my happy place

toto, we're not in kansas anymore

actually, we've never even been to kansas.

i mean it's not that there's anything wrong with kansas and i'm guessing the people who live there are simply wonderful, but we've just not ever had the opportunity to visit there. wait, does it sound like i'm back pedaling? i hope not. i'm sure it's a lovely state.

anyhow, we are in florida and yesterday was stormy and dark. when the rain cleared, we went for a walk in the leftovers. it was the perfect combination of mist and fog and warmth and i loved it.

i'm not sure what it is about fog lately, but it's kind of grabbed me. in a good way. actually it's more like a "wow, where you have been all of my life and why i haven't been paying more attention to you" kind of way. don't you agree that there's just something so mystical about fog, or maybe ethereal...or serene. whatever it is, i just know i love it.

this last photo, in all its glorious blurriness, is my favorite. i'm assuming i was focused on a water droplet {as there was that much moisture in the air} and somehow achieved photographing exactly how the combination of mist and fog and warmth felt on my skin. i love it when life gives you a gift.

i can see you

my hubby said, "look up."

i have to admit that with post christmas tunes still in my head, "a partridge in a pear tree" did come to mind. i wonder if anyone ever thought about "a opossum in an apple tree?" probably not. snort

he didn't move, but his eyes followed me everywhere.

come on, even if you think they look like rats on steroids, you have to admit his little hands and feet are adorable, right. no?

after hiking away from him we thought for sure he'd go back to wherever opossums spend their winters, but he was still there and had turned his head to look at me. i think in the photo above he looks a bit mean and i did hear a tiny hiss come out of him just as my hubby was saying, "uh, i think that's close enough." 

for a tiny moment i had visions from a scene in silence of the lambs. you know, the one where hannibal escapes from his "cage" when the security officers bring him his meal and he basically eats the face off the guard. i mean really, does anyone know if a opossum in an apple tree, feeling perhaps a bit threatened by a woman with her camera would or would not leap out and land on so called photographer's head? wow, i am so brave...or stupid. take your pick. snort. 

anyhow, all i know is that his appearance and our little visit with him, made our hike that much more fun and beautiful. i mean a deer would have been great, wild turkeys are always fun, but so skittish and hard to photograph or an eagle would have been cool, but i'm not picky when it comes to wildlife. i love them all.

you better dance

wouldn't it be great being a weatherman right now? in the next few days they have the easiest job ever. "IT'S COLD OUTSIDE. STAY INSIDE." there. job done.

on new year's eve i heard this song and now i can't get it out of my head and since i have a small {i have no idea why} crush on pit bull, i thought it only fair of me to share it. "you better move, you better  dance"…please tell me it's stuck in your head now, too.

another song i just love and sure, call me crazy as i think one direction is like awesome sauce and they make me feel like i'm 16 again when i had a major not so secret crush on shaun cassidy…snort…is this song.

so today…let's dance. let's dance tomorrow, too. we'll need to just to keep warm.

home

my photo

a stranger's words

and

now mine to share

~

i've been waiting for you

hi twenty fourteen. thanks for showing up. i've been waiting for you.

you see, your predecessor and i didn't really get along very well and while i know that's a whole lot of pressure on you since you just arrived, i thought it only fair of me to be upfront with you right away. i pretty much love when things get off to a good, honest and immediate start. blame it on my ability to be a bit impatient.

i want you to know i have my word for you. my photos here, some of my favorite from years ago, probably already gave it away, but in case you hadn't quite gotten there...probably busy looking at your new surroundings...it's EMERGE.

do you like it?

there are so many definitions that emerge wears, but the one that jumped off the computer screen and onto my body with enough force to take my breath away for a minute was "to come into view."

you see, this past year i felt invisible. somedays i felt that i was hiding from myself and sometimes i just felt like i wasn't being seen. unfortunately, there were too many days when i felt afraid, small, unbalanced, and misunderstood. enough so, that i shrunk away from my normally brave, confident, resilient and steady self. i found out that if you allow someone or something to take away your power, that sadly, this is the result. it wasn't fun. in fact, at times, it was horrible.

so this year, thanks to emerge...grow, appear, surface, come forth, become known, rise, become apparent, come to light, become visible, develop, unfold and arrive will be the words that pull me out of the dark cocoon that kept me hidden last year and back into the bright world where i had always been. where i had always lived. where i belong.

hello new year

hello world

~

a gold star

we tried to stay home, but we needed food.
otherwise we'd have worked towards a guinness world record of how long two people can actually avoid finding themselves in the after christmas masses.

we avoided the before christmas masses with flying colors and if it had been a paper to be graded by the loving hand of a teacher, we would have gotten an A+ and a gold star and she would have asked us to present at the next mandatory assembly in the auditorium.

we did sneak out on christmas day and watched "the secret life of walter mitty." does everyone go to the theatre on the 25th? it sure seemed like it. anyhow, it started out a bit slow and a little odd, but then it grabbed our attention and inspired us. that's all i'm saying about it so that someone who hates it doesn't throw a dagger at me and someone who loved it doesn't ask why i didn't blow kisses all over it.

it will be a new year soon. do you have your word yet?

my word found me just the other day. i was standing at the desk in my studio, looking at some old photos on my computer and "it" literally reached out and wrapped itself around me. i instantly wrote it down, looked up every definition that "it" wears like an insanely loved prom dress and said yes.

i'll share it here on the first of january and i hope you have one to share, too.
right now i'm busy bundling up "disappointment" and all of "her friends" that visited {and unfortunately stayed too long} this year and deciding where i'm going to bury them to prevent them from ever EVER ever visiting again.

see you soon. in the new year. i think i'm going to love 2014.