A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Everyday Images #79

Welcome to my ongoing challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I'm more likely to notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Here's how it works: Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases to focus on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. The link-up post will be here every other Thursday, sharing my photos and offering a link-up for participants to share theirs. Right below the link-up is where you'll find the next set of prompts.

January Prompts - Everyday Images #79

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current season (quarterly)

organized

cozy corner

heavy

beginning and/or end

on the shelf

Monday mood

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current season (quarterly)

organized - one day I'll finish organizing my pantry. Probably right before we move.

cozy corner - not exactly a corner, but it is cozy

heavy - my prettiest cast iron pan, and it really is heavy

beginning and/or end - photos taken of the sky when I left home at the beginning of a day, and when I arrived home at the end of a day. Not the same day, but if I remember correctly, both photos were taken on Mondays.

on the shelf - my new raven lamp and new books acquired over the holidays

Monday mood - I guess this is more like Monday motivation, which will be a prompt at some point during the year. But chorus is what puts me in a good mood on Mondays, because I get to go sing with some genuinely amazing people.

And a few bonus photos:

We went on a brisk winter walk on New Years Day, and got together for dinner and games in the evening.

So fun to have most of the family together! A slightly different combo than we had for Christmas.

It's a busy couple of weeks for hockey. We had tickets to games last Sunday and this past Tuesday, and we'll be going to tonight's game as well.

I love this magnetic Scrabble game/message board I got for Christmas. It's hanging in the kitchen right now but I'm going to move it to a more suitable spot, as soon as I decide exactly where that will be.

These trailers at my work. Oh, they look nice and tidy all lined up there. But they are blocking most of the employee parking spots so this week I've wound up parking a good quarter mile from my door. While I do need the exercise, it's not fun to be trudging across the lot in crappy weather carrying all my stuff. I'm sick of it already.

We had a guest night on Monday and it was so much fun!

We got a surprise for Tuesday's game - a friend has club level seats for his company and they weren't using them for this game, so he gave them to us! Nice upgrade!

So glad the Blue Jackets posted a win to welcome their new coach! Although I wish it didn't have to be against my other favorite team, the Calgary Flames.

I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.

The Everyday Images link-up is posted every other Thursday, and is open for two weeks.

January Prompts - Everyday Images #80

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out for a walk (quarterly)

logo

at home (monthly)

inside and/or outside

good food

curlicues

texture

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Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Wintery Wednesday Hodgepodge

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. What kind of winter person are you - snow lover, fireplace snuggler, winter adventurer, or indoor hibernator? Elaborate.

Let's see, I do love snow, and I do love a cozy fireplace. I love winter walks and explores but "adventurer" makes me think more of winter sports like skiing and snowboarding and I don't do that. I think that I'm mostly an indoor hibernator. I'm comfy and cozy inside, watching snow out the window. The fireplace is a nice extra, but I won't be found sitting near it all winter long. I'm excited to venture out to hockey games and for walks, but most of my winter time is spent indoors.

2. The Pantone color of the year is cloud dancer, described as a gentle, billowy off-white shade. The color symbolizes 'peace, clarity, quiet reflection, renewal, and a soft reset'. Of the terms just listed which do you need most in your life this winter?

I think I probably need more clarity. We're working through some decisions about housing and finances that will really impact how we move forward through the years and what we expect to do when we retire, so it would be a good thing to have that clarity and wisdom as we settle those questions.

3. Every cloud has a silver lining, on cloud nine, head in the clouds, storm clouds gathering, or cloud of suspicion . . . which 'cloud' idiom do you most relate to currently? Explain.

Probably the first one - every cloud has a silver lining - because it seems that over and over again, when something crappy or disappointing or frustrating happens in my life, I still find that something positive comes out of it. I tend to be optimistic most of the time, and at the very least I can pretty much always say that nothing "bad" that has happened is the worst possible.

