It’s hard to believe that a new year has already started. Where did 2025 go? I had to really pay attention when I wrote the date on my first check of 2026 this morning—yes, I still write a few paper checks each month, though I am moving increasingly to paying most of my bills on line.
For a variety of reasons, I kind of backed off from photography a bit this past year. According to the stats portion of WordPress, I published 196 posts in 2025 for a total of over 34 thousand words. That may seem like a lot, but over the lifetime of this blog, I’ve probably averaged about 400 postings a year, with a high of 653 posts with a total of just under 100 thousand words in 2014. In case you are a stats nerd, my lifetime totals since my start in 2012 are 5502 postings with a total of 581988 views.
Strangely enough, the number of views in 2025 was an all-time high of over 89 thousand. Why? I think that the addition of an AI summary to Google searches may have brought forward a number of my posts to a broader audience and a sharp increase in the number of viewers from China (over 12 thousand views in 2025) may reflect the activity of bots or some other web tools.
I haven’t given up on wildlife photography, but during the second half of 2025 I averaged going out with my camera only about once a week. In late December I captured this image of a Cedar Waxwing bird (Bombycilla cedrorum) that was most hidden in the shadows. I was thrilled to be able to capture the distinctive crest of this really cool bird.
During this past year I have rediscovered my love of counted cross stitch and have devoted a substantial amount of my “extra” time to stitching. It’s a strange mix of hobbies to have one that is active and outdoors and another that is mostly sedentary. The second photo shows a recently completed project called Festive Cardinal, designed by Max Pigeon of Pigeon Coop Designs. I showed this project a while back when it was almost completed, but thought it would be fun to show it again in its finished form, because it shows the way that my photography interests and cross stitch interests overlap in terms of subject matter.
So what will 2026 hold for me? I really don’t do new year’s resolutions and am not much for planning—I came across a joke yesterday that new year’s resolutions are things that go in one year and out the other. Sorry. I’m hoping that I’ll achieve a better balance between these two primary hobbies, but I may go off on tangents with watercolor painting, knitting, or even sewing—maybe I’ll finally learn to use the sewing machine that a friend gave to me. I guess that the one thing that ties all of these interests together is a sense of wonder and curiosity and a desire to tap into a sense of creativity that was mostly suppressed during my working career.
Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year. Technically I am also wishing those of you who celebrate Christmas a Merry Christmas, because today is only the ninth day of Christmas (on which the well-known song indicates that my true love gave me nine ladies dancing).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Happy New Year, Mike. I enjoy your photos and posts. Your crossstitch work is superb!
Thanks so much, Suzette, for your continuing support and encouragement.
You are most welcome, Mike. Cheers.
Both birds incredible. Happy New Year.
I pay all bills in person or on line and never with a debit card those are used only at ATM’s 🙂
Do you display your Art pieces after all that work? I am so bad if it were not for art show or here and social media only I would see them but I think since I have so many framed I am going to try Command hooks and hang them all around me.
I have some of my photos printed on canvases on my walls as well as some of my framed cross stitch pieces. I have never “displayed” my work, but sometimes get asked by others for permission to use my photos. My niece and her partner have a company called Frame Your Feline that uses some of my images as removable art backgrounds for a “living cat frame.” (https://www.frameyourfeline.com/creative-mike-powell) One of the coolest things this past year was when a cross stitch designer asked me to do a model stitch of a new pattern and send them photos of the completed project, letting me combine my cross stitch and photography skills. The designer is now moving into selling paper patterns through a wholesaler to local needlework shops and my photos were used for the paper version of a pattern called “Cozy Cabin Quaker.” (https://www.icgcrafts.com/cozy-cabin-quaker-mrp-p54926.aspx?k2=m242)
Some additional thoughts. I too refuse to use a debit card on line. In addition to the uses I mentioned earlier, I occasionally get asked for permission to use my photos creatively (like to accompany a poem) or for academic purposes (e.g. to illustrate a specific behavior). I usually give permission and ask only for an attribution mention. One fun example that comes to mind was when I was asked by a contra dance group for permission to use one of my photos to create a Mad Robin dance t-shirt. Here is what that t-shirt they had made looks like: https://www.zazzle.com/mad_robin_t_shirt-235266148763799040?srsltid=AfmBOoorlR4q9eR-GYfmYhs4k726nhE1k8QhzAYnhONMVamQTCpjEGAy
Happy New Year, Mike! Hope you continue to find many outlets for your creativity.