A Different Holiday Season

I’ve did a subset of decorating I do every year after Thanksgiving – put up the door scrunchies with cards from past seasons,

Filled the milk glass vase with glittery swirls (the milk glass vase was one that was left in a house we bought over 30 years ago...and I always put something in it for Christmas), and

Put cards under the plastic on the breakfast table.

But that is it for decorating this year. We just got back from more than a week in Hawaii (blog posts to come about that) and are planning day trips to other places (Longwood Gardens, Brookside, etc.) that are decorated for the season through early January.

It is a different plan for the holiday (Thanksgiving – Christmas – New Years). There is less decorating, more time with family and more time traveling! Wrapped gifts are not on the agenda at all. My husband gave me a binocular harness strap before we went to Hawaii and he bought himself more gear for star parties that are in our future!

I’m still thinking about what traditions I want to squeeze back into the plan….maybe pumpkin custard for Christmas day…putting away all the decorations we did get out on New Years Eve.

First Day Hike

It was a cold January 1 in our area of Maryland and my husband was just getting over a cold --- he didn’t want to hike. So I took a very short hike from a two lane road near us down to the Little Patuxent River. I want to try out my new monopod/hiking pole. It turned out to be a good idea since I managed to unscrew the bottom section completely!

All the leaves were brown and brittle. The sycamore leaves were still largely intact and quite large from the trees growing along the river.

I was not fast enough to photograph the great blue heron that was evidently fishing in the river when I arrived.  There were some deer that were on the opposite bank - white tails flashing by the time I saw them.

The places where the water was still enough were still frozen from the previous night’s temperature drop into the 20s.

I looked for shelf fungus on the downed logs but only saw tiny ones but this moss with sporophytes add some color to the otherwise drab colors of winter.

On the way home I stopped at the storm water pond in our neighborhood.

The stumps from a visit from a beaver a few years ago were still visible near the short - and punctuated the ice at the pond’s edge.

And a surprise from my daughter in Tucson - they had snow on January 1! She sent the pictures below.