- Even as this has been one of the hardest months (or three or four), there is always, ALWAYS little good things that abound. Tiny moments, little things every single day that bouy me back up. And for each and every one of these, and for the ones that don’t get documented and the people that help make some of them happen for me, I am ever so thankful every single day.
- I just watched this tiny little finch fly down within 10 feet of me, shred apart a stray tuft of Tex’s shaved hair that blew over here and fill her beak with it. It was the most hilarious thing I’ve seen today, with all that hair sticking out of her beak, she had this big, bushy, red, walrus-like mustache!
- More adventures with Faintly the Goat. Is she bigger than a village?
And Faintly on the job
- Rodeo! Piglet races, bottomless mugs of root beer, fried everything, spin-and-puke rides, cotton candy sticking to my fingertips, dancing charros, jumping dogs, and screaming “SPUR! SPUR! SPUR!” to the bronc busters and bull riders (and the look on my sister’s face like, “who the hell are you?!”) I like the closeness of the Austin rodeo. I felt like I was *right there.*
- 
I choose Joy every day.
- Watching the other work (Jess Lee – Western Photographers)
- Make a toy out of a drawing! (A company called Child’s Own) – I wish they had this when I was a kid!
- Somehow, I knew that a walk in the brisk air, down my sweet country road, past a giant field of bluebonnets, evening primrose, red phlox and the light of the evening sun and the rising moon would set everything right. There is nothing that I don’t absolutely love about all of this. The Texas spring in the slanting golden light is a balm to my soul, my mind and body.
- After a really hard day, fresh salsa and tortilla chips and an avocado margarita was seriously the best thing I had put in my face all week.
- Wind Draperies in Namibia by Paul Godard
- Durango made the Smithsonian’s list of 20 Best Small Towns of American 2012. I *love* Durango. I would so move there. Though maybe soon I won’t have to go all the way to Durango to get my steam train fix.
- Puzzle night with the family. Yes, I realize that’s fairly common, but not for me and I really enjoyed having all of us around the table poring over it.
- An easter full of hot tea, fancy brunch and family.
- There is nothing, absolutely nothing better than coming home to our house, our property, my sweet cows lowing at me, a fantastic drink in my hand, the evening settling in after an amazing sunset and the stars peeking out. It is home. Unabashed, unparalleled, unbelievably comforting and healing and absolutely and unquestioningly where I belong.
- 
- Our new farm babies, four bourbon red turkeys.
- Cthulu-face
- A list of things that make me happy after a really rough day.
- My favorite songs turned up LOUD in the car.
- A warm wind when I’m chilled, a cool one when I’m warm.
- The smell of flowers in the air.
- The smell of rain and ozone.
- A turkey dinner in April, put on by the lovely ladies of our community.
- Bearing witness to the happy legal joining of two lives, and being able to give them the gift of photos to remember it by.
- Feeling like part of something bigger, part of the community.
- Knowing that I’ve got people to help me when I stumble and help pick me up when I fall, who love me even when I’m crazy and impossible.
- Relaxation plans.
- My moon, she is so loverly. My sweet, sweet moon.
- Handmade holster bags that are awesome.
- “May you always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (and I have been doing so many things that I am afraid of, I keep pushing myself to grow and learn and face those things that I am afraid of.)
- 21 tips to keep your shit together when you’re depressed
- How to find the way – “This spectrum … doesn’t quite equate with mood, or with happiness even. It has more to do with how reactive you are, how self-absorbed your view, how much you are in your own way, in any given moment.”
- 
- Working late with homemade gatorade and tortilla chips (a far cry from the Mountain Dew and Doritos of my old all-nighters).
- Speaking of, 8 homemade vitamin water recipes.
- Make your own aromatic cocktail bitters. Don’t mind if I do!
- The cure for what ails you,homemade honey, lemon, ginger cold remedy
- Three dimensional paintings.
- Tips for photographing the night sky.
- Fly spray recipe from my friend at Star Creek Country.
- Homemade tallow hard lotion bars from my friend Wardeh.
- That moment, that exact minute that the cold front swoops through and the temperature drops 15 degrees, the wind picks up and it starts to rain.
- It was one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, mostly due to my inherent fear of drowning (I had a lot of mental talking-down-from-the-edge all weekend), but I took and passed the Swiftwater Rescue Technician class.
- “I brought my own PFD to class. Well, I guess they’d be PFDDDs to be honest.”
- Finishing the class, then going out for steak, mojitos and key lime pie, then going home to sleep for 12 hours to make everything better.
- Whirling and swirling clouds, tornado skies and the biggest hailstorm I’ve ever seen. (And having a structure fire call ten minutes after the storm blew through!) The hail missed us (my garden is thankful), but tore about the small town about 4 miles up the road.
- A Jake on a tractor.
- I love The Postal Service so hard, and NPR had a great spot on them.
- Take a virtual tour of the Grand Canyon with Google Imagery. Also, underwater Street View.
- 
- Absolute perfection looks (and sounds) like me sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair with a glass of amaretto while a thunderstorm rolls in surrounded by chickens and the peal of all the wind chimes.
- World’s Quietest Room – anechoic chamber
- Moonrise test shot timelapse, so pretty.
- To the person who added a little something to my packaging of the book they sent me from Alaska off of paperbackswap.com, thank you.
- The Science of How Your Mind-Wandering Is Robbing You Of Happiness.
- Photographic height/weight chart which is unexpected and very interesting.
- Earl Grey Almond Yogurt Cake
- I’m endlessly amused when I’m in town and people look at my dirt and shit covered boots and say, “Oh! Your boots look so authentic!”
-“A desire arises in the mind. It is satisfied immediately and another comes. In the interval which separates two desires a perfect calm reigns in the mind. It is at this moment freed from all thought, love or hate. Complete peace equally reigns between two mental waves.” ~ Swami Sivananda
- Scary and beautiful.
- The blissful, amazing, visually stunning, amazing Sigur Ros concert. Left me absolutely agog.
sigur rós live 2013 from sigur rós on Vimeo.
- I’ve sat right there, and it was amazing.
- I am so very much in love with this as a concept and in this video. I would marry it if I could.
Google Street View Hyperlapse from Teehan+Lax Labs on Vimeo.
- Things I love very much. Berlin. Berlin in the snow. Cellos. The Piano Guys. (though they missed some of my favorite spots of Berlin, Siegesaeulle, Gedaechtniskirche, Zoo Station…)
