Landscape … The lake was beautifully calm around sundown. I have no words of wisdom for today, just peace.
Lake Stevens
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Tag Archives: The Daily Post
Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #10
I am joining Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha from A Cooking Pot and Twisted Tales for her series, “Echoes of My Neighbourhood,” where she challenges us all to share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time.
I live in a rural area in the Pacific Northwest. For 3 of our seasons, you can pretty much count on the rain being somewhere in the weather forecast. But I love the rain, every day of it, otherwise I wouldn’t live here.
Anyway, as I said, we’re very rural. And on those long country roads, one sees various outbuildings just hanging about for no particular reason. They’re small and they have a bench and they provide cover from the rain. The only thing I can surmise is at one time, they were used by children waiting for the school bus. But if I’m wrong and if someone knows their actual use, please shout it out. It’s been a great mystery to me for years. Regardless, they come in a variety of shapes and colors and are quite fun to look at.
The following is actually a “free library” on the side of the road. Donate a book, take a book, go sit on the bench and read a book. The planters are gorgeous in the summer, filled with flowers and color. Every spring the wood is touched up made to look new again which, in turn, makes the bench look super inviting. What a fabulous idea to promote reading and re-use! Kudos to the incredible people who created this!
Vibrant: My new PR running shoes!
My new running shoes arrived on my doorstep this afternoon… Brooks Glycerin 13! I ordered them at the beginning of the week so I would have them in time for my long run this weekend! After melting my feet in Maui, I learned a huge lesson not to stray from the tried and true, and because of that, I believe these are going to give me a new PR at each and every race I run in 2016! They shall now and forevermore be known as my 2016 PR Shoes! Woo hoo! They are, indeed, vibrant!!
Small Town Charm
I live in a beautiful little town that surrounds a lake. We’re very rural here and don’t have much of a downtown, but this little clock tower is a great landmark. It’s sits in the town center.
Yes, it was raining today… a lot… so I walked over to the stream that runs this-way and that-way through our town. Because of all the rain, it was flowing full force. Believe me when I say, I will take this rain over the ice and snow we had in November and December any day. (Looking at the picture above, the stream runs just left of the clock tower) Just another day… 🙂
This was also posted in response to Jackie’s challenge, Echoes of my Neighbourhood, from A Cooking Pot and Twisted Tales. Share in the fun! I feel I get to see the whole world right here from the comfort of my living room! Thanks Jackie!
Happy Endings
Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out. –Robert T. Collier
About 2.8 lifetimes ago, or when I was 17, me and a friend were bored. We didn’t drink and we didn’t party like our other friends, but we were extremely rebellious so we were looking for something stupid to do. We decided to buy a pack of cigarettes. We didn’t want anyone to see us smoking, so we just drove around and puffed away in secret. My friend didn’t tell me she wasn’t actually inhaling, but unfortunately I was. Thus began a very bad habit for me that would take almost 30 years to kick.
After many failed attempts at trying to quit through the years, I finally was able to say goodbye to cigarettes for good in 2012. At one point, I had a small setback for about a month, but I think that’s when it really hit home that I no longer wanted to be a smoker. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done, quitting smoking, but as with most challenges in life, it was 90% mental. Once I overcame the mental struggle, it was all downhill from there, and for me, that mental struggle lasted nearly 30 years. If you’ve chosen 2016 to be the year to kick an unhealthy habit, I wish you nothing but success. If, however, it doesn’t stick this year… try, try again. Because one day you will succeed.
In other news, it was a typical snowy/rainy day here in the Pacific Northwest. And the Monday after a holiday weekend. Need I say more?
Happy 15th Birthday, Nero!
The smaller the box, the better…
Actually there’s some really good karma flowing through our home at the moment, and my car passed emissions today, on the first try! After me driving around for a couple of months with the “check engine” light on, that right there is a reason to celebrate! (It ended up being just a loose gas cap that I could never tighten, so not a costly fix… total score!)
“I like big butts and I cannot lie…”
As well, the streaking continues. Day 4 done and another 2 miles under the belt. Inside. On the treadmill. Happy-happy-joy-joy.
Hope you have succeeded in getting back to normal routine after the holiday season. I know I had my challenges getting back to it, but the first day is always the hardest, isn’t it!
I leave you with one last thought to ponder:
Happy running!
(Written in response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt, Happy Endings.)
Oops!
I don’t dare say who was trying to boil these eggs, but they were left on so long that all the water boiled out of the pan, burning the eggs and leaving a lovely smell in their wake. Egg salad anyone?
In response to The Daily Post’s Photo Challenge: Oops!
Eye Spy… A Window Strike
This little pygmy owl was carrying his prey, wasn’t watching where he was going, and slammed into my sliding glass door, knocking him out for quite a while. If this ever happens to you, give the poor animal a couple of hours to come out of it. If it’s not in harms way, just leave it be. If there are dogs or cats or other predators around, then put it in a box, keep it quiet and safe, and leave it alone for a couple of hours (do NOT keeping peeking in at it). Yes, it may very well take a solid 2 hours to come out of it. If, however, you see signs of injury such as blood, it needs to be taken immediately to your nearest rehab & rescue center. The same holds true if it’s still not able to fly after 2 hours. It may have suffered head trauma.
One final note, sometimes when we see an eagle or other bird of prey on the ground, we immediately think it’s injured. This is not always the case. It may have just eaten and is not able to take flight yet. Keep an eye on it for a couple of hours. If you’re able to approach it after a couple of hours of being on the ground, then it’s time to call your nearest rehab & rescue center and ask their advice. As always, if you need help finding your closest rescue center, contact me. I can help.
In response to The Daily Post’s Photo Challenge: Eye Spy.
As for the pygmy owl above, he was out cold and laying on his back, opened his eyes eventually, flipped over onto his feet, regained his senses, then took off after about 30 minutes. I had the extreme displeasure of cleaning up the headless prey that he left behind.
Grid
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. ~Walt Whitman
I’m doing something a little different today. I’m participating in The Daily Post’s Photo Challenge.
This week, make a grid the centerpiece of your photo. Next week, they can lapse back into our photographic subconscious, but this week, let’s give them some time in the sun!
Simple grid’s are not that easy to find when you don’t have an artistic point of view. I had to search high and low and take a few snapshots here and there until I found a shot I liked. Regardless, it was great fun and a nice distraction this week. 🙂
Never A Dull Bling 