AZ Nature In Focus

  I recently took a secret vacation.   Judging from both my personal and my business social media accounts, many of my friends and family have also taken secret vacations over the last several months.  It seems no one has traveled anywhere or done anything all summer.  I can't be the only one who has noticed the flood of secret vacations going on this year.  I know for a fact that many of my closest family and friends have indeed taken family vacations, road trips, flights, and experienced camping adventures but not once posted a single thing about the vacations on social media.  Most summers my feeds are flooded with vacation pictures, travel stories, and the like but this year has been crickets.  I have my theories as you probably do and when I returned from my recent trip, I struggled to decide what I wanted to post or not post about my vacation. Based only on my social medi a accounts, I have had a total of two friends travel since March.  One was posting each day about a very

  My technology break lasted two weeks.  I wasn't one hundred percent technology free but as much as I possibly could be and still stay in touch with my family and make memories with those I was with.  I have been back to normal technology use for almost a full week and I thought that returning to the real world of connection would be like riding a bike.  Instead, I have found it generally positive since I missed some aspects of my technology but I also continue to find it challenging at times.   The Positive I mentioned in my last post that I forgot a few passwords and had many emails to sift through but on the whole, the world kept turning and wasn't the worse for having me escape for a time.  Easing back in was fairly simple after the first few days and I found myself in a routine for my workday and managed by work and home life well enough though with a varied schedule than before the break.  I love change and routine is something that I find boring so a shake-up of routi

The pull of the ever-present technology of life is strong.  It has woven itself into so many components of my life which is not necessarily a bad thing however it can become overwhelming at times.  I recently took a vacation and decided to go almost technology free for the duration of the holiday and a few days before and after my trip.  The end result was almost two full weeks of virtually zero technology.  I will say that I don't consider my camera to be technology as he is more like a close friend and I would be hard-pressed to go very long without taking a photo of something that catches my eye.  Vacations are a little easier to get away from technology as the demands of work and your normal life are not present however the first few days were very difficult.   My main goals were to  do nothing work-related,  not read a bit of news, stay 100% off all social media and email, and use none of the apps that I use on an almost daily basis.  Those apps that show you daily streaks and

Last weekend, I was looking through my collection of sea glass and I offered a few suggestions about what to look for and where to collect in my last blog post.  Today, I would like to share a few finds that are a little less common and thrilling when found well tumbled on the shore.   These two were among my first finds on South Padre Island in Texas and began my hunt for sparkling treasures any time I find myself along a coast.  The blue is fairly rare and likely from an old Noxzema container, V icks bottle, or other medication or poison that has not been packaged in cobalt blue glass for a long time.  I have a few cobalt blue pieces but not many.  The knob is slightly bowed underneath so I would think the lid to pottery jar or jug.  Both are exceptionally s mooth and well tumbled.  Both likely churning in the ocean for 50 years or more. At times I will find glass with writing, patterns, or the spirals of the neck of a bottle which are always fun to try to identify.   The spiral pi