An anniversary and a few random thoughts

Today’s (Tuesday as I write this) is my one year blogging anniversary, so I want to take the first part of this post to say thanks to all of you who read, “like”, and comment regularly, irregularly, or even just once.  I remember wondering whether anyone other than my family would ever read one of my posts and how excited I was when I got my first non-family “like” and then my first non- family follower.  Now I enjoy hearing from many of you almost every day and I love that!

It’s been a year where I’ve averaged at least one post per day, started sharing my photos, and found a great family, and I use the term purposely, of writers in the Friday Fictioneers, who have allowed me to develop both my writing and friendships.  And I get to hear from and talk to people all over the world  What a blessing and what fun all that has been!

Today I drove our younger daughter back to Philadelphia, a trip that’s become familiar.  Diving allows lots of time for thought and observation (as well as talking, listening to music or, on the way home tomorrow, a book on CD).  Pennsylvania is, when driven east-west, a long, beautiful, even mountainous state that always brings to mind the beginnings of our country as well as the Civil War.  It also has the (dubious?) distinction of being the only state I’ve been in that has a Starbucks at every single plaza along the toll road, each one with a large, free-standing sign telling me that it’s open 24 hours a day.  Not sure what that says, but one thing’s certain:  you don’t have to worry about running out of caffeine on I-76 in Pennsylvania.

Today the snow provided a luminous light which contrasted with the shades and hues of brown on the winter foliage and plants and lift the gloom of some winter days.  I saw two foxes loping through the stubble of a corn field and geese gleaning in other fields.  There was a murder of crows, or maybe a group of murders of crows–lots of them at any rate–some performing slow arial feats while others sat, feathers puffed for warmth, chatting in the trees.

I love driving through the tunnels and reading the road names on the overpasses, most of them sounding much more Revolutionary and English or Indian than those in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, my other most-driven-through states and definitely different than those on the way to Wyoming.  The barns all have an overhang, unlike barns I’ve seen in other states. Here’s what Wikipedia says about them:

“A Pennsylvania barn is a type of  banked barn built in the USA from about 1820 – 1900. The style’s most distinguishing feature is the presence of an overshoot or forebay, an area where the barn overshoots its foundation. These barns were banked, that is set into a hillside to ensure easy access to both the basement and the level above.”

Starting a farm here must have been an arduous process of cutting trees, removing stumps and hauling rocks.  Homes made of stone and walls made of rock abound only, I suspect, because the rock had to be moved from the fields.  The word “outcrop” takes on a very literal meaning here as rocks crop out of the ground everywhere, the “out (as in sticking out) crop” of the field.

While sitting in the coffee shop during Megan’s capoeira class (Spellcheck wants me to say “Capote” class), I saw a dog wearing a jacket with neon lights on it!  I also realized once again that WordPress for iPads is a pain in the part of my anatomy currently  being used for sitting and that, contrary to what Apple would like you to believe, using an Apple product is only intuitive if you’ve used one before. I’ve overheard enough college students talking to feel despair about the state of language in the next generation, but I realize that phenomenon is not exclusive to college students, unfortunately.  And I was reminded again that using the F-word does not make a woman sound edgy and with it. (I don’t like it when used by men, either, so don’t label me sexist.)

Enough wandering.  Thanks again to all my friends in the blogging world and my non- blogging friends and family, as well as random strangers who’ve shared this year with me.  I look forward to many blogging years and I hope you do, too.  I’ll close with the tagline from my emails, which is particularly apt for me:

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.      C. S. Lewis