Happy New Year 2022! This is a milestone blog for me in many ways. It is the ten year anniversary of my first blog post! I had just turned 50 and had being dreaming of writing a blog for some time. So now I just turned 60 & still love many of the same things shared over this past decade but also have new interests and insights to share with you as we all continue to learn & grow together...
This title I am sure resonates with many
of you seeing that this past year & three-quarters has given us a common
denominator. Face it our lives have changed in many ways. I'd like to share now
with you -seeing that New Year's is
always a fine place to start new ideas - some lemons to lemonade, sour to
joyful ideas from my past yearly-plus Renaissance of a life.
Lemon #1 - Covid
Confinement
- So even though my work schedule shifted & I had a bit more time on my
hands, I stopped blogging (lost my muse?), spent less time in my garden (more
on why below) - both of which had continuously brought me joy. So a simple zoom
call among friends had posed a challenge to try something new (thanks again DS).
And then an exciting idea came to me. Creative outlets are so important for all
of us & for me I knew photography might be the answer. I had bought a
really good camera in 2018 and thought I needed to get inspired. I googled a
landscape photographer who posted YouTube video tips. British photographer,
Nigel Danson, became a wonderful Instagram creative to follow. I love
landscapes but even more so my garden birds & flowers became my willing
subjects. (and a bit of wildlife thrown in). Once I bought a telephoto lens I
was set! I loved the hours outdoors and my lemons became lemonade and sour
became joyful with each picture. (some of which I have posted with this blog) Lemonade #1: Discover or rediscover some
creative interests!!
Lemon #2 - Health Issues - I had temporary health issues last spring & summer that left me unable to do as much in the garden as I would have liked. (let's just say there will be plenty of weeds to vigorously attack this spring!) The Garden Club I belong to suspended meetings and I felt overall gardening uninspired, so unlike me. But a wonderful thing happened last summer - we received sufficient rain so watering was not an issue - yay! And since I did not plant a plethora of annuals which I like to do, I let all the many, many years of perennial cultivation take over and be my joy. The hard work paid off in time spent years ago and it was joyful for me in so many ways & a glass of lemonade was just the right beverage to toast my perennial show. Lemonade #2: Plant Perennials!!
