Here is the last photo of June 2025. Happy July.
The lilies are beginning to bloom and bring color to the backyard garden.
I am following up with Bushboy’s Last on the Card for June post.
Today is going to be an amzing day, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time. Finding color everywhere I look!
What’s the color in your backyard?
Last week I jumped into the deep end of the pool and created a new feature for my blog. My decision might have been premature, on the way home Saturday I drove around searching for signs, I didn’t see any, but I haven’t past the church since last week and I decided to take a different path with the sign of the week post, so hang on this week’s sign is from 2023 and there is a story which goes along with it and I have been looking for a way to tell it. WARNING – this is likely to be a LONG READ and I am breaking the post into two parts.
Every MLB stadium has signs like this posted around the stadium and smaller ones close to the field. In recent years, stadiums have put up netting along the infield to make being a spectator safer. It’s a good thing, but if you go to the stadium, you do have to be paying attention foul balls often make it over the net and baseballs are hard and there are no screens in the outfield to protect fans. Continue reading Sign of the Week – Warning (part one)
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Happy Wednesday! Our heat wave has broken and it is a bit cooler this morning. Last night thunderstorms rolled through dropping almost an inch (2.54 cm) of rain overnight.
Normally on summer morning, I’d be out at the ‘summer office’ listening to the birds and feeling the gentle breeze as the world around me awakens, but the ‘office’ is wet and damp, so I’ll wait for another morning, or late evening to enjoy the backyard.
I am going to enjoy the inside office of the breakfast table and my office desk in the basement for today and maybe the ‘summer office’ will be available tomorrow. Who knows? But today could possible be the best day ever, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the days COUNT, one day at a time, getting things done wherever I work.
Does your workspace vary? Where do you find yourself working today?
It’s the first FULL day of summer in the northern hemisphere. It’s where I live and where most of the world’s population lives also – it’s approximately a 90-10 spilt! It’s largely due to equity of land distribution – 68-32 spilt in favor of the northern hemisphere.
But this isn’t a geography lesson.
I saw something recently that explained one of the reasons for the decline in cognitive ability in aging adults (and that’s me) is when we stop creating.
MtDC is fifteen years old this summer going on sixteen and I’d like to see it continue to grow.
I have a blogger friend who ‘s Saturday post is always – Photos of the Week. Each week Wynne includes a sign she has come across in her travels during the week and it is always a good message. She peppers it with images from her family’s weekI look. I forward to her posts each Saturday morning.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, June 18, 2025
This Wednesday finds me home in my summer office praying the birds I have neglected, return to my feeders. Yesterday, both my wife and I drove home from the lake after spending almost two weeks away. The yard needed mown, the feeders were empty, and there was a package waiting on the doorstep when I arrived.
Summer always finds my days full and it is difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that in three weeks I will be in London. When I traveled to Europe fifteen years ago, I carried my laptop and blogged from my hotel room at the end of the day or wrote at the beginning of the following day. In all I posted six times, with a seventh the day I returned. I think my mom and wife were the only readers at that point. When I go back to see what I wrote fifteen years ago, I cringe, and realize I have grown as a writer. I also realize that my posts have not ‘aged’ well. The photos need to be updated and refreshed and I’ll do that later – but I’ll be using my Mac.
This trip I plan to write and post, but I think I can use my iPad and I am giving it a whirl this morning. I was successful last summer with a post on the trip home from California and a post from 35,000 feet. So this post will be entirely produced with the iPad! Continue reading W^2 – peonies
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, June 12, 2025
Portage means to change from one waterway to another; more specifically it means to unload one boat and transfer the goods to another boat.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of “portage” #makingthedayscount #newhome #growing https://t.co/peFpZmXu4Z
— Clay Watkins (@makingdayscount) June 11, 2025
During the annual canoe race in late July, the racers must navigate the Ausable River and ‘portage’ their canoes at several spots along the course. For the racers, it means they have reached a dam along the river, and they must climb out of the canoe, pull their canoe out of the river, and carry the canoe to the river below the dam. Then climb back in and continue paddling down river.
