Lost in the snow...

with the quiet  of the trees, I feel my soul settle into my bones. There is something quite primitive about walking in the woods deep in the winter cold. It must stir ancestral memories and tug at that part of me that still feels connection to the base instinct of survival. It is gloriously beautiful, luminous and still, and at the same time I feel a respect for what it could do to me. These moments alone fill me so completely I could sometimes leave the world behind and never walk back. I think in other lifetimes I have lived solitary for it pulls so strongly on me. But then I must pull myself back to the laughter of good friends, and the comfort of warm food shared around a table surrounded by the people in my life that I love, and I find fullness there too. Tug of war, tug...tug...tug.

The Girls

Today's Offerings...

playing in my backyard this morning our Japanese Maple was dressed with droplets... every branch full of glistening beads... it was most beautiful and fun to capture. Winter offers me an amazing opportunity to find and see beauty in every corner of the land that I live on.

Oh Christmas tree...

oh Christmas tree... what's this... grumpy faces! Bah Humbugs..hmmm.  Dad with his one arm, the (pretend) grumpy face grinches and I got off to a good start hunting for trees. I couldn't find the kind I wanted this year so we tromped around searching... wearing patience thin, until finally we were too cold and settled on this cute tree. Jaren got to do the honors this year. Thank you little tree for growing just for us, to be our beautiful Christmas tree.

                                    "Peace Out".   Peace in please.

                                   The Christmas cranks.



                                  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

My Favorite Meal Of The Year...

Mmm Thanksgiving dinner. My long waiting appetite gets satisfied this day with all my favorite traditional foods... sweet potatoes, cranberries, gravy, stuffing and pumpkin pie, not to mention a plethora of other taste bud delights too many to list.
It is also a day I like to reflect on the many things I feel so incredibly blessed with and thankful for, and this year family was number one in my book of thanks.

I couldn't help snapping this shot of Tom and the girls confidently strutting... knowing that they would not be adorning anyone's dinner table.

The doggers spent most of the day in doggie jail... as you can tell by the oh so pitiful hanging head through the bars. It did not however go unrewarded... they got mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey with their dinner too... and very happy about that!
If this silverware could talk and tell of all the family dinners it serviced... I bet there'd be some stories to tell. It was Mike's grandmother's silver and his mom let us use it for the day. There is something nice about using handed down things, touching the patina of years gone by, and the feeling of tradition being carried on satisfy a place deep inside of me.
I have a feeling the torch has passed in our family, and that Mike and I are now becoming the next generation to host the holidays. It is a checkpoint in my life, and a deepened feeling of responsibility to and for my family that resonates well with me. It is a bittersweet holiday season this year with Mike's dad nearing the end of his time. While it was joyous to have everyone in my home it was also a sorrowful acknowledgement that this was our last Thanksgiving meal all together.
The kid table... I have fond memories of the kid table. And years later when I was so excited that I finally got to join the adult table the kid table was the last place I wanted to be. I find that I wouldn't mind returning there... they had lots of fun and silliness.



Makin' sillies.

A Young Majestic

Never mind that I was sneaking around my backyard this morning in my blue fuzzy bathrobe with my red gardening clogs on... an opportunity presented itself and at last I had time to get my camera, and even my tripod. "Thank you Mr Majestic for being so patient and waiting for me... and you posed so beautifully." He stayed around for about an hour, I think because he couldn't find a way to get out of the fence maze in the commons area behind our house. The new neighbors above us on the hill put a fence down their side property line, and that cut him off from the old route of going all the way through the common area. A doe was with him and they were so amazing to spend time with today... such a treat to jump start my day. A little early morning fresh air and then off to yoga... it doesn't get any better than that.

Getting Started On Christmas

It's a gray rainy day outside my windows, what a perfect day to get started on Christmas gift projects. Photo albums this year... Costco offers a great way to make nice hardbound books of all your favorite shots. So far this is my favorite kid picture... Mike's niece. Glad this is a fun project and one I like doing... cause it's a lot of work! Makes me appreciate all of those scrapbooking moms out there.

Autumn Art

A little Andy inspiration. 'Leaves and Sun'

Bellissima

This is an old picture that I came across recently and one of my favorites. Bella is without a doubt my little special spark in this life... live on sweet girl, live on.

Slow Elk...

