January 31

I've managed to take at least one photo a day for a whole month now. This is another "one shot" day.

January 30 - out at Johnson's Mound

We joined the Fox Valley Bicycle and Ski Club for a winter outing at Johnson's Mound Forest Preserve yesterday. This was taken while I was snowshoeing for the first time.

January 29

Krissy doesn't want to share her food with anyone, but Mousey is OK.

January 28

I think this one is self explanatory.

January 27

Most days I'm not getting around to pictures until evening. This day, I saw what I wanted when I got in the car to go to work - before wiping the snow from the windshield. This is the elm in our front yard through the snow.

January 26 - Ultra Foods

This was a "one shot" day. We went grocery shopping and then out to dinner. This shelf of aloe drinks (!!) is what caught my eye.

January 25, 2011

After the bike club's walk this evening, I stopped at a park beside the Fox River to see if I could take a reasonable picture. While I couldn't hold the camera still enough for the 1 second exposure this told me I needed, I kind of liked the vertical lines that resulted.

January 24, 2011

As long as I was going outside to get the latest layer of snow off the driveway, I figured I'd take the camera with me and see what I could find. Shadows are nice when the leaves are off the trees and bushes.

Sunday, January 23

Some melting today after frigid weather...and our gutters are frozen, so we're getting water over the side and ice sculptures on our bushes. It's not good for the bushes (or the gutters!) but it is pretty and sparkly. We had sun today too, which is great.

Saturday, January 22

After shoveling the light snow yesterday morning, I was headed for my Secular Franciscan fraternity meeting...and saw this chunk of snow on the sidewalk shaped very much like the Franciscan Tau cross. Yes, it's from my boots...but it still looks like a Tau.

Friday, January 21

At this time of year, any sign of lengthening daylight is a GOOD thing. When my workdays always end after dark, it's pretty depressing. While I was still at work when I took this sunset picture over the "new" building (now almost 13 years old), at least it was near the end of the workday AND there was still some light. Hoping for spring...

January 20, 2011

This crystal water lily was illuminated from the side with a small LED flashlight. (Maybe I get a point for trying a different lighting technique...)

January 19, 2011 - cat closeness

When we got home from taking the orange cat (OC for short) to the vet last night, he wanted to be close to Krissy more than he wanted food! Krissy, on the other hand, wanted to eat more than she wanted to get away from OC. So...tails were touching (though only for as long as it took for Krissy to satisfy her initial hunger).

January 18, 2011

A variation on the theme from Saturday - this time taken outdoors. I think all the little marks in the snow are from birds. I liked the minimalist effect of the snow-covered rock and the twigs with the marked-up snow.

January 17, 2011 - ice and snow

This odd-looking picture is actually a street light taken through my windshield while rain/sleet was sliding down the windshield. I took several of these while waiting in the parking lot across the street from our home while Dave worked to get the driveway passable (both for a car and for humans). None of the pictures I tried look as interesting as I had hoped, but it was at least an experiment (and got me to pay some attention to my surroundings, which is part of the point of photography for me).

Sunday, January 16

I was hoping to find a subject in daylight today, but it was dreary and not too promising outdoors. I walked into St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Crystal Lake and the first thing I noticed was this bright stained glass window. Problem solved.

Saturday, January 15: Footprints

Late Saturday afternoon when I still hadn't found a subject to photograph, I looked out of our bedroom window and saw various footprints in the snow. This took a fair amount of post-processing to look the way I wanted it to, but it worked. (No, I don't know what made the prints.)

Catching up on posts: January 14, 2011

I've managed a picture a day for a couple of weeks, but posting them is another issue. This relaxed cat was Friday night's subject.

January 13, 2011 - Northern Illinois Food Bank

Spent the evening with other members of the bike club at the Northern Illinois Food Bank in St. Charles, packing boxes like this for senior citizens. The club only volunteers in the winter months when we can't ride, but it's a good thing to do any time.

I will always associate this activity with the first time Dave volunteered...November 11, the day we knew that Mom was dying. It was good that he could be with other people and working on something worthwhile that night.

January 12, 2011 (posted a day late)

This was taken outside the Batavia Public Library before I went in for the Fox Valley Bicycle and Ski Club meeting. I expected the church to look much brighter than it did.

On to today's photo.

January 11, 2011 - snowy Tuesday

Not really a bad day here, weather-wise - the 3-5 inches of snow predicted was pretty much 3 inches of light snow at our house, and when I hear about the snowfalls in the South, we got off VERY easy. I have a fondness for milkweed pods (I went crazy photographing them with my first digital camera, late one afternoon when the light was just right) so the snow on the pods seemed like a natural choice. So far, it's a novelty for me to be able to photograph something in daylight (even with heavy overcast). I'll look forward to spring for that.

January 10, 2011

It's been a busy day and a busy evening, so the cats get photographed again. As you can see, the orange cat is NOT on the bed (he's actually on the top step of the cat stairs) and Krissy is on the bed and about as far away from him as she can get. However, it's QUIET (mostly) which is a huge improvement for Krissy.

Sunday, January 9 - Epiphany party on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

We had a party the way Secular Franciscans do it - with Mass and then lots of good food! Nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon in January.

