five faves: july 2016 (and the august break)

(one)  I've taken to making repetitive patterns in my journal.  It's exceedingly therapeutic.

It's the last day of the month, so July technically isn't over yet; however, I'm doing something a little different for August, so I wanted to get these in.  These are my five favourite frames that I shot in July.

(two)  July is the deadline for getting all my continuing legal education credits in to keep my license active. 

(three)  We haven't gone out to watch the fireworks on Independence Day in recent years -- too lazy, I suppose -- but this year, we had sparklers at home.

(four)  I received surprise birthday flowers from my coworkers.

(five)  I spent an hour one afternoon at a small ranch/mental health facility learning about equine therapy for my job.  Related: I have the coolest job.

I'm sort of startled at how dark most of these images are, but sort of not: we're in the height of the summer, and I tend to keep the blinds closed during these months to help keep the house cooler.   Perhaps August will look brighter -- but August is Houston's hottest month, so maybe not ...

Speaking of August, in other news, I've decided to take the month of August off -- not with images, but only with words.  My friend Susannah Conway has done this every year for the past few years, and this year, it feels right to participate.  There aren't any rules, but the rules for myself will be this: each day of the 31 days of August, I'll share an image here on Chookooloonks  -- no words, just an image.  I'll try to stay close to the prompts that are shown above .... but some days I might not, and share something totally different.  Who knows?  I'll also share the images on Instagram and Facebook.  And I'll return to sharing my words again in September.

With that, have a wonderful August friends.  See you in the fall.

Soundtrack:  Summertime romance by Johnnyswim