Selfie

Day 98: It seems a new standard has been instituted. For most of my life, I've bragged that I just don't get sick, but the last three or four Januaries have shattered that enviable record. Last year, a cold went into bronchitis and then progressed to pneumonia, keeping me down for six weeks. So far, this is just a cold, and I'm giving it the Aboriginal treatment, i.e., snuffling water up my nose every few hours to wash out the inside of my head. It's helping. I'll spare you the remaining complaints. Just suffice to say that if I don't seem to be my usual perky self...well, it took every scrap of energy I had to set up this shot.

Bucket In The Woods

Day 92: I'm venturing outside my customary scope with this shot, but occasionally I happen across something which just begs to be photographed. Such was the case when I found this battered old bucket at the base of a tree on a friend's property. It was well past its prime and its original purpose was unclear, but buckets are meant to contain things, and even overturned, this one's rustic character had neither been spilled nor had it dripped away. What is beauty, anyway, if not that which delights the individual eye? We do not have to agree on the subjects of our admiration and should not allow others to jade us toward their own ideas of perfection.