Marion Agnew

So here's the deal. I'm home from vacation in Tucson, which I enjoyed mightily. It was a well-filling experience. But, as an adult with allegiances in two countries, I allocate the entire month of April to income tax. Actually, I pay someone else to do my Canadian taxes, which helps, but there's still a lot of paperwork to assemble.  Plus, I have this "thing" about paying someone else to help me tell the US IRS that I don't, in fact, owe taxes, because I pay up here and the two countries have signed a treaty. Therefore, I do my own US taxes. Which mostly involves whining, since the paperwork is all assembled for the Canadian accountant. But it's still a project.  All of which is a big over-explanation of why today is another picture day. Two pictures, actually -- taken the "Day of Two Sunrises." Sunrises actually aren't straight "up" from a spot on the horizon (a factoid I didn't really understand till I lived

The specific day that's like a command: March 4th. Thank you, Peggy of Otowi Station Bookstore . Here are the two shots I used for my family's calendar in March. If you've only been here in the summer, it's hard to imagine scenes like this. Which is why I include so many winter shots.

As I mentioned last week , I'm vacationing. (Strange concept for a writer.) While I'm gone, I'm sharing photos from the calendar I create for my family every year. I should mention that, being a word person, I often include words with these shots. In the past, I've used poems that were meaningful to my mother and grandmother, and excerpts from various other bits of writing that my mother left behind. This year, I used a quote for M. Scott Momaday, which you can read here . I divided the last three statements on the page among the twelve months of the year.

I live in a spot that's near and dear to me and my siblings, so every year their Christmas present from me is a calendar. The old-fashioned, paper kind. It's retro! This month, I'm taking a bit of vacation and thought I'd share some of the calendar photos here in the meantime. (You can share, too -- just link to this, please.) January's sunrise shot, taken in September, 2011.