Happy New Year 2026

 

Still blogging at maefood.blogspot.com …

May, 2025: Alice Graduates from University of Virginia, one of the highlights of the year

Happy New Year 2025

One photo summarizes the entire year as I see it; this photo also provides a foreboding of what I expect is coming next. 

I hope my fears for the future of our country in 2025 are not realized. I’ve been continuing to report on books, travel, art, and whatever I’m thinking about at maefood.blogspot.com.

Despite the political disaster I fear, I wish everyone a 

Happy New Year in 2025.

Happy New Year 2024

 

I’m still posting at maefood.blogspot.com

A Very Brief Look at 2023

January

A dinner for our visiting family: Len mase five dishes.
Smacked cucumbers, snow peas, chicken stew, fish-fragrant eggplant, and rice.
Throughout the year Len successfully tried many Asian recipes which we enjoyed greatly.

February

After a beach barbecue on the beach in Baja California (Mexico) we enjoyed this bonfire and toasting marshmallows. One of many highlights of our trip on the National Geographic Venture.
We chose this trip in order to see whales, and we saw them at a distance and also up very close.

The marshmallows.

The sculpture garden behind the café at the San Diego Art Museum.
Our two trips in February, to San Diego and to Baja California, Mexico,
were our main travel in the early part of 2023.

March

At home: a whole red snapper with a dish of mushrooms in butter and garlic.

April

All year we have been enjoying the bao buns at Bao Space in downtown Ann Arbor.

May

One of several celebrations of Miriam's graduation from University of Virginia.

June

July

Food paintings at the Ann Arbor Art Fair.

August

A fascinating exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art.

September

We visited Miriam who now lives in Baltimore.

October

A week in Cape May, NJ -- mainly watching birds and enjoying the scenery and some very good meals.

November

Thanksgiving dinner in Fairfax.

December

Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander

Happy New Year 2023

I hope everyone will have a delightful, prosperous, healthy, productive, and enjoyable year in 2023.

Another year of blog posts about food, travel, and books is complete, and I continue posting at

Maefood.blogspot.com 

I plan to keep posting there, as I have for several years since I consolidated my efforts into just one blog. As the end of the year quickly approaches, I wanted to find a way to wrap up one of our favorite activities. Some years I feature favorite meals or favorite bird -- this year, here are some of my favorite art experiences, as reported at maefood.blogspot.com.

Washington, D.C. March, 2022

Charlottesville Art Park. March, 2022

Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. April, 2022.

Are fireworks art? Burns Park, Ann Arbor. July 4, 2022.

The Fox Center in Iceland. An unusual museum! August, 2022.

Museums in Greenland often document the skills of kayaking. August, 2022.

Outdoor art in Greenland includes some fantastic rock carving.       

University of Michigan Museum of Art, September, 2022.

Among the fabulous museums in Holland: the Mauritshaus in the Hague. November, 2022.

Three Van Gogh Museums

Detroit Institute of Arts: "Van Gogh in America." November, 2022.                 

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum. December, 2022.

The Kröller-Müller Museum, November, 2022.

Blog post and photos © 2022 mae sander

Happy New Year, 2022

Wishing everyone a great New Year! I'm still blogging at:

MAEFOOD.BLOGSPOT.COM

Here is what our past year looked like. We remained in lock-down during the pandemic until we were double-vaccinated in mid-March. Then we were able to begin traveling again, as I recorded at maefood.blogspot.com.  A brief look at our travels:

March, 2021: Virginia.

Our first trip after Covid vaccination: visiting Virginia. We spent one
day in Charlottesville with Miriam, seeing the beautiful UVa campus.
The rest of the trip was spent in Fairfax with Alice, Tom, and Evelyn.

April, 2021: Indiana

A mural in Lafayette, Indiana, where we visited my sister.

May, 2021: Arizona

On a birding tour of southern Arizona, we enjoyed the beautiful Chiracaua Mountains near the town of Portal.

June, 2021: Virginia

In June we returned to Virginia for Alice's high school graduation.

July, 2021: Iceland

At the end of July, we flew to Iceland for a voyage on the National Geographic Explorer.

August, 2021: Maine

In Bar Harbor, Maine, we enjoyed sightseeing with Miriam, Evelyn, Alice, and Tom. We went on several
walks, looking at lots of things including this mushroom.

September, 2021: Michigan

The farthest we traveled in September was Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge a couple hours from home.

October, 2021: Oregon, Washington, Idaho

We traveled on the National Geographic Quest, beginning at the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon.
We went along the Columbian River between Oregon and Washington, through a number of locks and dams.
Finally, we traveled in Idaho to the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and flew home from Spokane. 

November, 2021: Washington, D.C.

Our Thanksgiving trip to Fairfax included our only visit to Washington, D.C. of the year.
We enjoyed visiting the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture garden.

December, 2021

We didn't leave home but here's my new spirit doll.

Blog post © 2021 mae sander.

BETTER New Year, 2021!

Blogging this year has been a good way to stay in touch with other humans during the incredibly necessary lockdown and isolation caused by the pandemic. For all my recent blogging, and hopefully for future posts, see my consolidated food and travel blog:

maefood.blogspot.com

A bowl of fruit: no travel photos since last March. We are inside.

Happy New Year 2020!

Another year is coming to an end. It's been an exciting one, with several trips, visitors from various places, lots of cooking in my kitchen, and many delicious meals at home and out. I've continued to document all my activities. I hope to keep on going in 2020. You can see my posts, past, present, and future at

maefood.blogspot.com

Below are a few highlights of our travel from 2019. First: a photo taken in Tahiti during our spring trip to French Polynesia with National Geographic-Lindblad tours:

Second, from our birding trip with Field Guides, Inc. -- California in September:

And from our trip to Costa Rica in December:

Sunrise from the bridge deck of the National Geographic Sea Lion.

Happy New Year, 2019

Wishing everyone a great New Year! I'm still blogging food, books, travel, and random thoughts at

maefood.blogspot.com

In the past year, to update the travel theme -- we took three big trips: to Israel in spring, to the Pacific Northwest in autumn, and to Paris for Thanksgiving week. A brief summary in photos:

Kiryat Ono, Israel. Passover Seder at Janet's house.

British Columbia, Desolation Sound.

Paris. Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens.

And here at home in Ann Arbor, I'm taking photos of street art and murals, like this one on Liberty Street.