I Took a Day Off.

My son and DIL host Christmas every year and my DIL's Mom does Christmas Eve. They're both always fun with plenty of excellent food and games. I managed to get all the gifts wrapped and the pies finished early on Christmas Eve so was able to enjoy those events without having to worry about coming home and finishing something.

Nevertheless, by the time Christmas Day arrived, I was worn out from 3 months of life's little surprises, including more eye surgery. I declared Saturday "MY DAY". A day when I was going to do absolutely nothing except what I wanted, including doing nothing. And it worked. My daughter and hubby left me alone all day. That really is rare, but it was much appreciated.

I spent a good part of the day playing with some old photos.

This is an old falling down adobe shack in Arizona. I've messed with this image off and on for a long time. I never could get anything that I was happy with. I kinda like this one, though.

This is the desert in West Texas. We were on our way to Big Bend National Park. The deserts of the west hold a fascination for a lot of people. I am not one of those but will admit in the right conditions they have a very unique beauty. I would like to go back.

One of my favorite states to visit is Maine. I've tried for years to get hubby to buy a vacation cottage there. I love the rocky coastline and all the working fishing ports. I had a ball pulling out, and exaggerating, all the colors that were in this "poster-like" image.

Back to the fog again. These were taken in Gloucester Mass. We had the very best New England clam chowder in a restaurant here. On this trip, they had an unexpected cold spell along with rain and fog which was perfect weather for the chowder.

A face only a mother could love. But, isn't it cute?

I think I have mentioned this before, but I really enjoy living museums. These photos were taken at Williamsburg, Virginia.
The weather was gorgeous, it was early in the morning, and the lighting was beautiful. The original image of the guys yakking by the cart is colorful and sunny. Somehow it just didn't seem right for this shot.

Out of the Dark into the Light. Standing in the shadows looking out across the brightly lit field, that's the first thing I thought.

I love both depictions of the same image . The top one is the original one. What I saw that day. The bottom one reminds me of some of the hand colored images of that era that I have seen.

I have been to several Revolutionary war battle sites, Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge, even Fort Ticonderoga and to several Civil War battle sites including, Vicksburg, Gettysburg and, this one, Shiloh. There are others, but this one, for some reason, affected me the most. I don't know if it was the early fall morning coupled with the solitude of no one else being there, the knowledge of the massive number of lives lost or just the beautiful, now serene setting itself. I just know it did.
Maybe it is because if I weren't a Texan, I would be a Tennessean.