I have always wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens  and yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a beautiful day and I was able to take some great photos. There were tons of amazing flowers…

and Koi…

a little slice of heaven…

which helps you relax…

and enjoy the cherry blossoms…

I can’t wait to go again next year!

I have wanted to try archery for some time now so I asked my teenage cousins, because kids in general are good with weapons, and they both willing went with me for the experience. The three of us arrived ready to shoot stuff but I was super nervous. The place was sort of…retro. By that I mean the Pepsi machine was probably one of the first vending machines ever created. There weren’t a lot of people there but there were enough to know that we were definitely out of place. We waited for about fifteen minutes, and I was agonizing about it the whole time. Maybe we should go. Luckily, my cousins aren’t as wishy-washy as I am so we waited until the next instructor was free.

He was very nice, patient, and explained everything as thoroughly as possible. He went over the equipment, how to stand, how to hold the arrow, when to shoot, what not to shoot, and then stepped back and hoped for the best.

The three of us stood in position, loaded our arrows, aimed our weapons and then let it go. I was shocked that I didn’t somehow shoot myself in the face. The arrow went forward and ended up hitting the wall. I have to say I was impressed with myself. It wasn’t on the target but it wasn’t stuck in myself or anyone else in the place. Which is good because if the bandaids were as old as the pepsi machine I wouldn’t have taken it.

After the first shot, you have to adjust the eye thingie. I am pretty sure that is the technical term. I guess the first shot was to see how everything lined up and the eye piece can then help you aim towards the target. There was also another man there that was not with the company but was an “archery champion” and he stepped in and gave us a few pointers as well.

Though I don’t believe there will be any championships in my future it was definitely an experience that I am glad I went through with even though I started to doubt myself. Once everyone cleared out and it was just the three of us shooting, we had a blast. After an hour my arm started to get really tired and I had a hard time holding up the bow so I knew it was time to call it quits.

All in all it was a great day and we got to take home our targets.

Ps. No one was actually hurt during the making of this blog post.

Upon hearing the news of his passing, Auntie Christine shared her sentiments…“if I may quote Ashton Kutcher, see you on the other side kid.”

Hermie was an extraordinary crab and is missed by all of his friends and family.

Please feel free to leave any comments or well wishes below.

In loving memory of Hermit the Crab…

My goal for the future is to get back on track. I am using this year’s NaNoWriMo to help me do this. I succeeded last year by writing 50,000 words and I am hopeful I will be successful again this year. My plan is to come back. Back to my art and writing, back to excitement and new experiences, back to myself and The Path I Chose.

This is Veteran’s Memorial in Billerica, MA.

Please check out others at the home of the Photo Hunt.