A New Year Begins Again....

"There are always flowers for those who want to see them."

Henri Matisse

Life is filled with the bitter and the sweet...

May your New Year include many more sweet moments than bitter!

Happy New Year!!!

Linking to...

Let There Be Wine!!!

Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Probably the most interesting of all the ports we visited was Lanzarote...

...and not just because we did a fair amount of wine tasting!!!

I am pre-posting for the holidays...

some oldies...

some of our recent trip...

and maybe a new macro or two!!

And keep in mind...I'll be posting more of our trip...

including pics of the most fascinating wineries ever...

at my Photographic Journey starting in the new year!

Serenity...

"Serenity is not freedom from the storm,

but peace amid the storm."

Anonymous

Words I need to remember...

Linking to...

I am pre-posting for the holidays...

some oldies...

some of our recent trip...

and maybe a new macro or two!!

And keep in mind...I'll be posting more of our trip...

That's Amore!!!

Rome, Italy

"When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie

That's amore

When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine

That's amore..."

Harry Warren and Jack Brooks

Linking to...

I am pre-posting for the holidays...

some oldies...

some of our recent trip...

and maybe a new macro or two!!

And keep in mind...I'll be posting more of our trip...

A Regal Perch...

Ajaccio, Corsica

"The gull sees farthest who flies highest."

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

(Richard Bach)

What could be higher than the head of an Emperor???

Linking to...

I am pre-posting for the holidays...

some oldies...

some of our recent trip...

and maybe a new macro or two!!

And keep in mind...I'll be posting more of our trip...

Merry Christmas!!!

"May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;

The spirit of Christmas which is peace;

The heart of Christmas which is love."

Ada V. Hendricks

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Linking to...

"'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

...when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The Children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads..."

Clement Clarke Moore

or...

Henry Livingston Jr.

Seriously...did you know that "they" don't really know 

who wrote this iconic poem???

Quite honestly, I never really thought about who wrote it...

and I'm not sure that I ever saw an author attributed...

Never the less...it is a time honored tradition!

To view the entire poem, click here!!!

Linking to...

I am pre-posting for the holidays...

some oldies...

some of our recent trip...

and maybe a new macro or two!!

The Sun's Reflections...

"Three things cannot be long hidden:

the sun, the moon, and the truth."

Buddha

Linking to...

I am pre-posting for the holidays...

some oldies...

some of our recent trip...

and maybe a new macro or two!!

The Emperor...

"The fact that I was a girl 

never damaged my ambitions to be a 

pope or an emperor."

Willa Cather

Hmmm...can't say that being the pope

or an emperor was ever one of my ambitions...

How about you???

Willa Cather (1873-1947) was an American novelist known for her novels

set in frontier life...

She wrote from the perspective of a man, rather than the female perspective

and was quite critical of the female authors of the period...

referring to them as "overly sentimental and mawkish."

(isn't that a great word...mawkish?)

She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1922 for One of Ours.

Have you read any of her works???

Check back on Wednesday for my favorite 

version of our Emperor!!!

Linking to...

The Birth of Imagination...

Cartagena, Spain

It is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, 
and gives birth to imagination."
Henry David Thoreau

Linking to....

Raggedy Andy....

This guy was roaming freely around the Concepcion Castle in 

Cartagena Spain...

If you look at the ends of his tail feathers, you'll see that they look like 

they were chopped off...

perhaps this is how a Peacock molts??  

Anybody have any ideas about this???

(I'm a bit off track in posting our trip on 

my Photographic Journey...

if you're interested...look for posts 

starting in the New Year...)

Linking to...

(Come to think of it...I'm a bit off schedule this whole week!!!)

Fashionista!!!

What can I say???

I'm a proud Grandma!!!

Our Little Corner of the World...

Last year at this time we hardly had any snow at all...

as a matter of fact...we hardly had any snow all last winter...

It's been snowing since Tuesday...

Not blustery or blizzardy...

just steady snow...

Linking to...

Twists and Turns...

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

Dorothea Lange

I saw this tree trunk outside a small tourist shop in Mallorca, Spain. 

The shop was filled with the typical touristy *&%# so I wandered out and became

mesmerized by the twists and turns of this magnificent old tree trunk...

Linking to...

Macro-Micro?

As you may know, we made an impromptu trip down south last Sunday...

What you probably don't know is that it was my birthday too!!!

Guess what I got...

it's bigger than my hand...

captures really sharp close images...

WooHoo!!!!

It's a 105mm Nikon micro lens!!!

Get's a pretty clear pic of those darned icicles around our house doesn't it?!!!

We were at TheChief's mom's house most of our visit...

and I took a few pics of various items around her house...

I'm looking forward to playing with my new toy!!!

TheChief is my hero!!!

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Looking for the Rainbow...

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."

Aristotle Onasis

My thoughts and prayers go out to the survivors and family members of those who died

and were injured in the Connecticut school murders.

I hope that this tragedy will invoke discussion about ways in which our society

can change how we deal with the mentally ill.

Linking to...

A Sky the Color of Roses...

"If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman,

I shall feel that I have worked with God."

G.K. Chesterton

We are heading south for some unexpected family time...
I'll be back...

Enchanted Forest...

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.

You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different,

and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?"

J.B. Priestly

Linking to...

It's a Beautiful World...

"What is life?  It is the flash of a firefly in the night.  

It is the breah of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and 

loses itself in the sunset."

Crowfoot Quotes

This was shot from the Royal Caribbean ship, the Mariner of the Seas,

as we left Tenerife in the Canary Islands...

Linking to...

Travels with the Chieftess!!!

Yesterday, if you guessed the Coliseum in Rome...you're right!!!

Our second day in Rome we connected with most of the group 

we would be traveling with for the next 3 weeks...

It was gloomy and raining...but that didn't stop us!

We headed out to the coast to Ostia Antica...

a harbor city of ancient Rome...

This is just a taste of the beginning of our trip...

if you're interested in seeing more...

swing on over to my Photographic Journey blog next week!!!

Periodically, I'll post a bit here too...

No Dorothy...We're not in Mammoth Anymore...

Do you know where we are?

Hints...

1.  Once the cradle of known civilization...

2.  Gladiators used to tackle giant Lions here...

3.  Nero fiddled while the town burned...

4.  It's been around for a pretty long time...

This was our first destination for our magical mystery trip!!!

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Our Little Corner of the World...

We had three days of snow...then a bit of rain...then snow again!!!

Since Sunday it's been clear...of course it's warm now and the snow is melting...

but I think we've got a great base on the Mountain

soooo....dust off your skis and snowboards and come on up!!!

Linking to...

They Call it Mellow Yellow...

"To keep the body in good health is a duty, 

for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom,

and keep our mind strong and clear.  

Water surrounds the lotus flower but does not wet its petals."

Buddha

I'm on the rebound!!!

And will start posting new photos this week!!!

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