Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
Do you have a Leap Year tradition? If I have one, I can’t remember what it is.
It would be fun to have something you do every 4 years.
As it is, I’m just looking at it as an extra day. There’s usually not a February 29, so anything you actually accomplish is bonus, right?
Also, I’m pretty sure calories don’t count, which is good because my local Culver’s is offering 29-cent custard cones for the occasion. But maybe I should leap a few times just to make sure.
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After looking back at what an app considered my top photos from last year, I realized the app doesn’t really know my life.
So this year, I’ll be choosing one of my Instagram photos each month that speaks to where I’m at in some way and sharing it here as my own Photo of the Month.
For January, I chose this photo from the foggy day we visited Monticello during our DC and Virginia trip. Phillip and I enjoyed exploring the grounds, and the fog added a layer of romance and mystery.
Also, I find myself drawn to photos with empty seats in them. Maybe when I see this type of image, it makes me feel like there’s a place for me in the space. Maybe I take them (and post them), so you can feel like there’s a place for you in my photos too.
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News of the attacks on Paris is heartbreaking. And the rumors about attackers having entered Europe as refugees, having been saved from a sinking ship, rocks my core and tests my belief that kindness changes people.
And yet, as individuals who are not world leaders or aid organizations, maybe the best we can do is still kindness – to give a stranger directions, be patient with someone who is struggling with your language, invite someone over who is far from their hometown.
Maybe kindness can’t prevent every violent act. But, in the long run, I think it’s our best hope.
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Images made with Stamen Design mapping utility. CCL. (Heart added with Skitch.)
This is Frida. We realized after naming Frida that the colorful Bettas with the long tails are actually males. But I’m pretty sure fish don’t care about our gender norms.
After some research I learned that (a) Bettas like having plants in their tank – both to hide in and to keep the water oxygenated (b) they can tear their fins on plastic plants (c) they can coexist with live pothos plants. There are other plants that are even more recommended for fish tanks, but I thought I’d start with what I have and add a pothos cutting to the tank. Frida likes to swim around it and sleep on top of a leaf near the surface like it’s a hammock.
Bettas are more interactive than a lot of fish. They notice you and recognize the people that feed them, doing a little happy/feed me dance when you walk by.
I seriously didn’t know one little fish could make me smile so much.
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Not everyone gets to spend an anniversary in Italy. And I feel really lucky to be celebrating 11 years with Phillip.
We arrived in Florence mid-afternoon. We didn’t have time to visit the monastery, so our first stop was a winery just outside of the city. The entrance gate was open, and we were taking photos of some adorable donkeys munching when a woman rushed out and said they weren’t open that day.
So we headed back and decided to stop at the visitor center, which shares a building with a museum of the history of Florence. The building itself has been many things over the years, including a hospital. The museum held artifacts from World War II, old medicinal bottles, and stories about Florence’s important families of the past from a time when it was the economic center of the region.
There is a nice little park across the street. We sat on a bench to rest before walking through the old part of town, past a church surrounded by olive trees to the courthouse, just as the sun was starting to turn the landscape golden.
The visitor center had recommended a restaurant that makes fresh bread daily. The weather was practically perfect, so we sat in the courtyard, dipping that delicious, house-made bread in olive oil while we waited for our meal.
At some point in the day, Phillip said something like “hey, we are in Florence!” And we laughed about it.
Because we were in Florence. But we weren’t in Italy. The trip we had hoped to take across the Atlantic this year didn’t work out. I’m not gonna lie, that’s a bummer. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t enjoy the afternoon on Phillip’s day off. He suggested we take a drive and wanted to check out Florence, Arizona (about an hour southeast of us). While it’s not the birthplace of the Rennaissance, we still laughed, ate good food, and explored together.
Not everyone gets to spend an anniversary in Italy. And I feel really lucky to be celebrating 11 years with Phillip.
Photos:
1. Statue next to The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church.
2. Donkeys at The Windmill Winery. The tasting room is open Wednesday through Saturday.
3-4. Items from Italian and German WWII prisoners’ camp in Florence – on exhibit at the Florence Visitor Center/McFarland State Historic Park.
5. Brick building on Main Street.
6-8. A&M Pizza. Not fancy, but they did have some seriously good bread, great service, and a nice big outdoor seating area.
9. Main Street.
10-11. A&M.
12. Pinal County Courthouse
