and another thing....

As this new cycle begins, may you be satisfied with your life. Especially if it is an unconventional life! May your priorities be straight and clear. May love surround you. May you realize your highest dreams. May you be fruitful in your pursuits. May you have lots of fun too!

I got this from my favorite yoga blog....Perfectly stated!

Over the Weekend...

I love the quote from the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey, (don your best British accent)
"just what is a week-end?"
Ha! wouldn't that be a nice question to have to ask!

The day before the supposed "End of the World" we had a little soiree at the DEQ Troy Information Center. The folks that work at the processing lab out back joined the three of us that work at the info center for a holiday party. It was good food and good fun.

Winter officially started.
We celebrated as we traditionally have, great food, great fellowship, lots of laughs, and the exchange of stocking presents.

The Solstice was celebrated without a bon fire on Friday evening. All of our good burn piles look like big fluffy mounds of snow right now. It is SO lovely at home, a real old fashioned winter, no sign of global warming at this point on our little spot on the map. The trees and brush are all staying covered, tucked in. Everything is blanketed in white. The snow softens everything, hides the ugly, dampens the sounds, it is wonderful!
The local mine is shut down right now too, has been for the most of the month, that really quiets the neighborhood. We cannot hear any mine operation, it is 11miles away, but the traffic associated with shift change can be loud at times, we can hear the highway when we are outside. But with the shut-down and the snow, our world is quiet even when we are outside.
{there have been earth rumblings, even a small earthquake, and the mine is closed for safelty reasons till the earth becomes still again.}

Turner Mountain, our local ski hill, opened Saturday. We had nearly a record crowd [270+ excited skiers!] and heaps and piles of really good snow and only one groomed run, and as ski patrollers, I am excited to report the only injury was a cut nose from a good face slappin' from a close encounter with a tree, nothing a little butterfly bandage and an ice pack couldn't fix. {the ego might be the most damaged from the encounter!}
Mike and I skied (and patrolled) Christmas Eve day. It was better snow, and fewer people, but the legs were not quite as perky!

Christmas was quiet. Just the two of us. Dinner at the mayors in Troy. Awesome food & great company! And an early quiet evening at home.

Now we embark on the last days of the year 2012.
A new journey into a new year!
The promise of any journey is that it will give you what you ask, with cascades of things you never knew you needed, if you are committed, if you are willing to bushwhack through the brambles to get it.
Where will you go?
What do you want?
What are you willing to do to achieve these things?

A new journey is beginning.
What will you do with yours?

Welcome Winter!
Ease through the end of this year with fond memories and meditations & promises of new beginnings!
Shine On!

{no fotos. I can't make myself pay to post fotos. still looking at my options. looking like some kind of new blog/communication beginning in the coming year.....or maybe just posts without fotos!)

Today and Everyday

Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world.
Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before.
Let your soul take you where you long to be...
Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar,

and you'll live as you've never lived before.”

 ~ Erich Fromm

This may be the end...

I tried to upload fotos over the weekend and it doesn't work anymore.
I thought it was because I was doing it from my ipad and perhaps there was a glitch.
I tried from a real desktop computer today, and Yes! there is a glitch!
Google/Blogger someone bigger than me, wants money now.
I guess I am out of foto storage.
Now I will have to pay by the month.
So I am re-evaluating what this blog is about and what it means to me.
This may be the end!
I may start another one.
Or I may just stop.
I don't really know who is looking and what it means to them.
The few people that I do know are looking, well, I am thinking I communicate with them on a pretty regular basis and we can find another way to share images.
I haven't been terribly good at posting and taking fotos of late either.
I got a replacement (for my stolen in Spain) camera and I am not at all in love with it.
So.
I started this blog in December to share fotos with family, and it very well could be that I am ending in December as well.
I'll keep you posted where I go from here.
It has been fun!

Dying

I visited a fancy yarn store a few weeks back and really lusted after all the gorgeous multi-colored skeins, but they far exceeded my budget.
I found some super cheap wool online and was inspired to create my own.
I am super pleased with the results!
I picked up this round, baby pink table cloth for a quarter at the local second hand store and since the dyes were mixed, I went a little crazy! I got the how to fold a mandala instructions off YouTube and now I wish I had more table cloths to fold and dye. I am thinking this could be fun outside next summer.
It is pretty festive!
Or perhaps I will do a "give away" like so many bloggers do, just tell me in the comments your grand plan for this colorful creation and I will choose a winner Wednesday afternoon!


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Leaves

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I planted a scarlet oak tree probably ten years ago, it is getting quite tall and full. It is gorgeous! The leaves in Autumn are a lovely red, as you can imagine by the name.
I gathered leaves and dried them this year to make wreaths and such.
They do not hold their color at all, unfortunately.
For our Thanksgiving gathering I created a few decorations with them anyway. I made wreath forms with willow whips and with lilac runners and then secured them ( and burnt the living day lights out of my thumb) with the hot glue gun.
I didn't really know where to hang
G the wreath where it would show up, and settled on the unconventional wreath hanging location of the fridge!
I like it! It works!

Location:Porcupine Creek,Troy,United States

Orb

It was time for the pumpkin to hit the compost heap and I liked having something sort of round on this planter, so I got a wild hair and took a walk with the clippers and here are the results!
The twig orb.



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Location:Porcupine Creek,Troy,United States

Sneaux!

This is what we woke up to!



It started yesterday afternoon, when I took my evening walk it was snowing hard. It was gorgeous, and quiet and just sticking to the ground.
It snowed steadily till around midnight and was still coming down lightly this morning.



