Clubhouse Year

It's the 70th post and this month marks a one-year blogiversary. I'd like to thank you for reading, viewing, following, commenting. I hope it's been interesting for you, because this year was certainly interesting for me. Here are some highlights and things that happened this year (in no particular order):

❧ I learned a great deal about photography and our Nikon D3100. With practice, I grew comfortable shooting in manual mode.

❧ The most popular post this year - the one that received the most hits - was September's Purple Roses, featuring Mata Traders.

❧ We visited the coast of North Carolina and saw Cape Lookout.

❧ I embedded a piece from Tchaicovsky's The Seasons in one post every month. I love these reflective pieces for solo piano, they're so relaxing and really take me to another place. My favorite excerpt is Troika (November). What's yours?

❧ In October, my sister and I went to the Land of Oz, which is in North Carolina. Who knew?

❧ We had an incredibly brief but beautiful snow this year.

❧ George Gently, Sherlock, Call the Midwife, Poirot, Marple, Endeavour - I enjoyed lots of British TV this year. I may have a problem. We didn't go to the theater much, but we did see The Imitation Game on Christmas and thought it was incredibly moving. I also enjoyed The Theory of Everything.

❧ I enjoyed experimenting with night photography and long exposures.

❧ My husband and I played a lot of addictive Nancy Drew games. In fact, we just finished Sea of Darkness, which is one of our favorites so far - super puzzles, interesting story and characters. I've been playing these games since I was a kid. In fact, I think immersing myself in so many Nancy Drew puzzles actually helped me with my SAT at the end of high school. But somehow the older I get the more challenging these games become!

❧ There are times of year that stand out - April, when everything is in bloom, October, when the leaves are at their peak color, but I thought late summer was especially beautiful this year. The fields turned yellow with wildflowers and we had many lovely days.

❧ This year I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder. Getting diagnosed with OCD was surprising and uncomfortable at first, but it explained so many things about my life - past and present. With medication and strategies learned in therapy, I'm in control of my life again and managing quite well. I haven't had a panic attack in months. I feel stronger after going through this experience and more comfortable with living with uncertainty. Seeking professional help was a difficult step, but absolutely worth it. You can learn more about OCD here.

Great little things are coming and I'm very excited. There's the autumn zine, I'm determined to write more this year, and there will be hats with even wider brims. ;-) We're going to be traveling soon and we're planning all kinds of adventures.

Thank you so much for reading. I cherish your comments so much. Here's to another year!

The Seasons, Op. 37b, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky

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