My year in pictures continued...

I had a very quiet and uneventful summer once we got into July.  The big highlight of my month was driving down to Griswold, Connecticut with Greg to see the sunflowers at Buttonwood Farm.  I am a sunflower lover and this was one heck of a spectacular display.  Note to self:  make sure you go back in 2013.

August also continued to be quiet and pretty...well, commonplace.  In order to bring a little excitement into my life, I brought a bouquet of hydrangea into the house and took pictures of it.  I do lead a pretty dull life…

September was a time with an almost daily parade of turkeys through our yard.  Turkeys may not be the most beautiful birds in the world, but they are entertaining and fun to watch.  I think I agree with Benjamin Franklin on this one.

In October, things got a little more exciting.  Greg and I went with friends to Italy and stayed a week on the Amalfi Coast.  It was a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it thoroughly even though I knew that I was missing the peak of autumn here in New England…my favorite time of year.  Some day, I wish they could figure out a way that we could actually be in two places at once.  And while they are at it, I wouldn’t mind if they could perfect beaming a la Star Trek.  After our return from Italy, I had ten days to prepare for total knee replacement surgery.  I went under the knife on October 24 not really prepared.  But that was the day I picked so I had to stick with it.

So in November, I spent the month recovering…and I have been spending December recovering as well.  There is nothing fun about recovering from knee surgery, believe me.  I often feel like I take one step forward and two steps back.  But I am done with physical therapy and they tell me I am doing well.  I suppose I will get there eventually and I will have no regrets about it.  But I wish someone were with me in the middle of the night to remind me that I did the right thing when I can’t get comfortable and back to sleep.  Oh, well…such is life and in spite of it all, I know that I am just about the luckiest person around.

I wish you all a New Year filled with wonder and curiosity.  I hope you see beauty in your everyday life and it gives wings to brilliant creativity.  Mostly, I wish you health and happiness.  And a very Happy New Year!

My year in pictures…

I send my apologies all around for not being here.  I have no excuses except that sometimes life gets in the way of my enjoyment of it and there is never enough time.

At the end of last year, I decided to go through my photos and pick one out for each month that illustrated the way things were going for me at the time.  This year I am doing the same.  So here are my first six months of my 2012 in pictures.

In January, Greg and I took a drive down to Charleston, South Carolina.  It was a wonderful trip and we saw lots of beautiful things, but the experience that stood out to me was being in the presence of the Angel Oak.  The Angel Oak is a Southern Live Oak that is estimated to be between 300 and 400 years old.  Standing near this magnificent tree was a spiritual experience for me that I will not soon forget.

February…well, what can I say?  I imagine that I drink more coffee in February than in all the rest of the months combined.

In March, we were lucky to be able to travel to St. John with our good friends and travel companions, Dona and Bob.  We had a great time in this beautiful place, but if truth were told, we have a good time with Dona and Bob pretty much any place we end up.  After all, isn’t that what friendship is all about?  

In April, I got together with my daughter Carrie for one of our field trips.  We went to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.  We had fun watching the ponies eating the rainbows and pooping out the butterflies…

In May, our son Evan received his Master’s Degree in Information and Library Science from Syracuse University.  As a reward, he and I embarked on a wonderful journey to Budapest, Vienna and Prague.  I took this picture on the last day we were in Prague.  We ate lunch at a sidewalk café called La Gare.  La Gare in French means “the station.” 

Carrie and I got together in June to check out The Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen, Massachusetts.  This place is a wonderland of color and creativity.  If you ever find yourself in Goshen, you must walk around here with your camera.  But call me first, because I want to meet you there…

The adventure continues...