2022 So Long! Farewell.....

 .....Auf Wiedersehen!  Adios! 

Many, many moments stood out this year for all the good reasons and those are the memories I will hold on tight to.  I am grateful for the amazing opportunities where I got to see, to do then learn and grow!  I experienced a wealth of that this year which was reinforced when it came time to get ready to say so long to 2022.  I opted for a new way to present my yearly review.  

Skating season is short, lasting maybe three and a half to four months and over that time conditions are not always user friendly due to it being too cold, too warm, too snowy, too stormy or I am just too lazy.  During January, February, November and December I covered 105 kilometres of etching original designs on both wild ice and maintained ice.  Skating on Peyto Lake in November was the first time ever that I hiked into a mountain lake to skate, where my friend measured the depth of the ice for safety sake.  It was also the first time for wearing a self rescue device.  The skating I do at this point in my life feels easy to me with no physical effort yet my medical support told me otherwise, that there is great physical benefit.  While I may not necessarily feel the physical benefits, I sure do feel the mental benefits and there were times I felt I could use every ounce of that I could get.  These photos are from Lake Louise, Lake Minnewanka, Peyto Lake and Bowness Park.     

Many months have passed since I spent three weeks along the north eastern coast of Spain.  This little piece of paradise secured a spot in my heart and to this day when I close my eyes and let my thoughts wonder back there, I see, I hear, I feel, I touch, I taste the Costa Brava!  Looking back at the split seconds in time that I captured, it's the time spent close to the sea that I linger over for much more than a split second.  Spain's cities are beautiful and bustling, and the architecture is incredible.  Yet, it's the tiny villages on the water that took a strong hold and made me feel at home.  I attribute that to growing up in a small town minutes from the Atlantic Ocean that left an indelible imprint on my soul.  When the time came to review my pictures and pick out this baker's dozen, the task was enjoyable and easy.  It was being in places like these, seeing what I saw and making me feel the way I felt that created the most magical of memories of Spain!  

In mid December I opened a fortune cookie and I fully accepted what it said as an affirmation I was heading in the right direction!  That fortune cookie said "Continue to pursue the arts"!  I have been doing that all year! Because drawing and painting is bringing me much joy, I will definitely continue to pursue it.  Once I got the hang of working with watercolour brush pens, I then began to incorporate real water colour painting into my projects and that has taken hold and is now my main interest.  I enjoyed passing time during the early months of this year drawing with coloured pencils, working with India ink and also with graphite pencils.  My interests shifted from rendering mountain scenery, to food, to acknowledging what was happening in our world.  I learned many techniques such as washes, line & wash, wet on wet, using salt, using gouache, using masking fluid, splattering paint and working with negative space.  Watercolour painting was something I always wanted to do as far back as I can remember.  Decades ago, I took classes one night a week for three hours over a three month period yet came away not much further ahead. It took retirement and then the big change in our world to find the interest and the time to invest fully.   This collage of a few of my projects shows the outcome of that investment!  

Less time was spent this year hitting as many big hikes as I have done in past years.  I still enjoy being "out & about" in this way yet other interests are bringing me just as much enjoyment and fulfilment.  A few days at a "home away from home" numerous times throughout the year to where there are great hiking opportunities along with where I can enjoy other past times are becoming more of a thing for me.  More-so than ever, this year I took advantage of having the luxury to be flexible and spontaneous.  With these luxuries comes the ability to go when and be where there are not the crowds.  Each season has something wondrous to offer and this year I surely got to experience all that.  It's special seconds in time, seeing an unexpected sight, given reasons to express oooooh's and aaaaaw's, it's all this plus so much more that I truly cherish when I am out there!

Being a bird nerd has remained an interest yet to a different extent.  I did join a local nature club that is geared towards bird watching and participated in a few outings with them.  I completed two courses both of which I received certificates for.  For the first half of this year, I recorded my sightings with the intention of being able to brag about the number of species I identified by year end.  That chart remains empty after early July and will stay that way as my interest in keeping it up to date has dwindled.  With at least fifty outings to various locations over the year specifically for bird watching, I came away with a multitude of amazing sightings as you can see in this collage.  It's the songs and sightings of the smaller birds that capture my attention.  Gong forward I have another course to take which I will do in the new year.  The numbers no longer interest me but the activity of birding is an important part of my life for the joy it brings.  I will continue to be "out & about" throughout the coming year for the sheer pleasure of looking for and listening to those sweet songs & sightings!  

There's always time to fit in anything that interests me enough and brings along with it enjoyment, health benefits and fulfillment.  Kayaking comes with all those!  Our day spent at Phyllis Lake was the defining day for me that confirmed this sport needed to be a part of my life.  On that day, Adventure Designer loaned me her packraft which she built from scratch (top right photo).  It was not long after stepping into it and paddling away, I knew I wanted my own but building one was not for me. I purchased the whole packraft kayak kit and caboodle!  I knew it was a keeper after testing it out on Forgetmenot Pond! I savoured many outings with my new toy and look forward to growing as a paddler when the season starts again in 2023!

With a fewer number of big elevation gain hikes this year, that resulted in the least amount of vertical kilometres covered since I started keeping track in 2010.  As the year was going on and the realization set in that it was looking like that would be the outcome, I performed loads of self talk to be OK with it.  I am not feeling going forward that I need to improve upon these numbers, I just know that I love it when I am high up there.  Being "out & about" in general, getting there one way or another gave me what I was looking for and I savoured every of those seconds. The 2022 numbers are from hiking (mountain & urban), skating and kayaking.