Ten years ago, I joined a link up to post 12 pictures, one for each month of the previous year. When that link up ended, I found another one. Now that one no longer exists, but I’m still doing this annual post. It’s a fun way for me to look back over the year.
For some months, it is almost impossible to choose among my favorites. Other months I struggle to find a shot I deem worthy of inclusion! Sometimes I pick the prettiest picture, and sometimes I pick one that says something about my life that month. In other words, I make–and break–the rules! I hope you enjoy this year’s choices.
JANUARY
I spent a lot of time on the Pellissippi campus in 2022, walking while my youngest son attended classes there. The walking path circles a lake that is home to ducks and Canada geese. While they made frequent appearances in my photographs, this is the only time I caught them in flight.
FEBRUARY
I’ve mentioned before that I make a lot of cakes in the early part of every year, when we have five family birthdays in a little more than a month. This is my famous strawberry cake, which I make for Emily’s birthday every year.
MARCH
In March we drove to Boulder to visit our middle son and his girlfriend. A highlight of the trip was a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, where I captured this picture.
APRIL
This is another picture from the Pellissippi campus, that for me is pretty much the essence of Spring.
MAY
We went on vacation at the end of May, traveling to Baltimore and then to Wildwood, New Jersey. It was hard to pick a favorite picture but I do love this one of a zebra grazing on buttercups. It’s not the kind of terrain where you’d expect to find a zebra but in spite of his unusual habitat–this was taken at a small Maryland zoo–this one seems content.
JUNE
Our vacation continued into June and I also attended the Vita Conference at Notre Dame, so there were many pictures to choose from–but in the end I went with this shot from the Atlanta airport.
JULY
While Lorelei was getting her Senior pictures taken, I snapped a few of my own.
AUGUST
We have nightly porch visitors who enjoy Echo’s cat food, but this is the only time I remember having both species there together. Often while I am sitting on the porch after dinner there are several small skunks who squeak at each other as they jockey for position at the bowl. People always seem horrified by this and worried that I will be sprayed but as long as you don’t scare a skunk they are not going to spray you.
SEPTEMBER
Lorelei and I went on a college visit to Belmont University in September, but my favorite picture was not taken on campus. I snapped this spectacular sunset shot from the parking lot of a grocery store in Mt. Juliet where we stopped after dinner on our way back to our hotel.
OCTOBER
I’ve known this picture would be in this post since the moment I took it. It’s not every day that you walk outside and see an owl on the roof of a car, let alone one who sits still and poses so nicely. I love everything about his picture.
NOVEMBER
This is the last time all of my kids were home at the same time since Jake did not come home for Christmas. I lined them up for this picture in front of the historic home that now houses the Irish pub where we had dinner the Friday after Thanksgiving.
DECEMBER
This is a sugar cream pie which I always make for Christmas, pictured here at my father’s house where we all met to eat dessert Christmas evening.
To see photo essays from past years, click the links below:
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
