I’m sharing a few smiles I’ve collected from around the world in today’s post. While you listen to the great Louis Armstrong, it is my hope these photos will put a smile on your face too. 🙂
Cuba:
Jamaica:
Italy:
Friends in Florida:
Relatives in Ottawa:
Dominican Republic:
Here is my contribution to Ailsa’s travel theme this week, a closer look at multiples on some vacations of mine.
To start things off, here are a couple of snaps from Cuba.
Hmm…this perspective is making me thirsty.
Of course, when it comes to multiple anything, Disney World delivers.
Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, an abundance of stained glass splendour awaits.
…And just outside the cathedral, who can resist all the tiny feathered friends eagerly accepting snacks?
A restaurant on a pier in Jamaica awaits its tablecloths, and its evening diners.
Springtime in Montreal is always a delight.
Also in Montreal, I spotted these ladies. I just love them.
Swimming in Florida. Multiples come in actual human form too, of course.
One year ago today, on New Year’s Eve, 2011, I started this blog, Jennifer’s Journal. And as I mentioned in the very first post, Follow the Yellow Brick Road, I had no idea where my blog would take us. So here is what I found out.
1. I didn’t know I would have the resolve to faithfully post to my blog a little more than once a week on average. WordPress, being the best blogging site – in my opinion – had a lot to do with my enthusiasm.
2. I didn’t know I would be taking my visitors and followers on a pictorial journey of our 2011 trip to Italy and France. Nor did I know that one of these installments,
“Scenes From Italy – Part Three: Siena and Florence, Tuscany” would consistently be my most visited post, from all around the world!
3. I hadn’t made plans yet to take a Spring vacation in Florida, with my husband and my daughter and her family. My photo album from that trip,
“For the Young, & the Young at Heart: Disney’s Magic Kingdom“, would garner a record of 449 views on May 8th, the most views I had in one day.
4. I wasn’t fully aware of how beautiful it actually is where I live, here in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, until I read your lovely comments on my local photographic efforts. 🙂 “Autumn Walk on the East Coast” was a particular favourite.
5. I came to learn how the poems, musings, and photographs of my grandchildren would be a popular subject for many!
6. That goes for the posts of my little cats, Maisie and Vivian, as well. One of them even guest-posted in “Vivian’s View From Here“.
7. I was overwhelmed with the outpouring of support my blog received, as I was losing my mother. I cannot fully express what a source of comfort those caring comments were, and still are.
8. I didn’t know I was going to publish sixteen of my poems, and that I would be proud of them. 🙂
9. I wasn’t sure (but I am pleased I did) that I would keep my resolution to start writing a novel, and am now starting Chapter Six of the first draft. My post about it, Then You Must Write It, would be one my most popular blog posts, generating many of your comments.
10. Novel writing or not, I love my blog as the vehicle of self-expression it has turned out to be, and I will continue to update it in 2013. Connecting with many of you and making new friends is one of the best advantages of blogging.
So, let me say to all of my followers and visitors from sixty-six countries, a GIANT THANK YOU! And a Happy New Year to you all. 🙂
Here are some scenes from Disney World last week, during our vacation in Florida with my daughter and her family. I apologize for the less-than-perfect quality of some of the photos, as I was quite caught up in all the fun myself. Lack of photography skills aside, I hope I managed, in some small way, to capture the essence of “The Magic Kingdom”.
And this was only what I managed to photograph. We enjoyed other attractions, depending on the level of courage; only the men did Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, and Paul and I did the Haunted Mansion. The Barnstormer was scarier than I thought it would be, and the kids were frightened by Snow White’s Scary Adventure. I thought there should have been a warning for the littler ones.
So long, Disney. Perhaps we’ll be back if we have any more grandchildren. 😉
Jennifer's Journal 
