And So it Begins....

The other day I had a birthday.

I am now 61 years old, plus three days. The older I get, the harder it is to believe I'm getting older. Mostly I feel exactly as I did years and years ago for which I'm grateful. May that feeling continue.

Before Jonathan and Alissa went to Universal Studios for a rainy day excursion, they gave me a gigantic, and I mean gigantic, photography book, they bought during their New York holiday this year. God bless them for carting it back to Austin, and then to Orlando.

I spent about half of my birthday in my pajamas, the other half dressed, reading the very inspiring book. Let's just say that I can hardly wait to get back on the road again!

Going to my computer, I began looking at my photographs, and more specifically to January 2013, wondering what we did back then. An excellent resource I must say.

On that note, let's take a look back before we get too far into the new year. On January 2, the new windows were installed! The weather was very much the same this year.

Looking back at a previous years' photos I always find some that I wonder why I did not post before, and this would be one of them. The idea that one guy is inside, while the other is outside, and really just how windows are installed, is really fascinating to me. I remember how thrilled I was when I took the photo below showing the difference.

It is about time I cleaned those windows, and that time is today!

I won't be seeing this in the paper this year after the beat down our Seminoles took in the Rose Bowl.

We all went over to Bill's house to watch the game, which if you have eyes, or ears, you know we all left very disappointed. At least we were together! I will say that all Seminole fans are now in for a much needed break from the relentless media pummeling. In spite of JW being exonerated by three different sets of investigators, the perception, fueled by the media, remains. Enough said on the subject.

January began our marathon painting year....the sunroom got a fresh face.

And of course there were many beautiful winter sunsets.

We began working on the transformation of Bill's place....

that would be a gigantic dumpster in the driveway, one of two that were filled in the course of the project.

It was during January that I had my first sighting of the painted bunting! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for one any day now.

I tried and failed to launch a coaster line...

a project that turned out to be not only too much work, but unpredictable as well. And the folks on the internet made it look so easy!

Planning our late March visit to England for Matt's wedding started in January...

The guide book made no mention of a potential Queen sighting! It is still hard to believe we saw her twice isn't it?

The photos showed that apparently I couldn't stop making stuff, including this little piece using the cut up envelopes from my birthday cards.

This will not be happening again, or at least this year, when the envelopes were mostly white. I will say on my dreary birthday this year there was a bit of color added when the door bell rang--a flower delivery guy bringing a lovely bouquet from Matt and Tom. The roses are my favorite color--orange!

And that, my friends, was about as interesting as it got last January....wonder what this January will bring?

Before I go, I posted this one on Facebook, but to any who've not seen it, I took this on December 29, 2014. Watching the eagle from the backyard of the kind folks that own the house, I got lucky, or maybe my patience has increased? Anyway, one never knows when a bird will take off and I count myself very lucky to have gotten this shot.

May 2015 have you soaring into great new adventures! Me too, I hope.