'Tis the Season

decorated mantle

The decorations are up, the Christmas cards are in the mail, and all of the presents have been purchased and wrapped, except for the ones that are still in transit from their various websites. I still need to clean the house, buy all the groceries and do my baking, but I am feeling pretty good about where I stand right now. Katie arrives late Friday night, and she and Jim are making an impromptu trip up to Iowa for a few days to see the grandparents. She has not been with them since her graduation in 2009, and she expressed a desire to go to Charles City. In the meantime, I will finish up things around here and meet Andy and Megan when they arrive on Sunday.

This week is packed with parties and dinner engagements, so I have a feeling time will fly by. The Women in Focus photography group had a party at the president's house. She requested that we each bring a 5x7 or 8x10 of one of our pictures in a plain envelope for a gift exchange. What a fun idea! I agonized over what photo to print as many of the women are extremely talented. I settled on an 8x10 of one of my butterfly photos because I figured that would appeal to anyone. It was taken in a cemetery in Louisville this summer. The lady who got it seemed to like it. The envelope I chose actually contained two 5x7 prints, representing the "Power" and "Light" signs that are etched into the old Union Electric building downtown along the north riverfront. It was fun to see all the pictures that people brought.

my picture 

interesting tree

Speaking of pictures, a friend called me up last Friday morning when the fog was as thick as pea soup and asked if I wanted to go shoot some photos at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Of course I said yes, and it was so odd because while there was a lot of fog on the way there, in the cemetery itself the fog was almost non-existent. The lighting was pretty moody, so I guess it was okay. I did find this tree to be very interesting, with its curly branches.

After we were done at the cemetery we grabbed some lunch at Crown Candy Kitchen. The line to get in was surprisingly short. I have never gotten seated so quickly there. Then my friend drove us to Wellston as there was an old trolley station that she thought I would enjoy seeing. Built around the turn of the century (I have seen 1901 and 1909 dates used), the Wellston Station must have been beautiful in its prime. It is in such disrepair that I doubt it could be saved at this point. What a shame!

Wellston Station