(+7 insets!)

SO SPARKLEY!! SUCH TWINKLING!! What a lovely, frosty morning it was on my walk today! Without a cloud in the sky, the sun rose to shine warm, slanting beams across our meadow, melting the frost as it touched each plant and blade of grass. Our front gates--which had a sheen of white and a million twinkles from frosty crystals--quickly melted with the sunlight's gaze, the wetness soon drying with the warmth.

In the distance I could hear flocks of Canada Geese, no doubt causing a ruckus along the popular Rogue River. They are likely having territory issues about nesting spots but who knows…I am not very familiar with those lovely birds. Canada Geese have landed on our property a few times but our pond isn't big enough for serious interest and frankly, that's just fine with us. There are too many predators here and we would feel terrible knowing there is no way a gosling would survive to the point of fledging here. Still, it's fun to think about a line of goosy chicks swimming in our pond. The image brings a smile to my face as I witness the transformation of frosty crystals to shining droplets while I walk up and down the driveway.

*YAWN* It's too early. Daylight savings time began yesterday, so even though the clock reads 9:30am, my body says it's 8:30am and I am very sleepy…another cup of coffee will be in order soon enough. That's not my usual routine however. I usually have a cup in the morning and one in the afternoon and that's about it. Today I am going to need more! I plan to work hard at pushing my internal clock back--I have come to love getting up with the sun and don't want to miss the special time when the world is waking up all around me. Nature's priceless moments.

And by the way, welcome to a new week everyone! Today is Macro Monday!! The topic this week is "shoe soles" and yesterday I spent some time taking pictures of the bottoms of many different shoes in our house. That's a bottomless pit of interesting pictures, I must say. Every shoe sole is different and many of them are quite cool indeed, especially at a macro level.

My main picture shows the metal cleat on one of Steve's shoes which he uses to clip into his bicycle pedals. If you're not familiar, these cleats create a solid connection to your bike and allow your pedaling to be seamless and energy efficient. And, until I took this picture, I didn't realize what happy faces these cleats have!

I've included a host of other pictures as insets since I really enjoy the chance to explore each week's topic as much as I can. Truthfully I really had to stop myself from really overdoing it. My husband and I have so many pairs of shoes that I refused to go into our closets--I only picked from the pairs which were immediately available. Otherwise I'd still be taking pictures right now! :D

Pam, I did a search for "shoe" and for "foot" but found nothing, so instead I decided to sort your pictures by date and looked for a picture for this day…March 11…and I found this gorgeous peach blossom! They are such lovely flowers and so different than other fruit trees. I love the size and shape of the petals and the deep, rich pink. So pretty!! It is shaping up to be a truly stunning spring day and I hope that the vibrant energy felt here today can be transferred to you along with a great big virtual *HUGGGGGGGGG*! :)

Explored on 3/12/19, highest placement, #1.