The End

The year ends on a warm spell in Virginia. I ran in shorts and a long-sleeve shirt in the late afternoon yesterday, a bit of wind cutting against the sun. I hear we’ll start the year with an incoming Polar Vortex, a threesome headed our way over the next two weeks.

The month ends with 31 days in a row of blogging, sometimes twice a day. The new month will begin with a lower profile as I dig into story development and submission mode. I won’t retreat entirely from this space; I want to have a Big Year here, too.

I get the phrase from my latest pursuit, to finally polish a narrative about birding in India’s Thar Desert. It’s a trip I took three years back, one that taught me about much more than just birding and Bustards and howling desert winds. It taught me about going big, whether that’s having a Big Day and spotting many birds or being a Big Lister in pursuit of a lifelong species mega-count. Go Big, Write Big, said nobody ever.

The day will end in celebration with my family over a meatless charcuterie board – a contradiction, I know. All hands will contribute to making pimento-cream cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs, white bean and spinach dips with Crudités (which will be called Crudd-ites, like Luddites), zucchini fries, winter salad and dried fruit, sparkling cider, and an apple-cranberry crisp.

Tomorrow’s new day will begin with mild but blustery temps and me replacing our water filter cartridges to start the year on cycle.

Happy New Year.