Scroll down for Camera Critters, Shadow Shots, and
My April Gratitude List transferred from
the sidebar at Small Reflections

My early pink Spring roses took a beating from recent rains followed by strong winds … but are still fascinating to me. I hope you enjoy my pink floral views.







Click any image to embiggen for better viewing and for
others participating in Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers,
Mosaic and Macro Monday too

Molly Smells the Fading Roses
on a Sunny Spring Afternoon

Click to embiggen for better viewing and for
others participating in Camera Critters, Pet Pride,
and Shadow Shot Sunday

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” Thich Nhat Hanh

gratitudelogo-daisies

givingthankschallenge-southbreeze

South Breeze Farm hosted the Giving Thanks Challenge and I participated at Small Reflections in November of 2008 and decided to continue indefinitely … generating the following list one day at a time throughout the month of August. I’ve decided to transfer the lists at the end of each month from Small Reflections to Happily Retired Gal … just because. Click to see previous lists already published here.

1. for a pleasant day spent with my sister while accomplishing a few necessary tasks.

2. for the day to rest & recover at home 😉

3. to spend the afternoon with a good friend … enjoying lunch then helping her run some errands and trouble-shooting some computer problems for her.

4. I’ve learned about and signed up for the 2010 Summer Writers Retreat at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House & Conference Center in Taos, New Mexico … I’m looking forward to reconnecting with old friends and meeting new people too.

5. there’s room for Molly at Camp Ilene when I go to Taos this summer so she’ll get a ‘doggie’ vacation … with the opportunity to play with fur-friends for a couple of weeks while I’m away from home.

6. to connect & catch up with another friend for brunch … using a ‘buy one breakfast – get one free’ coupon at Mimi’s Cafe.

7. for the opportunity to reconnect with my cousin & his wife (along with my sister & her husband) at the Knott’s Berry Farm Chicken House this morning.

8. today at home to rest & recover after watering the yard this morning before the winds kicked up outside.

9. to spend today with my sister … hanging out & having lunch later at Matsu, my favorite local Japanese restaurant.

10. I’m beginning my days writing ‘morning pages’ as I used to do for decades …

11. my roses have started to bloom already 😉

12. the rain stopped long enough to squeeze in a walk with Molly this morning before I went to my Windows 7 class.

13. for one final breakfast at the Harbor House Cafe in Sunset Beach shared with my sister this morning before she and her husband head for Yosemite and places beyond.

14. I drove into my sister’s after today’s Windows 7 class to teach her (one final time) about labeling photos in Windows Photo Gallery before she & her husband leave on this trip and hopefully she won’t spend HOURS ‘renaming’ the photos as she’s done on previous trips.

15. that through sheer persistence and experimentation, I’ve managed (finally) to correct some of the frustrating ‘glitches’ on the Dell Inspiron resulting from all those dreaded Blue Screen of Death Crashes during the first 20 months I owned it … before (with Dell Tech Support’s assistance over a month or so) finally ‘stabilizing’ the system.

16. for all the beautiful ROSES blooming in my yard currently … pink, red (scroll down for these), and apricot (I’ll add the link soon once I share them – see the end of my April 23rd post here at Small Reflections).

17. I’m getting my files backed up on an external drive, slowly but steadily. One of these days I’ll figure out how to make that happen automatically.

18. to be attending a ‘Spring concert’ this afternoon with friends.

19. I’ve managed to find and copy most of the photo & data files from an old backup of the Dell that ‘crashed’ a few weeks ago and I’m very relieved.

20. I ran errands after class today so the Explorer has a full tank of gas, Molly has food & treats and I have fresh groceries in the house.

21. It’s started to rain late this afternoon … and I’ve moved Ms. Kitty’s bed and the blue chairs to a dry alcove by the front door.

22. the weather cleared enough for a pleasant camera walk this afternoon and I remembered to pay my bills online today.

23. to have connected by phone this morning with my sister and her husband as they were leaving Yosemite … headed up and over the Sierra Nevada Mts.

24. for beautiful clear sunny weather to spend time in my garden (after a sleepless night due to noisy neighbors) and an evening phone call from my sister letting me know they made it safely over the mountains … staying in Bishop, CA for the night before heading to Death Valley on Sunday.

25. for a good night’s sleep … and David Pogue’s Windows 7: The Missing Manual. What an incredibly useful (not to mention entertaining) resource!

26. I’ve set up an automatic backup for my Sony Vaio and shifted relevant files from an external backup of the old Dell Inspiron 9100 that crashed a while back.

27. my brother-in-law managed to share three ‘snow photos’ from their recent visit to Yosemite with help from their oldest son. Here’s one … I’ve shared the others on Friday at Sacred Ruminations: (They’ve been resized to be smallish files but you can click to embiggen a bit for better viewing)

28. for all I’ve learned in my Windows 7 class that ended today and the week-long ‘break’ before the next session begins.

29. I’ve checked out Goldstar.com … finally! What a nifty way to save money while getting out to enjoy entertainment opportunities.

30. for my sister’s sons … Happy 28th birthday to Daniel and happy 30th ‘gotcha-day’ to Casey! I love you both 😉

Thank you Joy

FYI – My previous Gratitude Lists can be found at Happily Retired Gal, my new WordPress site. It is my intention to keep this ‘Daily Gratitude List’ in my sidebar indefinitely because I believe it makes sense to focus on what’s right in our lives regularly. Click for:
2010 Lists –April, March, February, January
2009 Lists – December, November,
October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January
2008 Lists – December, November

Thought for Today
“It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, it only matters where you’re going.” Brian Tracy

Click for comments at the TOP of the post under the title, rather than at the bottom ;–)

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