I'm back! In many ways!

Ah, my poor dormant, dusty blog. How I have missed you (not, actually).

I'm back because more or less on a whim, I've decided to join my dear cross-country friend Lyn and do a 365 Project this year. Essentially, it's a promise to take one photo per day for the next 365. Lyn started on her birthday last Monday, January 25th and literally within minutes of watching her crystal-clear, evocative photos go up on Facebook, I felt a hankering to do the same.

Except in my case, crystal-clear and evocative, not so much.

As an acknowledged "word person" my double challenge is to develop as a photographer and give myself both the discipline and joy of fun writing on a daily basis. Hence my Swiffering of this old site, along with a bit of elbow grease on the old noggin, and away we go.

So - Feb 1 and Day 1 of the 365 Project:

As a master procrastinator, I only got the Christmas decorations wrangled and put away tonight. Partly it's the festive air they lend the house, partly it's a nod to my decidedly bad housekeeping; but I looked over at my Charlie-Brownesque fern and thought it was worth snapping a shot before everything was stored away for the next 11 months.

The reason the ornaments and lights were strung on a common household plant rather than a fragrant natural tree is that by the time I looked up from my workload and realized "Hey, I really need a tree for Christmas!", there was none to be found anywhere in my community. Or so I was told by the rather sharp-faced woman at the mall.

The thought of a tree-less Christmas was a little depressing, but the concurrent thought of driving downtown and scouring the sad Christmas-Eve-Eve offerings was even more depressing. So instead, we got creative with lights and dollar-store trimmings, and to top (or bottom) the whole thing, decided on a full-sized Italian flag as a tree skirt.

That, my friends, is how we ended up with a Friendship Fern instead of a holiday tree for Christmas 2009. And beyond.