Ten Days of Little Celebrations - December 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations’ - as had been the usual for the past few months. Here are my top 10 for December 2014.

Christmas

Christmas Decorations - at home and other places. I like Christmas decoration - my own and others. Over the years I have enjoyed the less glitzy ones the most: the clove studded fruit, the fresh greens, and poinsettias…but in the end, I really enjoy the whole look of the season. It’s a celebration that always ends the year on an up beat!

The Snowman. I like the music and the visuals of the film. Every year it is an integral part of our celebration of the season.

Food

Apple Cherry Crisp. Yum. I love apples and cherries…and even more together. The oatmeal of the ‘crisp’ is just right from my perspective - better than crust.

Garlic Tuscan Bread. I don’t eat bread very often but I could not resist the loaf in my grocery store bakers…crunchy crust and soft on the end side. I toasted it and ate it sprayed with olive oil.

Butternut Squash Soup. My grocery store has butternut squash already cut up into chunks which makes the two kinds of soup I make simple easy. I alternate between the two because like them both so much. The first is butternut squash with curry seasoning (sometimes I sprinkle unsweetened coconut on top…pretty and tasty). The other is butternut squash with salsa. Sometimes I add parsley or chopped kale. It only takes about 15 minutes for the squash to soften in the broth; I mash it in the pan with a potato masher (and wonder if I will ever buy an immersion blender for the purpose).

Birds

Bluebirds. We have some resident bluebirds. They are visiting our deck because we have a bird bath that does not freeze (I bought a heater for it). Every time I see them, I celebrate. I hope I can get some pictures of them eventually.

Canadian Geese. Usually the Canadian Geese bother me because there are so many of them but they were so photogenic at Centennial Park this month that I changed my mind about them.

Activities

Solstice Hike. I enjoyed the hike this year and plan to add a hike on the shortest day of the year to our family tradition for years to come

Wildlife Photography Class. The class from Creative Live was well worth the time…but I celebrated it because my husband and I did the class together in our den with the Christmas tree decorated and a fire in the fireplace. Some wonderful hours!

Bundling boxwood and holly. Somehow group activities in December are an important part of the holiday. Bundling boxwood and holly for a nature holiday sale was not something I’d done before … but it added to the celebration of the season seeing the piles of greenery and knowing that most of it would find its way to other homes for the holidays!

Favorite Memories of Summer 2014

Today - the traditional ‘last day of summer’ - I am savoring the memories of the past 3 months. It has been cooler than usual in my area (Maryland, near Baltimore) so the outdoor activities have been especially pleasant. Here are my top 5 memories from this summer:

The Deck Garden. The plants on the deck are a daily draw to go outdoors. There is always something changing - new flowers blooming, a tiny tomato forming, sweet potato vines spilling over the edge of the pot then the deck…and blooming, and all the associated insects and birds enjoying the plants (sometimes causing some damage) and the water in the birdbath and the pot saucers. I may change some of the plants next year - but using every available pot for something is definitely something to continue from now on.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. The place made my list because it was a new experience. I still enjoyed places I have been many times this summer (Brookside Gardens and the National Arboretum and the Howard County Conservancy Mt. Pleasant Farm) but the lotuses at the aquatic garden with the dragonflies that abounded were a high point of the garden visits this season.

Josey Ranch Lake. What a pleasant surprise it was to walk around the small lake near the library in Carrollton TX! It hosts such a variety of resident birds (although I did wish the nutria were not there).  It became the high point of ‘sights’ for the two weeks I spent in Texas this summer.

CSA Veggies. This was my first participation in a Community Supported Agriculture farm and I’ve enjoyed the enhanced flavor of fresh-from-the-field vegetables. I will do it again next summer!

Classes. I become more aware all the time of just how much I enjoy being a student. Whether the classes are online (Coursera and Creative Live) or ‘live’ at the Howard County Conservancy…classes have the effect of broadening my horizons and tweaking what I do. It may not be healthy to grow larger physically but growing mentally is always a good thing.

Happy end-of-summer 2014!

Photography Classes

The free class on Summer Photography from Creative Live last week was good enough to draw me to another of their online classes this week on Photographing American’s National Parks. I discovered that I am more interested in composition than I am in technique or retouching. But there is a lot to learn about how to get the best shot you can in the moment and then using cropping to improve (or salvage) an image.

The recent picture of the Complaining Robin (last Thursday’s post) was taken just before the course and I used it as a practice for some of the ideas I learned from the course immediately afterward. 

This is the original. I was reasonably pleased with it: the bird's eye was in focus and I liked the way the colored feathers fanned out over the brown wing on the left side of the bird's image.

This is the first clip.

And this is the clip that I ended up using in the post.  I chose this one because I got rid of the fuzzy green blob on the right of the original, kept the triangular leaf in the foreground, and an unfocused green frame at the top of the image.

The class this week will include locations in Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks.  It is a three day course….lots of opportunity to learn about photography and the locations!