Zero to Hero

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Days 1 and 2: …So I have decided to join the party! Those of you who have visited thechangingpalette will know my name is Andrew and that I started my blog last May. It began, in anticipation of a trip to Peru, with the title machupicchucountdown, and changed to thechangingpalette after we came back from our trek to Machu Picchu in June. x Since then I have continued posting weekly to the Weekly Photo Challenge adding a few extra posts from time to time. It has been a constant learning process and one of the reasons I have decided to become a “Hero” starting not quite at “Zero” is to become a better blogger and to improve the organization of the blog. For example, I am already in trouble trying, unsuccessfully, to wrap the words around the picture on this page… Whoops! having said that I just managed to change the size of the picture, align it to the left, and bingo, the photo is wrapped…progress already; fantastic.

Day 3: Today’s assignment: write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog.

This is simple, it was to allow family and friends to join us, virtually, on our trip of a lifetime trekking to Machu Picchu. Since I was blogging on an iPad as we travelled there was much to learn, which is why I started a few weeks before we left. There is no question that as the days and weeks have gone by, the more I have blogged the better blogger I feel I am becoming.  However, having now seen so many inspiring blogs by so many I know there is room for much improvement. Hopefully by the end of the 30 days I will see some  progress, particularly in the realm of organization, and will be able to consider myself a 30 day blogging “hero”.  You will have to let me know.  Good luck to all you other potential blogging heroes out there…

The Hue of You

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beginning

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“Oh, what a dear ravishing thing is the beginning of an Amour!”
Aphra Behn 1640-1689
The Emperor of the Moon

…I took this photo many years ago in Orvieto of an unsuspecting couple lost in their embrace. What better way to begin the new year than by thinking of love…

New Year’s Day Weekly Photo Challenge Puzzle

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…What better way to start the New Year than with a puzzle. A Happy New Year to all of you who have been following me and inspiring me with your blogs and encouraging comments. I started posting to the Weekly Photo Challenge in September and have submitted to each of the fifteen challenges since. This composite photo has snippets from each of my posts, so the puzzle is for you to work out which snippet belongs to which challenge. If you are visiting for the first time, welcome, and why not have a go. The fifteen challenges are: Lines and Patterns; Saturated; Good Morning; Infinite; The Hue of You; Horizon; Eerie; Habit; Layers; Unexpected; Let There Be Light; Grand; Community; One; and Joy. Good luck! You will find the solution at the end, but first…
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MAY: As this New Year begins I thought I would revisit each month since I started the blog last May, my first I should add. I titled the blog “machupicchucountdown” in anticipation of each day of a once in a lifetime adventure leading up to our arrival at Machu Picchu after a never-to-be forgotten seven day trek…
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JUNE: And what a day it was! I hope that what I wrote that day adequately expressed the beauty and majesty of this sacred place…
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JULY: Back home in my studio and the end of “machupicchucountdown” as “thechangingpalette” is born. Over the last few months you will have noticed I have changed my header as palettes have come and gone, hence the title…
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AUGUST: Hiking the high alpine trails on Whistler Mountain with breathtaking views at every step. Here we are looking across towards Black Tusk…
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SEPTEMBER: The month I started my first Weekly Photo Challenge with a gallery of photos of “Lines and Patterns”; this is the Olympic Cauldron in Jack Poole Plaza…
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OCTOBER: A special road trip to Portland Oregon to visit dear friends who were in our Machu Picchu trekking “community” (clue to the puzzle!) Dinner at the Peruvian restaurant Andina, one of Portland’s best, was the perfect place to remember our summer’s adventure…
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NOVEMBER: The dignity and grace of the Annual Remembrance Day Service in Victory Square…
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DECEMBER: The spectacular annual St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation’s Lights of Hope display once again providing hope and encouragement to so many…
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JANUARY 1st 2014: What better way to start the New Year than by walking around the sea-wall in Vancouver’s Stanley Park…
And so to end where we began with the solution to my New Year’s Puzzle…
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How did you do? I look forward to hearing from you and to enjoying more great Weekly Photo Challenges in 2014. Now, I think it’s about time for another glass of Prosecco. Cheers, and a Happy New Year once again…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Joy

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…Jumping for Joy has never looked more joyful than in this picture of our daughter, with whom we are spending the best Christmas. Having featured her in last week’s Photo Challenge on her first birthday what better way to end the year than with that beautiful smile again…

Weekly Photo Challenge: One plus One

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…Spending Christmas at our daughter and future son-in-law’s. It seems like only yesterday she was blowing out that candle on her first birthday. That was her looking over to Black Tusk on Whistler Mountain in the summer: http://wp.me/p3gSod-nn. “You’ve come a long way baby” as the saying goes. Love you…Dad xxx…

Weekly Photo Challenge: One plus

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…I have always loved this photo I took of the Tuscan landscape, and although I know there are “two” trees and not “one”, their solitude on the horizon together gives them a dramatic and beautiful unity. I hope you will agree…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Community

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…or “machupicchucountdown” revisited!
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Thanks to Cheri for challenging us this week with our interpretation of “Community”. I have also taken the opportunity of “Repurposing” as she also suggested. 1C1933FE-E333-4D58-9D37-0C4E69051DD7.pngFor those of you who have followed my blog from the beginning you will remember “Machupicchucountdown” was the title I used as we prepared for our trek with Mountain Lodges of Peru to Machu Picchu in June. I started the blog in May as a way of allowing family and friends to join us, “virtually”, as we undertook the trip of a lifetime. This was my first time blogging, and there was a definite learning curve as you will remember. In Cusco we met a wonderful new group of friends who made up our little “community” of trekkers. The group photo was taken at our first stop at Quillarumiyuq, eager and ready for anything! I think the photos speak for themselves, but seeing all of us together experiencing each day’s adventures in one post shows the special bond that was created between us and one that will never be forgotten.
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To learn more about our amazing adventure I invite you to explore the early days of my blogging. Once the countdown was over I couldn’t use “machupicchucountdown” as my title any more, and so “thechangingpalette” was born. The last few months of exploring the “community” of my fellow bloggers has been quite inspirational. You are an amazing group and I look forward to continuing to follow your remarkable journeys wherever you are in this beautiful wide world of ours.
…and if my fellow trekkers are reading this, Happy Holidays to you all, and “Thanks for the memories”…