DECEMBER 2020 – THE YEAR FINALLY ENDS

Before anything else, happy new year! May this next year prove better than last year and may we manage to find ways to fix what it broken, save what is valuable, and live the best lives we can.

Thus forward we slog from the old year into the new. It’s been hard going. For many of us, it’s not over. It may never be over. The world changed and won’t be whatever it was before. The past is always past and never comes back to us. Even if we can’t see a visible difference, nonetheless change is there. We will change too. Exactly how? That remains to be seen.

Sunset by the Blackstone

For any number of hard-to-describe reasons, December hasn’t been my month for taking brilliant pictures. I felt frustrated and a bit down. I get this way in the winter, though not usually this bad, I generally don’t go out much in winter, especially when there’s snow or ice on the ground. This year, of course, we’ve barely been out at all since last March. I did take pictures, just not my best.

By the way, is 2020 that last year of the tens or the first year of the twenties? Just wondering.

Baby Goldfinch

Photo: Garry Armstrong

Photo: Garry Armstrong

His bottom is round!

I always have a lot of bird and squirrel pictures, some of which are not bad. The birds don’t stand around and pose for me, so it’s always a bit of a grab-bag when shooting wild creatures. They seem less wild this winter and don’t fly away instantly if we come out onto the porch. At least, not right away. I think they know we are feed them and are not dangerous.

Hairy Woodpecker

Goldfinches

A pair of House Finches. The red head is the male.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

I’ll skip the Christmas pictures and just add one more tidbit. The Duke is looking splendid and a bit trimmer from his diet. No matter what he tells you, he is not starving, nor shaking from imminent starvation. Do not listen to a word he says!

This is the end of 2020 and the end of this year’s Changing Seasons. I had hoped we’d be in a slightly better place by now, but life does what it does. It may or may not be what we want. While some of you — in Australia and New Zealand — went through weeks of lockdown, those of us in the U.S. have been in lockdown for nine months with more to come. I did okay with the first six months. Less well in the following one and by this month, found myself yearning for friendly people, anything non-political, news unrelated to COVID and which didn’t come to me via a news service. I have no idea how I’ll get through the next four or five months until this country finally organizes vaccine distribution and maybe — just maybe — gets our government functioning again. But I’ll get there or at least I’ll give it my absolutely best shot.

About The Changing Seasons

The Changing Seasons is a monthly project where bloggers around the world share their thoughts and feelings about the month just gone. We all approach this slightly differently — though generally with an emphasis on the photos we’ve taken that month. For many of us, looking over these photos provides a structure and narrative, so each month is different. Others focus on documenting the changes in a particular project — such as a garden, an art or craft project, or a photographic diary of a familiar landscape.

In the end, it is your changing season, and you should approach it however works for you. There are no fixed rules around post length or photo number — just a request that you respect your readers’ time and engagement.

Tags and ping-backs

Tag your photos with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them. Create a ping-back to Su Leslie’s original Changing Seasons post, so she can update your post with all of our links.

Categories: #Birds, #BlackstoneRiver, #gallery, #Photography, #Squirrel, Blackstone Valley, New England, Wildlife

Tags: #MonthlyPhotoChallenge, #Photography, #TheChangingSeasons, Blackstone River and Valley, Marilyn Armstrong, Su Leslie