Sunset on 2025
- Jack Blair, ASA
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
In the past, most of my first essays of the new year have been accompanied by a somewhat artistic image of the New Year’s Day morning sunrise.
This year, January 1 didn’t really ‘dawn’. There was a flat, grey light which left everything in sight drained of colour. January 2 wasn’t much better.
Thankfully I had taken this image of the sky at sunset on December 31st, so I have an image related to the end of 2025 instead of the start of 2026.
I was walking along the Bow River when I turned my camera to the opposite shore to capture this image. Others walking by looked across the river, clearly trying to figure out what I saw, but said nothing. I’ always suspect that once such folk get further away, they question each other as to what the strange old man with the camera was doing.
We’re starting the year 2026 with a lot of unknowns, both nationally and internationally, but I’m fortunate enough to be able to stay focussed on the knowns in my life.
In our family, there will be the sixteen birthdays to celebrate, a university graduation, and a wedding.
My wife and I will probably return our travel planning to something we started back before 2020. We drew a 100km circle around Cochrane and decided we would explore everything within that circle by taking day trips out from home. In reality the circle doesn’t represent a hard limitation. It’s a fuzzy line and we will go a moderate distance beyond this line if there is something interesting to explore. We made a couple of excursions together and I made a couple on my own before 2020. However, there’s lots more to see and do.
At home, I’ll be out and about with my camera looking for photographs to capture and I have some writing ideas that I want to develop.
I will continue to work on restoring some of my piano playing capabilities. I’ve been trying my best for the past year, but at my stage of life I’m finding it difficult to restore anything near to what I could do forty years ago when I stopped playing. My grandson, who is an accomplished pianist, has given me the solution—“ you have to practice more, Grandpa.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
That's a great motto for my New Year too! Thanks!
HK
you have to practice more 🤣… good answer to most of life’s problems.
Enjoyed your essay Jack. Happy New Year!
"So true, Jack. It's right in front of us, everywhere we look. We simply have to pause and witness the wonder our Creator has provided. We do not need to travel far—only open up. Let every sense absorb the beauty that surrounds us, big or small! Your photos and your writings do just that.
I like the idea of exploring locally. My wife and I have travelled quite a bit overseas and within Canada. It wears you out. So going locally might be a good trade off