Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 

Happy New Year 2023

We never really celebrated New Year in our house growing up. It was just a quiet evening at home watching Dick Clark. The last time we visited with our friends in Virginia was three years ago. It was getting to be a tradition to visit them some time between Christmas and New Year. One of them recently had Covid so those hopes were dashed - again. The pandemic definitely changed how we do things and most of those were not for the better. But one tradition we still have is to celebrate the turning of the clock at midnight. So yesterday I dug out the red and yellow party hats from the closet. Because my husband loves Dolly Parton we turned the tv to her New Year show with Miley Cyrus - a very unusual thing indeed since we always watch the New York crystal ball drop. Right before midnight we put on our hats - my husband the red one and me the green one. Then I take a few selfies to capture the moment and put to bed the old year and wish for health and happiness in the new. We are desperate to get our lives back to “normal.” I think being in the older age group really affected what we do and don’t do. We haven’t traveled anywhere outside of the neighboring area and have been fairly limited for three years. Every time we begin to feel more comfortable and confident another problem arises. I’m not sure when it will ever be the same again. So we hope the new year really is a change from the last - three. For starters the sun is bright and it’s sixty degrees on the first day in January. We are off to a great start! 

Happy New Year!

I didn’t know what photo to use. There’s just not that much to celebrate. Luckily this holiday was never really a big celebration when we were growing up. It’s just another day. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that I have been writing a daily photo blog for the last six years - and I mean every day! Regardless of where I was, or how busy I got, I always found the time to write a few notes and attach a few photos. That was until this year when I was swamped with requests for digital are pet portraits for the holidays. Somehow I was just not able to keep up, or be as structured as I usually am.  So something had to give. Or maybe, I finally realized that missing a day or two wasn't the end of the world and I was placing too much emphasis on getting it done so regularly. Or maybe I retired almost a year ago and hadn't quite figured out how to relax completely. There definitely is always something to write about, and as long as I enjoy it I will continue to do it. So, if a post is missed here and there in 2017 that's not such a bad thing. It's time to start having less deadlines and stress. After all, I'm not really working anymore. I may have just figured that out!

A Drive Along the GW Parkway

After lunch in Alexandria, we headed towards Mount Vernon along the GW Parkway. It is one of my favorite rides all along the Potomac River. And being a holiday weekend with weather that is still reasonable to walk in, there was a lot of activity. The parking lot was filled at George Washington's house, and there were plenty of walkers, bikers, and runners all along the path back to Alexandria. And if you are interested in water fowl, the geese and ducks were aplenty. Oh, and did I mention all the pooches? It wasn't quite a sunny as was predicated, but it didn't seem to bother the new year revelers. You never know what you'll see along the parkway. We haven't spotted any eagles for quite some time, but there remain a lot of nest remnants from season's past. Let's hope we see a few of these magnificent birds in the spring. It's such a great place -  for them and for us. 

A Belated Happy Birthday, Christmas, and New Year Moby Dick Party

Since we were sick with the horrible viral respiratory illness for several weeks, we canceled our Christmas - and then New Year get togethers with family. There were also a couple birthdays in between that were missed. We traditionally have pierogis and kielbasa. Since we are finally feeling better and the Polish fare is long gone, we rescheduled the holiday feast to a much more casual dinner for tomorrow late afternoon. It will be a Moby Dick take out dinner with all the "fixins." So we will all gather here and order from the now ragged menu, the drive to Arlington to pick up the kabobs, salads, bread, and eggplant dishes. To make it a little more festive, we thought it would be nice to have an assortment of desserts and ice cream, and fresh tulips. Of course, the requisite tea will be served when all is done. Luckily, none of us are die hard football fans, so we won't be missing anything. It's just nice to know we have family in the area, and can plan a celebration at any time of the year. 

A Hard Day's Night Happy New Year

We like old movies. We watch them all the time. They are all queued up when there is nothing else to watch - which is quite frequent. We also love television. Not a lot of people will admit to it. But our favorite place is sitting on the couch in front of our TV and enjoying the show. Since we've been cooped up over a week now with this dreadful respiratory virus flu thing, we've even been watching more of them. We stumbled across A Hard Day's Night in between other shows and stuck to it. Being New Year's Eve, it's always a time to remember what was, and think about what might be. As I'm getting older, I'm not sure I like to think about what might be. My husband is the eternal optimist and has such a happy go lucky attitude about everything. We sort of balance each other out. So as we were watching last night, it took me back to 1964. I do remember going to see the movie with someone at a Saturday matinee. My favorite Beatle was John to begin with, and somewhere along the line it changed to Ringo. I even named my parakeet after him. All I could think about was how much this music became such a part of my life even to this day. Whether it was really that good or not - I can't be the judge. But it was definitely a phenomenon that I was happy to be a part of. 

Preparing For Persian New Year

As a lot of folks are preparing for Easter, others are preparing for New Year celebrations. In our family, that means fire jumping and eating sweets, calling on your loved one while clanking spoons together, and reading a Haffiz passage or two. In the alley behind our son's house the scene was set, and all the kids in our grandson's grade school class were invited to stop by for this traditional Iranian affair. I don't ever recall having an experience quite like this when I was growing up, and being in a multicultural family and neighborhood like ours makes life all the more interesting. So the alley was blocked off so any stray car could not pass through, and the neighbors all around were invited to join in. Then the story telling began and the kids all seemed to have a wonderful time- but really, I think the parents enjoyed it all even more.

Traditional fire jumping

 

The older folks need the sweets more than the kids- so the story goes

 

Traditional Persian pastries and nuts

A memorable evening

Thank You!

My friend reminded me the other day that my blog just celebrated the first year anniversary. I have been persistently and consistently entering some bit of information, observation, or art every day since it started. If I knew I was going to be away, I made sure to keep up with it using my IPhone. Its been a great learning experience. And since I started it, I have been really paying a lot of attention to my digital art. I created Picasa Web Albums, the LIT's Digital Art and Such Facebook page, connected the entries to Twitter, and published my first children's digital book through StoryChimes- with another one in the queue about a tiny fish, and three more cooking. You could say it's like my first annual report - or accomplishments in FY 11 - something we always need to do in any work place or for a performance evaluation. But this review is certainly more fun because it is all about doing the things I always loved to do - take pictures, draw, and write. Today I noticed that the number of page views surpassed the 5,000 mark! I never thought it would ever get that high so quickly. So I want to take a minute to thank you all for trying it out and hope you will continue to follow it for whatever reason. Thanks!

It all started a year ago

Thanks for looking around!

BLOOMS, ALLERGIES, and NEW YEAR

This is a beautiful time of the year. My friend tells me that the Star Magnolia by the Library of Congress Jefferson Building is the first to bloom on Capitol Hill every spring. But if you have allergies, it can be rather painful. Luckily, I don't seem to have whatever everyone else does. My husband, on the other hand, does. We don't remember having this phenomenon up north. And as we look at the beautiful blooms and flowers around the neighborhood, we are reminded of another splendid holiday. We would like to wish a Happy New Year to all of our Persian family, friends and everyone else in between!

The Jefferson Building

Along Independence Avenue

The Jefferson Building

A bee's delight!

Beautiful!