Well. It’s been an age but it seems appropriate to take up blogging again.

 Stand-by as I remember how this works! 

Hmm, oh there, got it! 

These images are a month or two old, but I needed a start. 

Hello, 2015!

I haven't been here in awhile.
What a trip down memory lane.
I just added a wonderful link to my linky list.
Check it out.
I will work on fotos soon.
Much has happened since my last visit; I will attempt to catch up as I can.
Until then...Peace

Ylvis - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) [Official music video HD]

Wildflowers around the homestead

 Bunch Berry

 Mariposa Lily

 Green Wintergreen

 Barn Roses with pink Spider accessory

Miners Lettuce

Family Forest

They used to be called Tree Farms.

Now they are called "Family Forests".

We now have the official designation.

Mike wrote up a management plan and submitted it

to the state. We were approved.

We got this rockin' sign.

Mock Orange on the Half Shell

I found this blue shell on a walk, I carried it with me on my finger tip.
Then I smelled the mock orange in full bloom. I had to take a big bouquet home with me
and I knew the shell would get crushed in the process, so I made this little still life and left it on the rock.

Recycling

A work in progress.

The old barn is becoming a garden.

I built a gate.

Yep! All by myself.

Every part of it is repurposed

except for a few random screws.

I even used the screws from the ski bindings

where I could.

The hinges were part of the old doors on the barn.

Wait till you see the latch.....

stand-by.

There are some bad@s$ roses in and around

this barn. I have trimmed them up

and tied them up

and cannot wait for their grand performance.

They are likely wild, but are thriving so

they are as high as the walls, and the hips

on them are BIG.

I wonder what color the blooms are?

Blooms 2013

Daffs from the yard,

those big doubles get heavy and fall over

I am forced to pick them!

Trillium

This must be the year of the trillium,

they are abundant down by the Creek

this year.

The crab is getting ready to burst into blossom!

Purple Trillium.

Bad composure.

I tried several times to get the creek and the flower just how I wanted

No dice.

Apples

Breathe in.

Do you get that?

Oh My!

I love that smell.

There are bees too!

St.Maries

Mike started a detail in St. Maries, Idaho in January.

He finished the first week of May.

These fotos are from his last day there.

I came down for the weekend starting on a Thusday.

I snapped these shots Saturday morning while I waited

for him to clean out his office.

His lodging was a one bedroom apartment

that has been converted into guest suites

this is the front yard, basically.

Gorgeous, eh?

It is gorgeous, but deceiving.

There is an ugly, industrial sort of parking lot

between the front door and this.

I just closed my eyes to that part!

It was gorgeous on those cold & frosty winter mornings too.

Full Moon

OK, so the full moon was two weeks ago

but I am just getting to the fotos.

Barb and I headed toward a certain Lake

with satchels full of goodies.

The snow stopped us from getting there

We had an alternate adventure,

found this new place,

a knoll with a brilliant view of the Cabinets,

and stumps for a perfect picnic.

(too bad the foto didn't turn out better!)

Tulips

Deer LOVE tulips.

I haven't planted them because of that fact.

But last fall, I caved and purchased a few bulbs

 I planted them in the garden

where they are safe from deer.

I love this pop of spring color!

If not for deer, tulips would abound in my world!

 

Old & New

Old nail in the mossy log wall

Wild Roses

New blackberry patch

Rusty Hinges

Moss Garden

Free Fencing

a work in progress

Hauling manure and water to the new plantings

New garden in the old barn



Emerging

Ruby Peonies

Lemon Sorrel

Daffers & Red Orach

Garlic

 

 



The Question

What Burns In You?

April Fools

 Free skiing all week at 49° North.

We made the Monday pilgrimage.

 The "boys" travelled up from Spokane where they have been fans for the weekend.

(NCAA Womens Tourney) and us girls came from the east.

This cracks me up!

When visiting a ski resort, don't you sort of expect an INCLINE?



Easter Sun Day

 Yes! Sun Day!

We keep having them, sunny day, after sunny day!

No complainin' heard in these parts!

I had company and we took a long walk

looking for elk.

We didn't see any elk.

But the evening was glorious in my neighborhood!

Quarter Year

So that is what I missed, from Winter Solstice to nearly Vernal Equinox....without blog posts.
I intend to review the fotos I snapped along the way and perhaps do a flashback post.

Captain Safety Meeting!

 A fellow blogger, who also stopped due to the fees, sent me an e-mail saying that she was able to post some fotos. I quickly went to her blog to catch up and then decided to try it for myself!

Wheeeee! It worked! Here I am!

I have a purpose for my pictures again!

 It was Crazy Days at Turner Mountain on Saturday.

Here are a few crazy costumes.

unbelievably, these are the only fotos I took all day.

See? I have been distraught about what to do with all my fotos,

I just don't take that many anymore.

Well, the landscape is not the best for stunning fotografy right now...

what with a winters worth of dog poop and beer cans surfacing from beneath the snow....

But yeah, I will get back in the saddle and post a few things here and there.

Stay tuned, unless you have already moved on.....

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!)