Portage is also used as a name for a city. There are five cities or towns named Portage in the United States – Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
It also is our daughter’s new home. Last weekend we moved her from her college home to a new home in Portage, Michigan. She took a job and needed a place to live; she chose well. It’s a great apartment (much better than my first) and it has a nice patio for the dogs where they can sniff and explore. It’s also a nice place to sit and sip coffee while watching the dogs – Fern and Nova.
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This morning finds us at the lake with our son and his family – the grandies. It’s their first visit and it’s the first time we’ve had three generations at the lake in long time. Our daughter will join us late Friday night or early Saturday morning for a full three generational photo. I can’t wait!
It’s going to be an exciting day with maybe a visit to the beach and hopefully some photos. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day or I’ll be left behind. Making the days Count, one day at a time, while watching the dogs, the grandies, or a sunset.
What are you going to watch today?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, May 28, 2025
I’ve been meaning to share the sunset photo taken Easter Eve when we were at the lake house for Easter. It was a fun weekend and great to get away with family and dogs. Our daughter met us there. She’s a two-hour drive away at college. It wasn’t until she went away to college that she fully understood the restorative benefits of a weekend drive to the lake house.
I do love a sunset and was able to find this past weekend when we were visiting for the Memorial Day Weekend.
No single end of the day is the same. Never, not one.
It’s Wednesday evening, Thursday is a few hours away and there are seven more sunsets before school is finished for the summer. Making the days Count, one day at a time, enjoying a Wednesday evening thinking about sunsets for the summer and beyond.
Where do you go to watch the sunset?
I am traveling this weekend. We are in Michigan for our daughter’s college graduation. I have a little extra time this morning and saw a post on another blogger’s page and thought perhaps I could dip my toe in the pool and join the party.
This post is inspired by Brian at bushboys world’s post – last on the Card April. But, I first saw it at my blogger friend, Margaret’s blog, From Pyrenees to Pennines .
Since, I am on the road, I needed to write subplans. Teachers can’t leave without leaving some sort of plan behind.
I stayed late Wednesday afternoon to make sure my kids were learning, challenged, and focused while I was gone. I was the last one out of the parking lot at 6 :15 PM. I’ll be back in the classroom making the last days of the school year count on Monday. Making the Days COUNT, one day at a time, learning every day and making each day count.
How is your May starting out?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, April 9, 2025
It is Wednesday afternoon, and I am home after a week-long vacation by the ocean for spring break. It was great to get away with my wife and another couple whom we know very well.
We stayed in the same place we have stayed for the past several years; the only year we have missed in the past decade was the Covid spring break when we went to the lake instead. Continue reading W^2 – Friday sunset
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, April 2, 2025
It is Wednesday and I am by the ocean for a week. I haven’t thought about school in a couple of days or grading papers. The third quarter finished a couple of weeks ago and I was able to square up the gradebook for the work submitted for the fourth, and final quarter, on the last Friday of March before spring break began.
I was reminded of how far I have come in mid-March when we said goodbye to Ivy, our faithful and loving Brittany Spaniel. Ivy was a puppy when I started blogging at MtDC and I know I have written about her adventures with us many times, too many to link. Ivy celebrated her fifteenth birthday in February, and we would’ve celebrated her fifteenth ‘gotcha day’ tomorrow. She was an amazing dog, and she taught us to be better humans.
B, O, Fern, and I surrounded her for her final breath and W had said his goodbye the night before. It was a sad day, but it was time for her and us.
It has been quiet in the house since, and I miss drinking coffee with her in the morning. She was an amazing dog, and we miss her, we miss her a lot.
Today is going to be a great day, an amazing day, in fact. I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, enjoying the sound of the surf, the wind, and sun. It’s what Ivy would want.
How are you making your days count?
I created the graphics below for my daily reflections…. each is from a different time we had with her…..
