Skip to main content

Good Bye to 2017

In lots of ways, certainly not the best of years.

It started off with a flurry of knitting -- pink  hats to wear to the Women's March in January.
My family was represented in Washington, D.C.,  Montpelier, VT, and Sarasota, FL.
A knit hat didn't last so long in FL though.

Eventually, I tried to ignore politics and news generally --  although I am ready for action should Mueller be fired.  So that didn't work out so well.  Also I keep up interest in Move to Amend, working for an overturn of the Supreme Court determination that corporations enjoy the protections of individuals.  A corporation is not a person IMHO.


I took some watercolor painting lessons



I volunteered at Instride Equestrian-Assisted Therapy during the winter months in Florida again.  I work in the literacy program which is built around the life and times of this guy, Little Red:


He was looking particularly handsome this day.



 In VT summer months, I took in a couple of Vermont Lake Monster ball games with my grandchildren.

 It was at one of the games that I started coming down with symptoms of Lyme's disease. Fortunately I got prompt treatment. 

My friend Diane visited me in FL in February and I visited her in New Hampshire in August.

We visited the Ringling Museum



and relaxed at her cottage.
We also walked, biked, talked and talked, ate well, and laughed and cried together.



I finished three quilts:
for my brother's new granddaughter
for my step grandson's new son

and for my sister (completing a quilt top that my mother had started years ago).

I amused myself with various other crafts.

Origami chickens I took to Easter dinner at a friend's.

I get together each mont with a group of card making friends.
I get together with painting class friends and one  us hooked on Zen doodles.


we also painted.



I don't have pictures of my reading and writing groups, but they are probably the most precious.  I have three wonderful women I meet with to discuss writing here in VT.  I belong to a poetry group in FL.  Deep friendships have come out of both these groups.  I also started, recently, attending some Burlington Writers' Workshops.  Some day I will get serious about this writing thing!



I leased a new car.


Considerably less fun was a new roof I had done at my Florida home.  I do not complain.  Who would listen when I have the luxury of two homes? Seriously . . . I am most grateful for a full life.


I went to Florida in October to take care of some Hurricane Irma related things, but mostly just had  party time with friends there.



And then back to Vermont for holidays with friends and family here. 
My daughter's and grandkids' tree.




AND

WHAT YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW

YES,

I started dating with fear and trepidation  in 2017.
Late this past summer I met a nice man who quickly became a person of interest.

So I am still in Vermont even though it looks like this outside my back door:



Of course, I do plan on going to Florida (January 9).  
I can't change my life completely after all!

But I do look forward to what 2018 might bring.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Comments

  1. Margaret (Peggy or Peg too)December 27, 2017 at 12:18 PM

    What a wonderful and full life you have!
    So are you a smitten kitten? :-)
    Happy New Year Olga.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TaborDecember 27, 2017 at 12:38 PM

    That is a rich and full year!! Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RianDecember 27, 2017 at 1:44 PM

    Olga, you are certainly a busy person with a full agenda. Keep it up! And I really like your water colors! Wishing you a wonderful 2018!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 27, 2017 at 6:43 PM

    Great to be dating again, Olga. Enjoy the rest of 2017.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda ReederDecember 27, 2017 at 7:49 PM

    Thanks for putting this all together for me. You are hard to keep track of, coming and going and creating. What a wonderful life you have put together for yourself since you suddenly found it necessary to start over on your life plan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. BarbaraDecember 27, 2017 at 11:57 PM

    Sounds like a well rounded - and very fun - year (politics aside).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Granny AnnieDecember 28, 2017 at 7:45 AM

    What a wonderful year in review. Love the news at the end. You are a brave soul to embark on a new romance.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Arkansas PattiDecember 28, 2017 at 11:17 AM

    You have really had a productive and busy year. Well done. I wondered why you were still in Vt. Good to know it is for good reason. Guess there is hope for me yet:)

    ReplyDelete
  9. TomDecember 28, 2017 at 2:55 PM

    Hmmm ... with "a man in your life" 2018 might bring some interesting twists and turns.

    ReplyDelete
  10. oklhdanDecember 30, 2017 at 11:21 PM

    A rich and fulfilling life. Here's to a great year ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2018 at 10:16 AM

    HAPPY NEW YEAR, OLGA! ALOHA FROM HAWAII.

    ReplyDelete
  12. SextantJanuary 2, 2018 at 3:47 PM

    Great review of the year. I am going to give you the Georgia O'Keeffe award for flower paintings. Very lovely. Wonderful looking quilts and I love the beach scene.

    Good luck with all your endeavors for 2018 and have a very Happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Terra January 5, 2018 at 11:19 PM

    Oh my, you have lots of activities. I am in a writers group too, for about 10 years now. We are great encouragers. And you mention a "person of interest", now that got my attention.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

New Furniture

 We went shopping for a new couch. I liked this one, the first store we went to. Of course it would be an impulse to buy the first one so we trekked around to other stores -- something we liked more, a better deal? No surprise that we ended up going back to that first store the next day and purchasing that couch for our living room. Also a matching love seat for the den where we watch TV. Because I had replaced my old love seat with two recliners. We couldn't keep three households worth of furniture after all. Well, my recliner was not big enough to accommodate both Levi and me. Poor boy had to watch TV from his bed on the floor. There! This is much better! Spoiled much? The little tail on the floor belongs to his toy squirrel, Buddy. It's like having a toddler with the need to be picking up toys or risk tripping over them. But his very favorite play thing is that bathmat that can be found anywhere but the bathroom floor.
10 comments
Read more

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...
10 comments
Read more