I am finally reunited with my blog!!

        I finally discovered the setting I needed to change on the blogger website in order to prepare a new post.  So here I am!  I hope my readers enjoyed the most recent three posts --- about the Arctic Circle and Norway.  I continue to be amazed that I really went there.  My thanks again to Patty who kept me from giving up hope about ever being able to make the trip and for all the laughing we did, just like that week 50+ years ago when we met while training to be VISTA Volunteers in eastern Kentucky (me) and eastern Tennessee (Patty).

      Here we go!!!  

     I have wanted to share some favorite photos from the dozen or so years I have been doing this blog.  I may try to give the title or date of the post for each photo soon so that additional photos that go with it can be visited. If anyone wants to encourage me to do that, please let me know.  Enjoy!

mourning dove, out the kitchen window

April on the ridge, near my home

 

George Ella Lyon, after she gave a presentation at Natural Bridge State Park

George Ella and her college roommate/friend Chris, showing up to speak out in Kentucky's capital (Frankfort) about the damage done daily by MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINING.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes I have visited family in England and in France:
 

winter grazing in England

NOTRE DAME, a year before the terrible fire that was felt around the world.

my son on the Seine  (River in Paris)

                                                            Now the inside story --- for the rest of us!

                      

on Christy Creek, almost to Morehead, one spring evening, for my photo class at MSU

Christmas decorations at my nearby friend Sandy's, lovely every year

More soon in two weeks, I sure hope. This all reminds me about how I love seeing what I see with a camera.

What can I say

post #524

        Such a week, besides COVID, besides the cold weather, besides the sane and saving election in Georgia, and besides the miseries in all parts of the world.  However, currently, we are not hearing all that much about anything except the intense attention to the terrible, harsh reality of the break-in Wednesday at the USA Capitol building.  There are deaths.  There's law breaking with abandon.  There's super-charged racism. A maelstom is in progress, monitored around the world. We will survive, but it will require an enormous amount of work and clearheadedness. 

        SO, I think I will share some photos from trips to other countries, as a reminder that there are places across the globe that look up to us and our democracy. There are other lives affected by our choices instead of just yours or mine. In adddition, we share the same earthly climate, the same pollution, the same pandemic, and the same love and hopes for our children.

 

ENGLAND -- the Cotswolds

waiting for the morning milk delivery

 

very early Sunday morning newspapers delivered but not yet on the shelves of Chipping Camden's small community Coop grocery store

 

 

FRANCE -- Paris

an early start at the Louvre

NOTRE DAME

see Steve's comment about these books....

FRANCE - St. Malo

 

French student group

my good friends Mariko and Christian

COSTA RICO

I hope everywhere good health is possible, and that we are up to the task of working hard to keep our democracy in good working order.  We will always need to keep on learning.

    

people with patience, from far and near places

post #434

       Here we go, random places, good people everywhere, within the past 5 years. Each photo has a story, but I'm not telling them at this point. Just giving hints, and thanks for the many kindnesses I have experienced.  (I decided I would do the family photos next week.)

A close Japanese friend married a Frenchman, and he has a dog...We've gone to the outdoor market, in Rennes!

Liz, her home, and the redwood experience, uh, closeness in, yes, California.

a major effort at the closing of a Memorial Service reception -- so generous

 

Ah, in the same room, a few years earlier, the fascination with the ceiling fan!

spring glory in Massachusetts (Are you surprised to see this here, M.?)

Our art show volunteer receptionist, looking so alluring in purple,

and her grandson and his wife. They may tease me about including this photo...

still more members of that family, in January 2019

Another family unit - grandfather, musician Steve Lyon, and granddaughter, with the amazing eyes,

and her grandmother, writer George Ella Lyon with her longtime friend, writer Gurney Norman, at the Appalachian Writers Conference in Hindman, KY . I've taken many photos of George Ella, and I really like this one, which was not planned. Just happened..

I really like this photo as well, in England. I'm having tea with two of the nicest people I can imagine.

This photo was a quick reflex on my part, and it's always fun when that works out. This man is also very nice. He lives and works in Costa RIca.

I'm sneaking this photo in -- this is myself, when I first came to the area where I now live, in the late 60s.  I believe my sister, Robin Wilkerson, took this photo. When else will I have an excuse on this blog to include this moment in time?

         More next week -- I'm still having fun assembling these rogues' galleries, and my foot is healing quite well. I think one more month of working on it will do the trick. These posts also keep me from getting terrified by the chaos, the lack of backbones in our nation's U.S. Senators, and the continuing thoughtless destruction of our one and only earth. 

a rare sun day today, do my photos shine?

post #413
           Welcome to the new year!  In honor of this annual new beginning, I guess I need to say one thing I hope for -- which are breakthroughs for our nation.  The variety of backgrounds newly representing us in the Congress is a hopeful sign. So is increased scrutiny of the impetuous and irresponsible behavior of folks in leadership positions in America. We could be so much stronger. We could be less afraid that we will run out of clean water and clean air future generations will need. We could make education a priority, so kids can be all they can be and not held back. (Kentucky, thanks to hard work and persistence by advocates, now has a law requiring that schools provide appropriate learning experiences for kids whose brains are excellent except they learn differently, such as experienced with dyslexia. Even small steps forward contribute to the greater good.) We each could and must learn to think independently from the herd and from what defies common sense. 

         Then there's the fact that I'm still having beginner's missteps 'twixt blog and my new laptop. So I decided at the least to test the technical quality of my photos, which seem to look a lot sharper on the new laptop! Can this be really so? Well, I've chosen some fun ones to test it out. Here goes:

Jamie gathering the bails of hay

Natalee, my neighbor and friend, is patient during a photo shoot at her grandmother's house.

 

A favorite cousin camp moment, at the pond, in honor of Eric starting a new job tomorrow as Solicitor General of Colorado! May you never lose sight of the family sense of humor!

with Mariko, and two of her friends, near Rennes, where they live, in France

mother and daughter, same place in France, very good sports about my taking a photo, though I do speak French

grandmother and granddaughter, first bottle

The meat's alike on the inside.

a child, during a demonstration, in Morehead

an artist with an amazing story and talent, at his exhibit at the Kentucky Folk Art Center, in Morehead

Wilkerson cousins, revisiting some childhood summers, in Vermont

on land, nearby the boats

maybe cousins, here in Kentucky?

I love discovering where pileated woodpeckers hang out.

I hope these photos look fine. I am grateful to be able to share them with you.  Thanks, Ann