Thanksgiving 2009

We went to Daryl's place in Round Valley, near Cascade, Idaho for Thanksgiving. His house is in the middle, green roof, on top of the knoll. What a peaceful holiday we had! The sun setting creates an eerie purple glow on the snow. Photo taken at the same time as the one above, but on zoom and on the ridge. What colors!

Morning! Time to ride!

Can you tell that this is me? I can't either.

Break time for Daryl

Views of Round Valley from the trail.

I thought it was very strange that the Forest Service marks up the trees with paint and metal tags nailed into the trees. And hey, I'm not really that fluffy, I had a complete set of warm clothes on under that suit, it was 20 degrees!

The trail back home

A Local Tourist

An overcast drive to Anacortes along the shore. Guemes Island in the background.

Cap Sante Lookout area, normally you can see Mt. Baker huge! but, not today.

Mt. Erie in the background.

Anacortes industrial area

Barge and tugs pushing old refinery dock

Anacortes Marina

Wind Whipped

Can you see in these photos the tree limbs that have been driven into the ground? The wind did it! Limbs broke off these poplars and ended up implanted in the field! When we got up in the morning it looked like someone had planted new trees in the yard, and most all the remaining dead leaves were blown off the trees, alders especially.

The lake looked pretty whipped up too. This particular windstorm blew down trees big enough to block off Northshore Road for over a day. Power lines were knocked down too. We were without power, heat and water for about 24 hours. Thankfully, the little generator Daryl bought last year has worked very well! Our needs are few, so we can get by with cuddles and candlelight.

white caps and fresh snow!

First Snow of 2009

It turned cold, windy, and snowed in the hills in early November this year. I'm so not ready!!

Winter Garden

Probably doesn't look like much work but it really is! After I decided that trying to grow summer vegetables on the sunny, lakeside of the house didn't work out, setting up the garden bed on the warm, field side of the house did make sense! The lake side just gets too much wind. So, I lifted out 8 x 12 foot area of sod, then dug holes for the posts. Daryl is going to help me attach hogwire around these posts so hungry little critters will not eat all our delicious carrots, tomatoes, blueberries and peas! Will be easy to disassemble if we ever do not want a garden. Even though Daryl is the worker in these photos, you can ask him, I did all the hard labor and used birthday money from my parents to buy the supplies. Thanks Mom and Dad! Hopefully they'll come visit in the summer and enjoy the garden.

A Deer's Last Day

We were so alarmed when we noticed a deer swimming toward the beach! I grabbed the camera thinking, "yet another animal finds its way here." This is peculiar to me because I'm not an animal person and yet find myself surrounded by them more and more. Animals come here because we are full of life! And so, today, we thought this one had come to rest. Perhaps a dog had scared him and driven him into the water, or maybe he'd been hit by a car, though no blood on him. He was walking a bit funny but it was 45 degrees outside so maybe he was cold. We thought he needed a safe place to put himself back together.

Once the deer laid down I knew he wasn't just resting. When his eyes glazed over and he couldn't hold his tongue in his mouth I realized he was dying, which took about five hours with all the usual seizes, twitches and agonal breathing, which I'd watched a hundred times with patients. With this little deer, though, it was different, in that there was no other signs of distress, just the occaisonal leg digging into the sand. No DNR, no code team, no living will, no family members disagreeing about pulling the plug...

We kept our distance and most of these photos are taken on zoom, until the very last, as I did not want to give him any more agitation than he was already experiencing. Wild animals don't like people near them and nor do I like being this near wild animals! so, we let him go through this transition with as little disturbance as possible. But, with all the beaches to which he could have swam, why this one? Others would have offered better protection and easier access but he chose us. It will probably be a long time before I understand why.

He died at dusk with Heron on the log, fishing as usual. Life goes on I guess.

How To See Deer (Philip Booth)

Forget roadside crossings.

Go nowhere with guns.

Go elsewhere your own way,

lonely and wanting. Or

stay and be early,

next to deep woods,

inhabit old orchards.

All clearings promise.

Sunrise is good,

and fog before sun.

Expect nothing always;

find your luck slowly.

Wait out the windfall.

Take your good time

to learn to read ferns;

Make like a turtle

downhill toward slow water.

Instructed by heron

drink the pure silence.

Be compassed by wind.

If you quiver like aspen

trust your quick nature;

let your ear teach you

which way to listen.

You've come to assume

protective color, now

colors reform to

new shpes in your eye.

You've learned by now

to wait without waiting;

as if it were dusk

look into light falling;

in deep relief

things even out.

Be careless of nothing.

See what you see.

The Full Moon at My Driveway

White Night (Mary Oliver)
All night I float
in the shallow ponds while the moon wanders,
burning, bone white,
among the milky stems.
Once I saw her hand reach
to touch the muskrat's small sleek head
and it was lovely, oh,
I don't want to argue anymore
about all the things I thought
I could not live wtihout!
Soon the muskrat
will glide with another
into their castle of weeds,
morning will rise from the east
tangled and brazen, and before that
difficult and beautiful hurricane of light
I want to flow out across the mother of all waters,
I want to lose myself on the black and silky currents,
yawning, gathering the tall lilies of sleep.

Looking west, I see the pink glow of autumn sunset.

Looking east, the moon is rising over the mountains.