Spring Training = Spring Fever

We're not planning anything elaborate in the way of trips, photo excursions and vacations this year. We are, however, headed to every baseball fan's ideal of the perfect way to spend a week. We're headed to the warm weather of spring training to watch my favorite team, the Red Sox, get ready to defend their 2007 World Series victory. We leave on March 7th and while we're staying in Fort Lauderdale, most of our time will be spent driving across Alligator Alley to Fort Myers, the winter home of my boys of summer. We'll watch two or three games on their home field and also get to visit the Dodgers and the Twins in Vero Beach. My husband and I even have tickets to a basketball game between the Miami Heat and the LA Clippers. I'm currently working on something sportsy to fill in the only free day we have, Saturday the 8th. At the end of the week we'll climb about the Royal Carribean Majesty of the Seas for a short but restful cruise out to the Bahamas and back. Our respite from all of this year's bad weather will come to an end on the 17th when we return to reality.

Wintery Weather

By the time February roles around, the back of Winter is pretty nearly broken, as a rule. When I say this I mean the super harsh cold of sub zero January is past, the days are beginning to lengthen and you can usually find some signs that the change of seasons is approaching. Maybe it's a super warm day that gets the skunks moving about. You can smell them in the air. Maybe it's a slight color change in the bark of the poplar trees. During the dead of winter, the bark is ash gray but with the first flush of sap corsing through it's veins, the bark begins to take on a greenish tint. Maybe it's a small patch of dried grass that has finally fought it's way through the drifts to appear in the sunlight. That's not happening this year because we have been hit with one winter storm after another. In fact, over the past ten days, we've had no less than four major storms. These storms ran the full gambit of natures fury with wind, deep heavy wet snow and even rain and ice. Our snow depth is now more than we've had all winter and as I write this, it's snowing and there is a promise for more over the weekend. I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer for the back of winter to really give way.

Playing Catchup

My apologies to you all. I've been ill since the Friday afte Christmas. It wasn't anything earthshattering but it sure put a crimp in my style for the entire month of January. I'm back now and have a few things to tell you about. The first is that we had an average 2007 show season . With the current economy, I'd say that was pretty good. Most people have limited funds to spend on "extras" because of the rising fuel and heating costs. So to say that our 2007 season was average is a big thing. It could have been a lot worse and that would have forced me to take a serious look at choices that I would have had to make. Those choices would have included the need to tighten the belt by keeping my shows close to home, reducing inventory in the galleries and retail shops or even entertaining the possibility of halting my photographic career altogether until the economy has a chance to recover, giving people the ability to appreciate art once more.