Goodbye 2025...

Posting here has been sporadic this year (okay, for a few years now), but this year in particular it seems I haven't written about some of the most important things that have happened.  Not that most of what's in this post is all that important, but I thought a round-up, especially of things I've photographed, but never posted about would be appropriate.

I promise January is the most wordy month.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

January brought some new healthy habits:

Not through resolutions, but through external (which became internal) motivations.

I'll spare you the storytelling (leaving some humorous moments on the cutting floor), and get to the main points.  After experiencing a few random episodes of tachycardia between I think...  September of 2024 and January of 2025, and after having an echo cardiogram, and an EKG, my GP ordered a heart monitor for me to wear for a week in late January. 

It's a nifty little thing that sticks (somewhat) discretely to one's chest, monitoring every heart beat and sending a report via a cell phone to the monitoring company.  My instructions were to press a button on the accompanying cell phone any time I felt like my heart was beating rapidly for no obvious reason.

While it was a small, easy-to-wear device, I have to say I found it very stressful - not knowing exactly how the information being collected was going to be interpreted.  And even now I don't consider it to have been in any way helpful in understanding what was causing the tachycardia. But on a good note, I came through all the tests and wearing this little monitor with nothing worrisome showing up.  

Also, in January, since I was doing all these heart related things, I had a Coronary Artery Calcium score done, and while it did show some evidence of calcified plaque, I felt like my score was much better than I deserve.  

Now... because of all the above, during the time from about October to January I was researching the topic of heart disease, which included educating myself about cholesterol, metabolic disease and insulin resistance - and how all those things are involved in the development of arterial plaque.  By late January, while wearing that heart monitor, I became highly motivated to make serious changes in how I eat. I won't go into it deeply, but significantly cutting out refined carbs and sugars since the end of January, has appeared to bring to an end to the tachycardia.   When I've mentioned it at different doctor visits, they concur that these things may have very well been the culprit.  I'm thrilled that simply eating healthier (evidently) made the tachycardia go away, and that there were no obvious issues that needed tending to.

And while I've indulged just a tad over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I'm pleased to still be maintaining a much healthier way of eating.  And feeling better for it.

February brought dozens of cardinals to our yard during a snowy spell.

March brought an early spring with with early budding trees!

...the local cemetery remaining a favorite place to walk.

April saw lovely blooms from a lily my neighbor gave me a few weeks earlier.

May brought the perfect amount of strawberries, as hoped for.

And finally some dry days to plant a garden.

June gave us a daughter-in-law.

This is a woefully inadequate mention of something that makes us exceedingly glad, but the happy couple married in a unique and private ceremony with friends attending, and we celebrated a month later with extended family.

July had me in this funny contraption for taking measurements for new glasses.  I had some trust issues over it, but amazingly, it worked!

August saw Greg in the hospital for a scheduled heart catheterization and stent.

Before stenting - LAD was 80% blocked:

After stent - LAD is wide open

Again, so much more could be said, but it's not really my story to tell.  I'm just glad Greg finally got in to see a cardiologist after much much too long of "feeling tired".

August also saw this little guy eating all of my cherry tomatoes:

September brought my sister (who last year moved from Florida to Louisville) and my niece to our place for a visit.

And saw me canning and freezing produce from the garden, and otherwise.

I can only estimate what I put up from what is still in the pantry and freezer, but this is pretty close:

Green Beans: 55 pints, and 2 quarts

Sweet Pickle Relish:  25 jars (some half pints, some 4 oz.)

Dill Pickles:  18 pints

Sweet Corn (frozen)  20 ziploc bags with 8oz each of corn 

And this doesn't even account for what was eaten and given away fresh.

For a garden that didn't seem very ambitious when I planted it, it produced quite a bit.  

Actually, for a garden that was really only half a vegetable garden due to all the sunflowers I planted, it produced very decently.  I've made a note to self that I don't need nearly this many sunflowers next year, and they need to be more strategically planted so as to not shade lower growing plants.

By the end of September, swallowtail caterpillars were feasting on the dill:

October finally brought cool enough weather to shut the garden down.

November held autumn's most beautiful colors

Enjoying a drive to visit a friend in Brown County

and, like last year, November brought our first snow!

December brought frigid weather early on.

By Christmas, it was almost balmy.

I learned that having a cracked lens cover 

on my phone makes for some artsy pictures.

I have no New Year's Eve photos, but we ended the year today eating chili and playing games with long-time friends, and coming home early.

2025 was a very good year overall, but it went insanely fast.  We spend our youth wishing we were older, and our last decades wishing we could slow time down.  Since we can do neither, it is good to simply be grateful for whatever time we have here.    

I hope you have a blessed and prosperous (in all the ways that truly matter) 2026!