The Old Year 2024 is few hours behind us and I look back again and say thanks for everything what the past year provided. At midnight, when we said thank you for the Old Year and wished good health and happiness to all of us for the New Year, I looked up to the clear starry sky, and I felt the Orion Constellation wishing me good luck for the New Year. When I woke up early morning and walked around our house in our beloved pine forest on New Year’s Day, the refreshing clean air carried all the blessings, and I said a big Thank You for the past Year again.
My wife Lexi and I will be 72 years old at the end of January, we are relatively healthy and in good physical shape. Both of us vaccinated against several diseases and I hope, we will be protected. My aging leg joints, and lower back hurt me many times, but that is slowly vanishing during the day, so I can tolerate it. I can chop firewood, work around the house and I strong enough to carry my heavy large format camera backpack and tripod on the trails. We like to walk, swim, kayak, bike, hike, and we really enjoy all the outdoor activities. Well, biking is not an easy task for us on the steep hilly roads in our Pine Forest area, even we have a lot of challenges with our electric bikes.
We are very happy and proud parents of our grown-up boys Daniel and Gergo. They are strong, healthy, and successful. Both are happy with their loved ones and have many common things to share and enjoy their life. So, I cannot complain, especially in this complicated, not-too-shiny, declining world. I see the light driving us out from the maze, but unfortunately the light is a bit farther than I wish to see.
As five-year-old Bastropians, we are happy in our house in the middle of the loblolly pine forest in the Tahitian Village of Bastrop, TX. During these years we hiked all nature trails nearby, at Bastrop State Park, at Lake Bastrop and Colorado River Refuge. Both of us are healthy and we try to hike and walk daily on the trails of these beautiful nature filled areas around us.
As a retired scientist, I am still working on scientific papers with a few of my former colleagues, who always including me in their peer-reviewed high impact factor publications. For our English language improvement, we continued our daily Scrabble game play, and I tried to continue to learn Spanish, but I need more determination for that. Unfortunately, I quit the Spanish class during the end of December 2024, but I continue to learn on a flexible schedule, with the aids of books, tapes and computer programs.
As Photographic artists, my wife and I exhibited our works in solo and group exhibitions in several venues in 2024. My wife Lexi had a solo show: “Up Close and Personal” and I had a solo show: “On Wings” at the Lost Pines Art Center’s Art Wall in the Bastrop Public Library for two months, respectively. We participated in several group exhibitions together with the Members of the Lost Pines Art League at the Lost Pines Art Center, Bastrop. Submitted our images for several world photography contests and two of my black and white images were selected as a “Nominee” for the worldwide Black and White Spider Awards. I published my 2025 Portfolio Calendar: “Ocean Shore Treasures”.
As a long-time Photography Instructor, I continued to teach photography at the Houston Center for Photography (HCP, Houston, TX), led 3 discussion/critique meetings at the Houston Photography Study Group (Houston, TX), had an online presentation to the Houston Audubon Nature Photography Association (Houston, TX) and made several in-person presentations: Bastrop County Audubon Society (Bastrop, TX), “Birds and Blooms” Retreat (Camp Allen, Navasota, TX), Lions Club (La Grange, TX), North Austin Pfotographic Society (Austin, TX) and at the Lost Pines Art Center (Bastrop, TX).
In 2024, we camped and spent good times at Gergo and Emily’s newly purchased and later expanded, 150 Acres “Sourdough Ranch”. We also made our epic 2-month-long photography exploration to the Northwest in August-September. We enjoyed the simple, challenges-filled, backcountry trailer life, pulled our tiny Aliner Titanium camper (“Titan”) with our strong Toyota 4Runner Off-road (“Beast”), from Texas, across the US up to the tip of Northwest Washington State then down to San Diego, CA and back home on the South. We lived simply, hiked daily, photographed nature’s beauty on large format film, collected nice memories, and were happy every day. We drove 8,400 miles in challenging conditions and arrived home safely end of September 2024. After a fast recovery, I installed my solo exhibition at the Art Wall, then after catching up with several tasks, we slowly turned back our retired life to normal. I worked hard in my darkroom, developed my films, made my slide show presentation and we were ready for the Holidays.
We had a great Family get together during Thanksgiving at Emily’s Parents Olga and Robert’s house. Christmas arrived fast, and on Christmas Eve we went together with Gergo and Emily to Olga and Robert’s home to celebrate Christmas together. We arrived home to Bastrop around 11:30 PM, and at midnight, we celebrated Christmas via video conferencing with our Daniel and Janine. On Christmas day, we visited Emily’s cousins and enjoyed Heather and David’s hospitality. After Christmas, we pulled our trailer to Sourdough Ranch, camped there, enjoyed the nice pristine land and Gergo’s deer hunt trial on the last days of deer hunt season. When we arrived home, Lexi prepared our Traditional Hungarian New Year’s Day dish: “Kocsonya” (pig feet in aspic/jelly) for good luck and lentil soup for richness… She made a fantastic Hungarian pasta with cottage cheese and bacon too. New Year’s Day, we hiked at the Colorado River Refuge’s Dragonfly Trail, enjoyed Nature’s special gifts and greeted our happy camper screech owl, who occupied my home-made nesting box on one of our tall pine trees. At evening, Pierre and Lynne, our French American Friends visited us, we enjoyed Lexi’s fine cousin and had a great time together. We were tired but happy, grateful for every moment of our lives.
In conclusion, 2024 was busy, and filled with good memories, explorations. We were thankful for the blessings that we received and even in this difficult and complicated political environment, we are looking forward to the New Year with hope, love, energy, and many new dreams.
My wife Lexi, and I are wishing all my Friends and their Families Happiness, peace, and good health throughout 2025!
Happy New Year, 2025!