Then and Now

Winter Then
How about that? A buried car. A few years ago my former husband and I went away over Christmas week. Three big storms came, and with no one to shovel it out, my car looked like an igloo. We got home to Gray, Maine on New Year’s Day to piles and miles of snow. I remembered that my office keys were in the car, and so began the shoveling out. What you see here is him leaning over the drivers seat to grab the keys.

Winter Now
Now I am in rural Georgia. Yesterday I had to use my laminated grocery store card to scrape some frost from one of my car windows. As I drove out I couldn’t miss this hawk was sleeping on a low branch near my driveway. I got two photos shot before he flew away. I love that winter here doesn’t mean life hibernates.

Commute then
I keep journals and art books and date books. Last January my date book was filled with Gray, Maine council meetings to cover and dates to photograph soccer games for my newspaper.

Commute now
This January I am researching writing sites, editorial submission guidelines and developing writing contacts from my home office on a horse farm in rural Georgia. Amazing what a year will bring!

A moment from Now
New Years Eve day came with pounding rains occasionally letting up to drizzle and fog before cycling back to rain again. During one of the foggy misty moments, I took a walk. It was quiet, except for a few drips from wet leaves hitting the pavement. Out of the fog came the drone of a tractor, and a second later, a young man atop a huge John Deere, dressed in cammo and baseball cap whose rim was dripping droplets onto his nose. He gave me a shy wave, raising two fingers from his steering wheel and just as suddenly he disappeared back into the fog.

Do you look back and forward on New Years? Take stock? What was your 2006 like?