2007 has been a great year for me and I hope the same is true for you. I became a blogger on March 17th of 2007, and it has been a joy. A big part of that joy has been the interchange with all those I’ve met through my blog, and in my explorations of the blogisphere. Many of those explorations have come about by following the links to the blogs of those who have left comments on my blog, and many others have come from my time volunteering in the wordpress.com forums. You help someone out with a problem and then go to their blog to see what they are doing. Sometimes what they blogging about isn’t quite your cup of tea, but the wonderful thing about the blogisphere is that there is community out there for everyone, no matter what their tastes or views.

I haven’t been posting about journeys of late since most of what I’m doing is personal work right now. Some of it may end up (in modified form) making it onto the blog.

From time to time we need to reevaluate where we are spending out time and I’ve decided to take a break from volunteering in the wordpress.com forums to spend time on other things. I’ll miss helping people out, but I think it is time to move on.

Some of my favorites haunts from this year:

• Brightfeather
• Frank DeMarco
• Breathing Easy
• CJ Writer
• Dove Love
• Exuvia
• Fahrusha
• Flintstone Stargazing
• Raincoaster
• Terra Flora
• Ian – Letters Home to You
• Muse
• The Wild Pomegranate
• WordPress Wank

It is my heart-felt wish that each and every one of you, your families and friends, have the warmest and happiest of holidays filled with love.

Since most of the aunts and uncles in my family are getting up there in age, or have already made their transitions, our family has had a lull in holiday get-togethers for many years, but last year my cousin Karen woke up one day and had the almost burning desire to begin the traditional Christmas dinner anew and what a great success it was. There were people there I had not seen in years and it was a wonderful time filled with joy, laughter and love.

Weather permitting I’ll make the 250 mile trip tomorrow morning to be with my family although the weather report does not look good. I can easily deal with the snow, but as anyone from Wyoming knows, when you mix strong winds with snow, winter trips can be quite a trial if not downright dangerous.

[Edit: I've linked the image I used to a full-sized version since I like the look in Santa's eyes.]

Tomorrow night the moon will be full again, and my eyes will automatically seek it out. It will be there regardless what happens to me or to America or to the human race or to the world. As it always has, it waxes and wanes and waxes again, following its cycle as do the planets and the seasons and life itself. And, like life, it never sails through the same space twice, any more than the earth does, for the earth pulls the moon along as it circles the sun, and the sun pulls the earth, and the rotation of the galaxy pulls the sun, and on and on. All that cyclical motion: No wonder we can’t ever return to where we were.

That is the last paragraph in the epilogue from the book Messenger by Frank DeMarco, which was written as a sequel to James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. Sadly due to legal thingies, after the current inventory of Messenger is sold out, it cannot be reprinted.

As luck would have it though, Frank has made Messenger available to the world by posting the entire book on his blog. It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend that you drop by and give it a read. I am lucky enough to have a copy of Messenger, and there are still copies available from the publisher, in the event that after reading it, you would like to own a copy.

First of all, I’ve never been a big fan of eggplant, but I have a few variations of vegetable stew I like to make that eggplant is so right for. Sadly, here in Wyoming, most of the eggplant that finds its way into the produce departments of the grocery stores during winter has been frozen due to the long travel times from the distribution centers. A soggy, spongy, brown mess.

Eggplant isn’t the only vegetable that gets the deep freeze, it’s pretty much anything you find in the produce department. The other day I bought some fresh(?) basil to put in a stew, and by the time I had trimmed off the freeze damage, I had twice as much fodder for the compose pile as I did useable basil. Green peppers don’t take well to freezing temperatures either and are usually wrinkled and soggy. With all the waste, it would almost seem better to just close the produce departments from November to say, February in these parts.

I wish it were as simple as packing up and heading to places with less extreme winters, but at this time, it is not simple.

I’m on my way to the grocery store for veggies in a little bit. Wish me luck.