A New Year Begins

I started my last post with "Here we are! New Year's Eve!" Well, here we are! Twenty-one days into 2021! How has the new year treated you? For me, it didn't start so well, but I'll talk about that later. We tried to start the new year out right. We had the southern US tradition of black-eyed peas and ham that are supposed to bring good luck for the year. I did learn something new about this tradition. Black-eyed peas are said to represent coins and money which is the reason they are believed to bring good luck. Hmmmm! Not so sure that worked for me.

I also tried to begin the new year with a little fresh air and exercise. I couldn't go far or on a hike, but I still enjoyed the fresh air and this woodpecker beating out his rhythm. 

Right before Christmas we had some gum trees cut down. I always feel bad when we cut trees, but these were necessary. Each year they produce millions of pesky gumballs (and I'm not exaggerating) that must be raked or they'll jam in the lawnmower belts and break them which is quite expensive. They are also very hard to walk on. I don't know how many times I've twisted my ankle as they roll under my feet! Even though it felt bad to cut them down, it was the right thing to do. Two of them were very rotten inside, which could have brought them down in a storm. The picture below is looking into the stump that was left. The next one is a reflection in the water that the stump was holding. When the chainsaw reached the water inside the tree, it came cascading out like a high pressure fountain. After all this time, the stump is still full of water. Who knew a tree could be full of water!

When you take down trees there is a lot of clean up. I drove the tractor and moved the logs into a pile. I had the easy work, Jerry had to put them in the tractor bucket!

The new year brought sadness. The sixth was the one year anniversary of my dad's death. I miss them both so much! I wish I'd picked brighter colored flowers. These just blend in with the dead grass.

My answer to sadness is to get outside and be in nature. I'm grateful that the world God gave us is beautiful and healing!

During the winter, I'm able to get closer to the old railroad trestle behind our house. During other months there are too many snakes and mosquitoes!

There's an area in the creek that flows under the bridge that has a small waterfall. I stood there for a long while just listening to the water. In nature nothing is more soothing to me than the sound of water! I noticed this bright patch of sun on a fallen tree and the waterfall. Sometimes I like to try and make artsy pictures and this looked like the perfect opportunity. This is straight out of the camera, no editing.  I really like how it turned out. It's was bright spot on a rather hard day!

Now let me get to my comment that 2021 did not start well with me. After considerable pain and a visit to my urologist, an 18mm kidney stone was discovered in my right kidney. Yes, it was a monster! Your kidney is only about the size of a fist; about 4-5 inches long, 2-3 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. Put a 1 1/2 inch stone in there and your will eventually have pain; sharp pain that almost makes you pass out! I won't go into any details, why bring up painful memories? I did get my first Covid test and thankfully it came back negative. On the 13th I had an outpatient lithotripsy procedure done. All I can say is I'm recovering SLOWLY and with some pain. Nothing excruciating like before, but none the less pain! I'm afraid it's going to be a long few weeks!

That's about sums up 2021 so far!

Not a great beginning, but I'm hoping for better days soon!