Even though we haven’t lived in Norfolk, CT, since May 2023, I still serve on the board of directors for the Norfolk Land Trust. I’m the chair of the NLT outreach committee, and it’s my responsibility to put out the monthly e-newsletter.
Yesterday, I sent out the October newsletter, and I included one of my favorite photos of Annie.
I miss her human, too, and the town of Norfolk, itself. Fall was always my favorite time in Norfolk. I took this photo on October 16, 2022. It is completely unedited, unfiltered, untouched. This is the magic of autumnal New England in all her glory!
Here in Colorado, we’re slowly easing into fall. Every day I wake up and eventually check the 10-day forecast, hoping that we’re heading down instead of up.
Today is still not that day. Ugh! 90 in October?
I don’t walk nearly as much around Lafayette as I did in Norfolk, not least because I have a full-time job (which I truly enjoy and am grateful for), but also because this summer was hot and humid, even at six o’clock in the morning, and my joy of walking around the lake came with too much sweat dripping down my back.
Last summer, I spent nearly every morning walking around the lake, and so this summer was quite the walking bummer. I only hit my bare minimum of two times around the lake for the last 10 weeks.
For someone who is very achievement-oriented, this bare-minimum success can be a hard way to live. However, this is where the rationalization part of my brain kicks in, and I recognize that I spent this past summer doing many other wonderful things besides walking around the lake, like reading more than I have in a long time, spending more time on my writing, and working on strengthening my body by lifting heavier weights three times a week.
I like to think this balances out my life in a nice, well-rounded way, even as I long for cooler days and more walks around the lake. They’ll eventually get here.
Last night, Heath and I attended Dark Skies & Deep Space: Andromeda Rising, hosted by the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Department. The skies were clear, and the stars slowly came out for us to enjoy. Spencer, a City of Boulder Ranger, used a laser beam to point out different constellations in the sky. My favorite was the Summer Triangle, mostly because I had never heard of it before!
Image from the NASA website
Spencer also posed an interesting question after discussing the history of naming the constellations: If we were to create new constellations today, what popular culture would be represented in our night skies?
Some of the answers were fun and funny, such as a chat window of a Microsoft Teams meeting or Spider-Man. My first answer was, of course, a dog, because I love them so much. But we already have dog constellations, so I didn’t share that answer.
Then I thought of the perfect answer, and I yelled it out: Dolly Parton.
Spencer responded, “That answer deserves a round of applause.”
I have since Googled “how does one name a constellation,” because I wondered if I could start a petition to get a constellation named after one of the greatest musicians, feminists, and philanthropists of all time. From my scant research, naming a constellation isn’t up for discussion. The International Astronomical Union does not accept proposals for new constellations or sell naming rights (anyone who is selling you a star is essentially selling you a piece of paper and nothing else).
Oh, well.
I’ll have to think of another way to honor Dolly Parton. In the meantime, I’ve decided that anytime I think of a current event that raises my ire, I’m going to say out loud, “Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library have given over 330 million books to children,” to add more positivity to the world.
But back to the night skies – one thing I learned from a Dark Skies Colorado volunteer is that last night in Boulder County, over ONE MILLION birds migrated through the night sky.
ONE MILLION!
The volunteer explained that this is one reason it’s essential for people to turn off their outdoor lights at night, especially during bird migration season. Which, in case you are wondering, is March through June for spring migration and Mid-August through November for fall migration.
The City of Boulder isn’t the only one educating on the importance of dark skies this migration season. Today was also Lafayette’s Migratory Bird Festival at Waneka Lake. I strolled over there this afternoon under a very hot September sun (92 degrees at 2pm). Raptors from HawkQuest, local musicians, artists, vendors, and non-profit organizations shared all kinds of information on how we can help birds.
In addition to turning off your outdoor lights, other simple steps include using red lights outdoors instead of white, or replacing upward-facing light fixtures with ones that face down.
So consider yourself informed!
Please do turn off the lights if you’re able. Tell your friends and neighbors.
Then look up into the night sky and say out loud, “Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library have given over 330 million books to children.”
Let’s put more good into a world at a time when we need it!
Last week Heath and I headed south to Westcliffe, CO, for our second annual reading and stargazing retreat.
Photo from the visitwetmountainvalley.com website
The time and place were perfect for stargazing. Westcliffe is a certified dark sky area, the Perseid meteor shower would peak at 2am on the morning of Thursday, August 13th, and a new moon would grace the night sky (meaning zero illumination).
