H A P P Y * N E W * Y E A R

"But hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering 'it will be happier'..." 

~ Alfred Tennyson

We gather around loved ones and friends celebrating the passing year -- all of it's laughs, milestones, heartache, and fear -- and hope for the year to come to be happier. 

So many good and hard things this year. So many new experiences and dreams accomplished. And I am so grateful for all of these opportunities! 

This year I went to Europe for the first time, gazed at the Eiffel Tower, walked along the Thames, wandered through the winding roads of the Lake District and saw the sea for the very first time amoung the sand dunes on England's southern coast.

I moved away from home to go to school in the city, met some amazing people, went on loads of adventures, discovered a little bit more of myself and what a friend could be.

Each new experience has widened my horizons and increased my dreams. Even though it might not have steered me in a clear direction, I'm a little bit more made whole by it. 

Twenty-fourteen was good for me. 

Heres to the New Year!

Winter is lingering...

I was having a rough day today. Stressing. Worrying. A headache coupled with work on a good day is not desirable. 

I wanted to write a blog post and decided, as we crossed the creek up into our yard, that I would snap a couple of pictures of the sunset once it lowered a bit. 

Also to show all you people in the south that it is still very much mid-winter here. 

Minus thirty-five degrees yesterday morning. 

Buried under two feet of snow.

***

These two get quite hyper when you go outside and of course they proceeded to wrestle just out of shot of this first picture. I got them to settle down eventually and took some really good portraits of the two of them together. 

They are the best of friends. Adopted mother. Adopted son. 

Ezra was probably around 4 or 5 when we got Seth and he was definitely too young to be away from his mother because he cried and cried. It was heartbreaking. 

Ezra was a little wary of this little whiny fur ball that had arrived unexpectedly, they adopted each other quite quickly however. Seth took comfort in her at night, and because we had gotten him in the winter, they both slept in our little duplex for those first couple of months. 

They have become inseparable and are a little lost when the other is not around.