A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
I have failed. I came up 4.86 miles short of the 2017 Challenge proposed by the Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle. Between a bum foot, a Christmas head cold, and cold weather I just couldn’t get those last five miles done. Oh well. However, I believe in quality over quantity. I’ve hit some old favorites as well as covered some new territory. Despite not making my goal, I still think it was a successful paddling year.
We’re back in South Carolina. It was an arduous trip across country, but we rolled into town on Wednesday and have been getting reacquainted with our house. It is good to be home and spend some time with family.
It was a Sunday afternoon and Laura was still in South Carolina. Later in the evening the Swinnomish Yacht Club would be holding a lighted boat parade along the waterfront of La Conner. I decided I’d check it out.
Laura had to head back to South Carolina just as the weather was improving here. Over the week or so that she was gone I took the opportunity to head out and get some photos. I couldn’t do much because of my foot, but I could drive around to interesting places to shoot sunrises, sunsets, and lots and lots of birds. Here are some of the random shots from those excursions.
Laura had to head back to South Carolina for some business at Furman, so I had to drive her down to the airport in Seattle. Since she had a morning flight I decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to do some Christmas shopping (well, at least some window shopping) in the Seattle area.
NOTE: I’m still catching up. This post was from a couple of weeks ago.
It has been a week full of music. There was Irish music Monday night, guitar and ukulele Wednesday night, more Celtic music Thursday night, a rehearsal with the Samish Island Singers Saturday morning, and finally a Scottish music session Sunday afternoon at Littlefield Celtic Center. This last session was loads of fun and I’m glad I headed on down to Mount Vernon to see what Scottish music is all about.
NOTE: I seem to be having a hard time keeping up with the blog lately. Got lots of posts in the hopper, but for some reason I’m not getting them done. I’ll see if I can catch up. Usual excuses – holidays, etc., etc.
December 1 marks three months since we arrived on the island. We have seen lots and done lots, but we haven’t accomplished anywhere near what we had hoped. Things tend to get in the way. I thought I’d give a quick update of the journey so far.
If it seems that most of my posts recently have been about music there are a couple of good reasons for that. I’ve been unable to get out and about to explore with my injured foot and the weather has been downright crappy for weeks. Apart from the music there just didn’t seem to be anything much blog-worthy.
That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been writing. I’ve been using Day One to keep a brief daily journal, often with just a photo to remind me of something and no text. I’ll pull a few things from that journal for this update. At the very least, it will give readers a break from all of the music stuff. Sort of. I’ve got another music-related post in the hopper ready after this one. But until then, here are some miscellaneous thoughts and happenings.
It had already been a week of music. Monday night was the Irish Music Session at Honey Moon Mead in Bellingham and Wednesday was another meeting of Bring Your Own Instrument. Thursday night I headed back to Bellingham for more Celtic music with the Slug Jam.
This is a week slam full of music. So far the slate includes another Bring Your Own Instrument, a slow Celtic learner’s jam, a rehearsal with a choral group, and another jam session for Scottish music. Today I discovered yet another Irish music group and decided on the spur of the moment to add them to my already jammed jam session schedule.
On Black Friday most people go buy excessively large TVs and other electronics. I wound up with something else – a velcro cast boot. This all goes back to our trip to Oregon at the end of October. Laura tripped over a curb and banged up her knees and elbow. Hers was the most obvious and dramatic injury, but apparently I’d done something more subtle and long-lasting.