Letters fall from the shelf creased and fragile from a thousand openings
Words spill out like pictures bright stars on dark nights silver moonlight on the sea
Light up the darkening sky with sacred promises true love never dies
This week’s Sunday Stills prompt of “night” was a little daunting for me. You see I’m not a night person. I’m much more likely to see a sunrise than a sunset. When I step foot outside after dark, it’s usually just to my own yard to gaze at the moon, maybe charge my crystals. That being said, I ransacked my photo files and did come up with a few.
2020 Blue Moon — I always find that surrounding a moon shot with frames of reference helps. Here the Halloween Blue Moon plays peek-a-boo with me behind the trees. Also, it offsets the lens flares with which I struggle, like a LOT.
Evening on the Lanai – Kauaii– Here landscape lighting and tiki torches accent brilliant moonlight reflected on the ocean.
Jack-o-lanterns — This is a great shot for reminding myself, it’s not always about the quality of the shot, it’s the feelings and memories.
Nijo Castle – Kyoto Japan — Snapped with a tiny cell phone, a good illustration of the problems encountered with night photography. The castle is lit up so brightly that details are nearly indiscernable.
Sunset on Waikiki — I may not be much for “night” photography but give me a sunset and, oh my …
2020 may well be know at our house as the “year of the doctor” with more than it’s fair share of medical problems, diagnoses, and treatments.
January dawned bright and clear, with the cancellation of our trip to Kauai, and the scheduling of two surgeries. That was OK though, a return to normal life was at our fingertips while we continued to recover nicely from the YOH that was 2019.
a lone pinecone in the snow outside my door
February brought us snow and the glistening beauty of winter life. I recovered quickly from surgeries and watched the world outside go by, snug in our little home.
bush after a March snow storm
March brought more snow and a corona virus that began to sweep through the world at a frightening speed, crushing travel plans in it’s path. But it also brought a medical release back to “light duty” so I could work the summer as planned.
Kwan yin golden statue at panyu lotus hill resort guangzhou
April brought us cancelled flights and all hope for travel outside (and sometimes inside) the United States were dashed. It also brought another set of minor seizures for Superhubs, and poof, back behind the wheel I went.
Amazon grocery order – yep it’s empty
May brought the resumption of my part time seasonal job and new adventures in on-line grocery shopping. This is a shot of one of my orders from Amazon, yep, completely empty, perfectly sealed, not a thing in it. But the best was yet to come.
Creepy Clouds
June and the whole summer brought seriously weird weather. Lots of thunderstorms, biblical in scale.
half melted hailstone
July brought hail storms, several, the likes of which have not been seen here in decades that left our part of the state designated a disaster area. This is a hailstone from one of the storms. It was about a hour after the storm so a lot of it had melted, the stones were the size of baseballs when they struck.
changing colors
August and September brought stress, panic disorder, and the most beautiful fall colors I’ve seen in years. It also brought a Cardiac Sarcoidosis diagnosis and finally admitting that my working days are done. My last day of work was October 1.
Once in a blue moon, on Halloween
October brought much needed down time, and a rare Halloween Blue Moon.
Tiny display of fall leaves with a bitty gnome
November brought us an LADA (autoimmune diabetes in adults) diagnosis, changes, more changes, to daily life. New definitions of “holidays” too as we learn how to celebrate on our own, without travel. Adventures in “backyarding” on our little nature walks through the RV park observing what there is to see, a hawk circling, leaves falling, skies changing was a saving grace.
December Sunset here at Hart Ranch
December brought us dyshidrotic eczema *ouch*, socially distanced Christmas greetings and a ton of grandkid videos. As the sun set on December, I realized, in retrospect, what a gift 2020 was and how I look forward to the unseen gifts 2021 will hold.
For Terri’s Sunday Stills our prompt this week is lights. Like a lot of folk, I immediately thought of Holiday lights. Honestly, they are virtually non-existent for us. It’s hard to string up lights around an RV and neither of us drive much at night for local viewing. After reading Terri’s post though, I realized that “lights” doesn’t necessarily mean Holiday. As an artist, I find I’m always looking for that particular … something, a certain quality of light that sparks the imagination, and ignites the soul.