If you’re wondering about the reading/stargazing combo, that 2am viewing time should tell you all you need to know. That is very late for a sleepy person, of which I am. Hence, I am often too tired to do anything of note if I am ever out and about in the wee hours of the morning. Reading is the perfect way to spend a low-key, sleepy day.
For the record, there are few activities for which I will ever stay up late by choice. When my niece and her husband were visiting last Christmas, I was asked what some of those activities were. Here’s what I came up with:
Cuddling baby animals, such as polar bears and panda bears
A midnight showing of a new Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie (assuming all the original cast were reprising their roles)
A remake of the Harry Potter movies with the above Lord of the Rings cast playing the key roles
If there was one magical night when all my beloved dogs who have died would show up so I could pet them again
If my niece got married at midnight
Wondrous natural phenomena (so far including, but not limited to lunar eclipses and meteor showers)
The stars were, in fact, wondrous that night!
Photo by Heath Hughes
Photo by Heath Hughes
The meteor shower was … okay! Clouds rolled in, so we were lucky to see anything. We saw about 15-20 meteors in about 90 minutes. This is way more than we saw last year (one) because when I planned our first annual reading and stargazing retreat at Black Mesa State Park in Oklahoma, I didn’t know that moon phase mattered. All the stars we could see last year washed out under a very bright full moon after only 15 minutes.
Nevertheless, those were some awesome 15 minutes, and Heath and I became hooked on stargazing.
We chose Westcliffe this year because it was recommended by a woman I met at the Recycle Colorado Summit in June (where I was the keynote speaker!). Heath and I sat next to her at the Recycle Colorado Summit awards dinner and got along incredibly well. Debbie used to be on the Custer County Tourism Board, and she’s the one who came up with the Custer County slogan, “Come for the Mountains! Stay for the Stars!”
So not only did we get to see stars, but we also got to know Debbie and her husband better. They invited us to their house for dinner and games. Best of all, their cats, Vera Lynn and Waldo, personally gave Heath and me their stamp of approval, which apparently doesn’t happen for everyone.
Vera Lynn
It was a perfect end to my summer break: spectacular stars, expansive mountains, new friends, excellent books (I started and finished Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet, a murder mystery inspired by Little Women, that I couldn’t put down), and animal approval. The semester starts on Thursday, so we’ll see what I can manage in the coming months.
Until next time!
This post was updated to correct an error: I identified my friend, Debbie, as being on the Westcliffe Tourism Board and coming up with the slogan for Westcliffe. She served on the Custer County Tourism Board, and the slogan she came up with is for the whole county! Sorry I got it wrong the first time.
I’ll be taking care of her until Monday. While I don’t normally dog sit anymore – it’s too hard to juggle a full-time job, writing, marriage, narcolepsy, and health – I made an exception for Phoebe.
Phoebe’s human mom is a friend of mine from a monthly book club I love. When her regular dog sitter wasn’t available, I agreed to step in because of the specific circumstances. Besides, as I wrote about recently, I really miss having dogs in my life.
It took Phoebe a while to warm up to me. We had two meet and greets, complete with a walk, before she agreed that I was okay. Before that, there were many nips of my calf muscles and Phoebe felt she had to herd me away from her human. It’s a good thing she’s so small and cute, because otherwise it might not have been so endearing.
Now, though, we are good friends. I know this for sure because Phoebe greets me by showing me her belly every single time.
We really are having a great time!
One of the best parts about agreeing to take care of Phoebe is that I was introduced to the Rothman Open Space. It’s a prairie trail system with the Rocky Mountains in the backdrop. It’s wide, expansive, and glorious in the early morning.
Best of all, there are prairie dogs!
If you live in Colorado or other areas in the Midwest/West that have prairie dogs, you may think this is no big deal. However, I did not grow up with prairie dogs within walking distance. If we wanted to see prairie dogs, we would have to visit Zoo America in Hershey, PA, which we did often. The prairie dog exhibit was one of my favorites.
So you can imagine my delight that the Rothman Open Space is filled with what must be hundreds of prairie dogs! I love listening to their chirps and squeaks in the morning. And while I do miss my Waneka Lake walks and the abundance of wildlife there, the prairie dogs are a good substitute.