January 8, 2011

This is a drive-by photo of some of the remaining Christmas lights - a lovely display of snowflakes. This one is significant not because of the quality of the picture, but because Dave really encouraged me to take this (even to the point of driving by a second time so I could be prepared and on the right side of the car). I don't always share my goals with him because I think he may see them as unimportant or silly...but it's good that I told him I was trying to take a picture a day this year, because he IS helping, suggesting photo ops, etc. (I did take some other photos on Saturday the 8th, but all things considered, I liked this one the best.)

January 7, 2011 - patterns

This is just part of a piece of electrical equipment (maybe a heat sink). I saw it in passing and liked the pattern.

A lot of my life is spent looking for patterns. In my work, I look for patterns of behavior to identify problems with the systems we develop. In the rest of my life, I look for patterns, too. Today I was thinking about the times I've said yes to various challenges presented to me - often situations where I see no alternative but to deal with the challenge, where others see that "no" is an option. I've accepted my second major job change in less than six months now - that's one kind of challenge. The more important ones, to me, are the difficult personal situations such as dealing with Mom's illness, or planning my father-in-law's homecoming when we had 24 hours to get everything ready for a bedridden person. Sometimes, particularly in the workplace, I wonder if I am too willing to say yes where I am told I'm needed; at home, I feel good about 'showing up' in these difficult situations - even if 'showing up' is often all I'm capable of. I know God puts me in these situations for a reason! For today, I'm content to recognize that I have said yes many times when it was important - all the times I've said no can wait.

January 6, 2011 - Epiphany

I've been putting off using the orange cat for my daily photo, but obviously I ran out of nighttime photo ops fairly quickly. This is a stray that we were feeding outdoors for several months before Dave brought him into the garage when the nights got too cold. Krissy is having to learn to deal with him...slowly.
I've really wanted to have another cat, but Krissy is so afraid that we didn't see how she would accept another cat, even though she's also lonely when we're both at work. This cat is so gentle and easygoing, he may be the ONE cat that will eventually get Krissy to accept him. What are the chances the right cat would show up at the right time? I'm grateful.

January 5, 2011 - New opportunities

Today I accepted a new assignment at work (which doesn't start until after we meet the deadline for what I'm doing now). It will be my second new assignment in six months - after working on the same project for six years before that. It's a really good match for my experience and I think it will be a positive change.

I'm continuing to struggle with balance now that I'm back to work. Photography was literally out the window - the car window, while I was waiting at a light, going to the vet's for medicine. At least one out of ten was reasonably interesting. I guess having to find time for everything does mean I am forced to try "nontraditional" photo opportunities like this. I didn't manage much exercise today - just 10 minutes of walking. I'm still sore from Monday's 15 minute workout! So go the resolutions...such as they are. Fortunately, I promised when I became a Secular Franciscan to pray morning and evening, so at least THAT stays.

January 4, 2011 - Jury duty

Spent the day at the county judicial center for jury duty. Despite the fact that it was a VERY cold day, we bundled up tonight and went to the bike club's evening walk - counting the leader, there were three of us tonight. Once we were moving, it really wasn't bad (at least not with the layers I was wearing). When we got back from the walk, I decided I liked the look of the sculpture at the entrance to the St. Charles Library. So here it is.

January 3, 2011 - back to work

It's harder to find time for a photo between work and getting home to take a cat to the vet. This is Christmas lights in the courtyard at work. I liked the blur in this one better than my other attempt.  I can almost pretend the fuzziness is intentional!

At this time of year, so many of us are trying to be more disciplined. I went to the gym today, too (just for 15 minutes of weights - 15 more than I've done in the past six months). I know, most resolutions are gone in a few weeks...these aren't resolutions (exactly). They are attempts to balance the things I WANT to do with the things I HAVE to do...and without practice, I won't improve.

January 2, 2011 - last day of vacation

I go back to work tomorrow, so we went to our favorite restaurant, Giordano's, tonight. Their specialty is stuffed pizza...yum.

It's been great to have ten days off from work, even though returning to work tomorrow will be a bit of a shock - I hope I'm ready to face the challenges ahead.

Happy New Year!

(Again, this was mis-posted yesterday, so I am moving it here a day later.)

We belong to the Fox Valley Bicycle and Ski Club (www.fvbsc.org). One of their traditions is a January 1st bike ride, regardless of the weather. Today it was dry but COLD...in the low 20s at ride time (at most) with a 25 mile-per-hour wind. I chose NOT to ride under those conditions (though I did walk for the whole time the ride was going on), but ~10 people in the club did ride. The photo above is Dave (my husband) setting out to ride home afterwards.

Starting anew

(I originally posted this on New Year's Eve...but on the other blog I manage. I am deleting this and my New Year's Day posting from that blog and moving them here.
)

It's New Year's Eve, 2010. It's been quite a year, especially the past few months. I've had major trips planned with my mom every year starting in 2004, but since Mom passed away on our final trip to Arizona this fall, I don't know what I'll be doing for 2011. The next year will be a time of change, that's all I can be sure of.

However, I have decided to at least try the discipline of committing myself to taking a photo a day. (This is a fairly standard photographic goal - one place that documents it is http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/. The photo above is just a starting point - I was out this afternoon and it was relatively warm, so I took a walk and liked this bramble at Ferson Creek Fen.

I plan to post my photos on the blog, as I did when I tried this for Lent 2009. We'll see how it goes.

Happy New Year!