Ten Things of Thankful

Absence from blogging often can be attributed to other writing deadlines, illness, travel, or family commitments. In my case, my time away from the blogging world has been due to some vacations. Although I have been away, I have been thankful for numerous things during that time. Now I'm ready to settle back at the computer with some thoughts to share. Josie's blog hop is a perfect place to share my post. Click on Ten Things of Thankful and read what others have to share this week.

1. Vacations - We celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary by going to Oahu and Maui, one week at each island. Neither one of us had ever gone to Hawaii, so we were glad to be able to see and experience what so many have shared with us. We were only home for about a week, when we took off to visit our daughter and family in Vermont. Although we had visited there before, our trips had never coincided with "leaf peeping" time, until now.

2. Colors  - I'm thankful that I am able to see colors.

I love the graduated blues in this ocean beach photo. The clear sky at the top is true blue which becomes a lighter blue as it appears closer to the ocean. White billowy clouds seem to float in the sky right above the ocean. The distant ocean water appears to be more of a dark blue-green color which lightens in color the closer it is to the tan colored sandy beach. The line of the beach is like a giant number three, with the middle of the three lined with rocks and jutting out into the ocean. Some large conifer trees are growing near the shore at the right upper edge of the photo. Some clumps of grasses appear through the sand at the lower right side of the photo as well as the right side of the lower part of the photo.

Green grass is shown on the bottom eighth of the photo. Beautiful red, yellow and orange leafed trees adorn the lowlands and upward slopes. A few dark green conifers are mixed in with the bright colors and provide a beautiful contrast. The sky is a pale blue with a couple of low flat purplish-grey clouds almost sitting on the crest of a couple of the hills. This photo was taken late in the afternoon in Vermont.

This photo was taken mid morning in Vermont. The colors are striking with all the maple and other deciduous trees with their variations of orange, green, red and yellow leaves.  About a third of the lower part of the photo is mowed light green grass. The upper eighth of the photo is pale blue-grey sky devoid of clouds. 

3. Multiplicity of uses for tools - A friend had offered me the use of some walking sticks to use when we traveled to Hawaii, but we weren't able to pack them and decided my husband's photography tripod would be a good substitute since he was taking it with him. I only needed to rely on it a few times. He held on to the closed tripod and placed it in front of me so I could navigate some difficult spots.  

4. Seeing creatures I hadn't seen before in their natural habitat

This large green sea turtle is feeding on some true green algae and lime green algae on the shore where it meets the ocean. The underside of his body is resting in the ocean water as it approaches the shore.

This little brown gecko appeared from under a sofa in one of the places we were staying in Hawaii. He was only about two inches long. He didn't bother us and we didn't bother him.

5. Opportunities to learn new things and to review what I once knew - Way back when, I took a couple of years of Spanish in high school and a semester of Spanish in college. When someone recently mentioned a free online language app, I decided to give it a try. It can't hurt, and it will help keep my mind active.

Since this weekend is the Worldwide Indexing Event, I decided to give it a try again. It is now possible to do the indexing online which is different from how it used to be done. I was able to use my iPad too.  The indexing event is open to one and all.

Do you ever learn how to do something quite by accident? I've had a couple of experiences like that recently with both the computer and with my camera. Love it when that happens!

6. Photography skills of my husband - When visiting Vermont, the subject of senior class photos came up in the conversation. He offered to take photos of the twins for their yearbook while we were there and has been busy doing the touch-up work on the photos since we got home.

7. Sewing skills - Although I didn't quite make it to the sewing part yet, I was able to cut out a couple of baby gowns from the fabric of a donated wedding dress. A local charity accepts the dresses for the purpose of giving them to the hospital to have on hand to give to the parents of stillborn babies.

8. Signs that make me laugh

As we approached the red stop sign at the end of the block, there was a No Exit sign.  It would have been helpful to have a No Exit sign at the beginning of the block.

One of the signs on the peaked end of the red painted covered bridge before entering Northfield Falls, Vermont, says
SPEED LIMIT
HORSES AT A WALK
MOTOR VEHICLES
10 MILES PER HR

Beautiful fall colored foliage in the background of a Vermont white road sign. The sign is trimmed in red with red letters saying
NO
PARKING
ON TRAVELED
LANE

9. Sounds in nature

From the right side of the photo the white foam and azure ocean waves crash against the black  craggy boulders on the shore at the top and flow on to the black sandy beach on the left. Low growing green foliage is flourishing above the boulders and is creeping down the face of the boulders. 

10. My husband and our family

There were so many of these cairns in this river bed in Vermont.  The photo just shows three of them. To me they resemble family groups, and like families sometimes have to do a balancing act to stay strong and support one another. The variations of grey, brown, and blue in the rippling water under the cairns is a peaceful scene to me. A large flat boulder appears to encircle this art work of cairns. 

May you have a peaceful week.