In addition to my sheer joy and enthusiasm for the prairie dogs, it’s fun to get writing inspiration while on these walks. I’m currently revising a middle-grade manuscript, and it turns out that my brain works just as well in the open space as it does around the lake. Thank you brain!
I’m also discovering new sources of inspiration, most notably a golden retriever who watched from behind a sliding glass door when Phoebe and I walked by on the trail. I swear the dog bowed at us. Immediately, my mind whirled with the possibilities of what secrets a golden retriever who bows will be keeping.
So while I did not set out to shake things up a bit by sitting for Phoebe, it’s good to be reminded that you don’t know what you don’t know. I had no idea I had access to such a wonderful place. And now I can’t wait to bring friends and family here the next time we have visitors.
If you’re on the fence about whether or not to do something, let this post be your sign that you should give it a try. You never know what may happen.
Since moving to Lafayette, Colorado, one of my favorite activities is walking around Waneka Lake. This lake has everything – the Rocky Mountains in the backdrop, pelicans, egrets, herons, raptors, ducks, red-winged black birds, and more, bunnies galore, and plenty of humans walking their dogs, so I can say hi to all of them and even be welcomed to pet some of them. I could not ask for a better way to start my day.
Which is why I walked around the lake every morning this summer for seven weeks straight! Now, I do a lot of mental and physical health care in my mornings. I meditate, move, write, and, most importantly, stay off my phone, with the occasional exception of playing Wordle, Connections, and Strands when my brain needs a quicker dopamine hit.
Speaking of Wordle, I guessed it on my first try yesterday!
Anyway, all these morning behaviors take up quite a bit of time. It’s a luxury over the summer to have the time to be so leisurely. Such is the privilege of being a college professor.
Alas, once the start of the fall semester crept closer in August, my morning walks went back to my originally scheduled goal of “walk around Waneka Lakes two to five times per week.” Two is the bare minimum that would still make me feel like I’m connecting with my local community, landscape, and nature.
I still remember the disappointment I felt on August 11th when I had to make the difficult choice of prioritizing what morning activities to do. That was the first time since June 4th that I didn’t walk around the lake that morning.
So it begins, I thought.
I knew the first day of not walking around was coming. That didn’t make it any easier.
Since then, I’ve kept up with my original goal. I walk around the lake a minimum of two times per week, and sometimes I’m still able to get in three to four walks. Some mornings it’s a tough call – do I walk around the lake, lift weights, spend the time with Heath before he heads to his job, work on writing, etc.
Without fail, every time I choose to prioritize walking around the lake, I have the same thought: this is never the wrong decision.
Today was the first day in a long time when I’ve felt breathing room in my upcoming week, and so I didn’t have to worry about prioritizing one of my morning rituals when deciding how to spend my time. Even though it’s the first truly cold day of the fall (a brisk 25 degrees Fahrenheit), I relished the crispness of the air and the bite of the cold against my nose.
Within minutes of being on the lake path, I said hello to a woman with her dog in a dapper red sweater, waved at a jogger, and marveled at how clear the Rockies looked in the distance. As I rounded the top of the lake, words started flowing for the manuscript I’m working on for Novel November to the point that I had to stop at a bench, take off my mittens, and type away on my phone, lest I forget the ideas by the time I got back home to my computer.
Yep. Never the wrong decision.
As I was walking around the lake this morning, I wondered what it would be like if I set myself the goal of walking around the lake every morning. That would likely mean I would have to let go of something else in my mornings. I wasn’t opposed to it, but I also wasn’t sure how that would play out in real life. It’s something I’m going to think about as my 2025 comes to a close and I consider how I want to spend the next calendar year of my life.
In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the lake as much as I can.
I have lived in some beautiful places in my life – Harrisburg, PA, with its full four seasons that offer variety and changing colors, Chapel Hill, NC, with its bounty of azaleas that take us into a long spring, Naperville, IL with its perfect blend of wild and whimsical with its downtown Riverwalk on the DuPage River, and Norfolk, CT, with its lush forest canopies that offer peace and solitude for anyone who shows up.
Annie enjoying a walk through the Borden Woods in Norfolk, CT
This is my first full summer as a Lafayette, Colorado, resident. Lafayette has a suburban feel to it, much like Naperville. Where we live, it’s also wild, thanks to the City of Lafayette Parks and Rec and their investment in Waneka Lake Park, which is a three-minute walk from the house we rent.
