Monday Beach Shots

Last summer I made weekly trips to the beach with my camera. It was delightful walking along the shore of Lake Michigan in June, July and August.

But what about in the barrenness of winter? Not quite as delightful. But still the beach, the water/ice and the shore were calling me. Thankfully this winter has had much less snow than in recent years, so  getting there hasn't been as problematic as it normally would be.

December 14, 2015

On Monday, December 14 I made the first of my weekly Monday trips to the beach. I decided I wanted to document the changing landscape of the beach over the winter months, plus it was a good excuse for me to get out photographing at least once a week.

December 21, 2015

I don't plan on taking the same shot every week. I want to be open to whatever moves me each week. By the second week I thought it would be fun to document the weather conditions, and temperatures.  Even though the weather looks ominous in this shot, it was 46 degrees.

December 28, 2015

December weather was good to us. I did forget to record the temperature this day, but my note says there was a howling wind.

January 4, 2016

All good things must come to an end...the snow came. We had gotten a couple of inches over night and the temperature was 25 degrees, but the sun was shining brightly, giving me a nice long shadow.

January 11, 2016

Intersting changes from one week to the next. Much colder at 18 degrees and windy, and the nasty ice.

January 18, 2016. I decided to mix things up a bit and take a video. A chilly 14 degrees with a wind chill of -4. I was the only crazy person out there that day. 

January 25, 2016

A beautiful winter day, 36 degrees and sunny. Those are ice chunks and ice rings floating in the channel.

February 1, 2016

February arrived and it was time to take my first of the month self-portrait. Totally unprepared but yet determined, I propped my iPhone up in the crevice in this log and set the timer. I think it only took 10 tries or so. A beautiful 34 degree day, I got lost for an hour out there. 

February 1, 2016

Some weeks offer a bonus shot. I knew as soon as I saw this shot that it was the shot of the day. Edited in Stackables and iColorama, two of my favorite editing apps.

February 8, 2016

That brings us to this week's shots. While cloudy with some threatening winter clouds, it wasn't snowing and the temp was a warm 34 degrees. I decided to climb to the top of Mt. Pisgah for a shot down the dune to the beach.

February 8, 2016

My favorite shot thus far, and an example of the stairs on the dune. Edited in Stackables.

Once a week seems a very manageable project for me. I will miss a Monday here or there due to travel, but for the most part I am always getting groceries and going to the gym on Mondays. The beach is my reward.

Favorite Childhood Foods

While dining on an appetizer of crispy, golden tater tots paired with glasses of spiced cider and handcrafted amber ales, I made the announcement "Tonight when we get home we are going to tackle the writing prompt that has been on the dining room chalkboard for the last two weeks". Moans and protests followed, but they knew I was serious.

For the past few winters we have been doing semi-nightly ten minute writing prompts. We would usually begin at Thanksgiving when our daughter, Mallory would be home from college. My husband and I would carry on once she was back at school until we could be reunited for Christmas break. This year that writing routine has been absent. The main reason is that there are no more college breaks, there is only working, eating and sleeping.

Determined to get our writing group going again, I dug through prompt writing books, and notebooks filled with ideas. I made a list of possibilities, closed my eyes and picked one. I wrote it on the chalkboard so they would know I wasn't kidding. Then life got in the way for a couple of weeks. I had two writing deadlines, one taking longer than I anticipated. Finally at the end of January everything was submitted, I was ready for my group. That readiness led to my announcement while enjoying tater tots at the local brew pub.

Our tasty snack consumed, it was time to go home and face the chalkboard. Once home, I sent everyone off to gather their notebooks and writing utensils, we reconvened in the dining room to take one last look at the prompt before beginning. I set the timer on my phone for ten minutes, pressed start and the sound of pen and pencil on paper began.

Glen and Mallory made long lists of memorable foods. Glen's consisted mainly of meat; tacos, ham and gravy, a ground beef mixture with a sweet/sour flavoring set upon half of a rusk bun, cow tongue, smoky links and fondue. Mallory's list contained typical childhood delicacies; chicken nuggets from Wendy's, hot dogs, grilled cheese, kid size chocolate syrup sundaes, chocolate shakes from Burger King, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Poptarts and lots and lots of chocolate milk. Maybe this explains her lactose intolerance now, she overdosed on dairy as a child.

