The Mrs. is launching a new bargain finding project, mannequins, fancy dresses and irons abound.

I wandered over to Birmingham to visit the cousins for a day. Their parents were in from California, try not to pass up a chance to see the distant relatives.

After a wonderful lunch at their home, we headed over to the Sloss Furnace National Historic Landmark which is … awesome and stunning. Awesome in how you can get up close to this century-old structure and stunning in how you’re not required to show a proof of tetanus shot before entering.

Those are retaining walls, one working and one maybe not.

Paired with yesterday’s image, there some sort of a new theme going on with storage.

So close, so close to make it in the trash.

I am always the first up in our house, a consequence of work and dog feeding schedules. It leaves me time to sit in the kitchen, catching up on the news and working on email a bit.

It also means I can look to my left, out a giant window, and watch the sun spill down into our backyard. It’s one of my favorite parts of this house, this westward view into the woods. All year long, it gives me something different to see, light weaving through the woods and leaves.

Today, on New Year’s Day, it hit one lone tree for just a few moments. I sprinted upstairs, grabbed a camera and long lens, and made a few frames before the light shifted again.

That tree, a pine that has succumbed to the pine park beetle and died over the last few years, is now shedding its bark and will probably fall to the earth this year and slowly decay.

I sure hope this isn’t a prophetic image to start the year with …

There’s a knot in the fence gate, it pops out and I stick it back in from time to time. Today, as we wrapped up a very long year, I looked through and could see the other gate. Visions of gauntlets to run through briefly appeared in my head.

Then I thought about having to seal the damned fence again next year.