Nine Elephants

...and three babies.  I picked out 9 of my favorites from my collection for my collage.  If you haven't found the third baby, it's in the mother's tummy on the bottom right.  Many thanks to Skeena for hosting today's 9th Birthday of Mono Monday!

The wooden elephant in the center was hand carved in India in 1957.  It was given to me by the widow of an old friend when he passed away in 1972.  It started my collection.  The glass ones on either side of it were gifts from my mother.  I have several other glass ones from her as well.  The first one in the top row was hand-made in South Africa, and was a gift from my friend, Roger.  The next one is Delft and is a souvenir from a trip to The Netherlands with my sister.  The third one was a gift from my friend, Don.  The first one in the bottom row is a souvenir from a trip to Mexico.  I fell in love with it, but it was sure hard to get home in one piece!  The next one was a gift from my cousin, Patty.  She passed away in 2016.  We were as close as sisters.  The last one (the expectant mother) was a gift my brother brought to me from Jamaica.  I thinned out the herd a few years ago and donated the ones that didn't have a memory attached.  I still have about 50 that I couldn't part with.

I've added an extra from my workout this afternoon.  I learned a few things.  First and foremost, I will wear padded shorts next time!  Also, I only logged 5 miles in 30 minutes. That's only 6 mph.  I was working much harder than that!  From now on, I'm only going to look at heart rate and time because the miles obviously don't translate to a real bike.  

I am grateful that I have felt energized rather than tired since I got home! :-)