My story was different, it wasn't a list of favorite foods, it was about one specific meal - Creamed Ham, Eggs and Mushrooms in a Chafing Dish. My mother has never been a skilled chef in the kitchen. Our suppers usually consisted of Hamburger Helper, not quite baked frozen pizza, and liver and onions. This is why Creamed Ham, Eggs and Mushrooms in a Chafing Dish was so different; the fancy copper chafing dish, real ham, real mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup not just ladled into a bowl, and hard boiled eggs. We didn't have it often, but I do remember my mouth watering every time I saw Volume Six of The Women's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery sitting on the counter...

The buzz of the timer sounded. Our little family gathered together, each taking a turn to read our writing out loud. As each of us read, I marveled at how there were so many stories within simple lists, and specific meals, all derived from a ten minute writing prompt. Our first writing exercise of the year was complete.

What special foods do you remember from your childhood? I would love to hear. 

Winter Photography

Two years ago, we had one of the worst winters here in Michigan that I can remember since I was a kid. I think most of us in the midwest and northeast remember the term "polar vortex". It snowed for weeks on end, storm after storm, temperatures always hovering around zero.

That winter kept me inside, and I hated it.

Last year I was determined to not let winter beat me again, so I invested in high quality long underwear, a long down-filled coat, and new snow resistant pants to go over my long underwear. I had a warm hat, good mittens and the ever important neck gator. I was ready for winter. I was not going to be held hostage inside my house again. I went out at least once a week, if not more, to photograph. Sometimes with my dSLR, but mostly with my iPhone (the fingers don't get as cold using the iPhone). I got a lot of great winter shots, and came to appreciate the beauty of the blank white canvas, and bare tree branches against a gun metal gray sky. I fell in love with winter photography. Notice I did not say I fell in love with winter, that is a work in progress.

This year a El Nino winter is forecast, supposedly warmer and drier than in recent years. I am hopeful but not unrealistic, winter is still winter in Michigan. None the less,  I still have the same good quality clothing and the same determination to get out and photograph that I had last year.

Two weeks ago we had a lovely winter afternoon; blue skies, bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid-30's, no wind. I set off for a recently discovered county park with my Canon dSLR. My daughter and I had been there a month earlier and at that time I had only my iPhone with me, but I knew I wanted to go back with my big camera. I was not disappointed.

The willow trees across the river from the park were what drew me back with my big camera. I wanted to try out some of my new Topaz Labs processing software.

Winter no longer holds me hostage, and I am ever grateful for this hobby of photography that gives me reason to venture out in any kind of weather.

Starting Points

"We cannot live our lives constantly looking back, listening back, lest we be turned to pillars of longing and regret, but to live without listening at all is to live deaf to the fullness of the music."                                                          

                                                                                                     ~ Frederick Buechner

For the past two years, I have spent each morning while eating breakfast feasting on the words of C.S. Lewis, reading a gathered collection of stories from his books in the devotional A Year with C.S. Lewis. I have gained many insights from Mr. Lewis, but I knew that after two trips through the book, my time with him was coming to a close.

I have heard the words of Frederick Buechner mixed into Sunday sermons over the years of church attendance, yet I had never been moved enough (or maybe I just hadn't heard the right words) to seek out any of his books. That is until this fall when my daughter, who is constantly moved by words, checked out a couple of Frederick Buechner's books from our local library. She instantly fell in love with his book Longing for Home. As a fellow word girl, she was excited to share what she was reading with me. I was moved by his words as I read them, they were like life lines being thrown, pulling me back to the safety of the shore.

I was soon on Amazon, adding some of his books to my shopping cart - one of them was Listening to Your Life, Daily Meditations. I had found my new daily devotional. Unfortunately Longing for Home is out of print, but there was a Kindle version available for $2.99, so I ordered that for my iPad. I was able to obtain a "new-used" book for my daughter from an independent bookseller as a Christmas present, she only likes to read tangible books.

I wrote in my last post that I was half-heartedly going through Susannah Conway's Unraveling the Year Ahead, hoping to find some direction for 2016. Mostly it was just depressing as I looked back at all the hopes and dreams I set sail with at the beginning of 2015, most of which never reached their destination, having sunk in the months between January and December.

