I made an executive decision over the weekend that was difficult for me. It made my stomach hurt a wee bit, but I’m glad I did it. I decided to retire as our HOA newsletter editor after four years. I have a partner that works with me to create the newsletter and she also agreed with me. I am missing the joy and sense of accomplishment I once had. I wrote a resignation letter for the two of us and I’m waiting to hear back from the Board.
I found that photography is relaxing and rewarding to me. I enjoy taking my nature photos. I enjoy exploring Adobe Bridge and Photoshop and tinkering with the pictures to make them a bit better. I have decided to enroll in my second art workshop for DSLR photography beginning in January. This is becoming a lifestyle more than taking a random class.
Mourning Dove on our fence.
I also want to get back to writing and working on my several WIPs. If I get too busy with things I have to do, I don’t get in the time to write and edit.
Red is fortunately a constant in my backyard. I’m enjoying taking his photo along with Mrs. and various other creatures and plants.
Mrs. in a setting of purple flowers.
Agave with sharp red tips.
The same plant from a distance.
I never get tired of watching the squirrels.
Have you made any difficult decisions lately? When you are faced with a decision, how do you go about deciding what to do?
A backlit bunny showing off his ears in the morning light.
I’ve been trying to capture the morning light with backlit sea glass for my photography project. I’ve been observing how light changes throughout the day.
The past two days, I walked with my camera in the early morning. Normally I take photos sitting down at home. The camera is a little bulky to carry on my walks compared to my iphone. But I managed because I was inspired to capture a gorgeous Texas Purple Sage in the morning light that’s on the other side of the neighborhood from me.
It’s a massive plant. Since I was using my macro lens that is for closeups, I couldn’t get far enough away to photograph the whole plant. Also, the sage is on the west side of a two-story house and was in the shade when I walked over.
Along my walk to the sage, I spotted so many beautiful instances of backlighting on plants like the Firestick cactus above and the Staghorn below.
My favorite is the following series of an agave. I took a photo of the whole plant and then got closer — and closer.
Last but not least, a chipmunk munching away on a blossom of a Golden barrel cactus.
Do you notice changes in light throughout the day and throughout seasons?
Harris hawks hanging out on an Agave behind the tree in our backyard on New Year’s Eve.
I feel like I’m emerging from 11 days of cocooning. I’m not quite a butterfly yet, but I can breathe and stretch my wings after a nasty bug that kept me in bed.
The day is bright and sunny. Absolutely stunning. The past few days have been cloudy and my weather app said air quality wasn’t good.
Here’s a clear view of the perch the hawks enjoyed on New Year’s Eve. Look at that sky!
At one point, there were five Harris hawks hanging out together.
During my cocoon phase, I listened to an outstanding book. Ann Patchett’s “Tom Lake.” It was published August 2023. I enjoy reading books the old fashioned way with paper pages and spines. However, because I was laying in bed with my eyes closed, propped up on pillows for my deep cough, I chose listening to an audiobook.
Meryl Streep was the reader! I could distinguish characters, not by a big change in her voice, but by subtle rhythms and intonations. I believe her reading added to the book so the experience was better than it would have been if I had held the book in my hands and used my eyes.
Here’s a summary from Amazon:
In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.
“Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature.” —The Guardian
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.
amazon.com
I have one major question in the story that wasn’t resolved after going to back to re-listen to certain chapters. I won’t ask that question here, because it’s a spoiler. I’m waiting for someone else to read the book so we can discuss. I wonder if Patchett left this question unanswered on purpose?
Here’s a 10-second video of the hawks leaving my yard:
Hawks.
Do you like listening to audiobooks, using a reader or old-fashioned books?
Have you read “Tom Lake?” If so, what are your thoughts?
Agave with blooming cactus. I learned the cactus is called Argentine Giant.
Yesterday I met an old friend for coffee. I don’t mean that she is old, but that we were friends for decades. She was a graphic designer that I worked with in Palm Springs.
When I was in my 20s and 30s I worked in public relations and advertising. A hot graphic design firm we used (when I worked in-house for a huge real estate developer) had several talented graphic designers. Something happened at the design firm and the designers I knew went independent. I think there was an issue with getting paid.
I also took the leap and went independent.
It was exciting to start my own business. The camaraderie I had with these amazing women to guide and mentor me gave me the courage. They had experience and advised me of what software to use for bookkeeping, what rates to charge. We referred each other business, too.
The friend I met for coffee yesterday was in this group of entrepreneurial women. She moved to the Scottsdale area 15 years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long. She said she thinks the last time she saw me was 20 years ago! Also, she remembered going to my baby shower 30 years ago.
I texted her before we moved and she sent me a list of restaurants, where to grocery shop, all the good coffee shops, etc. At the time, it was during the shutdown so we didn’t get together. Then today I learned her husband had an extended illness and she was the caregiver. So another year went by.
Now that I’m over COVID we finally got together. I’m smiling the rest of the day.
We had a lovely visit with our daughter. We packed in as much as we could during her short trip. I especially loved our visit to the Desert Botanical Garden to show her the Chihuly Installation. Because it’s more than one hundred degrees outside, we opted to go for the last hour it’s open — from 7 to 8 p.m. It was gorgeous.
I’m so glad we became members because we are learning so much about desert plants like the many species of cacti, aloe and agave. There’s a butterfly garden, wildflower garden, bee garden and my favorite — a shade garden.
Tomorrow our son comes to visit. It’s wonderful to spend time with our kids, even if their trips are short! Just having them under our roof and hanging out together is blissful.
Here are a few pictures from the botanical garden:
My favorite Chihuly installation at the Desert Botanical Garden.A view of a nearby mountain.WildflowerMore Chihuly. This one was too big to fit in one photo.More wildflowers.Elephant food bonsai. We have a lot of these plants in our yard. I didn’t know the name before.Chihuly glass lit up at the entrance to the botanical garden.
What are your favorite things to do when your kids or friends and family visit?
