PHOTOS: April 27, 2022

Good morning!

As I've mentioned in the past, our family has moved several times since we lost our home in Channahon when Ron developed dementia.

We are now contemplating another move.

And it occurred to me yesterday morning, while searching through my photos for one that highlighted a social media post, that this might be our last spring in this very picturesque area, that the view on April 27, 2027, might look very different next year.

So I scrolled through my saved photos for images I took on April 27, 2022.

Because when moving forward, it's good to know from whence we came, not for reasons of looking back for too long (lest we become immobile), but to give us the courage and hope to move forward, that beauty and blessing lie in the future, too.

If you think about it, we really can only move forward, right?

Before the Storm

On July 25, Timothy and I were standing on my porch for a a few brief moments before the storms began.

I'd had surgery the previous week and during a heat wave, so it felt good to stand outside and feel the breeze.

While we chatted, he snapped photos of flowers near the porch and the threatening skies.

I thought they were gorgeous, so I'm sharing the seven best images with you today.

Enjoy!

Bertrand Photo Shoot For New Book

Rebekah and I spent the bulk of the last two weekends "helping" Bertrand the Mouse create backdrops and costumes for a very special new book - and then we shot it all yesterday, too.

Or as Daniel said, we spent many, many, many hours "doing arts and crafts."

The kitchen was full of our supplies.

My bedroom was full of our supplies.

The hall was full of baskets of laundry.

Poor Faith hid under the bed during the shooting (the lighting was best in my room, especially once we utilized the closet and bathroom lights, too). so I moved to her food and water to her (which she ignored).

Bertrand loved the "making" of the backdrops but was less enthused about the "picture-taking."

He complained that his costumes were too hot (nice try, he wore the main one two days in a row last year at a 100-degree event), that it was taking too long, that he was bored, that he had to pee, that he was thirsty, that he was hungry etc. - and the irony of consistently repeating, "Say cheese!" over and over for many retakes was not lost on him.

Since this is an extra-special Bertrand book, I'm not divulging its topic or subject matter right now.

But I will share five outtakes that barely hint at the work involved and the (overall) fun we had.

Happy Monday!

Caught in the Wild

Timothy snapped this photo of me snapping a photo of Bertrand the Mouse in a coffee shop in Chicago.

It was almost 8:30 on a Saturday night (December 14, 2019). We had met my niece Rachel, her boyfriend Michael (now husband) at Del Seoul for bipimbap (which I love) and stopped for coffee before getting back on the road.

The hat, which I eventually lost, was an impromptu gift from Daniel. It had a large picture of a cat on the front and a battery operated LED light. 

The scarf I bought my first winter walking back and forth to work.

The coat I bought on sale for $150 at Marshall Field in December 1998, my first winter as a single parent and my first winter as a freelance writer, because I didn't own a decent winter coat.

And, of course, that's original Bertrand perched on top of my coffee. Original Bertrand jumped out of that coat pocket eighteen months later for adventures that no longer included me.

We had no idea how the world would change in just one month - or that in three months, the world would lock down.

We were just living life.

Let's live life today, OK?

Happy Thursday!

Crazy Camera Lady

So the berries on these bare branches caught my eye outside a particular nursing home, after I stepped outside when paying a visit to a resident.

I thought a photo of this would make a nice addition to my collection of teaser photos for the BryonySeries novel Lycanthropic Summer.

What you can't see, and what I didn't realize at the time, was that someone else was also taking a photo.

Keep scrolling...

Yep!

You see, while I'm amassing a collection of photos for BryonySeries social media postings, my family is amassing their own collection of photos, of me, taking photos.

This also started years ago when Timothy found me crouched near a large garden rock on a busy sidewalk snapping a photo of Bertrand the Mouse.

He snapped a photo of me and sent it round to the family. Kids! Sheesh!

Timothy also caught this one of me taking photos of Bertrand the Mouse and his Uncle Barty at Three Stories Books in Lemont.

Timothy also caught this one of me a few Christmases ago. We were out running errands, and I liked the view. So we parked and walked over.

These are the only ones I could find in the moment.

But you get the idea...

A Reminder to Myself

A social media friend who lives in Chicago posts a photo every day with the tagline of "a reminder to myself that there is something worth photographing everyday."

I was in Chicago last week. And here in this spot, I immediately thought of her, her tagline, and snapped this photo to share with her.

Then I took another photo (which is below this one) to capture some of the detail in this art, too.

And then I thought: she really started something good here. Maybe others who don't know her would like that reminder, too.

So here are the photos.

Maybe something will catch your eye today, too, enough that you'll want to preserve the moment.

Friendship

I snapped this photo on February 25, 2018, two days short of five years ago.

The little girl in the photo was the first super fan of Bertrand the Mouse - and she had brought one of her little stuffed animals to meet him.

If you use your imagination to study the little animals, you can see the little girl's animal giving Bertrand a hug. And you can see a happy Bertrand looking straight into my camera.

