2020...a squirrely year comes to an end...
OK folks...is anybody, as in anybody, out there disappointed to see the squirrely year 2020 coming to an end?
I’m guessing that if you are one of those folks, you just might see the glass as more than half full...and overflowing...
Meanwhile...
...so many things to ponder...and so little space...
...about those squirrel pictures...
...for the how ever many years, it’s been a bit of a “tradition” to feature some of my favorite squirrel photos from the year in this space...
...squirrels are cute...and goofy...very photogenic...and very cooperative...at least with this photographer...
...sometimes they seem to act a little bit irritated when I start taking their picture...it seems like they think the photographer is going to come and take away the gigantic morsel they might be munching on...
...anyway, you get to see a few photos of squirrels this week...hope you don’t mind me carrying on a nutty tradition...
...speaking of traditions...
...yours truly carried on a couple of treasured Christmas Eve traditions last week...both involved being outdoors...when the temperature was something like 28 degrees...and the wind chill was something like 14 degrees...and seeming to get colder...
...on the afternoon of the day before Christmas, yours truly motored to the Trail of Tears State Forest...
...we’ve been making such a pilgrimage for five or six years, or longer, which, I suppose, officially makes it a tradition...
...and I say “we” only in the sense that sometimes the Christmas Eve adventure involves more than one of us...
...however, Christmas Eve 2020 involved a solo journey to the woods...The Other Half had sense enough to stay home under a warm blanket...and probably with a hot cup of tea, too...
...(for whatever it’s worth, it was just the two of us for Christmas this year...seems there is a pandemic...some folks have suggested that we are being too cautious...oh, well...)
...while The Other Half stayed where it was warm, yours truly motored off to the woods in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve...saw some snow flurries while motoring in the direction of metropolitan Mountain Glen...
...the state forest was quiet...and cold...but I pretty much had the place to myself...
...did some trekking along a creek bed...listened to the water in the creek as it rippled through the cold of a December afternoon...the wind and the bare trees on the many ridgelines at the state forest created their own chorus of Christmas music...occasionally joined by a bird...
...otherwise...all was calm...all was bright...
...spent about 45 minutes in the Christmas Eve cold before heading back...
...so I could spend some more time out in the cold...
...that’s because another one of our traditions involves firing up the grill and cooking at least part of what we’re having for dinner on Christmas Eve in the great outdoors...
...no matter what the weather...
...I’ve cooked in sleet, rain and snow...and in “balmy” December weather, too...one year, I think the temperature was hovering the range of zero and and we had half a foot of snow on the ground...that was the year The Other Half suggests that yours truly tried to catch our front porch on fire...I do not remember such a thing happening...
...nevertheless, the grill now hangs out in the backyard...
...for Christmas Eve 2020, we had hamburgers...probably the best hamburgers ever...
...no telling what Christmas Eve 2021 will bring...except that we’ll hopefully continue our traditions...
...and I hope you will be able to celebrate the special traditions which are part of your family’s holiday season...
...in the meantime...stay safe...stay healthy...and
Happy New Year...