The holidays are upon us

I don't know if anyone other than myself is looking at this blog, but I decided to use it rather than it just sit here not doing anything. This used to be the site for my photoblog "Ladybug's Leaf", which moved a year ago last May. I kept this place around because my account with Photoblogs.org is still associated with this site. Hopefully he'll fix that at some point. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving ~ the holiday that brings on the Christmas crazyness. I'm trying hard this year to not get overwhelmed or depressed. No matter how wonderful the holidays are, there's always a lot of stuff that makes it difficult. But I will try not to dwell on the past, or worry about how this years' will turn out. I've been thinking a lot lately about what things fill my heart with gratitude. What I've decided is that I'm most grateful for my good health, the good sense to change my bad habits (or at least try my best), my sweet sweet husband, my family, and I'm especially grateful that my mom is home from the hospital and doing better. Tomorrow I'll be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV, cooking dinner and relaxing. I've started thinking about what gifts to buy for my family, and I have good ideas already. I'm also planning on making another train cake with the special pan I got last year. Last year's cake was a big success, and I've already lost sleep planning on how to decorate this years' version. This is the one I made last year as seen on flickr: I think this year I'll do a chocolate cake, dusted with powdered sugar, and decorated with some candies. I can't wait!

Moving On

As of May 30, 2006, my site is at: http://leaf.slpro.com/. Comments here will be turned off, but feel free to browse through my archives. Many more of my photos can of course be found on flickr. Thanks so much to everyone who has visited me here! :)

Family Outing

Family Outing
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces."

~George Santayana

Don't be shy

Don't be shy
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"One's own self is well hidden from one's own self; of all mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up."

~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Green Meadow

Green Meadow
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

“The woods, the meadows and the three worlds are rendered green. The Doer of all did this in an instant.”

~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

A Rusty Road

A Rusty Road
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

"You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world."

~William Hazlitt

Sweet Sunlight

Sweet Sunlight
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug.

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them.”

~Louisa May Alcott

Sweeping the Sky

"Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather."
~Martha Graham

Divine Harmony

"The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one's life."
~Peace Pilgrim

Heaven in a Zen Garden

"Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire
with God:
but only he who sees takes off his shoes."
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My, what a big LENS you have!

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."
~Ansel Adams

Takin' a Spin

"Happiness is a direction, not a place."
~Sydney J. Harris

Let It Rain

"A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods."
~Rachel Carson

Happy Mother's Day

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden."
~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

Two Buds Just Hanging Out

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."
~Elisabeth Foley

Luminous Bloom

"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong...
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?"
~Thich Nhat Hanh

A Moment by the River

"When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action come from another section, the feeling disappears."
~Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Hold Dear Those You Love

The heart that truly loves never forgets.
~Proverb

Loving the Sun

"The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun."
~John Greenleaf Whittier

A Wee Butterfly

"Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes."
~Author Unknown