way as I flow through time.

Along the “tunnel” path

This is a familiar sight, that feeling of a natural tunnel – the feeling is intensified when the weather is warmer and the green fills the scene, but this is a piece that feels unchanging and constant to me, that part of life that gives you the foundation you need to deal with….

Formerly filled with brush, this section of path has been mowed down

…change. Change – some of us try to fight it, some of us welcome it, but it is inevitable. I’m learning to welcome it. There was a time I dreaded it, but I think I’m seeing things more clearly now. Don’t simply accept change – create it. Take the new circumstances and make them your own.

Blinking against the wind

No closing your eyes and pretending whatever the problem is will go away. We all have those days when we’d rather just pull the covers over our heads and tell the world to leave us alone. A good friend recently said to me, the obstacles we encounter are just bumps in the road. We will get over them and move on to bigger and better things.

Shadow of Teddy and me – connected by leash and by heart

As I continue on my journey, I have a sense of authenticity in my mind-body-spirit connection; it is becoming real and tangible for me. I’ve been calling it a fitness journey but it is really so much more than that – it is a journey to who I’m meant to be!

66 Days of Summer

Today is June 20th. The first day of my summer. The official first day of summer is tomorrow, but my summer vacation begins today. A couple months ago, I had talked to Kate Austin about this idea I had about a photo or theme for all the days of my summer vacation this year. I know that I was inspired by something that she is working on, but that something is escaping me at the moment. Unfortunately Kate has decided to discontinue her blog, Crossroads, and has deleted it, so I can’t find what originally inspired me. Kate is still posting her beautiful shots at the link I provided up there, so I’m hoping we will still be interacting.

I doubt that I will be posting daily. As much as I would like to challenge myself to that, I know that at times over the summer it will simply be impossible. I will, however, do my best to keep track of my photo or theme for each day and post as often as I can.

For today, day 1 of summer, a theme has already emerged for my day: maintenance

I did maintenance chores on the hot tub:

I’m planning to do lawn maintenance this afternoon:

And I am planning to maintain all the hard work I’ve done to improve my health and get my body into better shape:

Since I finished the 10 week regimen of T25, I’m working on a hybrid schedule of workouts to try to maintain my fitness level, and maybe even move up to a new level. I don’t know what I am capable of, but I’d like to spend some time finding out!

I haven’t forgotten about the whimsy photo hunt, but I think I will officially extend the deadline to Monday June 30th. To those of you who have already submitted your posts, thanks so much! I will be around to see them soon.

Colors of Your World

(from April 2011 archives)
As so often happens to me when I am making my way around the blogosphere visiting all of you, I got inspired this morning. This time my inspiration came from Joanne at Home Life Online and this post of hers.

(from April 2012 archives)

I’d like to use Joanne’s lovely post as the basis for a photo hunt. Many of you mentioned in the comments of my last post how much you enjoyed the photo hunts that I’ve posted in the past. I fell out of the habit in recent months, but Joanne’s post got me thinking. So here’s what I am proposing: Choose a color that you are drawn to. Post at least 3 photos (can be more if you like!) that feature this color in some way. Tell me what it is that draws you to this color. If you’d like, take it a step further and do a little research like Joanne did and find out some of the psychology of your chosen color.

(from August 2010 archives)

I’m going to post a deadline of Sunday, April 28th for this photo hunt, but you know how I am about deadlines – it is more of a loose goal than a firm commitment. If you want to participate and you need more time, just let me know. As we have done in the past, leave me a link to your post in the comments of this post and I will do a wrap up post a few days after the deadline. It would be great if you could help me spread the word about this photo hunt to your own blog readers so that we can have lots of participation. Thanks, and I hope you have fun with your chosen color!

Photo Hunting in June

I’m back!  While I didn’t receive a ton of comments to my previous post, I received enough to come up with a little inspiration for this month’s hunt.  I apologize for not getting to posting this until 10 days into June.  Let’s get a little abstract for this month, shall we?  Not abstract art or photography, a la Scott a few months ago, but words that are a little more abstract and perhaps a bit of a challenge.

