Found Spring in a Hopeless Place

Who would have thought that the first place I'd spot some spring is a cracked corner of the garage on the edge of the driveway.

Project 52 - Week 13

While the weather is still a tad on the chilly side, the sun has been visiting more and more! Soon it'll be warm enough we can start cleaning up the mess and get things looking pretty again!

And it seems Mother Nature is about to help add some pretty to the world, some if the tree buds are getting ready to opening!

Project 52 - Week 12

Yay for a nice sunny day... even though it was very cold and windy out, it was nice to see some sunshine!

A Brief First Look of Spring

As I mentioned in Sunday's Project 52 post, I spent some time outside looking for signs of spring on the trees. Much to my surprise I found some! I can't wait for these little buds to start opening up!

However, just a few hours later, that fickle filly Mother Nature decided she wanted to give us some more snow. So I reshot some of the same buds... this time with a coating of the dreaded white stuff! It wasn't a lot, but it did put a damper on my nice springy photo shoot day!

I hope in a few weeks that cold and snow will finally say goodbye and I can retake these photos once the buds have had a chance to mature.

Project 52 - Week 11

I always take my picture of the week on Saturday, and was pleased to find that while it was really cold out, buds were starting to form on the trees and there were signs of springs starting to appear. I took my weekly shot, then went around to get some signs of spring photos for a post later this week.

The photos came out great and I can't wait to share them... however, this happend just a few hours later...

Yup, snow. It wasn't a lot, and didn't amount to anything, but it did leave a coating on the trees. You just have to love March weather in New England!

Project 52 - Week 10

When I asked for some color in the world last week, white was not what I had in mind! Let in snow, let it snow!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Memories...

And not all of them are always good.

Since I can remember, I've always had a camera in my hand. I loved taking photos of anyone that would let me and everything that was around me. When I was little I was a bit of a ham... loved having my photo taken. As I got older I became more behind the camera and but still enjoyed being in a picture. Until recently... packing on those extra pounds really makes you stay away from the from of the camera. But this post really isn't about photos of me... it's about the collection of photos I've gathered over the years.

With the digital age, it's easy to deal with a photo attached to bad memories. You can just delete it, or you could toss it in a file and bury it away. But printed photos. They just sit there, waiting to be framed or put in an album or if they are lucky enough, scrapbooked. And I am/was a scrapbooker. Used to be really into it, scrapping every little event. Now, if I feel like scrapping anything it's only pictures of high school or earlier, Disney trips, or maybe my childhood. That's it. Everything from 1995 to present day that isn't Disney related... I don't even want to look at them.

And there are many, MANY more photos than this. About 3 more boxes full.

That brings me to current emotional dilemma. What to do with years of photos, some which are actually painful to look at? See, a lot of pictures from `95 to about `03 are of mostly the same people. And a number of those people I am no longer friends with, but that's a story for another post. The short version is I pretty much suck as a friend. Thanks to Facebook, however, a few have reached out and we've sort of become at least FB friends, and maybe someday we can be back to the level we once were. Anyways, these people are for the most part still friends with the rest of the group. So, since I can't bare to toss a photo... I've been mailing the photos to them. I've kept a few that still make me smile. And sets I've asked them to pass on to those I've done wrong, I've removed all images of me. What happens to the photos when they leave my house is up to them. I just hope they find a place that brings more smiles than tears.

Oh, and I did get a little pyromaniac on a few of them... all ex-boyfriends and all not so great photos - blurry, closed eyes, stupid faces. I thought it would make me feel... I don't know, better? But it didn't. All it did was almost set all the dead trees around the old stone grill I used. I can see the headline now "Fire Captain's Daughter Sets Fire to Backyard Woods." Ugh, neither dad or I would ever live THAT one down! Thank goodness we still had piles of snow around... it makes a great fire extinguisher!   

Anyways... the reason it didn't make me feel any better? It's never been a problem with ex-boyfriends. There was always closure, no longer love. The problem is with ex-friends... people who deep down I still love and miss very much. That's were the hurt is. And it's a hurt I'm just either going to have to live with or move on... because it's been 10 years and I don't think mending the break is an option any longer. 

I can only work on the photos a little at a time, some because I just don't know if I should pass them on or toss and because a number of them... I don't remember what the memory behind the photo is. Not sure if it's selective memory, a side effect of 16 pills a day, or my one sharp memory is starting to fail. And after an hour of all that... it just becomes too much to deal with the frustration.

At least the postage of mailing on the pictures and having a mini bonfire cost is a lot less than a visit to my therapist!

Project 52 - Week 9

Ok spring... it's time for you to arrive. I need to start seeing some color and we need to get some of the mess cleaned up!

Project 52 - Week 8

As the snow slowly melts away the trees bounce back to life...

Project 52 - Week 7

Thanks to a lot of sunny days, we have had some bounce back with the trees and bushes! Just have to wait till spring to see if there was any real damage!

Project 52 - Week 6

Thank you Nemo for the 30" of snow for making my picture of the week... interesting. All the branch and bushes are basically flattened under all the weight of the snow. Not sure everything is going to recover from this.

