Instead of talking your ear off, today’s post is going to be a round up of some of my favorite photos from Paris:

The Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier):

Random favorites:

That wraps up the Paris part of the trip. But wait, there’s more! Still to come, Le Vieux Couvent and the Lot region of France. 

The second day of our road trip dawned overcast, and it drizzled off and on as we headed out. I didn’t mind, because I enjoy the novelty of wearing a jacket!

After that, we headed south through the Avenue of the Giants, a 31-mile road running parallel to Highway 101, through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Humboldt is the largest remaining old-growth redwood forest in the world, and one of California’s largest and oldest state parks. Avenue of the Giants is called one of the finest forest drives in the world—you’ll get no argument from me.

An old-growth or ancient forest has the following characteristics: trees of all ages; may layers of canopy (the uppermost branchy layer); large, standing dead trees, known as snags; large downed logs; large fallen logs in streams; and trees aged over 200 years. The redwoods growing in this area are Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens)—they’re not the oldest, but they are believed to be the tallest, growing up to 370 feet tall. Coast redwoods only grow naturally in a 40-mile wide by 450-mile long strip from southern Oregon to southern Monterey County in California.

       

The redwood forest is an ideal place to learn about the interconnectedness of life. During a redwood’s lifespan, 1,700 species of plants and animals depend on it. After it dies, 600 species live on a snag, and 4,000 live on or in a downed log.

Redwoods are so large that the base of the tree, the stem, and the crown each lives in a different climactic zone. There are two types of needles, depending on the conditions where they live on the tree.

We took short walks at the Drury Cheney Grove and the Founders Grove. Because of the slightly drizzly weather, we saw few people, and we didn’t hear any birds or other creatures. The woods were hushed and damp and cool.

I learned a cool new word: “windthrow”—the blowing over of trees, and leading cause of redwood death. When the older trees die and blow down, the younger trees have a chance to grow.

In fact, we were forced to detour from the Avenue of the Giants because a tree fell and blocked the road!

We wrapped up the day with a cold and windy sunset on the beach by our hotel in Fort Bragg.

Next up: a lighthouse, a light station, and a botanical garden by the sea. Read about the first part of this trip here. 

I did it! I stuck with my 30-Day Gratitude Photo Challenge, posting a picture and a few sentences about what I’m grateful for every day in November. This is an encouraging first for me!

I enjoyed being able to focus on all the good things I’m grateful for and having them recorded in one place means I can revisit them when I’m unhappy, stressed, or frustrated. In addition to that, I learned that I can, indeed, stick with something for 30 days straight, and that yes, sometimes it is easier to do something every day rather than once in a while. (See Grechen Rubin’s post, “Proposed Resolution: Do Something Every Day.”)

A couple of things made this challenge doable for me. First, there were specific boundaries. I knew how long the challenge would last (30 days), and I knew the theme of each day’s post ahead of time, thanks to Dani’s prompts. While I did have to decide what aspect to write about, having the prompt meant I already had a topic, and that made it a lot easier for me. I mostly posted at night, but I kept the prompt in mind all day. It probably took me about 15 minutes at most to choose the photo, write the post and put them both up. Once I had my post done, I didn’t fret about doing more—I knew I had finished that day’s challenge and could move on to something else.

The second thing that helped was accountability—I announced I was doing this challenge here on the blog, and that I intended to post the photos on Facebook. Even though I doubt that anyone was waiting breathlessly for my next post, I did feel accountable for making sure one made it up there every day.

Speaking of posts, here are four of my favorites:

Day 7 prompt: Attire. I'm grateful for the riding boots my husband gave me for Mother's Day 10 years ago. They help me feel more secure when riding, and help my horse understand my cues better. Plus, I think they're pretty cool looking (though they need to be cleaned and polished)!

Day 8 prompt: Friendship. This should be easy, because friendship is hands down one of the things I'm most grateful for. To the women I've met only virtually through blogging, to my barn buddies, to the far-flung friends I only get to talk to occasionally, and to those special few who have supported and encouraged me through all the highs and lows of life, I say a big THANK YOU! I don't have one photo that can express all that, so I'll go with this one of a little plaque that hangs in my kitchen--given to me by a friend, of course!

Day 21 prompt: Scent. New Orleans is a town full of sights, sounds, and smells--not all of them pretty. There's one scent I absolutely love that you can occasionally get a whiff of as you walk down the street there—Sweet Olive. Today I'm thankful for the Sweet Olive perfume I bought in NOLA. Whenever I open the bottle, I'm whisked back to one of my favorite cities.

Day 28 prompt: Desire. I'm grateful that there are things I desire—things to work and plan for, and look forward to. One of my biggest desires is to have the money and freedom to travel more—hence today's photo.

I am glad the challenge is done, and while I wasn’t exactly getting bored with it, I am ready for a change. So what’s next? Armed with the realization that I can stick to something, I want to choose another thing to do for 30 days, something that will take approximately the same 15 minutes per day. Perhaps sketching—think how much improvement I’d make if I sketched every day for 15 minutes! I know that to be successful, I need boundaries and accountability. I’ll need to find or make up prompts for sketching every day (any suggestions for a book or website that could help me do this?), and I’ll need to have some accountability. I don’t want to post my sketches on Facebook, however, because I want to feel free make mistakes and try new things without being too embarrassed and without inflicting my learning curve on others. Plus, in order to post my sketches, I’d have to scan them into the computer daily, and that might just be the straw that breaks this challenge’s back. Do I have enough gumption to be accountable to myself? I’m not sure. I’m still pondering this. (Plus, I’m not prepared to commit to a 30-day project over the Christmas holidays. This will have to wait until 2015.)