• blogging,  coffee life,  health

    Morning Coffee

    January 18, 2026

    My friend Jeff came by and picked me up for coffee at Mugs this morning, which became two hours of good conversation. He is moving to senior low-cost housing in Windsor and needed to talk about it. It’s something both of us have talked about for over a year. So this morning we talked about facing the reality that many of us do qualify for senior housing and for low-cost housing. Yet, our minds do not always follow our age. I qualify for both. In fact, I have my name on the waiting list for 2 of those facilities.

    I was trying to figure out what to say in a blog post for this evening because it’s been a couple days and I don’t want my millions of readers worrying. I also have comments I’d like to respond to. As far as my health I am still not driving and I’m not lifting over ten pounds. I will see the surgeon this coming Friday and hopefully have the staples removed and be given the okay to to drive again. I am still taking it cautiously when I move, making sure I take care of my incision. Thanks to all of you who checked on me. It means a lot. They say we could see snow overnight here and I see some of you have already had snow or rain today. I hope you had a good weekend and stay dry and warm!

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  • blogging,  coffee life,  fountain pens,  journal,  journaling,  lifestyles,  meditation,  prayer

    … and peanut butter

    October 20, 2025

    Winds have been gusting up to 25-30 mph since early this morning and we may see that continue into mid-afternoon. Because of the winds I wisely chose not to ride the bicycle to coffee and conversation. After returning home I made a piece of sourdough toast with a generous spreading of chunky peanut butter. I then sat in my bedroom chair with the warm sunshine spreading across my journal to write. But before I could get started writing the light and shadows on the pages urged me to put the pen down, set up the camera and tripod and use this image as a starting place for today’s post. As I post this I realize it reflects the life I live today full of prayer and meditation, coffee life, photography, journaling, blogging, and peanut butter. And if the wind wasn’t blowing, bicycling.

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  • blogging,  writing/reading

    This Theme’s New Look

    September 28, 2025
    One of the sculptures at Benson Sculpture Gardens

    If you visit here often you will notice visual changes to this blog. I have changed the name of this blog from Monte Stevens Photography Blog to Monte Stevens Blog. I am still using the same free theme, Savona Edge by Optima Themes, but made a few tweaks to it. I have gone back to the theme’s original fonts. That way, I get rid of the Fonts Plugin. I am liking it so far but I could still add the plugin later. I have also removed the right sidebar so that blogging is more the focus. I blog because I wish to share my images and words for the joy I receive from that experience and not my ego. I now have a dropdown menu located in the footer for Categories, Archives, and giving the reader the ability of subscribing to notifications of new posts, it that interests you. Be aware you will get an email each time I post which could be 20-25 days a month. The Blogroll that was located in the sidebar is now on the main menu at the top which loads up a page of blogs I follow and websites I have interests in. You can check them out if you’re bored or can’t go to sleep or want to see if you’re listed.

    If you do take a look at my Archives menu you will find my blog posts from 2009-2011 do not have images attached. And, this could be true of any post due to the import process. When I exported those posts I failed to also export the media. So I’ve imported the blog posts without them and will add the files later when the snow is falling and it’s too cold to be outside or I just say to heck with them. I’m not sure they are that important to anyone but me as I’m finding I actually am enjoying the process of looking back over those old posts.

    Please let me know what you think of the new look and if you find any issues.

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  • blogging,  leaves

    More about the changes…

    September 24, 2025
    It’s the season of changes

    One of the changes I’m making to this blog is having it hosted by WordPress.com. I was having issues with my previous hosting service. At one time this past year I could not even log on to my dashboard. After a chat session they got me back up and running. I have no idea what they did.  Shortly after that more issues began appearing and in another chat session they claimed that I was running out of storage space. I was told my storage space was consuming 57Gb, so I upgraded. Yet, I continued to have troubles. So, I exported my entire blog and began to play around with the free WordPress.com. For the heck of it I imported that .xml file onto a free WordPress.com site that has a storage capacity of 1Gb. It all fit! At the present time all my posts and media from 2009 to the present, except for a few media files and I will explain that later, are on WordPress.com hosting service and I’m only using 790Mb of the 1Gb. So, I have purchased their personal plan which gives me 6Gb of storage and I’m transfering my domain over to WordPress.com. Hopefully you will read this after that transfer.

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  • blogging,  leaves,  Plants

    Changes

    September 21, 2025

    Changes are being made to this blog. First will be the look of this theme. Secondly, I am changing hosting services so there may be a period of silence from me. You even may see the Error 404 code. If I’m not back up and running in 5-7 days, send out a search party. I’ll probably be drifting somewhere in the World Wide Web.

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  • blogging,  clouds,  journaling

    Then…

    September 4, 2024
    Scattered Clouds

    I sit up on my porch to journal as the sun and a blue sky of scattered clouds give way to predominate gray clouds. Then… a trash truck picks up one of the dumpsters and loudly shakes its contents into its hungry jaws; a dog barks it’s lonely plea for attention but their pleas are ignored, so it barks louder; a car engine starts up then is quickly overpowered by the blast of an earth shattering stereo, silence seems impossible; a screaming ambulance rushes by as it hurries to the aid of someone in need, maybe it’s silence they need; a demon possessed leaf blower starts up, eager to join in on the noise pollution parade. I find myself annoyed. I let out a silent sigh and begin taking much needed breaths. Eventually, a moment of external silence arrives, the gray clouds move on and in this silence words begin to flow. Then…

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  • blogging,  leaves

    A Blog or a Website?

    October 26, 2023
    More leaves for you just because it’s Fall

    I find myself referring to this site as a blog rather more often than a website, whether in conversations or writing. I began to wonder what the difference was. Seems the only real difference between a blog and a website is that blogs are updated on a regular basis with new content, which is displayed in reverse chronological order. While typical websites are static in nature where content is organized in pages, and they are not updated frequently. I place myself in the blog category. Some people have blogs that are just a part of a larger website. Some photographers I know have blogs within their website. And some have a separate website and a separate blog.

    A bit of research on Dr. Google shows that blogs evolved primarily from personal online diaries and journals in the mid-90s. Then someone built a couple of blogging platforms, Blogger.com and later WordPress.com. Now there are a multitude of platforms that can be used to create both a website and a blog.

    I knew almost nothing about a blog until a friend suggested I start one when I began working as a flight attendant. I laughed him off. Then something happened in October 2008 and now look at me some 15 years later! I can easily spend an hour or two a day writing and reading blogs. Much more over the past few weeks while “remodeling” this site. Anyway, I am quite comfortable referring to this website as a blog. 😂

    Got my COVID vaccination yesterday and feel achy and tired this morning. No morning sunrise or visit to a coffee shop. Slept in late. Today will be a rest and recovery day.

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  • blogging,  Photography,  Software

    Pushed the button

    October 8, 2023

    Well I pushed the button yesterday afternoon for a new look to my website. It is much cleaner than my previous website and it also uses more of the screen. Seemed like the previous theme was narrow and left a lot of blank gray space. Please let me know what you think of it. And, please tell me what you find wrong with it. There are two different image sizes for posting. Not sure I like either one. Wish I had something in between and will keep looking into that. My next issue is with my galleries. Sure don’t care for what I had perviously. Enjoy your Sunday!

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