...as Mike calls them. That scene felt reminiscent of my childhood, and fondly comforting. I love when things rekindle the parts of my past that felt good and real to me. The river has been my hangout lately, accompanied by my friend Nikon, at the two best times of light... sunrise and sunset... and when Nikon doesn't accompany me sure enough I wish he did.

On the way back from my mother's house the other day I drove along the river, and glanced out over a meadow where I happened to catch a gaggle of wild turkey's with several deer standing in among them grazing... and I was cameraless... no way to share this great sight with others. I've never seen that before have you? And just yesterday on the way to pick up the kids from their after school activities, the full moon was rising over the mountains in a pink haze that was awesome, and again I was cameraless. I guess I don't need to document the world, but I have noticed that I rather like the perspective that playing more with my camera brings to me. The world seems a photograph... I get into a state of appreciating things more, noticing and witnessing what surrounds my daily existance.

Spending time at the river has been a a private escape also, pretending to be a real photographer just waiting for that great shot to present itself. And time has become important to me on the days I don't go to the river. I find myself thinking about how the lighting would be right now, and who among the fourleggeds is making their way through the fields. Connecting places and time and light in my head from my travels around town fill my thoughts quite often... maybe for future reference, mapping out new hangouts and possibilites of escape with my camera.
Everyone in my life is so busy, I feel it is my job to 'intention' a slow paced day, or a day of witnessing... just to counterbalance the busyness.. or perhaps I'm just rationalizing so I can indulge my senses everyday... and in that case I need no reason, just action. Can one get lost in living that way?

Fall Findings

A pod sculpture... with peony babies for next season.


Brave little bloom still reaching for the sun while everything else is nestling in.

Camouflage

Gazing out my window this morning I noticed this blob sort of shape on one of our trees. I couldn't figure out if it was a small fourlegged creature, or some weird fungus or what it was... as I tapped on the window a head popped up... ohhh good disguise... it had me confused for a moment. What a great display of camouflage.

Deer One

In route from the grocery store yesterday afternoon I caught motion out of the corner of my eye and saw that it was a deer... once again I hurried home grabbed my camera and whizzed back hoping she would stll be nibbling the bushes. She was, and I was elated to have finally had good timing.
Deer are a constant in my neighborhood, but I've missed many opportunities being cameraless. I don't know why I feel so compelled to catch them with my lens but it feeds my soul greatly to do so, so I do. As of late I have noticed being much more drawn to the wilds, always so... but more than usual these days. I feel great joy and fulfillment in seeing and learning about the wonderous four leggeds I share this earth with, and at the same time I feel dispirited that they are all in danger of our stupidity, greed, and sense of entitlement.
I feel protective of our wilds... to me they are the very threads holding us in some form of balance... a counter equanimity for the grimmness of our wars and ugliness of our hate and intolerance. Just knowing that they are out there living pure and uninfluenced by the material world... ever living the circle, helps me to feel hope. At times I stop and think to myself that somewhere out there right now there is a wolf howling, or hunting or playing... and I find peace in that thought. And witnessing the gentle deer reminds me... that there is good in the world, and in people.
So thank you dear one... may we continue to cross paths.

"In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."
-- from The Outermost House by Henry Beston

Free Lunch

All's clear on the right...
all's clear on the left.
Oohhh! NuuumNummyNum!
Uh ohhhh...

Life as of late

It's been a busy month. Leavenworth's Autumn Leaf Festival was an adventure of sorts... lots of meat and knickknacks galore...one of which made it into my bag, though I'm not really a knickknack kind of girl this little deer whispered to me. There were lots of funny little shorts with suspenders and high socks on cute little old guy's, and some not so old guys that looked more like elves in there shorts... but all were festive and fun. They also really like doing the chicken dance there... so of course we joined right in flapping with some true old sauer krauts. Hanging clouds mystified the whole town and made us feel like, if we dipped into our imaginations, that we could really be in the Alps somewhere.

The 100 mile ride the guys participated in, the real reason for the trip, went very well... tiiired boys... but the weather held for them and they finished with no flats or mishaps... and a great sense of accomplishment. They rallied the next day and ate half a beef with a mountain of sauer kraut and gravy before leaving. It was a good weekend getaway.






The moon on the way to Leavenworth was absolutely amazing peaking through a storm... this doesn't do it justice but it was absolutely a painters moon.
How many guys does it take to install an old 70's spiral staircase out at the lake place?

We are so proud of Alix. This is her flag team at a school game performance... she is right on the 30 yard line, isn't she just beautiful!