4. Coconut, cauliflower, cottage cheese, mayonnaise, onions, ranch dressing . . . of the white foods listed, which would be the hardest for you to give up? Do you like all or any of the foods on the list?

Mayonnaise would be hardest to give up because I use it so often. Missing it for a day or two makes no difference but if I couldn't use it all for any length of time, that would be strange. I really like coconut and cottage cheese, but I'm indifferent to onions. I like the flavor of onions added to soups and chilis and those types of dishes, but I don't like the texture of onions. Other than the crispy onion straws (like Bloomin Onion style) some restaurants have, I never eat onions on their own and even actively pick them out of some dishes. I don't like ranch dressing except as an ingredient in something like buffalo chicken dip, and I detest cauliflower.

5. Thomas Wentworth Higgins is credited with this quote-

"How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year."

Agree or disagree? Tell us why.

I do agree. Winter is a time of rest and hibernation, so in nature there are things happening below the surface and quietly that we can't always see. But my understanding is that the quiet and bleak looking wintertime is necessary for seeds to sprout and sap to run and animal babies to be born and many other things. The lesson of faith is that God is at work even if we don't see it happening, that when things seem bleak and lifeless, it may be that we are being prepared for something new or for a season of growth. The lesson of beauty might be in seeing the chill and silence with a fresh perspective and appreciation for how God is using it.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We are getting a short reprieve from genuinely wintery weather today. It's raining and chilly so not a particularly cheerful looking forecast for the day. But apparently it will get a lot colder tomorrow and we'll be back to winter temperatures, and maybe more snow? I don't remember that part of the weather news.

We have tickets to two Blue Jackets games this week and one next week. Yesterday we had tickets to see the game when my Calgary Flames were in town. When I left work I texted my hubby about the dinner choices we had, thinking we probably wanted to have a quick light meal at home instead of spending big money on the yummy, but expensive, arena food. Hubby texted back and said we were going to have dinner at the game because a friend had given us his club level seats! The club level has a very good all you can eat buffet on throughout the game, and it's included with the tickets, so not only did our friend treat us to fantastic seats to the game, but it included parking and dinner too! And even though I was a little torn about who I'd cheer for, I was pretty happy with the outcome - a Blue Jackets win, a nice welcome for the new head coach who was just announced today.

The current Wednesday Quotes link-up is still open and you can find here: WQ - New Year's Resolutions. Next week we'll move on to the topic of Motivation, which I guess we'll need if we want to keep those resolutions! Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes this week, next week, or ideally both! Tomorrow is the first Everyday Images photo link-up of 2026 and I hope to see your photos there!

What kind of winter person are you? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

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Sunday, January 11, 2026

Scripture and a Snapshot - My Fortress

But I will sing of your strength,

in the morning I will sing of your love;

for you are my fortress,

my refuge in times of trouble.

You are my strength, I sing praise to you;

you, God, are my fortress,

my God on whom I can rely.

~Psalm 59:16-17~

Thank you for joining Scripture & A Snapshot. Leave a link to your own post sharing a Scripture and a Snapshot. Take time to visit some of the other links and bless each other with comments.

I also link up at the Sweet Tea & Friends Monthly Link-up Party hosted by Grace-Filled Moments

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Saturday, January 10, 2026

Tell Us About . . . Snow: Snow Globe World

As I'm writing this, there isn't any snow on the ground in this area. We had snow just a couple days ago, but then the temperatures warmed up a bit, and we got some rain, and now it's just kind of grey and wet and bleak. For my part, I'd rather have snow in winter. Not blizzards, not super frigid temperatures, but my ideal winter weather is crisp with a regular refreshing of the snow to keep it white and clean. Give me frost and anywhere from a light dusting of snow to an inch or two.

I love that magical, childlike feeling of catching snowflakes on my tongue, and just being awestruck at how amazing and beautiful snow is!

