Lately

I’ve been taking photos lately but the holidays have kept me busy. Now that we’re past all that, I had a minute to post something. One really cool thing that happened was one of my photos got selected for the 52 Picks album on 52 Frames, where I’ve been submitting photos weekly for 23 weeks so far. The challenge that week was Fill the Frame. I have to admit I was super excited to see it featured. I got the email that it had been chosen on Christmas Day, so Merry Christmas to me! LOL. Here’s the image:

The next week’s challenge, for the new year, was self-portrait. I am NOT a self-portrait kind of person, but you know, I’m old enough to be able to do that without it being a big deal. And it actually was kind of fun. I figured out how to get my camera to focus and shoot with the app on my phone, which was pretty cool. Then once I was done, the kids who were visiting got in on it, and I even did everyone’s passport photos. Fun times!

Hazel is always in on it.

Also for one challenge, I went to the woods near here and got a couple of fun shots, I thought:

And I have a new obsession: fountain pens. Apparently it’s a whole thing with pen shows, YouTube channels and all of it. So I said goodbye to some more money and have been buying pens, ink, paper…but they just write so nicely. It makes it a joy, and it’s becoming a lost art, in a way. I had some time to go through some of my old boxes of “stuff” and found all these old letters from my dad, mom, grandparents, aunts, friends. And just seeing their handwriting was really moving, but also when I’d see it, I would know immediately who it was from without looking at the signature, and it was such a nice thing to see. So I want to do more letter writing. I think it’s just such a great thing.

And I’ll close with some fun photos from the holiday break from the iPhone (new one, 17 Pro…it’s nice).