Project 52 - Week 5

There were some subtle changes to the backyard this week, thanks to a few very windy nights. All the broken branches from Superstorm Sandy that were still hanging on finally came tumbling down. Hard to tell in the picture, but you can see it in person.

The biggest area of chance was were the pine had fallen.

Lots of new branches added to the pile. Looking forward to warmer weather so we can get it all cleaned up!

Project 52 - Week 4

For week 4, Mother Nature brought a little snow our way. It wasn't much and it was gone by the end of the day. But it was enough to give this week's picture a little variation! 

And it seems I wasn't the only one out for a little stroll to check out the snow! I'm guessing these are raccoon prints, since we have a bunch of them in the neighborhood. 

Project 52 - Weeks 2 & 3

I have been taking me weekly photos, I just didn't get around to posting last weeks.

So here is Week 2:

And here is Week 3:

As expected, other than a slight change in the angle I shot the photo... nothing changed. Even that weather was the same. I'm hoping next Saturday for at least some sun or snow to really show a change in the scenery!

Project 52 - Week 1

For the last few years, I have attempted Project 52. And each year the same thing happens... by week 6 or 7 I find myself searching for things to take a picture of. Since I rarely leave the house and I don't have any children, I was left with random, meaningless items or photos of my cat. So I decided to do something a bit... different this year. 

With trees and nature being one of my favorite things to shoot, I picked an area of my yard and every week I'm going to take a photo from the same spot. This way I can record all the subtle changes the trees and weather makes throughout the year. I don't expect there to be lots of changes week to week, but at the end of the year I'll make a slideshow and it should be pretty neat. 

This is the area I picked to photograph. It's of the woods in my back yard. I thought it would give the most variety during the year.

Before I picked this location, I shot a number of pictures. Here are the runner-up locations. I really liked the pine tree, but being an evergreen I don't expect much change in the next 51 weeks.  As for the little tree, it's in my neighbor's yard and the house is currently empty. Can't guarantee that when someone moves in that tree will remain.  

Someday soon, I hope to redo or relocate the site so I can make the horizontal pictures larger!

2013 - The Year of ME!

Hello 2013! You were totally made for me.

13 has always been a bit of a lucky number for me, you can say we were born together:

• I was born on the 13th.
• I have 13 letters in my full name... which is interesting since my mom only used one N for my Lyn instead of the more standard NN.
• I'm a 76er! 7+6=13!
• I was born in the 4th month (1+3=4) and that also happens to be my name!
• A lot of times when my birthday lands on a Friday it tends to be Good Friday... extra luck!
• My 13th birthday was awesome!

Okay, some of these are reaching.. but still the number 13 as always be good to me. I'm hope that luck will be with me throughout the year!

In the past, I've always started the year with a bunch of pretty specific resolutions... and I all my years I've never completed one. 7 weeks is about the longest I think I've ever kept anything. So I'm not doing that to myself this year. I do plan on setting some goals, but I'm keeping them loose and I'm not going to stress over them or freak out because I struggle to keep them up. If I succeed, WOO HOO... if not, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I'm going to be flexible. I'll still try my hardest, an in the end that is all that will matter... I tried.

Here are some of the things I hope to accomplish by the end of the year.

• The 2013 Reading Challenge on Goodreads. Aiming for 10 books. 
• Purge, Purge, Purge - We got rid of a good amount of stuff in 2012 and we still have a lot to go!
• Project 52 - Take 5 or 6 - In the past I think I've made it too difficult. This year I have an easy topic!
• Do a lot of writing, drawing, and crafting.
• Work on becoming a toy historian, or as I like to say - toy geek!
• Lose some weight, try to eat better, do some exercising. No set # of pounds or days. Just work it into a routine instead of make it a project.
• Just be me.

That's it. Simple goals, no pressure. No hard and fast deadlines. And I'm not going to fret. It'll be what it'll be.

Happy 2013 Everyone!

I Have a Crab on My Finger...

Don't worry, it's not real... it's just a Floppet!

Shots on a Saturday

Some random photos of a Saturday in my household.

My mom has this habit of writing notes on the bathroom mirror with window markers. When she first started doing it, I told her it made our bathroom look like it was a crime scene. So, what should one do when you find yourself in the bathroom at 1am, unable to sleep, and come across the stash of window markers... you leave a little note for your mother to find in the morning. 

Or at 2:30 am, when she actually found it. Her reaction... laughter, lots and lots of laughter. It's a good thing I was still awake, otherwise she would have woken me up. At least she thought it was funny. It would not have been a fun day if it scared her!

The rest of my Saturday was spend here:

My living room, hunched over a camera, and surrounded by tons of bags and boxes full of items waiting to be photographed. Some were items for my blogs, the rest... all items for Ebay. Mom spent the day hunched over a laptop researching and writing descriptions for said Ebay items. Tomorrow forecast... more of the same. Shoot, edit, list. Shoot, edit, list. All in the name of cleaning the house!