Sunday, December 31, 2017

CITY DAILY PHOTO-JAN. 1, 2018 THEME DAY: PHOTO OF THE YEAR

2017, It was a Very _________ Year 
(Fill in the Blank)

Memorable, chaotic, challenging, depressing, and unimaginable are adjectives that come readily to my mind. Politically it's been devastating to watch my country become so divisive and fragmented, consumed by animus, name calling, and finger pointing. I've called and texted and marched regularly since the January 20, 2017 local Women's March. And I plan to march once more on January, 2018.

2017 was also not a very good year for my partner Doug who suffered a stroke after successful AAA surgery in May. That was a game-changer, for sure.

But in scouring my photos for the CDP January 1 theme, I kept coming back to this photo of the surgeon's hands as he described the intricate procedure he had just performed on Doug. 

The back story how I even took such a photo is that I was assigned by 52Frames, an online weekly photography challenge, to shoot a photo including a sheet of paper. I had no idea what I was going to do, but when Dr. Field asked if I had a piece of paper and he began to draw, I knew this was the moment. 
And because I shoot exclusively with my iPhone, I had my camera at hand.

I consider this my photo of the year because despite the stroke, this surgery saved Doug's life. That's because the repair of a potentially life threatening aortic aneurysm means it won't rupture on its own and cause fatal bleeding.

So while 2017 has been anything but a good year politically, it's been a banner year full of hope and optimism personally as Doug continues his recovery. 
And for this I am forever grateful.


For more "Photos of the Year" photos by other City Daily Photo bloggers, follow this link: http://cdpbthemeday.blogspot.com.au/

Thursday, December 28, 2017

IT'S STILL THE HOLIDAYS

Holly's Flower Boutique is one of only a few independent florists in the Walla Walla area, 
and I can always count on it to have eye-catching window displays any time of year. 
This holiday season is no exception.

Peeking in from the outside, the predominant color theme is more monochromatic and less traditional 
which I think looks fitting right though the New Year's celebrations.
Hence, I saved this for the last of my Holiday Windows posts.

Happy New Year!











Sunday, December 24, 2017

IF IT'S CHRISTMAS, IT'S KLICKER TIME

Walla Walla's Christmas Market

Every fall after Halloween and Thanksgiving, Klicker Berries and Antiques transforms itself from a family-owned business selling local produce, in particular Klicker strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, into a veritable Christmas Market. From traditional creches, to holiday wreaths and swags, from shiny baubles and balls, to stylized Santas and rustic, homespun ornaments, the store is a feast for the eyes and a gift to the spirit of Christmas.

Come take a look before the 2017 Christmas season passes. 





 























E.B.WHITE AND CHRISTMAS, 1952

The New Yorker Radio Hour
December 23, 2017

I listen to National Public Radio (NPR) exclusively, and tonight was treated to the following piece read to close out the broadcast. It was penned by E.B. White, one of the original contributors to the New Yorker magazine in the mid 20th century, and well known to to generations of children as the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web.

I couldn't help but think how appropriate the poem is especially this holiday season as the working man and woman are under attack--just all of us regular, imperfect people.

Merry Christmas!


E. B. White's Christmas -1952

From this high midtown hall, undecked with boughs, unfortified
with mistletoe, we send forth our tinselled greetings as of
old, to friends, to readers, to strangers of many conditions
in many places.

Merry Christmas to uncertified accountants, to tellers who have
made a mistake in addition, to girls who have made a mistake in
judgment, to grounded airline passengers, and to all those who
can't eat clams! We greet with particular warmth people who
wake and smell smoke. To captains of river boats on snowy
mornings we send an answering toot at this holiday time.

Merry Christmas to intellectuals and other despised minorities!

Merry Christmas to the musicians of Muzak and men whose shoes
don't fit! Greetings of the season to unemployed actors and the
blacklisted everywhere who suffer for sins uncommitted; a holly
thorn in the thumb of compilers of lists!

Greetings to wives who can't find their glasses and to poets who
can't find their rhymes!

Merry Christmas to the unloved, the misunderstood, the overweight.
Joy to the authors of books whose titles begin with the word "How"
(as though they knew!). Greetings to people with a ringing in
their ears; greetings to growers of gourds, to shearers of sheep,
and to makers of change in the lonely underground booths!

Merry Christmas to old men asleep in libraries! Merry Christmas to
people who can't stay in the same room with a cat! We greet, too,
the boarders in boarding hoses on 25 December, the duennas in
Central Park in fair weather and foul, and young lovers who got
nothing in the mail.

Merry Christmas to people who plant trees in city streets; Merry
Christmas to people who save prairie chickens from extinction!
Greetings of a purely mechanical sort to machines that think--
plus a sprig of artificial holly. Joyous Yule to Cadillac owners
whose conduct is unworthy of their car!

Merry Christmas to the defeated, the forgotten, the inept; Joy
to all dandiprats and bunglers! We send, most particularly and
most hopefully, our greetings and our prayers  to soldiers and
guardsmen on land and sea and in the air-- the young men doing
the hardest things at the hardest time of life. To all such,
Merry Christmas, blessings, and good luck! We greet the
Secretaries-designate, the President-elect; Merry Christmas to our
new leaders, peace on earth, good will, and good management!

Merry Christmas to couples unhappy in doorways! Merry Christmas
to  all who think they are in love but aren't sure!

Greetings to people waiting for trains that will take them in the
wrong direction, to people doing up a bundle and the string is
too short, to children with sleds and no snow! We greet ministers
who can't think of a moral, gagmen who can't think of a joke.

Greetings, too, to the inhabitants of other planets; see you soon!

And last, we greet all skaters on small natural ponds at the edge
of woods toward the end of afternoon. Merry Christmas, skaters!
Ring, steel! Grow red, sky! Die down, wind!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good morrow!

E.B. White, 12/20/52

Friday, December 22, 2017

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL

A candlelight vigil in support of  DACA and the passage of a clean Dream Act took place on Wednesday, December 20 in downtown Walla Walla. 
A crowd of +/-50 activist men, women and children lighted candles and listened to speeches along with a call to action as part of the evening vigil.