While everything feels open and exposed at Waneka (there’s no true canopy like in Norfolk), I can’t complain because every morning I get to see views like this:
Waneka Lake, June 2025
Wildflowers are also abundant around the lake, and the sunflowers are blooming everywhere. I sent this photo to my niece earlier this week, and I’m still laughing at her response.
Of course, with so many flowers and an expansive invitation of fresh water, the wildlife is abundant, too.
Just recently, I’ve seen cormorants pretending to be Batman, a goose pretending to be a flamingo, a black-crowned heron perched in a tree, bunnies galore, a northern flicker looking for tasty bugs, and a baby toad being the cutest little nubbins of an amphibian.
I also like the community aspect of the lake. I’m usually out there walking early in the morning, often around 6:30 am, and there are plenty of people and dogs to say hello to. Just this morning, I met a schnauzer mix named Ruby, who loved me immediately, and her buddy Leelee, who deigned to let me let her. It was Ruby’s human who pointed out the baby toads hopping around, and I don’t think I would have noticed them otherwise.
I made it a goal in 2025 to walk around Waneka Lake 2 to 5 times per week. Now I find myself wanting to walk there every morning because I never know what I’m going to see or who I’m going to meet. There’s a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) in the best possible way. Since June 4, I’ve walked around the lake 36 / 40 days, and the only reason I missed 4 days is because I was in NC!
One of the small things that I knew I’d miss when we moved from Norfolk, CT, in May 2023, was the lilacs I walked by every day on my way to work at the library.
Lilacs are my favorite flower fragrance, and purple is one of my favorite colors. Stopping to smell the lilacs was one of my favorite sensory experiences, taking just a few moments of my time yet filling me with joy.
I also knew I’d miss the half-mile commute to my job because I could walk it in less than 10 minutes. I loved walking, and then I’d be at the library!
Sometimes, it still amazes me that I was a librarian. I couldn’t even say that was a dream job. In the realm of possibility, it seemed impossible, given that I don’t have an MLS.
And now that I’m a professor again, I’m once again amazed. I swore to myself that I would NEVER return to teaching. I was done with academia. It wasn’t a good fit for me.
Except, I never really left teaching. At the library, I started an online media discussion group at the beginning of the pandemic. We read books such as The Now Habit, watched the Top 10 Ted Talks You Need to Know, and listened to psychology-themed episodes from podcasts such as Hidden Brain, The Happiness Lab, and Gretchen Rubin. We’re now five years in and still continuing on.
I also developed and led a Books & Boots program where we would read a book and then walk in the woods to discuss it. It makes me so happy that this program is still going strong today.
Books & Boots, Ells Crane Trail, August 2022
Then there were the in-person workshops that I led, on topics such as The Psychology of Stuff: Why We Have So Much and What We Can Do About It and Spring Cleaning Hacks: How to Get Started When You Don’t Want To.
And, of course, there was my other part-time job at the Congregational Church as the Director of Community and Creativity. I led multi-week discussions on Great Courses such as the History of the Bible and World Religions. Not to mention, I gave a few sermons that were some of the best public speaking moments of my life!
Church of Christ, Congregational (UCC), Norfolk
In hindsight, it shouldn’t amaze me at all that the job I ended up in again was teaching. It’s so clearly a part of who I am – I just wasn’t in the right teaching job the first time around.
And I still had some growing to do because the person I was when I quit teaching in 2016 is not the person I am now.
That person was limited in creativity and imagination. She didn’t KNOW who she was, and she felt more than a little lost in this great big world.
That time off allowed me to gain clarity on who I was and what I wanted.
I never once regretted that I quit my tenured associate professor position in 2016.
But those lilacs I would be leaving behind on my daily walk-commute, I would regret leaving them because of how much happiness they brought me.
Except…
There are lilacs on my walk across campus to the psychology and neuroscience building!
Lilacs outside the UMC building on the CU campus.
A walk that I take after I ride a bus. A bus ride in which I read a book or answer emails, or stare out the window in wonder that I now live amidst the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, on the way to a teaching job that brings me a lot of meaning and purpose.
All to say that I still walk to work and my commute isn’t awful! In fact, it’s mostly enjoyable.
So, you better believe I stop to smell those lilacs.
Because not only are they one of my favorite sensory experiences, but they also remind me that you don’t know what the future has in store for you. What you worry about may never come true. And what happens may be better than you ever imagined.