The very fact of snow is such an amazement. ~Roger Ebert

One of my favorite things about snow is the hush. When it's a powdery snow it has a whispery quality, and when there are ice crystals in the air, you can almost hear your breath hit the cold air when you exhale. It's not just our imaginations either! Meteorologists explain that snow is porous, and the six-sided crystal shape of snowflakes provide a lot of space that absorbs sound. So once there's an inch or two of snow, yes, it really is quieter out there!

If you've ever wondered about the crunching sounds when you walk through snow, that is the friction as you compress those grains of snow against each other with your boots. Generally speaking, the colder the air is, the crunchier the snow will be.

And to be fair, the slushy sound when the snow is partially melted and making a grey slurry on the streets? I don't like that look or sound.

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I also love how snow can make the world look clean and fresh and sparkling. Ordinary streets and yards and parks become magical landscapes, and on a sunny winter day, the reflection of sunlight on an expanse of snow is so bright! Clean snow reflects almost all of the visible light, so that's why it's so bright white. Deep snow can absorb a lot of red light, so it sometimes appears bluish in color.

Honestly, my love of snow disappears when I have to drive on a treacherous road or in blizzard conditions, or if I'm worried about loved ones who are out in those conditions. I don't mind shovelling walks or clearing off my car for the most part, but I'm fortunate that I haven't often had to do the hardest parts of the shovelling jobs.

I have good memories of the very deep snows we had while living in Maryland. We jokingly expected an ice storm or a big dump of snow in mid-February every year. It seemed like we got bitter cold and lots of snow on the weekend our teens were at Winter Retreat or immediately after the retreat. There were a couple of years we got so much snow that it took a couple days before plows got out to our road, and we were all on our own out there. It was up to the neighbors that had tractors to get through as best they could, and of course we all had to figure out how to clear our own driveways even once the plows had come by. We were always well stocked with food and with wood for our woodstove, so for the most part those days spent snowed in were fun adventures for our family. One year our son worked with a friend who had a snow clearing business, and during one of these storms that crew worked around the clock keeping the sidewalks and drives cleared at the hospital emergency entrances. That was hard work and gave us all an appreciation of all the people who do that kind of work - keeping roads, essential services, power lines, and all of that up and running during harsh weather conditions.

I have a lot of good memories associated with snow. I have a whole pile of childhood memories of playing in the snow and going sledding or tubing! There was one year when my brother and I tried to make an igloo in our backyard, but we were too young to have any idea what we were about and just managed to make a small cave in the heap of snow on our patio. We did spend many happy hours making the wagon wheel grids and playing Fox and Geese. And my dad would flood the backyard and make an ice rink in the winter so we could skate and play hockey. I always loved sledding and tubing, even though it was such hard work dragging the tube back up the hill for another go. The crazy carpet was our snow day vehicle of choice because it was so lightweight and easy to carry over to the sledding hills, or to throw in the back of a car.

One winter snow sport I did not enjoy was skiing. I grew up in Calgary, and being so near the mountains, skiing was the thing for so many people. Just not for me. I tried it a couple of times as a teenager and didn't like it all. I have never tried cross country skiing, but I've often thought that would be a better fit for me.

These days I'm a bit too out of shape and arthritic to head outside for a snowball fight or to participate in winter sports. But as long as it's not too terribly cold, I love a winter walk and the way the night sky is frosty and brittle in winter, and I might even try to catch a few snowflakes on my tongue.

Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world. ~Sarah Addison Allen

Some of this article is based on a recent Wednesday Quotes link-up: WQ - Walking In A Winter Wonderland.

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Tell Us About . . . is a monthly opportunity for bloggers to showcase their creativity. Each month one of the co-hosts will choose the word to focus on. On the second Thursday of every month we'll respond to the prompt "Tell Us About ---" which could be absolutely anything. And how we respond is also wide open. It could be a blog post with our opinions or reminiscences; a poem, photos, a short story or whatever takes your fancy―it could even be a mix of all these! This month's theme is "Snow".

This post is linked at Rosie Amber

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