Boise Isn't All Bad ...

Sunset Over Boise, Idaho

I took this photo in March 2011
I was on a solo trip to Denver, CO to visit my oldest daughter.

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At the Farmer's Market

When Dale and I visited Jodie in Corvallis, OR last May, we went to a Farmer's Market down by the Willamette River. It was a feast for the eyes. I especially loved this display of fresh carrots among the leafys and the greens.

Cascade of Carrots

Just Out of Bud

Again, from a neighbor's yard last Spring.

The magnolia tree was full of buds.

A few just started to open.

 
Steely Magnolia

It's all form and shape and texture and shadow.

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Botanical Walk

My neighbors have the most beautifully kept yards and the greenest thumbs. I captured this photo last month on a stroll through the neighborhood.

Pink Hydrangea

I Love This Man

But don't tell him.

I'd hate for him to get a swelled head.

Dale Davaz
The Best Man I Know

She's Back ...

After having my new DSLR camera for over a year and a half, I finally found the courage to take it out for a spin today. I only used automatic settings, and even then I had trouble figuring out how to take pictures. But I did manage to get a few. Here's my first.

Red Bug

I'm pretty proud of myself.


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Snapshot of My Day

Outside my window...
The soft end of a summer’s day

Bees suspended in the trap’s liquid

I am thankful for...
Black cohosh

Reduced hot flashes!

From the kitchen...

The aroma of meat balls

Simmering in spaghetti sauce

I am wondering...
If the neighbor boys will tire of their pogo stick

Before I go insane this summer with the constant bounce

I am wearing...

My soft fuzzy pink robe

My wedding band

I am creating...
A peaceful home

A pretty yard – weeding done today

 I am reading...
Always Room for One More

 a children’s picture book

The Wisdom ofMenopause

 a great reference guide

A Single Thread

a novel set in a New England quilt shop

   

I am hoping...
My daughters and I get along with each other

When they’re visiting next week

I am hearing...

Pogo stick bouncing, pogo stick bouncing
Pogo stick bouncing, pogo stick bouncing

Around the house...
An air of peace

Dale’s calm mojo permeates

One of my favorite things...
Geocaching! Love the treasure hunt

I can’t seem to get enough of it lately

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Set up the air mattresses for my daughters

Clean out a flower bed and get the soil ready for new plants

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Sunday Secrets: June 24, 2012

This particular secret hits very close to home.

 Sometimes my stitching is

 the only thing that helps me stay centered.

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

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At the Farmer's Market

My sweet husband and I took a vacation in Corvallis, Oregon last month where we visited with our college student daughter, Jodie. (Go, Beavers!) On Saturday morning she took us down by the Willamette River to the local Farmer's Market.

Among other delights for the eyes and taste buds, we saw oodles of fresh flowers. I liked these.

 
Bucket o' Buds

I'm not much of a gardener or plant identifier. Are these peonies? I just love the color combination of the clustered buds, ready to burst into bloom.




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Bouquet

Tulips

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Going through some old photos ...

Boardwalk - Lake Coeur d'Alene

This photo, all shades of blues and browns, was taken on an April day in 2009 when Jodie and I decided to take a walk on the boardwalk at the Coeur d'Alene Resort on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

You can tell it's early spring because the boardwalk hasn't yet been cleaned up to welcome the summer tourists. Winter's murk lingers at the edges. There's still snow in those southern mountains, and the lake has the steely color of the chill melt.

It looks fairly calm here, but by the time Jodie and I rounded that far bend, the boardwalk was riding slow rolling waves as the wind nudged the lake awake.

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Spring Runoff at Post Falls

The Spokane River is running high right now, as the snow melts in the mountains. The floodgates at the dam are open and Post Falls is roaring through the canyon. Julie and I made our annual pilgrimage to feel the roar.

The Mighty Roar

 Post Falls are L-shaped, and dammed by the local electric company for power. It's a bit tricky to get pictures of the entire falls when standing on land.

Top of the Falls

 If you were to go over Post Falls in a barrel, this is the view you'd have right before you fell off the cliff! That barrel idea? Not recommended!

Roiling Water

 As the river tumbles over the cliff and into the rocks, it churns and crashes and growls with incredible force.

Mist Rising

When the Falls meet the bottom of the canyon, the mist rises in the wind, washing the southern wall and watering the trees on the bluff.

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Night at the Needle

 We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at the Space Needle. Here's a photo Dale took of me and the downtown lights of Seattle.

Overlooking the Seattle Skyline

And another of the Space Needle, lit up from below. There's no retouching on this photo ... straight from the camera.

Reaching for the Stars

 

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Seattle Vacation

Last week Dale and I were on a vacation. We spent some time in Seattle, hanging out with Dale's brother and nephew, the Washington state governor, a senator, a congressman, Dave Matthews, and the leader of the free world!

So, OK. We didn't get to rub elbows or shake hands with the political elite. We were in the nosebleed seats. But we still had a great time at the political rally. Dale and his brother hooted until they became hoarse. We're now starting to gear up for the Fall elections.

