This Perfectly Imperfect Life

My view of the sky above from our front porch as clouds begin rolling in on this 63* day in January and my view below of the 'Autumn Joy' Sedum returning in my garden in the back yard. (No worries, it's a hardy perennial, my oldest in fact, going on 12+ years old!) What do you see outside your door? Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

There's a method to this madness - I start w/books that stick out more than others from left to right! As the snow began to fall at sunset, blanketing us in sparkling white, my first loaf of banana bread from scratch went into the oven, bringing warmth and comforting scents to our home. For nearly a week now, we've been in a deep freeze, with frigid temps from the single digits to the teens and 20s without the wind chill. Our first normal Winter temps in at least a couple of years! When the wind hasn't been gusting, I've enjoyed the crisp, brilliantly clear weather. Today though, I haven't been able to shake the chill and desperately did not want to go out into the cold, snowy night with Hubbs for dinner at the VFW. It's a mostly weekly ritual that I sometimes need a break from. He had to go regardless, needing to take care of some American Legion business. (For those who don't know, he's Commander of a local AL Post). I normally love

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There's a roost of turkey vultures just up the road from us and lately they've been soaring around on up-drafts around sunset.  Not the most attractive birds, but I I love watching them when they do this.  It's mesmerizing and beautiful.  I took these from our front porch. Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

For the latest edition of my gardening memoir column,  Adventures In Gardening , now on Connect*Share*Grow , please click here .

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh My rating: 5 of 5 stars Spoilers Possible! From the 2011 Ballantine Books Trade Paperback: "Acacia for secret love , daffodil for new beginnings , wisteria for welcome and camellia for my destiny is in your hands . In Victorian times, the language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions.  But for Victoria Jones, it's been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system and nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them.  But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what's been missing in her life. And when she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it's worth ris

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

As many of you know, I have a second blog, a photography blog, which I originally began as New Jersey Through My Eyes in 2010.  I started off with gusto, but lost steam and reached an impasse with the blog quite some time ago.  But, (there's always a but), I haven't wanted to let the blog go. I recently started toying around with the idea of changing the name, hoping it would re-inspire me and open up my possibilities for the blog.  This morning, while journaling after breakfast, I started jotting down different possibilities for the new name keeping "Through My Eyes" part of it to tie the original focus of the blog with the new. Through My Eyes From My Camera ? Through My Eyes From My Heart ? Through My Camera ? From My Camera ? **Through My Eyes 360** As soon as I looked at Through My Eyes 360 on my journal page, I had a Charlie Brown "That's It!" moment and immediately I left the table for the computer! NJTME is now Through My Eyes 360

Through My Eyes 360. I added the "360" as in 360* (360 degrees) because I want to share from every angle. My life, my world, present & past. I hope you'll join me here for this new journey, I'm excited to begin! Love, Jo aka Bloomin'Chick http://throughmyeyes360.blogspot.com/

Sunset view from I-78 in Pennsylvania earlier this evening. What is your favorite moment from today? Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

I have been stuck with this blog for quite a long time now and recently I've been trying to work my way through this so I can start posting photos here again with the gusto I originally started it with.  For whatever reason, I have come to feel that changing the name from New Jersey Through My Eyes to something that best fits me at this time.  (NJTME will become a label/category and will still be an important part of this blog). I wanted to let all of you know in case my changing the name removes the followers as it sometimes (though not always) does happen.  So if I disappear from the blogs you follow, check back to this post for the new/updated name and link for it. I hope the New Year is off to a good start for all of you!  Best wishes & peaceful blessings for 2013!     New Jersey Through My Eyes is now called Through My Eyes 360 at  http://throughmyeyes360.blogspot.com/ I added the 360 part as in 360* (360 degrees) because I want to share my life & world in photos from

Happy New Year, friends! I hope 2013 is off to a good start for you and your holidays were lovely!  On Saturday, December 29th, one of my dearest, longtime best friends G & I had our annual Christmas visit. I look forward to this every year! We exchanged gifts and along with a novel called The Language Of Flowers, she gave me two skeins of drool worthy yarn in brilliant shades of pink & green. I later set those skeins in my knitting basket and decided it was time to finishing an unfinished knitting project before I would even contemplate what to do with them. That unfinished knitting was a piece I started back in 2010, sometime after I got home from the hospital in July to begin a very long road of recovery after a near-fatal infection damaged my muscle tissue, memory, heart function and put my left kidney in jeopardy. I was on bed rest for over three months, and in such emotional shock, I could barely do more than watch television most of the time. Around the time I st