The Year 2024 Ends

And I Still Haven’t Picked a Photo of the Year.

Lynn and Peggy

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday.

More Favorites from 2024

Post #8950

Today's batch of photos is from the first five months of 2024. I just went through the album of my blog posts from that time to select some contenders. It was my final book made by Blog2Print. Unfortunately, they are not printing blog albums anymore. I would love to find another publisher that does the same thing, including the text as well as pictures, and preferably the same height and width so that it would match my existing albums.

This first collage is not from the album. I made it using PhotoCollage.

Charlie is very cute, so of course some of his pictures are among my favorites. Here he is with my daughter Marie.

Here are other pictures that I decided to consider for photo of the year. I’ll post more tomorrow.

Seeking a Photo of the Year

Selecting my "Photo of the Year" is difficult because no particular image stands out in my mind. Here I've just selected some that I like from the last three months. Now I just have to go back through the rest of the year, and then narrow them down.

I have some pretty autumn scenes, many of them from Shenandoah National Park. 

I live in a beautiful region in Virginia, so I photograph scenery almost daily.  

I have some pictures of pets and people that I really like, although they’re not likely to rate as the year’s best.

Sunday Best / Mosaics

How would you go about picking a photo of the year?

Another Holiday Report

Thanks to Eileen's Saturday Critters linkup, I am motivated to post photos of animals every weekend. I'll turn this post over to Charlie in a second, but first I'll show you a group of deer that I saw along Skyline Drive.

Charlie, filtered for Caturday.

Charlie: “It was a busy week, even for a dog. Marie came and stayed a few days, and Lynn came for a celebration. Everyone had presents to open, even me.”

I took my new toys to the place where I keep my toys. The gray squirrel had a squeaker. I waited until after Lynn left, and then I tore it apart. I didn’t mean to kill it, but l needed to get rid of the squeaker because it was bothering my other animals.

On the day after Christmas, we got in Marie’s‘s car and I thought we were going to the dog park but instead we went to the kennel. I was very sad. I had to stay there for most of the day. At least I got to play with the nice ladies who take care of me there.

Today was quiet because everyone has left except Mom and me. So bye for now. 

Hot Coffee, Winter Sky

Carrying Two Cups

On the day after Christmas, Marie and I went to Front Royal for a little shopping and lunch at Spelunkers. Then I suggested driving to the town of “Little” Washington. By this time she wanted a cup of coffee, and we found a place open in nearby Sperryville. 

We came home by crossing the Blue Ridge to Luray and then wound around to Fort Valley Road, a scenic route that the GPS deems shorter. (I think it saves a couple of minutes if you don’t have to slow down for tractors or wildlife on the road. I avoid it at night though. There are hairpin turns that are tricky in the dark.)

Viewing Page Valley and the Blue Ridge 

We stopped to admire the view from the top of Massanutten Mountain. Marie got out and took a picture. I took one from the car.

New Feeder Cam

Recently I received a birdfeeder with motion-activated camera. Lynn mounted it on the deck for me, but had difficulty getting screws into the very hard wooden rail, so she wound up putting it on in the only way she could manage. We agreed that it should be facing the other direction where there are trees in the background, so she took some measurements and is going to enlist the help of a friend to redo it. In the meantime, we got pictures of house finches and a Carolina wren. 

These are cropped screenshots from short videos that the camera captured. I have to figure out how to get it to take still pictures. 

Christmas 2024

It's fun when the Javins sisters get together.

Charlie was a good boy. Lynn got a hippo to take home to her dog.

Marie and Charlie got neat stuff. 

I hope you had a lovely holiday!

My Tiny Tree

Filtered in Picsart

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday

Festivus: The Airing of Grievances

December 23 is the date of a made-up holiday, Festivus. This was popularized by an episode on Seinfeld in which George’s father described this supposed holiday. One aspect was the Festivus pole, and another was the annual airing of grievances.

I thought of this today because I have a few complaints to make. For one thing, I apparently twisted my knee the other day and it has been sore ever since. I bought a knee brace today and while it made the front of the knee feel better, it pinched the back of my leg and that hurt worse as the hours passed. I finally took it off.

Knee pain makes it very hard to walk the dog. Of course, he does not understand and continues to zig-zag with enthusiasm. Also, when I put my feet up to rest my knee, he sometimes jumps right up on my legs and that can be painful. 

In addition, my eyes are still bothering me. Although there has been improvement, they don’t focus in tandem and reading is difficult and exhausting. I often have to stop using the iPad when I still have tasks I want to complete on it. 

Meanwhile, my car is still at the dealer, and I don’t know when they’ll finish repairing the interior. I think we told you that Charlie damaged some seatbelts and armrests. I have a loaner car, but Charlie is not allowed to ride in it.

Well, that’s enough airing of grievances. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and Marie is coming. She can help me with the dog.

I did some grocery shopping today and stopped by the North Fork in Strasburg to eat lunch. 

Here’s Lynn’s picture of her and Peggy and me on Friday. I advised everyone to stand with one shoulder forward so we could all fit in the selfie.

Short Days, Shiny Things

The short days of winter can be distressing. I like sunshine, and I want to have time to enjoy the outdoors. 

Thank goodness for holiday lights and colorful decorations!

Christmas trees at Bits o’Moon and Dunkin’

A photography group recently ran a theme on things that are shiny. I didn’t have to look far.

Sharing with Mosaic Monday

Well, we have made it through our shortest day of the year. Now it’s time to wrap my Christmas presents.