Challenges

(001.  This morning’s view of the pond.)

Today was a gorgeous day.  It was the kind of day to take a leisurely stroll around the pond and watch the fish as they dash and dart to and from the shallow water, listening to the music the birds are making (including a woodpecker playing percussion on a dead and hollow-sounding tree), and looking to see what flowers have popped up now.  It was the kind of day to sit on the new deck and read for a little while.  It was the kind of day to putter around in the garden, pulling weeds and shoveling compost.  It was the kind of day to join the cats in taking a nap on the back porch, out of the sun but still catching the mild breeze.

I started a 365-challenge a few days ago.  It’s a Yoga 365 Challenge wherein I’ve committed to a daily yoga practice.  Today is day 4 and I’m enjoying it so far.  I picked yoga because it’s more than a physical challenge.  During the past six months I’ve been practicing fairly regularly, missing days here and there when we travel and sometimes when I just can’t work up the energy to do it.  Yoga has helped me to become more present in my body and in my life.  I also credit it with my recent weight loss and the lowering of my blood pressure.  It will do me good on all levels to have a regular, consistent, daily practice.

I’ve been toying with the idea of a 365 photo challenge, something to help me hone my photography skills and maybe generate some of the creativity that seems to be eluding me lately.  Anna at Surface & Surface Photography has recently started her own 365 photo project, photographing Everyday Living ~ Day Shots.   Bo is doing a themed 365 photo challenge at The Daily Shoot.

I’m somewhere in the middle, wanting something structured but not quite sure I’ll live up to a structured challenge since I already have one going with the yoga.  So I’ve decided to stick with something I’ve been doing and that’s to make my life here in the Bogs the theme.  I’m hoping it will challenge me to get out and look at things a little differently.  And if I get stuck, perhaps I’ll check out one of those themes and see what I can do with it on a local level.

This will occasionally be interrupted with travel shots because of course I’m not going to stay at home for the sake of capturing 365 shots from here in the Bogs.  I have some ideas on how to make that related to my theme, but you’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.

I have no plans to start a new blog to house my 365 photographs.  They’ll fit in here quite nicely since they are, after all, photographic evidence of Life in the Bogs.