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| Alpenglow on Mount Whitney, Alabama Hills CA Christmas Day 2015 |
In 2004, I helped organize a day retreat for a women's networking group I
belonged to.
One of the speakers, whose talk I've quite forgotten, introduced a book
called the "5-Year Journal." The book allows three lines for each day, and
groups entries for that day together for 5 years. The fun of this, once you get going, is
seeing what you were doing and thinking and striving for in years past. Doreen
Clement, the Journal's author, also included periodic summary questions and questions
about goals.
The idea was irresistible to me, so I bought one.
13 years later, I'm still doing this exercise, though I switched books to a version from
Levenger when Ms Clement died and the original version was temporarily
unavailable. The Levenger version
doesn't include the questions, but I don't find that I miss them overmuch. I'm a natural planner, and even a bit of a
brooder, so I do this sort of big-picture thinking without prompting.
The books have also become a way to follow photography & camping trips
(I wrote a compulsive little post about my first
100 trips in Lurch the camper using the journal as a reference) and to keep
track of shooting location names and other details like plant and animal
species to help keyword my images.
I thought, for fun, I'd follow what I've been doing on a given day for the
last 12 years. I chose Christmas Days, which I tend to spend rather unconventionally. This being a photo
blog, I'll dig up photographic documentation when it exists.
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| Lee Flat, Death Valley National Park. Christmas Day 2016 |
In 2016, Christmas day dawned cold and clear on the Joshua Trees of Lee
Flat. This was our fifth solstice trip
to Death Valley National Park and other parts of the Mojave Desert. My husband and the dog were cozy in the
camper while I negotiated to 16 degrees F, waiting for the earth shadow and
then the alpenglow on snow-covered mountains.
Then, I joined them for breakfast burritos and hot tea.
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| Rainbow over the dunes, Death Valley National Park Christmas Day 2015 |
Christmas day was spectacular in 2015; complete with a rainbow over the
dunes in Death Valley.
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| Christmas Day 2014 |
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| Last Chance Mountains, Death Valley National Park, Christmas Day 2013 |
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| Santa Barbara Courthouse, Christmas Day 2012 |
In 2012 we were in Santa Barbara with friends, visiting tourist
destinations like the County Courthouse and Mission. I'd rented a fisheye lens for the trip.
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| Christmas Day 2011 |
2011 was our first trip to Death Valley.
We stayed in the Furnace Creek Ranch.
It seems odd now to stay anywhere but the camper. There are, unfortunately, lots of coyotes
accustomed to humans. This guy was
attracted to the crackle of a granola bar wrapper.
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| Storm light, Santa Ynez Valley, CA. Christmas Day 2010 |
2010 we took a drive from Santa Barbara to the Santa Ynez Valley in a storm. I’d forgotten
this image and am delighted to have had a chance to reprocess it as I prepared this
post.
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| Sedona, Christmas Day 2009 |
2009 was the first year that a charity event we’d been helping to organize
for six years didn’t happen. We’d gotten
used to spending all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on this fun event for
homeless families and were at a bit of a loss about what to do. This year we hiked in snowy Sedona.
Finally, going back to 2003, some pics of the holiday thing, which was
called “Miracle in the Desert,” Complete with Santa.
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| Miracle in the Desert, Phoenix, Christmas Days 2003-2008 |
Fun, right? Maybe only fun for those
dancing on the edge of OCD.
Cheers.
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