One aspect of my mental health that I’ve worked on with my therapist over the years is “sphere of control.” Essentially, one needs to ask what is in their control and what is not in their control, and then live their life accordingly.
This concept is how I was able to still feel motivated to cross off one of my 25 in 25 goals last weekend despite the chaos and turmoil in the United states as of late, including higher education (you may recall I returned to college teaching this past year).
Because I’m already doing everything I can, which includes calling my senators and representatives multiple times per week (my latest phone call was about library and museum funding being cut), and donating money to people who are fighting the good fight, the only thing left for me is to continue living my life in the best way possible because now is not the time to give in to despair. So I will keep doing the things that bring me joy on a regular basis, and that includes 1) achieving goals (or working towards my goals); 2) going on adventures with Heath; and 3) adventures that are specifically road trips.
So last weekend, Heath and I drove approximately three hours northeast to visit Nebraska. Prior to last weekend, Nebraska was one of three states I had yet to visit and now that we live close enough for a weekend trip, it seemed like the right time to visit.
Originally, I thought we would drive to the state line, have a look around, go out for lunch, and then head back. But, an internet search of national parks in Nebraska showed that there was a National Monument called Scott’s Bluff close enough that it could be a part of our road trip.
We left after a rather leisurely Saturday morning and arrived in Scott’s Bluff with enough time to hike the Saddle Rock Trail before the park closed at sunset.
Because of everything that’s been going on in our lives, Heath and I were so tired by the time we got to the hotel that we fell asleep around 7:30 p.m. Consequently, we woke up really early. Heath, in fact, got up much earlier than I did and went to hang out in the hotel lounge area. When I woke up, it was still quite dark outside, but I checked the sunrise time on my weather app and sent Heath a quick text message asking if he would be up for taking a sunrise hike on one of the Scotts Bluff trails.
It was beautiful and brisk (maybe too brisk for Heath) and filled with bunnies! Seriously. These aren’t the best photos because of how the bunnies blend in, but I’m going to share them anyway.
Up until recently, Nebraska had a state slogan that was, “Nebraska, honestly it’s not for everyone!” This slogan sells Nebraska short, particularly for Scott’s Bluff, because Nebraska is definitely for bunnies and it’s definitely a place worth visiting.
We also found this little cafe called The Mixing Bowl that served up a breakfast so scrumptious (I got salmon eggs Benedict and a specialty drink called the Nebraska Sunrise that included OJ and pomegranate juice) that we returned for lunch before heading back to Colorado.
What was especially great about the cafe is we got to chat with the wait staff and the owner’s mom who shared with us that she and her husband weren’t sure that their daughter could make it as a chef/restauranteur because the business is so tough. The daughter, who had been trained at a culinary institute in Denver, didn’t let that stop her and her parents finally came around. Not only is the cafe doing well, but it’s thriving enough that they want to take over the building next door.
If you ever find yourself in Gering, NE, I highly recommend eating at The Mixing Bowl. You won’t regret it.
Our weekend away ended up being a wonderful time and I can’t wait for the next one. It probably won’t be until May because the week after next I’m heading to Norfolk for a few days to meet Annie Jr. and then Heath is off Valley Forge, PA, for Super Billiards Expo in April.
In case you need a reminder of who Annie is
There’s lots to look forward to and that’s what I need right now. It’s also one of the few things I can control.
Happy travels, everyone! Especially within your sphere of control.
My goodness! It doesn’t feel like that long ago I was wishing everyone happy howlidays in 2023. And now, here we are on Christmas Eve, 2024. What a year it’s been!
This year had more ups and downs than The Comet rollercoaster at Hersheypark, which is an ironic metaphor for me to use because I gave up rollercoasters years ago, thanks to nausea and vertigo. I keep thinking there will be a perfect time to rest and reflect on everything that’s happened, but there will never be a perfect time. Instead, there’s now. It’s not perfect, and my brain is frazzled from finalizing grades for nearly 350 students. But here’s where I am, and here’s what I know.
In 2024, all I wanted was my own bed, a home, and a Heath. Well, I got everything on my list — and guess what? Nothing has truly changed that much in my life. Oh, sure, the circumstances have changed, but who I am at my core is still fundamentally the same. What makes me happiest, including the simple joys of life, like Heath’s sharpest smile when he’s thoroughly amused by something, the lick on my cheek by a dog, or the excitement of diving into a new book, are all still the same. And the things that infuriate me, such as overconsumption, waste, and injustice, haven’t gone anywhere.
