Blah

In case you didn't notice, I haven't been in a blogging mood. Honestly I haven't been in a much of anything mood. The time/weather change sucks. It takes away two things that honestly really helped me get through the last year, hiking and photography. I really miss being able to go for hikes after work. Not only does it give me a form of exercise I don't dread, but being out in nature is something I need to refresh my mind and soul. The last two months have been hard for me and I haven't found a good replacement.

(I have started going to Zumba with my cousin, which is a good fill in for the exercise part. And it would be more so if I ever get past the part where I mostly just stand there and go, oh wait, what was that, or we're moving on, wait how did you do...oh ok new thing...wait....this is hard)

As for photography, the only thing I really enjoy taking photos of is nature stuff. And yeah nature stuff still exists during winter. But it's all cold. And there is snow. And it gets dark early. And yeah. So instead my recliner and I have gotten to be better friends. And then I was going through my photos from the last year and realized, I don't really have that many that I'm truly happy with. I know that just means I need to practice more, but it was a bit discouraging.

A few months ago my cousin Katy passed along a thank you card she got from someone where they had printed a photo of theirs and attached it to a blank card. She suggested I should do something similar with some of my photos. I thought it was a great idea for a personalized Christmas card. And like most things, that I idea did not exactly go as planned.

I wanted to wait until their was snow on the ground to get a "winter" picture. But that created a situation of wanting to get a picture up high enough in the canyon to have snow on the ground, but timing that with the closing of canyons, finding a setting I like, and actually getting a photo I was happy with. Well what I ended up with was one last shot to get a photo, I either got it on that day, or I went to the store and bought cards.

There is a cool place up Payson Canyon called the Pine Forest. I hadn't been there since we had first moved to Utah 24 years ago (holy crap that just made me feel old!), but from what I remembered, I thought it had the possibility of a good photo. I got some directions and headed up there. I later realized what I thought might be the trail head was, but I doubted it and went a different direction following some tracks in the snow. Those tracks did eventually get me to the Pine Forest, but only after a 45 minute hike uphill, through snow, in uncomfortable boots. I spent at least 5 minutes just standing at a fork in the trail debating just turning around, but I'm glad I kept going and got there.

Anyone local that hasn't been up there, should go. It's such a peaceful, serene place. And I needed the time alone up there. Luckily on the way back I saw what I figured might be the real trail and was able to take the much easier, 15 minute way back. I have to say that on my 1" preview screen on my camera, the photos were much cooler looking. But I got something to use for a card, so not a waste.

Luckily I did get that one task completed, because 2 days later a wicked cold took over and claimed all of last week. Oh you don't feel like you will be able to get everything done for Christmas in the next two weeks? Ok, how about I just take away one of those weeks. Good luck! Thanks Universe. So some people are getting New Years presents instead.

(re-reading that, I'm not really as down as that all sounds, well maybe, but that's Christmas for ya.) Merry Christmas to all.