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Location:Porcupine Creek,Troy,United States

Balmy Autumn

The larch are changing colors everyday.

One day soon, all the needles will be on the ground.

 

I had planned to take a hike up the Yaak River with a friend,

and she cancelled at the last minute.

I decided not to drive all that way by myself

so I took a "neighborhood" hike to enjoy the

colors and the unseasonably warm temps.

I love this hike in any season!

But this season of golden light

is pretty amazing!

Bull Lake and Ibex Peaks

from on high.

Grateful

I am grateful to have a marvelous and ever changing view at my art table.



I am grateful that my friend, Carolyn, loaned me her serging machine.




I am grateful that I have lots of storage space and therefore have saved all kinds of scraps and junkie that have turned into interesting things in my craft space.




See the reflection of the big larch in the glass of the painting!




Grateful! Yes, I am!
I think this will be part of our Thanxgiving decor this year.
I am grateful and happy that I have time to goof off creating weird items,
Art-ing things that make me smile (and no doubt make other people wonder about my sanity!)

Trick or Treat!

We had an office Halloween Party.

We kept the office open past business hours

and handed out candy to trick or treaters,

but we asked that they perform tricks

for treats. This was GREAT

entertainment for us!

Our faces hurt from laughing!

Jay's familys faces just hurt!

They were the zombi family.

I thought they looked the

Jordan Family car wreck!



I forgot my pumpkins at home that morning,

thankfully Barb brought hers in

along with the "traditional" (snort)

carved pineapple!



Here is one of our tricksters!

This ninja also did some fancy ninja moves for us!

We had a great time!

We had the table fully decorated and loaded

with apetizers.

We had adult beverages.

Most of us were costumed.

We had to dash out and recruit trick or treaters!

The parents seemed to really love watching their children

come up with tricks and then perform them!

We are now trying to drum up an excuse to have another

shindig at the office.

We are also brainstorming ideas for next Halloween

to make it even better!



Pigtails

Miss Z is visiting me today.
I had to give her some piggytails!



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Location:Porcupine Creek,Troy,United States

New Moon Hike

Barb and I took a hike on Monday.

We were lucky and it didn't rain on us a bit.

It had been a very rainy morning.

We hiked into this special spring.

The Creek just erupts out of the side of the hill

all full and rambuncitons like you see.

We had a picnic.

Barb brought along this jar of tomato jam that was

stupendously delicious! I gave her the recipe;

I didn't grow enough tomatoes to make it myself.

It is a keeper for sure.

We had goat cheese on crackers with this

tomato confection, mmmmmm!

And fizzy lemonaid in fancy glasses.

Barb found this conk and decorated it.

I had candles in the WonderWoman lunch box,

so we had ambience at our woodland picnic!

New Moon Monday.

There was a big lightning show in the middle of the darkest night;

it really lit things up!

Warm Autumn Wanders

Ok, another shoe blog post!

Who doesn't love shoes?

I found these on sale after admiring Tassias.

They are great for this warm and wet weather we are having.

Great for slipping on and dashing out for something

or for digging, or like this,

walking down for the paper.

Autumn Shoes

Last weekend I scored these brand new, Autumn colored shoes

at a thrift store. This is my first outing in them.

Scenes around Troy.

It is sunny. We had one day of stormy rain and wind,

a big shift in the weather.

We are back to sun but it is no longer warm.

The high is supposed to be 50° today!

Time to fire up the woodstove.

Coloring

I hadn't really planned to do any dying, but Barb had done some and there were lots of mixed dyes leftover,so we decided that our Autumn Equinox event would be to do some dying.
I had been intrigued by fabric pastels and had found some on sale, also I had purchased a bunch of fabric at a yard sale during the summer for super cheap, so I made ready for a coloring project.




Here is step one, sitting on the porch beneath the hops and beside the grapes in the sun, sipping tea and coloring.




Step two, "coloring" in the lines with dye.




Step three, adding background color, dye, of course.








The process:












And here is one version of the finished product.

Location:Porcupine Creek,Troy,United States

Golden Light

The light has definitely shifted.

The sun comes up later and goes down earlier,

this combined with the smoke from fires

in SW Montana and in Idaho

and with the foliage color changes

contribute to this soft golden glow

that we are experiencing.

It is stunning.

It imbues a feeling of gentle softness and comfort.

Here is some of the bounty of the community.

People have walked in off the street in my tiny town

bearing these offerings from their trees.

Our office candy dish is full of pears right now and my desk

and the kitchen counter are loaded with these

gorgeous gems, italian prune plums.

mmmmm!

I don't have to pack much for lunch.

Autumn Yard & Garden

The colors of Autumn are beginning their displays.

The remaining sunflowers with the virginia creeper in the background.

I have been hauling manure to ammend the garden soil.

As you can see, I have also been pulling weeds and renegade raspberry plants

and tilling and making beds ready for the planting of the garlic.

Thankfully I only have to off load the manure!

It gets piled into the truck by this handy farmer.

See? We could use some rain to settle the dust around here.

Colors are changing around the little pond.

And my bowling  gazing ball shines in the light of the echinacea.

The grapes are slowly changing color as they ripen.

And all is right with the world.

Garlic

I harvested my garlic late this year.

We had a trip planned and everything was happening

at once and garlic had to wait till we returned.

It was in the ground too long, (my guess) and when it

was curing, a bunch of the cloves split.

I knew they wouldn't keep for the winter and

there was too much to eat right away,

so I sliced it thin, "slivered" it

and dehydrated it.

It turned out beautiful!

Now it is beautifully packed into bags and pretty jars for winter use and gifts.