The Winter season officially began December 21st and will end on March 20th. From cold wintry temperatures, a few snowy days, and even icy morning conditions the winter weather has been season to remember in 2025. Thanks for the beautiful photographic memories Winter!
FYI: Two photos below have active links to more recent blog posts!!!! (New Orleans and Cloud Dancing) Please check those out as well 😊
Beginning in early 2024, I wrote these opening lines: “I have decided to take this year and document and capture memories… from our everyday life activities. Everything isn’t glamorous, we work long hours, 6 days a week, but Richard and I find time to share and unwind. I hope you enjoy a few of my favorite collected moments via photography.”
What a journey it has been! Here’s a look at a few of my photo favorites from each month in 2024. Below each photograph, I will include the original link to each month from 2024, in case you missed it or would like to see more photos from each month.
Time passes like clouds in the sky…
Winter Gives away to Spring…
Bringing forth the Hues of Summer…
Summer fades into Fall…
Different minutes of the same hour it seems in 2024. Thanks for the memories!
Morning fogs, and vibrant colors… the best way to introduce my photography finds for October. The colors of Autumn are majestic, melding together as a kaleidoscope for the camera lens.
Foggy Mornings
Northern Lights: Aurora Borealis
The unique colors are determined by the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, the altitude of the collision of the gases, and the amount of energy in the particles… different colors are created. Just a few pictures of what I witnessed during this rare capture this month.
Pink/purple: Produced by nitrogen particles
Green: One of the most common colors at the lowest levels of the atmosphere, interaction of oxygen molecules
Red: Oxygen molecules interact at a higher level in the atmosphere.
Hello Indy!
The Colors of Autumn
I had no idea when I began in early September with the idea of focusing my monthly photography blog post from one specific location in mind, that by the end of the month that it would become bittersweet, touching, and memorable. Friday September 27, 2024 was a game changer day in Western North Carolina.
The Western North Carolina landscape has been critically altered due to the forces of nature. The beautiful Blue Ridge has been changed by the devastating path of Hurricane Helene. Towns have been erased by this path of destruction.
My heart hurts for so many families and mountain communities as they begin to try to recover and rebuild. Numb might actually be a better word. Mountain Communities are now isolated from the outside world grasping for all avenues of assistance and support, losing everything they own while helping others all at the same time.
My family, like many of you, experienced several days without power and full internet connection. In our many years of married life, this was the longest stent of power failure that we have ever experienced. I now have two completely clean refrigerators/freezers… all food was not salvageable. But, it’s ok. We are literally several minutes away from a path of destruction and very lucky that our storm damage wasn’t more severe.
During the stent of no power… We had time with family, time to laugh while playing board games, and dinners with friends who had power at their home.
I’m also thankful for the many people who stopped by the hardware store to check to make sure we weathered the storm well , or sent us messages. We simply live in a great, giving community. Thank you!
The news of the storm’s fury was front and center in my social media feed when I had the opportunity for a moment to visualize the aftermath of Helene during the power outage and still almost a week later, it dominates our news cycle. It has been hard to imagine this type of devastation in my mind. Towns and communities are literally gone.
We as business owners, do fully understand the power of water and the force behind it. Flooding is not an experience that we wish share with anyone else, a tremendous amount of empathy lies within.
Last Saturday morning, we began to witness the influx of customers who are traveling down from their mountain homes to find needed supplies. This trek still is continuing into this week. Supplies are selling out quickly and we are trying to reorder as fast as we can to accommodate our customers needs.
Western North Carolina communities need our support wherever you can give it. Do what you can to assist Western North Carolina Relief Efforts. Donate time, resources, or money to those charities that are well vetted where the most money can benefit those in need.
Mountain Communities are requesting that only relief workers be allowed into the area so the clean up can continue and allow for the arrival of much needed materials.
My hope is that this September montage will bring solace to your Blue Ridge Mountain wandering soul and lift your spirits in the coming days. A simple pictorial offering… a remembrance to our beloved Blue Ridge Mountains prior to the devastation we witnessed last week. I present to you, The Blue Ridge Mountains are calling and I must GO! My photographic Blog Journal from September 2024.
An Afternoon Wandering at Doughton Park
Blue Ridge Parkway Sunsets are simply stunning
Price Lake Never Disappoints
Saturday Evening Sunset Drive
In closing I’m sharing one of my all time favorite benedictions and prayers: The Franciscan Benediction, as we all continue our work to restore and rebuild in Western North Carolina.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU with discomfort,
at easy answers, half-truths,
and superficial relationships
so that you may live
deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for
justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears,
to shed for those who suffer pain,
rejection, hunger, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and
to turn their pain to joy.
And may God bless you
with enough foolishness
to believe that you can
make a difference in the world,
so that you can do
what others claim cannot be done,
to bring justice and kindness
to all our children and the poor.
AMEN
The Hardware Life - A wife's journey into the hardware business 