Queens Creek

These shots of Queens Creek were taken from my back yard recently. 

We were experiencing a bout of what I like to call Scooby Doo weather. 

Gray, dark, a little bit spooky, maybe even creepy.  The fog always adds that little sprinkle of mystery to the overall landscape.

Flash forward to today, and all is back to normal--whatever that is. 

Mother Nature always reminds us that dark skies don't last forever. 

And no matter how gray things seem, nothing stays the same.  

This too shall pass.

Happy week before Christmas!

The Glebe

The other day on a whim, I took a much-overdue drive down the Glebe.

I rarely go down the Glebe, really, because I don't have any particular reason to.  But when I do, I always stop to take pictures of this soybean field and the little barn in the background.

Well, we all survived Thanksgiving.  My father is home and recovering nicely from all his health woes, although last week he was readmitted for a fever.  Thankfully they were able to control the situation, and he could return home in time for a fabulous Thanksgiving feast.

I completed my third chemo treatment last Wednesday, which means I have nine more to go.  So far, I continue to feel OK relatively speaking.  My hair has started to fall out, but thankfully I have so much of it, there's plenty to go around.  It's possible, although I'm not clinging to the notion, that I won't lose it all.  But if I do, I do. 

Aside from surviving, I've been trying to work when I can, although the commute and the stress of my job make for long days. It's shocking to realize the Christmas season is upon us once again, speaking of stress...I don't have the energy to battle with my huge artificial tree, so I am going to have to do something different this year.  What that is, I've not yet figured out. But it's going to involve a smaller, easier tree.  (Is there such a thing as an easy Christmas tree?)

Anyway, that's about it from my neck of the woods.  I hope all is well with you.

Aarons Beach

The past few days have been unseasonably warm around here, 

so today on my day off from work I decided to visit Aarons Beach.

Truth be told, I had a list of a million tasks to accomplish and didn't want to do any of the things listed except for two.

Those two things were jogging and blogging.

(They even rhyme.)

The jogging part was over and done with first thing in the morning.  That left the entire day--along with those 999,998 other undesirable items on the To Do list--in front of me, mocking me, taunting me. Picking on me, really.

I decided to ignore the taunts and focus on what I wanted to could accomplish. Although blogging was on the I Want To Do This part of the list, I had absolutely no new pictures.

Hence, the trip to the beach.

This beach has changed so much over the time I've been photographing it--over 8 years.

But some things remain constant.

It's hard to believe that December is here already.  Although I survived Thanksgiving and barely survived the annual Chesapeake Bay Woman vs. Artificial Christmas Tree fight, there is still a lot left to do before I'd consider myself anywhere close to ready for Christmas.  I'm not in the mood--at all--to do any sort of Christmas shopping.  But I am looking forward to the Mathews Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 10. It's always a great time. Perhaps that will put me in a more festive mood.

As for this weekend, I'm looking forward to it.  Friday I'm taking my parents to dinner at my favorite local restaurant, Mi Casa Azteca.  Saturday I travel to visit Baby Sister in Richmond.  I ought to take advantage of being in the Big City and start some Christmas shopping, but that's just not on my radar at the moment.  The older I get, the more I can't stand shopping, especially when it's semi-forced and overly crowded.  That just equates to stress as far as I'm concerned.

And I'm all about avoiding unnecessary stress.

Which is why I thoroughly enjoyed today's trip to the local beach and the intentional avoidance of that pesky To Do list.


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To read about previous Christmas quandaries,  click here .