{"id":10434,"date":"2017-06-18T23:45:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T03:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=10434"},"modified":"2017-06-18T23:45:08","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T03:45:08","slug":"project-52-week-52-part-three-reading-reading-and-lots-of-ponies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=10434","title":{"rendered":"Project 52, Week 52, Part Three – Reading, Reading – and Lots of Ponies!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time for Project 52<\/a>, Week 52!<\/p>\n

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52 weeks ago, on my 52nd birthday<\/a>, I began Project 52<\/a>. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, each week I took one year of my life and blogged about it. This week, I’m covering the year I was 52 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d June 14, 2016, to June 14, 2017.<\/p>\n

So, yes, I am now 53 years old – and it’s time to finish up Project 52!<\/p>\n

So far I’ve covered my trip to California in July for my niece Megan’s wedding<\/a>, my son Tim moving to Portland, Oregon, in August, and my sister Becky’s visit in September<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That Fall I was a Cybils panelist in the category of Young Adult Speculative Fiction – so I needed to spend LOTS of time reading.<\/p>\n

And on October 1st, we learned that Gary Goodson would be our new Assistant Branch Manager – my new supervisor. Gary, like Laura, our branch manager, had worked at our branch before, at a lower level. So it was nice again having someone come in we knew and liked. Something about having worked with them before – both Laura and Gary ask my opinion often, and really want to hear my ideas – and that makes for a great work atmosphere. I’m super happy with my job these days.<\/p>\n

And October brought leaves changing color, which this southern California girl always sees as a dazzling miracle.<\/p>\n

As usual, on Columbus Day I especially enjoyed the leaves:<\/p>\n

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And later in October:<\/p>\n

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These are the trees outside my window.<\/p>\n

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The heron was a lot more striking when he decided to perch on the top of buildings.<\/p>\n

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Because I needed to get so much reading done, I decided to take a Reading Retreat. I got a Groupon deal and booked two nights at Waterside Inn on Chincoteague. I took a Monday off, for at least one solid day’s reading. My plan was to read out on the balcony!<\/p>\n

I drove to Chincoteague on Saturday, October 22. But I still took my walk by my lake in the morning before I left. It was still beautiful.<\/p>\n

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It was a glorious day for a drive! I snapped this while waiting at a light in Centreville. (I must have stopped at the post office to send Tim some of his stuff.)<\/p>\n

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The drive was wonderful. Lots of Fall Color. I sang most of the way there. I arrived at Waterside Inn just in time to go out on my balcony and catch the gorgeous sunset over the water.<\/p>\n

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The balcony was cozy and perfect for reading. In fact, I was reading in between taking those sunset shots.<\/p>\n

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But eventually, I had to come in. I was dressed for some cozy reading! You can see some of the nice room behind me.<\/p>\n

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So I read until bedtime, then in the morning had breakfast and then went out on the balcony and read all morning. It was cold – but I was able to bundle up and still turn pages with gloves on. It was so beautiful, with the wind blowing off the water – it was totally worth it!<\/p>\n

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I read all morning until I finished the book I had started. It was a good one! (Learning to Swear in America<\/a><\/em>) I needed to have lunch, so I found a place that looked promising in town on Chincoteague and had some crabcakes. And yes, I read while eating!<\/p>\n

I wanted to go to Assateague Island, though, so that’s where I went after lunch, and I spent the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Driving onto the island, I saw several cars stopped by the side of the road, and when I saw all these egrets, I joined them.<\/p>\n

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I made it out to the beach on the other side of Assateague Island.<\/p>\n

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There were even more egrets flocked by the roadside as I left the beach.<\/p>\n

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So many egrets! It blew my little mind.<\/p>\n

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This next picture always makes me think of the caption, “Can I play?”<\/p>\n

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Then I drove on a loop trail around a marsh in the middle of the island.<\/p>\n

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That’s a heron or egret flying:<\/p>\n

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I wrapped up my time on Assateague that day with a short hike to the lighthouse.<\/p>\n

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And I got back to Waterside Inn in time for sunset, which wasn’t as spectacular that night, but was still beautiful.<\/p>\n

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And I was reading in between taking pictures!<\/p>\n

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Lots and lots of birds flying around, too.<\/p>\n

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I began another book that night. In the morning, I read on the balcony until check-out time at 11:00.<\/p>\n

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It was so lovely to look up and see birds soaring on the wind over the water.<\/p>\n

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After I checked out, I decided to go spend a few hours on Assateague Island before I headed home.<\/p>\n

I saw people stopped by the road and saw these egrets.<\/p>\n

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And then I saw my first wild ponies!<\/p>\n

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I caught a heron fishing!<\/p>\n

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And I love the way this egret glows!<\/p>\n

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I got back in the car, and went to the Woodland Trail, where I hiked to a place with a “Pony Overlook” where ponies sometimes come. As I was walking this boardwalk to the Pony Overlook, an older couple passed me, going back, and told me there were some ponies in the pasture.<\/p>\n

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Yes! There were some ponies!<\/p>\n

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Here’s the Pony Overlook:<\/p>\n

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I stayed there for more than an hour (my phone wasn’t charged, so I don’t know how long) – just me and the ponies. No human joined me. The ponies slowly made their way closer to me. And I took a million pictures. Here are a small fraction.<\/p>\n

You have to imagine a cool, breezy, sunny day – I’m out watching a dozen wild ponies. It was amazing.<\/p>\n

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And then a foal came out and ran after its mother!<\/p>\n

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The baby hid behind its mother.<\/p>\n

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They started slowly moving away on the other side of the field.<\/p>\n

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I tore myself away and continued my hike, taking a trail that split off the main loop and went to the coast of the island.<\/p>\n

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When I got back to my car, there were egrets perched in the field in front of my car.<\/p>\n

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How many egrets can you spot?<\/p>\n

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I took a look at the beach again before I left.<\/p>\n

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On the way off Assateague, I saw cars stopped the same place I’d stopped in the morning. Again, I could see ponies and egrets from that spot, but this time the ponies were a little closer to the road.<\/p>\n

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By this time it was Monday afternoon, so I did hit rush hour traffic coming home.<\/p>\n

So, that was my Reading Retreat. As reading time went? Well, I would have gotten more done if I had stayed home, but I did finish three books and read 2000 pages. It might have been smart to stay at least one more night so that driving wouldn’t have been a large proportion of my time.<\/p>\n

If I want to do a Reading Retreat, it might be a good idea to go to a less interesting place.<\/p>\n

But reading out on that balcony with the breezes blowing and waves lapping was incredibly wonderful.<\/p>\n

And as a Retreat? It was one of the most soul-feeding vacations I’ve ever experienced. That hour (or more) out in the field, just me and a dozen wild ponies, was amazing and awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n

And now I’ve been to Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island and I’ve seen the Chincoteague ponies!<\/p>\n

I’m going to have to think of some variation of this retreat when I’m reading for the Newbery Medal.<\/p>\n

And, once again, it’s so late, I need to stop there. I’m almost to the end of Project 52… but not yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s time for Project 52, Week 52! 52 weeks ago, on my 52nd birthday, I began Project 52. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, each week I took one year of my life and blogged about it. This week, I’m covering the year I was 52 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d June 14, 2016, to June 14, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-project-52"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}