top 5 - busy friends

finding time to visit friends is a challenge.  what with full-time jobs, living far apart, family care, and driving the kids to activities, friendships can be neglected.

 here's a top 5 for keeping precious people in your life:

5.  use facebook.  

4.  schedule whole family visits.  this is easier if your children go to the same school or you have other natural connections.  (the thanksgiving day race is this for our family.  the kids have friends and we adults have time to visit too.)

3.  commit to something together - a book group, exercise class, monthly or weekly group of some kind.

2.  schedule way out into the future.  

1.  be spontaneous and keep trying.  

what works for you?

here's to beautiful friendships.

joy to you!

race morning

 our thanksgiving day race gets people downtown.  

 this year the sun shone, even at 8:30 a.m.  

 ours is an event for the whole family, and

 the one time you can run or walk down the middle of the bridges overlooking

 cincinnati.

it's a picturesque walk.

joy to you!

rose garden

 for some winter peace, a rose garden is perfect.  

 what's to see but the remnants, the resting, and the cold sky?  a few snowflakes, maybe,

 and rose hips.  

it's a calm and quiet counterpoint to the riot of summer color.

peace found.

a hot cup in hand recommended while exploring.

joy to you.

columbus treats

 when in columbus, ohio, you are in for a treat if you like simple french food, served cafeteria-style.  la chatelaine has caesar salad and onion soup, sandwiches, and, of course

 fresh bread.  turn down dessert, because next door is 

 another favorite - graeter's ice cream.  

 they have "helmet" sundaes for the kids, and 

 peppermint ice cream with hot fudge.  highly recommended!

it's a once a year, holiday-time treat.  

sweet joy!

books

each day at school, i do an advertisement for our students.  i sell.  with kids having long hours of video games and lots of tv and computer time, 

i'm promoting books.  not for money, but reading is work for young children.  

why should they make the effort?  

this beautiful mercantile library of cincinnati has some really old and interesting books.

after 1903 - what?  exactly!  when you've never thought of the question, how can you know you need the answer?  and the early worm.  besides the obvious, what about it?

what can be in a book of no poems,  

and what were the best american short stories of 1941?

what about americans on everest has them pedaling over the hills?

my goal is to give to our students a love of books and reading until they have my problem - so many fascinating books and limited time.  a sense that books are fun, interesting, and enjoyable.  in short, worth the effort.

here's a quote my friend jen found at the writer's almanac.  carl sagan sums it well:

What an astonishing thing a book is. It is a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts, on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person. [...] Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. Books are proof that humans are capable of working magic.

let's help kids interpret those funny dark squiggles, shall we?

literary beauty.

joy to you!

thanks giving

 happy belated thanksgiving!

may your new week be as filled with joy as your last.

(and may your last have been delightful.)

joy to you.

passage

 the light at the end of the passage?

 the beauty of nature.

it was 25 degrees when we started running, but that sun warmed things.  

bird

no bird in the third photo, just joy.

happy new week.

i am thankful for you!

water

 the view from the bridge is

 upside-down beauty. 

see the ripple in the water? 

fresh air and joy to you.

driving by

not stuck in traffic this time, so i had to be quick with my camera.  

it catches views for later enjoyment - with no danger.  

what's beautiful where you are?

under the bridge again

peace and joy to you.

trail 1

remember this trail?  

this is a full-color photo.  

winter beauty.

ready for snow.

joy!

fishing

 although the weekend was unseasonably warm, i was still surprised to see the 

 fisherman out in the water.

 hope he caught some fish. will he be out again now that the weather changed?
28 degrees F tonight.  
feels like the holidays.
joy!

forecast

 driving downtown today with my son.  "pretty soon we'll be coming down here to ice skate, and the big tree will be up."

 "it's up!"

 "the skating rink is ready, too!" (son talking.)

 "wait, look at that!"

the white tent on the right is the skating rink entrance.  (i love the american flag in this picture.)

forecast:  christmas ahead.

joy (and safe driving) to you.

one more

the sun just behind and through the fountain.  

it was either this or a photo of the peppermint stick ice cream with hot fudge that i had today, but that was gone before i pulled out my camera.  
maybe you can have some for yourself, and enjoy the edible beauty?

either way, joy to you.

hotel pond

 going to atlanta was like heading back in time - to late summer.  the grass was green, the trees had their leaves, and

flowers were still in bloom.  ah.  no coats.  

fresh air beauty.

joy to you.