Snow covered glory

Somewhere between San Jose and Portland, I looked out and saw this glorious volcanic beauty. I had decided that the light wouldn't be good and I wasn't going to bother to take pictures on this flight. Now I changed my mind and grabbed the tiny scarlet Lumix that S got me for Christmas two years ago. It lives in my purse in a neoprene sleeve. (This year, I want an iPhone, but alas, not an iPhone bill.)
What do you want for Christmas?? My family keeps asking . . .

Light through the tender leaves

A glowing Japanese maple in the garden of my niece; I spent Thanksgiving Day there with my visiting brother, her father, and my sister and lots of other lovely people. I had to write on a construction paper maple leaf what I was thankful for. I wrote I was thankful for BROTHERS and SISTERS. And that is true. It was a lovely meal on a gorgeous table. Thank you, Heidi!

The beauty of water vapor

Tonight we had a wonderful time at my writer's group.
Heavenly, you might almost say. I've missed them and will be missing the December meeting as well.
Sleep tight.

Autumn Flight

Coming into Reno in gorgeous light. No place is more beautiful than the great intermountain west of the good old USA! I had a lovely flight on Southwest. The aircraft had the cleanest unscratched window I have ever had on a flight. I refreshed myself with hundreds of pictures of clouds, canyons, cities and mountains. And now it is time to go to bed. Good night, golden trees.

Tales of Effie

I find this picture pretty darned irresistible! The woman at the right is Effie Redd [Jamieson] the sister of my mother's mother. I do not know the rest of the story. I do know that she was raised in Mexico in the Mormon colonies there. This limp and slighly bedragged finery is swell, dontcha think? I'll be through scanning these pictures eventually. Then I plan to distribute the originals to people who will treasure them the way my mother did. Wish me luck!

Story in lavendars and blues

Here I am at the Monterey Bay in 1983. This has always been one of my favorite photographs of myself. I am wearing a big loose lavendar shirt and a dark blue wraparound skirt which was made out of that heavy, coarsely woven cotton fabric from India that is so comfortable and used to be ubiquitous in those lightweight bedspreads useful to hippies. No polyester, nothing except the comfort of cotton. I was surprised when this photo, taken by C.J., my foster daughter, repeats the lavendars and blues of my outfit. It was taken on Kodachrome; this scan is from a print I sent my mother, which she taped to her wall. My friend Paul had one framed in his apartment when he died of AIDS in 1990. My brother, who died of cancer in 1997, told me he taped his to a window, so he could feel like he stood behind me looking out at the beach, even in hot Texas weather. All of these loved people are now dead, and I no longer know where C.J. is. The me of this photo also no longer exists, except in this memory thread. I still think I would like to decorate a room in these colors.

I went to the Gee's Bend quilt exhibit in the Boise Art Museum in Julia Davis Park yesterday. The park was filled with city geese, you could tractically walk up to and pet. When I finished at the museum, I took more pictures of them, The wheels of my car just show in this picture. I had just missed the parking ticket person who ticketed me for parking 2 hours and 4 minutes in a 2 hour zone. Not even a 5 minute grace period, Boise City??? Could it be because I had California plates? No other cars were in sight.
A row of geese was using the gutter as a drinking fountain. Notice the rings in the water below the goose with a blurred head who has just taken a drink and raises his head to swallow. Some of the geese stood on the curb and some facing the curb. Here's a video, showing the odd, balletic grace of their drinking postures.

The beaver's handiwork

I think I wanted to buy this house
because of the beaver--it seemed so wild and free!
A couple of weeks ago he moseyed up in the night
and took out my next-door neighbor's
Golden Delicious Apple. A shame, really, but look at the classic beaver technique demonstrated in this photo. The chiseling to a sharp point!