On Monday, January 4, I read the above quote from Mr. Buechner in my new devotional. Those words gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get on with some plans for 2016. All those hopes and dreams last year were just starting points, they weren't end destinations. I should know by now anyway, that I am not a destination girl. Instead of living with regret, I am going to rejoice in what I did accomplish, which was a lot, and move joyfully into 2016.

In 2016 I am going to be much kinder to myself, not spelling out such specific details. Instead I am going to be open to the process, focusing on three areas of creative growth - photography, writing, and mixed media collage. This year I am setting sail without a care or concen for the destination.

What to Read in 2016

Our family loves books, which is evident the moment you step through our front door and into our living room. As you turn your head slightly to the right, you are struck by the sight of four, floor to ceiling, every shelf full, mahogany-brown, wooden bookcases.

Generally though, you won't find me sitting at a desk in the middle of the living room, like a librarian waiting to check your books out. I took this self-portrait earlier in the year for one of Vivienne McMaster's self-portraiture classes, now I finally have a reason to use it.

The library bookcases were something we had long talked about investing in. Two years ago, when we updated the furniture and wall color, we made the commitment to purchase some aesthetically pleasing bookcases to house part of our vast collection of books.

The last few days I have been half-heartedly going through Susannah Conway's Unraveling the Year Ahead workbook, hoping as I answer the questions, I will find my direction for 2016. But after reading through the workbook,  I have not settled on a "word" to pin my hopes and dreams to for the year ahead. I always feel that somehow I let my word down every year, not living up the potential it saw in me. So I have bypassed those questions for the time being.

 A little farther into the questions about 2016, I came to one that had me scrambling around the house gathering books and quickly filling three pages of journaling in my Inspiration Journal...List three books that you want to read in 2016?

Only three? I had already gathered a stack of ten, and that didn't even include the books on my iPad waiting to be read, or the e-books I have stored in iBooks.

I love to read, and in 2015 I re-devoted time and energy to learning, most of all learning through reading. One reflection note from 2015, I have found I do best if I am reading one inspirational book and one just for fun book at the same time. I need the constant influx of inspiration in my life that reading creative related books provides, but I also need a just for fun book to read before bed. Each book I read tends to be a spring-board to another book that wasn't on my Goodreads "to-be-read" list, no wonder that list never gets any smaller.

Instead of choosing only three books, I made two piles of three books each. One pile for inspiration books and one pile for just-for-fun books. Here is what I have so far:

Inspiration books

Just for Fun books

I will start with these six and see where they lead me. Unfortunately there isn't any room on those  aesthetically pleasing, wooden bookshelves in the living room for these books when I finish them. Maybe we will have to start another library area downstairs in the family room. Oh wait there already are four, half bookcases down there, well...maybe the music room...

New Year's Bonus

Some fun facts about me and my reading habits

• I prefer to lie down when reading, unfortunately more often than not, that leads to napping.
• I have been keeping a list of all the books I have read since I was 20, in 27 years I have read 947 books. It really seems like it should be more.
• I set a goal on Goodreads each year of how many books I want to read during that year. For 2015 my goal was 40 books. I will fall a couple of books short, but still not shabby. 
• For 2016 I think I will set my Goodreads goal for 30, then I can read thicker books and not feel so bad.
• I have a whole bookcase next to my side of the bed, filled with books I have not read yet... maybe I could open a library.
• I am happy reading on my iPad or reading real, tangible books.
• Real books photograph better though
• I love bookstores, especially independent ones. 
• Glen and I use to dream of owning an indie bookstore when we retired.
• I always read when I am eating alone.
• I must read before bed
• The one advantage to throwing my back out is that I can lay on the couch for hours and read and not feel at all guilty. 

I would love to hear what you want to read in 2016. And if you are on Goodreads - let's be friends!

The Year of the Project

At the start of 2015, I had great aspirations and high hopes for a year long photography/writing project. I spent the final months of 2014 plotting and planning it.

My project, A Year Beside the Water, was going to be a documentation of photographs and stories gained from a year of weekly explorations to various bodies of water around my area. I had a notebook filled with thoughts and ideas about the project. I even started a new blog on Squarespace to house this life changing project.

