Cascade Burning

While the Cascade Mountain forests burn east of here - sad, so sad - the smoke visits our skies. And parches throats, and irritates eyes, and lays ash over everything.

But still, there is beauty to be had.


Jolly harvest Man-in-the-Moon colored by smoke.


Red sky at morning...


Sam glows in early morning hours.


Smoke creeps across the late afternoon sky.


Like playful fairies gold lollygags on walls...


..and on furniture.


An evening promise that the sunset will be no less spectacular.

This entire gilded day was surreal. Weird. An inward day of unusual beauty and understanding.

In the end, a cool fall wind blew the hot sticky away, yet the smoke remains.

I hope and pray the firemen are safe, the fires die down, and citizens can return to unharmed homes once again.

September Sand Storm

Weather disappointment gave way to curious natural discoveries once the wind at the beach died down enough to allow beach combing.

Normally the sand dune hills at this location are smooth, interrupted only by foot prints.


We called these interesting formations 'lids'.


Pointing up from the sand these jags created seas of their own along the beach.


More common during normal windy conditions these ripples had the look of a meticulously raked Buddhist sand garden.


Never before have we seen these 'toad stool' sculptures rise up from the sand. Marvelous creations of wind, sand, and moisture!


Close-up view of a sandy toadstool, sand still rolling and scraping around it, continuing the artful process.


The sea churns.


Fascination erupted at a new sight for Caroline as she observed sand shifting in the air as it blurred her view of the Pacific.

Beauty has many forms. To be open to them - to allow their introduction - is to discover deeper joy, strange new forms of Divine Art.

In the end, we were not at all sorry for the storm. Instead of coming home with only the usual beachy views of loveliness we were also privy to secret gardens heretofore unknown to us. We came away with a new refreshment, a rejuvenation blown in and through us with the wind.

Five Dozen Ears

In the spirit of Embracing the Seasons I offer a glimpse of our family's annual corn harvest party.


Pick it at the local farm.


Heat up the water.


Like a little hot tub for cobs.


Ice bath!


Out the kitchen door to the table where Tom removes the sweet kernels.

Cassie and Caroline bag it for the freezer.

"It's fun to do this every year, Mommy!"

Corn.

Huckleberries - August Delight

Funny how certain aromas conjure up vivid mental images of days gone by.

Huckleberries bring my grandparents right back to me - lucid day dreaming.

I cherish the experience. Every time.

Huckleberry picking yielded berries enough for muffins along with a good conversation with Grandma and Grandpa.

The berries did most of the talking.

Sweet!

Ratatouille

Simple pleasures...

...from the garden...


...to the kitchen...


...to the belly!

Summer Wane

Basil from my garden...

...becomes pesto for my family!


The bounty of harvest continues.

Whole, slow food.

Boy am I going to miss summer!

First Things

Live and breathe. Experience. PAY ATTENTION. Learn.

Then impart wisdom if it comes your way. Then talk or write or in other ways share.

But first, yes, first let life be lived.

The day-to-day easy and hard.

The phases.

Joy and crashing defeat.

Understanding and bitter confusion.

Out there...or in here.

But please, please, please when comfort is needed, answers cried for don't spurt forth pretty sounding words, cleverly constructed phrases, or miles of blather from a frozen moment from which you cannot escape and call it helpful wisdom. It is trifle. It is granulated sugar. It is sickening. It nurtures not but suffocates, stifles, retards growth.

Fresh life requires fresh telling - potent observation gleaned the hard way. Wisdom which alters a course, understanding which enlightens, words which aid, silence which emboldens.

First live life. Robustly. Enthusiastically. Courageously, nearly with abandon opening the way for experience in mad doses uplifting and then submerging, wrapping jewels within episodic existence.

Wisdom is born.