This realization makes me think there’s some profound truth out there, similar to the profound truth I realized recently that acceptance may need to be how I approach sleep because of what else is there? But what precisely this truth is remains elusive as I contemplate my life as we approach 2025.
In the meantime, I offer you a very Merry Colorado Christmas and Warm Waneka wishes. I’ll see you all next year! (I’ll never get tired of that end-of-December joke).
For those who need a reminder, Waneka Lake is the lake right by our new home.
I had a thought the other day—would I be able to recognize a good night’s sleep if I had one?
This semester, I teach 300 students in a general psychology course at CU Boulder. I am enjoying teaching this many students at once, and the personal satisfaction I feel upon my return to teaching has far exceeded all my expectations.
An unexpected benefit is that I’m reminded daily of why I love psychology so much. In the past few weeks, we’ve covered two different topics in class: memory (chapter 7 in the textbook) and consciousness (chapter 3 in the textbook). I like to jump around.
One of the reasons I presented the memory chapter before the consciousness chapter is that getting a good night’s sleep (considered an “altered” state of consciousness) has been well-documented in the scientific literature to improve memory. I thought discussing this finding with students would motivate them to be more receptive to the best sleep practices we discussed the following week.
We also discussed different types of memory, including sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Long-term memory is classified into explicit memory, which includes facts, knowledge, and personal events, and implicit memory, which includes motor skills, habits, and classical conditioning.
It was while I was brushing my teeth one morning that I put these two topics together.
I had never considered before that perhaps my sleep isn’t nearly as bad as I think it is. What if I’ve classically conditioned myself to feel sluggish and low energy in the mornings? What if I’ve had so many tired mornings in my life that my body automatically responds accordingly every morning when I wake up?
I shared this thought with two of my friends during a Zoom get-together this past week, and they gave me a good suggestion. Every morning, when I wake up, I should rate how tired I feel on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being refreshed and energized.
In just two mornings of this practice, I had a minor breakthrough. The first morning, my rating was a 10. The second morning, it was a 3. The difference between the two mornings is that on the first morning, I had an incredibly vivid, bizarre, violent, emotionally dramatic dream, and I was still in the dream when I woke up. On the second morning, I was not dreaming when I woke up. The first morning, I felt traumatized. The second morning, I did not.
I realized that asking myself how tired I am in the morning is the wrong question! The right question is, how traumatic was the dream I just woke up from?
I don’t know what exactly to do with this information. I hope to find a sleep doctor in the area soon, and I think this information will be helpful as I explain what I need the most help with. Whether or not the doctor has a solution will remain to be seen.
In the meantime, I’m so tired of not just being tired but talking about being tired.
I also had another thought recently—what would I do with all my brain power if I accepted that I may be this way for the rest of my life? Wouldn’t that be liberating?
I don’t think it’s that easy to simply say I’m accepting that this is the way it’s going to be, and then I’ll accept it, but I do think I’ve made some progress in getting there.
With approximately two months left this year, I am letting go of wanting things to be different with my sleep. This is how my life is playing out right now, and I will live with it. Over the last two months, I’ve proven to myself that I can work again full-time, keep writing, and prioritize my mental and physical health. It is the bare minimum that I find acceptable and so I’m going to be okay with that.
To quote CS Lewis “onward and upward.”
Now, to add some more color and vibrancy to this post, here are some small moments of joy from the past few weeks.
A few weeks ago, Heath and I drove to Estes Park for a day trip. We stopped to feed the ducks at the River Walk Cafe and I found the colors on this mallard so striking.
On my walk to the bus stop two weeks ago, this majestic hawk flew before me and landed on this branch. I told myself if I missed the bus and had to drive to campus, it would be totally worth it to be in the presence of this amazing creature.
This past week, we had a late bloom on the rose bush in front of our house. I love the pop of colors amongst the vibrant green.
Heath and I finished work at the same time this past Friday and so he picked me up on campus. Seeing this dog living their best life absolutely made my day!
That same day, I convinced Heath to come for a sunset stroll around the lake. On our way back to the house, he heard this owl, and we found him perched on someone’s roof. To our delight and surprise, there was another owl on the opposite side of the roof and they kept hooting back and forth to each other.
I hope everyone reading this can find small moments of joy in their life, too. Until next time….
