Life has been crazy busy recently.  Tequila had knee surgery which required a change in schedules for the Hubs and I.  Summer is the busy season for my photography business with weddings, seniors and families visiting Alaska.  My department at work is about to move offices and I’ve had a couple new projects assigned to me.  The garden is growing like crazy and in constant need of attention for weeding, pruning and training.  And of course we still have a puppy at home who is learning what is and isn’t acceptable behavior.

With so much going on it’s rare that I get more than 5-6 hours of sleep a night during the week and I feel a bit like I’m burning the candle at both ends.  I had grand ideas about enjoying some down time this summer enjoying our yard and hitting the trails in our side-by-side but schedules and injuries haven’t cooperated and with fall just around the corner I’m realizing there’s not much time left to squeeze those things in.  So rather than have a pity party about it, I’m looking for little pockets of adventure and relaxation in between all the day-to-day stuff.

The first came when I was driving home from a wedding last weekend and spotted this old truck in a field just off the road.  I’d seen it before but am not often in this area of town so despite the rain – which had thankfully held off until just after we finished up at the wedding – I turned around, found a spot to pull over and jumped out to snap a few frames.  There’s something about this simple scene that speaks to me.  Maybe it’s the wildflowers, maybe it’s the rusty old truck that’s similar to my own, maybe it’s the vision of rural life it creates.  Whatever it is I like it and I’m glad I have a visual of that ‘feeling’.

The second opportunity came last weekend when I was again returning home from a photography session.  This time we’d been rained out, but I have other sessions in this area coming up so I decided to scout a few spots as I made my way back.  It was rainy and chilly, but the rushing of the river was amazing.

This is one of my favorite local areas and luckily it’s just a few minutes drive from our home, but we often get caught up in other plans and don’t make it over here on a regular basis.  Having a little extra time to explore a few corners of the area was just what I needed.  It recharged my creativity and reminded me how blessed I am to have the life I do.

There’s always room for improvement, but for the afternoon I was content to simply enjoy the beauty around me and have a little adventure.  I hope you find inspiration in these two images to take a few moments here and there to enjoy the beauty in your daily life as well.