Her mother had actually experimented with crocheting mice and other animals. Yet she could never reproduce Bertrand.

That's OK. 

Because that little girl's mother impacted Bertrand (and me) in a real and lasting way. You can read about it here. The original post is way more fun than a quick summary here.

I don't know if this little girl, who is not quite so little anymore, remembers her love for Bertrand the Mouse and still likes books.

But I hope she never loses her creative slant to life.

So if you want to know what a happy writer looks like, it looks like this photo.

And I would take one photo like this over a hundred book sales.

Bertrand's Shades of Snow

On Sunday, Rebekah, Uncle Barty, Bertrand  the Mouse, and I drove to Barnes and Noble in Joliet to meet a friend for coffee.

Snowflakes fell thick and fast during our drive, and Bertrand gazed happily out the window, looking forward to finally play in the snow when we returned.

Well, the snow had stopped by the time we left, and Bertrand was super disappointed.

So far, the winter of 2022-2023 is a mild one, in terms of snow. 

That's why Bertrand asked me to share some of his favorite photos from past years, hoping it might encourage the Midwest winter to do its job.

Enjoy!

Before COVID and remote working, I lived close enough to The Herald-News office to walk back and forth to work with Bertrand, even in winter. He loved it!

And some days, he skipped ahead of me.

Even crocheted mice get cold in the snow, so Bertrand makes sure to bundle up!

We;;, he bundles up most of the time...

But sometimes Bertrand would be so excited to play in the snow, he dashed out the door without his winter wraps ("extra" mittens that lost its mate).

Although on sunny days, Bertrand didn't mind the cold at all.

But snow does get Bertrand's yarn all wet. When you're a crocheted mouse, you not only need to warm up when you come inside, you need to dry out. So it's best to be proactive.

But thinking ahead doesn't always happen when you're an impetuous pretend mouse that can't resist adventure.

Because for Bertrand, adventure is everywhere and always calling him.

    This was one of our easier winter walks to The Herald-News.

But some days are too bitter cold for me to chase a crocheted mouse in the snow. So Bertrand has to content himself with living his nonlife from the inside and patiently waiting for better days.

Soap bubbles in the snow? Makes sense to Bertrand!

Snow by day, snow by night: it makes no difference to Bertrand. All snow is fun snow.

Yes, he walked across all of it. No, I did not follow him.

As much as Bertrand loves snow, he enjoys a good whiff of spring air like many other creatures, real or pretend.

And sometimes Bertrand even persuades his Uncle Barty to join him in the snow, when Uncle Barty isn't too busy reading, which is Uncle Barty's favorite activity.

Reading is Bertrand's favorite activity, too. His reason for being is to share the joys of reading with children. But when adventures calls...

...sometimes Bertrand just can't resist.

January Beauty

Many people consider January a "blah" time: the holidays are past and spring can't come soon enough.

But January is full of subtle beauty once we know where to find it.

Below are six photos I  took in January, 2017 to 2022.

When The Herald-News was located on Oneida Street and we lived in The Birches (about a mile and a half away), I almost always walked back and forth to work. Bertrand The Mouse always came with me, tucked inside my lunch cooler, unless he was feeling particularly frisky, such as on this day in January 2017, when he led the way.

My grandchildren Ezekiel and Riley enjoy a bit of snow fun on our family Christmas right outside my back door at the time on January 7, 2018.

This photo is from January 7 Christmas 2019. My gift to my grandchildren that year was "Build a Bear" - from bread dough. They did it all, from proofing the yeast, mixing the dough, kneading the dough, and then decorating and baking their bears. This is my granddaughter Jessica, clearly pleased with her results.

Timothy took this photo of me taking photos inside the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet in January 2019 while I was working on a story.

In early January 2020, I wanted a "snow scene" photo for social media - except I had broken my toe and couldn't walk far on the slippery ground. So I opened the front door and snapped this photo of my yard right outside the porch.

Beautiful scene from a morning walk with Rebekah in January 2021.

I snapped this photo earlier this week while working at the computer. When Faith, who has small cell lymphoma, isn't napping, she sits behind me on my desk chair or gazes out the window. I love this cat!

A Glimpse of Autumn

Until March 2020, my early morning walks were for me alone, a time to clear my mind before the day began.

But after Rebekah was furloughed that month, she started making healthier changes. So I invited her to walk with me. That's been our habit ever since.

Four to five days a week in the early morning before we start our work day, we walk and talk together.

As we walked and talked, I became aware of my surroundings in different ways, simply because Rebekah notices things I do not.

Coupled with the fact that Timothy keeps upgrading my phone include better and better cameras, I started noticing details in those walks I wanted to capture.

I'm no professional photographer by any means. But I've captured some scenes that make me smile.

Here are five of my autumn photos from 2020 and 2021. I hope they add a bit of warmth to the start of your week.

Happy Monday!