On January 1st it started, and it started out with great enthusiasm, as most new projects do. I wrote stories about my youth, and about growing up on a dead-end, gravel county road that ended at a peaceful, winding river. I spent many childhood days exploring along the edge of that river, this is probably where my love of water and exploring began.

Shortly into the month of January the snow began to fall, which was not a surprise since I live in Michigan. I used my project to propel me out of the house to photograph landscapes of white, and ice instead of water.  My project kept me from becoming housebound during the winter months.

Spring came, I documented the melting of the snow and ice, and the return of color to the landscape.

The project was going smoothly until the middle of April, roughly 100 days into it. I was preparing for a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to celebrate our daughter's graduation from college, and then we were packing her up and moving her back home. I continued to take pictures of water, but the ability to pen words to go with those pictures seemed to have gotten lost in the hustle and bustle of life.

Following closely on the heels of graduation, and the move home, was our first family vacation in a few years, a week long trip to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. The only water there was waterfalls with tourists crawling all over them, not very inspiring to write about and impossible to photograph.

In June, home and settled for the summer, I picked the project back up again. I decided to make weekly visits to our local state park which is on the shores of Lake Michigan, and about a five minute drive from my house. I spent early mornings watching the sun rise, and wandering the pier where the fishermen set up camp for the morning (I am not convinced they came to catch fish, I think most of them came for the fellowship of other fisher people). I strolled along the sandy edge of the beach, empty of sun-worshippers at that time of the morning.

The project continued for a short while once these weekly visits began. Eventually though the words dried up all together, but my love for photography grew by leaps and bounds. I was soon making multiple trips to the beach each week, just to wander with my camera. By the end of June I had stopped documenting on the Squarespace blog altogether, I never returned to it.

I thought I had started the project because I wanted to document a year's worth of change to the landscape and to myself. But looking back now, I started the project because I needed a reason to get out shooting again, I needed to fall in love with photography again. And it worked.

Setting Boundaries

I have been thinking a lot about boundaries lately, especially as the new year approaches. I know some things that I want to do and some changes that I need to make.

As a self-proclaimed explorer I am always drawn to boundaries, precious things lie within man-made boundaries and that is why signs are posted to protect them.

So, if I know that precious things that need to be protected lie within boundaries, why do I have such a hard time creating boundaries to protect myself and my work?

"How can we expect people to put value on our work when we don't value ourselves enough to set and hold uncomfortable boundaries?"                                                                        

                                                                                            ~Brene Brown, Rising Strong

Most of my struggles with boundaries are related to protecting my time. Most people naturally assume that because I don't work I have lots of time on my hands, and that I would be delighted to help them with their projects, because I most certainly must be bored, and they are doing me a favor by giving me something to do. I, in turn, feel guilty because I don't have to work, and I should have the time to help them with their projects. Some truly are worthy projects, and I am delighted to help, making use of the photography and writing skills that God has given me. Other times though, helping out suddenly turns into me being in charge of the project, and way more time consuming than I signed up for. 

Once again my work, which I don't paid for, so it isn't really work - it's just a hobby, gets pushed to the far back burner. Once again I have let someone take advantage of my time. 

I have tried setting designated work days for myself in the past, and I usually hold to them for a month or two. Until there is a doctor's appointment that needs to be made, and their first available opening is on my work day, if I don't take that one how long will I have to wait for the next one. Or I set a date for lunch with a friend and the only day she can make it the whole month is on one of my work days. These little hiccups in the schedule seem innocent enough, but over time they keep adding up, and pretty soon I am not holding myself to any work days at all. 

Well, beginning January 5, 2016 this is all going to change. I am setting boundaries. I am going to have two designated work days per week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. No more appointments, no more lunches with friends on those days. Whether those days are spent writing, out on an adventure photographing, or processing photos from those adventures, that doesn't matter. What matters is that I am finally taking myself and my work seriously.

I am setting the necessary boundaries so that I can open the Etsy shop I have always talked about opening, so that I can start and finish writing pieces that I want to submit to various publications, so that I can process the hundreds of photos on my computer, and even get some printed to hang on my walls. 

Maybe someday I will get paid for my work, but then again maybe I won't, that doesn't make my work any less important than anybody else's work. If what I write or what I photograph makes a difference in even one person's life, I consider myself paid and paid richly.