Happy Macro Monday!

Some weeks I participate in a Flickr group called Macro Mondays. Macro is my favorite type of photography and I need to get back to trying to do this challenge on a weekly basis.

I enjoyed this week's theme; defining beauty. Not only did we have to submit a photo of beauty but had to include a quote that included the words beauty or beautiful.

I love taking photos of flowers that are past their prime and showing their beauty so that's what I had intended to do. I went out at dusk and picked a few flowers to bring in and play with.

Here's what I got:

Getting ready

I originally planned on submitting this one...

"There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection" -James Salter

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." Confucius

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." Confucius

"By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower." -Rabindranath Tagore

Here's the one I submitted for the challenge.

"Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of shadows,
the light and dark which that thing provides."- Junichiro Tanizaki

Here's what I wrote about the photo on flickr: 

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." Confucius

As I was photographing a dried coneflower this earwig crawled out! Luckily it wasn't too active. I have to admit I have a hard time finding beauty in it. However, if I look at it thinking of this quote: 

"Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides."- Junichiro Tanizaki

 I can see beauty in the details. 

When I started this project I was simply photographing flowers past their prime because it's something I enjoy doing. I certainly had not planned on this being my shot but decided to go with it. 

I enjoyed the added challenge of having to match a quote with a photo.

Enjoy your Monday!

Healthy Aging

Now that I'm in my 60s and I'm officially retired I realize I'm on the downslope of life! I lost my dad to cancer when he was 80. My mom is 93, but she has been losing her memory slowly for many years. I feel fortunate that she still knows her family but she was recently moved into a new facility for people with memory problems and it's been a hard adjustment for her. Memory loss scares me because I know how much I struggle to remember names, even of people I know well, and the names of students I saw on a daily basis when I was teaching.

I grow quite a few veggies
so eating healthy in the
summer is easy. 

I don't have any grandchildren yet but when they do come along I want to make sure that I am happy, active and ready to care for them and of course have fun with them. So for the past few years I've started to make some changes towards a healthier lifestyle. I've cut way back on sugars and try to eat cleaner foods, I've increased my water consumption dramatically-like from basically rarely drinking water to striving for at least 80oz a day. I've also started exercising on a regular basis. Most of these changes came from joining short term groups on Facebook that focused on these changes for about a month and then a couple of months later the same two ladies would start another group. The groups were no pressure but just gave us motivation, tips and accountability to improve our lives. It worked and I'm forever grateful for their help.

Blueberries were a new addition to our
garden this year.

My next step is look into what else I can do to age gracefully. One thing I heard on a Ted Talk was to learn a new skill to keep the mind working. The presenter pointed out that doing crossword puzzles is not enough. Over a year ago I signed up for  Ben Willmore's Master Academy to learn how to improve my skills with Lightroom and Photoshop. I've paid for it twice and have only watched one video! But I signed up knowing that once I retired I'd be grandfathered into the lowest price and I'd have time to start watching them. Well, the summer is almost over and I haven't watched a one yet! But... now that I know learning a new skill is important I'll be starting next month. I only know the very basics of both programs so it will be perfect for me.


I'm also reading the book Just Sit A Meditation Guidebook for 
People Who Know They Should But Don't by Sukey Novogratz and Elizabeth Novogratz. It's all about getting started with meditation and its benefits so I'm trying to give that a try. I'm far from being consistent yet but it's a new beginning. I'm hoping between exercise, meditation and less stress I'll be able to reduce my high blood pressure meds when I go to the doctor next month.


Feel free to share what you do to make sure you age in a healthy way. I'd love some more tips.

New Picture Books for 2018

Once again I am participating in the Picture Book 10 for 10 event. I'll have to go back to my old blog and see how many times I've done this, I know not enough! But even when I haven't participated I've taken a look at the other blogs for new books to add to my "to be read" list and put them on hold from my local library and most often they were brought into my classroom for my reading students to enjoy. This year, since I'm newly retired, I'll be taking a look and passing along titles to my friends that are still teaching.

Yes, I am a day late. When I realized I was missing this yesterday I tried to think of the great books I took in to share at a workshop two days before school was out at the end of June. My mind has gone to mush already, I could not think of the titles. So I looked at the pile of books I had sitting on the floor from the library and decided to go with those, new picture books from 2018. See, even though I'm retired kid's books still have a pull on me.

Yep, it's only 9 but it's what I had checked out. UPDATE While picking up the house today I found one more book to add to the list! Unplugged by Steve Antony. :)

Here's a few notes about some of the books:

Unplugged might be my favorite book on this list. Great reminder for our students and ourselves that being unplugged from our devices can be a good thing. 

All Are Welcome is a great book for the first day of school to help all children feel welcome in your classroom.

Forever or a Day may become the next book I begin giving to new parents.

Curiosity is written from the view point of the rover. Great idea!

Bathysphere has wonderful author and illustrator notes at the end. They talk about the process they went through, great for kids to hear.

Even though I have my old favorites I believe it's important to continue to search for newly published books to fall in love with as well. I hope you'll share some of your favorite new books with me so I can add them to my reading pile.

To all of you returning to school have a wonderful year filled with great book sharing. 

What Am I Doing Here?

Well...that's a good question! I've had a few blogs over the years-photography, teaching, and travels. But I haven't been consistent with any of them for quite a while. Now that I'm retired I have the itch to blog again. So here I am. I went with A Little Bit of This and That because there's so much I want to write about-biking, eating healthy, photography, felting, gardening, traveling, children's lit... so instead of one topic it will be whatever is on my mind at the moment- yep... a little bit of this and that.