Reflecting

Well, it’s that time of year again… Today was my birthday.

As self-reflection seems to be the thing to do on such days, I did some thinking about my new life and all the changes that have taken place recently. (For anyone that somehow still doesn’t know, at the tail end of last year, I moved from southern California to Vashon, Washington.) It hasn’t just been an extreme change of scenery for me, it’s been a pretty big shift in my lifestyle as well. I went from walking the arid, chaparral-covered hills of a canyon to exploring the moist, green forests and rocky beaches of an island. I also went from spending the vast majority of my time alone with my camera and the critters to becoming part of a small, tight-knit community that I have quickly grown to love and with whom I am eager to share my nature experiences.

All in all, my 37th year was a good one. But the latter half of it seemed to whiz by at the speed of light. The whirlwind of moving to a new state, the excitement and bustle of meeting so many new people, trying to get acquainted and accustomed to my new home; all of it has left me feeling a bit nostalgic for the comfort of some of the things I left behind.

I thought about that a lot today and realized that one of the things I was really missing was this blog. This blog and also the friends who encouraged me and participated by sharing their wonderful comments and insights here. I really want to make the time to give myself this gift once again. And I definitely want to reconnect with my very patient friends who may be wondering what the heck happened to me. *grin*

OK… enough blathering on about stuff. I’ll just end by saying, I’m glad to be back here and looking forward to once again sharing my photos and stories about the things that I love most.

(Photo taken at Fisher Pond… one of the many new “favorite” locales I frequent these days.)