• Peace (from Carol)
• Joy (from Dawn)
• Pride
• Aplomb

I think those words would have a nice feeling, so very different from how I was feeling earlier this week.

In addition, I’m going to include 2 bonus shots this month, ideas supplied also from the comments section:

• Strewn,  because I liked Cathy’s idea about words rhyming with June and I think this word has some neat possibilities
• Toast, because it was Gerry’s idea and I love Gerry’s sense of fun!

Take until the very end of the month to get your photo hunt done, to help make up for my tardiness in posting this month.  If you’d be so kind as to help me spread the word and help to get your blogging friends to participate, I’d be very appreciative.  As usual, leave your links to your photo hunts in the comments section of this post.

And because I am not capable of doing a blog post without a photo, here’s a shot of some new-to-me flowers I am trying this season, lantana:

 

Blogging Inspiration

 

Anyone out there finding themselves in blogging doldrums?  It is that time of the year for feeling a little blah.  We are sick of winter (except for maybe Michaela) and spring seems so far away.  If you look over there at my calendar of this month’s posts, there are not a lot. 

I have discovered there is plenty of blogging inspiration out there, however, if you have a little look around.  Did you know that Gerry has a second blog dedicated to inspiring folks to be creative?  She calls it her “Gently Used Ideas Store.”  Go have a look if you haven’t already.

Robin mentioned a weekly photo project back in January. It’s called MCP Project 52.  I’ve been meaning to jump in on this one, but for reasons I can’t quite figure, I haven’t done it yet.  Maybe you could go check it out and try it, let me know what you think? 😉

Then one day I noticed right here on WordPress, in one of those little announcements they give you while you are poking around your dashboard, that WordPress itself is working hard to inspire bloggers too!  They have their own blog called The Daily Post at WordPress with a new subject to blog about each day.  They invite you to become part of “Post a Day 2011” or “Post a Week 2011” to help keep your blogging mojo going. 

Within the Daily Post, there is also a Weekly Photo Challenge.  I haven’t explored this too much yet, but I think I’ll have a closer look as soon as I finish finding photos for the scavenger hunt. I’ll be anxiously awaiting seeing the results of all you creative souls.

To keep my creative juices flowing, I have recently signed up for Picture Inspiration.  This is from the same folks who brought us Picture Winter and Picture Fall, but the format is a bit different.  Rather than one photo prompt a day for a month, this will be weekly emails for a year.  Emails are described as containing a mix of prompts, challenges and projects.  It is scheduled to begin on February 22; I’m looking forward to seeing the new ideas.

So with all these ideas to choose from, none of us should be able to claim writers’ or photographers’ block any time soon, right?  Happy blogging!

Picture Winter Day 31

“One Little Word”

How sad I will be not to have a photo prompt in my inbox tomorrow morning!  The prompt for today was really wide open, and the folks who took the class came up with some really beautiful ideas. The concept of “One Little Word” has been around for a while I think.  Some folks, like Robin over at Life in the Bogs, choose a theme for the year. In essence, this is what Ms. Clark asked us to do today: choose a word and represent it in a photograph.  She wrote,”Your challenge today is to either shoot for your word (finding a way to visually translate it) and/or to incorporate your word into a photo from the month. As we wrap up Picture Winter, I want you to capture an image that will remind you of your intentions. ”

I gave this one much thought, as I have for nearly every prompt this month, when my word came to me. Seek is the word I chose.  I would like to spend 2011 seeking: seeking beauty through my lens, seeking opportunity for myself to grow and improve in as many ways as possible – personally, spiritually, professionally, photographically.  I chose to incorporate my word into a favorite shot from this month because it seemed to represent my word in more ways than one:

Although I complained from time to time about some of my prompts, I really did enjoy Picture Winter.  Getting a new (or mostly new) idea  in the email each morning was something to look forward to, especially since we in Massachusetts have experienced our snowiest January on record, with another storm due to pummel us starting tomorrow.  Way to begin February! – not!  Perhaps I shall seek out another class of this style to help me continue being inspired during my least favorite season of the year.