Winter Sunshine

We're back to the usual Northwest winter weather -- overcast skies, flat light, and rain off and on -- so bright spring flowers can make a big difference in how cheery our house feels!

These daffodils were tight buds when I bought them during my "big and long" shop at the food co-op on Monday. The first bloom opened fully yesterday, and several others are not far behind.

Today is one of those days when Phil and I hardly see each other. He's playing pickleball this morning, we'll have lunch together here, and then I'm off to do errands before Gentle Yoga this afternoon, followed by a second evening of volunteer work for the Bellingham Farmers Market.

I'm on the Product Evaluation Committee, which is made up of current vendors at the Bellingham Farmers Market and community members. We use score sheets to assess products being offered by aspiring and current vendors, looking at criteria such as how well the product fits into the current market mix, quality, originality, and so on. Last night we evaluated crafts; tonight we will be evaluating new food items. I'm looking forward to that!

Doing this reminds me of what I do each day in choosing my blip photo. For today, I took 34 photos from a variety of angles and degree of zoom, immediately discarded about half of them, closely studied the remaining ones, chose three to do some "tweaking" on, and finally selected this one.

In a world that is increasingly focused on instantaneous results, I'm glad to have these opportunities to slow down, study the choices, and make thoughtful judgments.