Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


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Last look at Christmas

Main street lit up

Main street lit up

Want to see a last little bit of holiday cheer?  Well come along with me as we visit Rochester Michigan, a small town that puts on a show you won’t want to miss.

Santa's on the roof!

Santa’s on the roof!

We visited Saturday night, an almost balmy evening which brought out the crowds and added to the festive feeling.

Doesn't the purple building look like it's smiling?

Doesn’t the purple building look like it’s smiling?

We walked up one side of the two long city blocks and then down the other side.

Street of color.

Street of color.

The shop windows were decorated for the holidays and each building glowed in a different color.

Window shopping.

Window shopping.

All the restaurants and coffee shops were full of happy people enjoying friends and family, good conversation, good food and good feelings.

Massive color.

Massive color.

It was magical.  Everywhere you looked people were smiling.  Little kids were giggling.  So were grownups.  No one was in a hurry.

Shades of fun.

Shades of fun.

Millions of lights were making lots of people happy.  Maybe we should do something similar in the summer.

Holiday sparkles.

Holiday sparkles.

Who says lights have to be confined to December?

Green light for fun.

Green light for fun.


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Merry Christmas!

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Katie here.  My Mama is too busy cooking and stuff so she asked me to tell you all how much she appreciates your support and all your comments on her (my) blog.

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From up here in Michigan, which currently looks like a winter wonderland, we’d like to say Merry Christmas!
We hope you all have a lovely day with family or friends, or just with your fur-kids.

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My Mama and Dad are going to have a quiet dinner here at home with Mama’s Aunt and then they’re going to go visit my Dad’s Aunt.  I guess I’m not invited to go visit Aunt V, but I’ll be under the table for dinner.  Just in case someone happens to drop something — wouldn’t want it staining the floor.  Like there’s a chance of that anyway.

So Merry Christmas to everyone!

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Love, Katie. (and her Mama and Dad too.)


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Weekly Photo Challenge – – One

This week the WordPress photo challenge is  One.   We had an ice storm Saturday night and I decided to take advantage of the sadly beautiful devastation in my own backyard to show you my interpretation.  You can click on any photo to see more detail.

Many of our trees are hanging in low curves over the bird feeder.   Sunday the birds tried hanging out on ice covered twigs only a few feet from my window while waiting their turn at the feeder.  I thought this solitary finch was perfect for the concept of one.

ice goldfinch edited

I thought about stopping there, but I had a plan, even before the ice storm, to hang a single holiday ornament on a tree in the yard.  I thought I’d wait until after the storm and pick a snow or ice covered spruce.  But Sunday morning I couldn’t resist using the ice on our toppled birch tree as a foil against the red.

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The ice is beautiful, but my heart aches for the loss of our lovely birch trees.  They’ve all been damaged, most will have to be cut down this spring.  I’ll have these images as memories of how beauty can be so damaging.

ice cardinal edited


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Baby it’s COLD outside

I suppose this could be a Wordless Wednesday photo.  But it needs some explanation so words will accompany it, thereby rendering it ineligible for an official Wordless Wednesday post.

As most of you are aware it’s cold here.  Not as cold as ‘up north’ or ‘out west’ but plenty cold.  So we weren’t surprised to see Mr. Cardinal hunkered down in the middle of a privet shrub just outside our breakfast window.  What was surprising was how puffed up he could make himself in order to stay warm.

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And how long he sat there letting me photograph him.  I think he was asleep.  Still, I moved slowly and didn’t get too close to the window.  Luckily my camera with the long lens was sitting right next to me.  Even Katie cooperated and didn’t bark.

He sat there for a long time, and then when we made a bit too much noise he flew off looking for a little peace.  Or some supper.

I’m so lucky to have beautiful birds visiting us regularly.  So I thought I’d share him with you!

Enjoy!

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Weekly photo challenge -light

This week the WordPress photo challenge was light…and not just light that makes a photo interesting but the actual source of light.  Once again I had a few ideas that weren’t all that practical.  It’s so easy to get overly ambitious when it comes to photo challenges.

But when I drove into my driveway this evening I realized I had light right there in front of me.

Home

Home

Stop by WordPress to see other interpretations of light.  There are already over 800 comments; randomly click a few and see what you find.  There’s still time for you to show us your version of light as well!

Meanwhile I wish you all the warm light of home in this holiday season.


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Weekly photo challenge – Unexpected

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is Unexpected.  I have a photo in mind, but as I mentally work through my schedule for the week I realize I’m probably not going to get there.  That felt disappointing.

And then I was going through photos I took on a drive down to Ann Arbor Saturday afternoon and found something.  I took this through the windshield of a moving car.  At the time I thought the light on the lines was…well…unexpected.

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All I have done to this photo is crop it, taking out the noise of the rest of the street scene.

And that other unexpected subject?  It might show up later.

Unexpectedly.


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Re-entry

Larger than life

Larger than life

I have survived the first day back to work after being off for a week.  Can’t say that it was easy.  I felt as though I had been to another country and gone for a very long time.  I suppose that’s good, it must mean that the vacation successfully removed me from the stress of the office.

Even bigger

Even bigger

But being back in the cubicle was difficult today, too many emails, too many issues, too many people that needed something.  Too much to do in too little time.  I’m sure I’ll get back on top of it, get it back under control.

Relaxed

Relaxed

Meanwhile I hope you enjoyed a few more photos from last week,  photos I hadn’t had an opportunity to show you yet.  I didn’t take one of them, all the credit belongs to husband, but they remind me that there is more out there in the world than  my beige cubicle and that sometime, hopefully soon, I’ll be off on another adventure.

Tips of the mountains

Tips of the mountains

Far or near, adventures sure make things better!

Fly away

Fly away