Certain Quality of Light
The air alive with magic, the world awash with a certain quality of light eyes open to incandescent beauty of the new day, brave and bright my poor heart trembling, I breathe, weeping with delight The moment passed too quickly but never will I forget the sigh of a world alive with magic and that certain quality of light
Dawn on the beachHeceta Head Lighthouse – Florence, OregonSunlight on HibiscusA dreamer can only find her way by moonlight“Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun’s light, in the spring becomes the rose”
And finally, for those of you who just NEED that Holiday Lights fix, my fav
For Sunday Stills our theme this week: Winter Wonderland brought to us by catsandtrailsandgardentales while Terri is off this week. Well, here in the Black Hills of South Dakota, we finally got some snow. It feels so much more wintery and holidayeee with snow. I love it! We’ve spent 12 of the last 14 years snowbirding. Staying in areas with warmer weather and while we had great fun, nothing quite beats a Christmas snow! A few Winter Wonderlands from our travels
The hills outside Virgin, UT covered in the all too rare winter snowIt always amazes me how snow brings out the child artist in people. We found this funny little fellow at Zion National Park during another of the rare snowfallsThis is more of the type of ice sculptures we get here. This is an icicle that ran down the side of our RV and finally frozen itself solid to the concrete slab.Winter wonderland of snow and frozen fog here in South DakotaOnce again, here in South Dakota a pretty little snowfall
It’s been a crazy year, that’s for sure. If you feel yourself a bit uninspired in the thanks department this year (and who isn’t), please do pop over to Terri’s site and get yourself a dose of thankful reminders.
Early in the 2000’s Superhubs and I left our home and family behind us. We abandoned the 5 year plan and the 10 year projections and became pilgrims, seekers, voyagers. We became Wide Eyed Wanderers. For the next 13 years our home was a 30 foot class C motorhome christened the SS Minnie.
I am so thankful for that little home on wheels. Ah the adventures, the views, the fun we had with her. Oh the places she took us.
The historic beauty we found in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
the magic spires of Bryce Canyon, Utah
and the places where the Minnie couldn’t take us, Opaekaa Falls, Kauai, Hawaii
Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, NZ
We let her go last year to a new home for more adventures, but I am thankful for the memories. Mostly, I think I’m thankful for all the goodness of life. Let’s raise a song of harvest home, the glass of good cheer, the heart overflowing with joy. I have so much for which to be thankful, so much about which to smile. Chief among those is:
Status board at the hospital after Superhubs first brain surgery
I have so much to be thankful for, al I have is truly all I need. Life has bestowed upon me an extravagance of riches, but still I hope for one thing more. The gift of a thankful heart, a heart that does not forget the blessings I have received.
This week’s Sunday Stills prompt is our monthly color exploration, this month – Auburn Many thanks to Terri for the prompt as auburn is one of my very favorite shades
Auburn Iris — Queens Garden, Invercargill, NZAuburn leaves of a huge Japanese Maple from the Japanese Garden also in Invercargill, NZstunning auburn sunrise in Kapaa, Kauai, HawaiiAuburn brick patterned walkway, Wellington, NZDeep auburn woodwork, Larnach Castle, Dunedin, NZ
Auburn hair slid beneath his hands hot nights lying on coral sands when diamonds winked from the indigo sky serenade of waves as night rolled by adventures as they rode across the land lost as auburn hair slid beneath his hands
For Terri’s Sunday Stills where our prompt this week is: Leaves Today was gorgeous here in the Black Hills of SD. Warm temps and lots of sunshine, we took several walks, took care of chores and just sat around outside enjoying the sun. I did take a little time to flip through my pics, recent and not so recent to see what I had about leaves.
Shugakuin Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan. Looking up through the canopy of changing leaves to the blue sky.Fern frond unfurling from a huge specimen of tree fern in Queens Garden, Invercargill, NZFound this interesting little heart-shaped bit of fallen elm leaves on our daily walk, it wanted to come home with me.My weekly collection of fall leaves gathered on our daily walks here in South Dakota. Made them into a tiny arrangement (that’s a shot glass being used as a vase) and guarded by my trusty garden gnome.
Autumn sun warms my toes across my face, gentle breeze tickles my lashes as it blows beneath the mulch of leaves tiny sprouts begin to grow only to be bitten by the cold that soon will come, I know but for now, it is enough to let the sun warm my toes
For Sunday Stills where this week’s prompt is “backyard birding”
OK, so as an avid traveler, I’ve had lots and lots of backyards over the past decade and it’s really difficult to pick a few of my favorite feathered friends, but I’ll try.
A Pukeko bird in Queenstown, NZ These guys were swimming around Lake Wakatipu, so colorful and graceful. Imagine my delight when they came to shore and revealed themselves to be waders. I’ve been laughing at those chicken legs ever since. How DO they swim with those?Osprey in flight over Willamette River, Oregon, USA. These guys are a delight to watch while they fish. The “hover” over the river and then dive so fast they are little more than a blur before swooping back up and away.Macaw in Pahrump, NV – Nope, that’s not in a zoo, or an aviary, or any other type of enclosure. Heidi Fleiss (yes that Heidi Fleiss) operates a macaw sanctuary at her home there and one can often spot the town’s colorful (pun intended) residents. Beautiful to behold but oh my are they noisy.
and finally, Great Horned Owlets right outside our window near Rapid City, SD, USA — We had such fun watching these cuties grow from tiny puff balls to grand juveniles. I wish we had gotten some shots of them preparing for their first flight. They stood boldly out on the edges of the tree, spreading and flapping their wings for a couple of days before hand. Then, one morning, they were gone. Their haunting songs will forever remain in my memory.