It was also fun to spend some time playing tourist at Seattle's hot spots. This was the view from our hotel room.

Space Needle

We went up to the observation deck of the Space Needle late in the day. We watched the sun set over Elliot Bay to the west, and Seattle light up in every other direction. The weather was glorious during our stay and the view was spectacular!

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Standing Alone

In a bouquet of a dozen and a half tulips

dressed in yellow and orange

stands one adorned in purple

Lone Beauty

stunning in the evening light.

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Lake Critter

Walking along "The World's Longest Floating Boardwalk" 

on Lake Coeur d'Alene, I spied a ...

Bug on the Boardwalk

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Aging

Now and again I go to the beach

where Lake Coeur d'Alene dumps

into the Spokane River

Knot at the Beach

to sit at a weathered picnic table

and ponder

the big picture and 

small details

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Tender Mushrooms

Sometimes it's good to get down in the grass

on my belly.

Striped Heads, Freckled Bodies

I never know what details I'll find.

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Barkin' Mad

Great texture, this.

Tree Bark

Found on a walk around my neighborhood. 

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The Eagle

While in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada 

celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary,

Dale and I spent an afternoon at Lakeside Park.

Eagle Totem

It's a beautiful place on on the shore 

of the West Arm of Kootenay Lake.

Among other sites, a towering totem pole.

I took this picture of the eagle by

 holding my phone's camera tipped over my shoulder.

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With a Single Stroke

It seems like the sun came out

and with a single stroke

painted the town in whites, pinks, yellows, oranges

Color Me Blue

and baby blues

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Deeper in the Wood

Further down the path at Kiwanis Park

the trees are budding

White Bud

Pops of pink and white

amid the pine

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Stump

I took a walk on a back trail

through Kiwanis Park this afternoon.

Mossy Stump

There are wonders in the underbrush.

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Must Be Raindrops

A big wind and rain storm blew through the valley

in the middle of the night.

Jewels from the Storm

Raindrops clung to the rim of the 

table on our backyard's deck

glimmering in morning light.

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Idaho Green

I took this photo last summer ...

Pastorale Portrait

It's finally starting to look this green again. Hooray!

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Idaho Wildlife Area

This has been the most glorious weekend in north Idaho! Dale and I had a great balance of working and loving and organizing and playing in the dirt and eating yummy food and watching a period-piece BBC series and riding the backroads in the convertible. We also did a little geocaching while on the road.

We decided to find the cache hidden in the woods near the shore of the Pend Orielle river, just east of the small town of Priest River. G.Twigs went with us. That crazy giraffe decided to check out the gunshot holes on the sign.

It was a gorgeous sunshiny day in the upper 70s -- the warmest day of 2012 so far. The sky was so clear we could see the mountains on the Idaho/Montana border. Here we are on the north shore of the Pend Orielle River, looking west toward Priest River.

Here, we're looking east upriver. If you keep going this direction and you'll find Lake Pend Orielle.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife on the refuge today. It was mid-afternoon, so not prime feeding time. But we did see evidence of waterfowl. In a shallow depression on the rocky shore, we spotted this goose egg.

 This is as close to a goose-egg that we had this weekend. On a scale of 0 to 10, this weekend rates a 9.98!

Spot o' Color

Crocus Cluster

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A Violet Wash

I went for a walk in the woods this afternoon.

The Violet Wood 

The forest floor is strewn with purple.

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Spring Sky

It's a lovely time of year in North Idaho!

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Visit My Family's Blogs

I cordially invite you to visit a couple blogs written by my daughters!

The first is Impact Northwest. This blog was started as part of Jodie's Reporting class at Oregon State University. In it, she'll report on green news and trends. She wants to help you make small changes that lead to a more sustainable lifestyle.

The second, AuralArtists, is a blog that I'm writing in collaboration with all three of my daughters. Because a common love of creating beautiful work holds us together, we decided to give each other creative challenges. One of us comes up with an idea, then we each create a project using that idea and a theme of our choosing. So our challenges will be full of hearts, spectrums, growing things and polka dots.

I have great pride in watching my daughters grow into beautiful, intelligent, active young women. I hope you'll enjoy peeking into their world by "Following" these blogs.

Reaching for Light

The calender says Spring

but the snow returned.

This lone crocus isn't giving up,

Reaching for Light

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Bouncy Balls

Another sure sign of Spring?
Playground balls for kids are on sale at the grocery store!

Bouncy Balls

This year the balls are full of sparkles!

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Crocus at Twilight

Look what popped up in our Corner of Hope this week!

Crocus at Twilight

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Easter's A-Comin'

Lovin' the look of these eggs!

(Saw the image on Facebook, but can't seem to find the original source).

Sunday Secrets: March 18, 2012

I haven't had a Sunday Secrets post in 10 months, so thought I'd break the cycle.

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

I could relate to the following two secrets from today's post:

The back of this post card read:

"My faith is evolving."

 

We know.

Sometimes we act extra happy around you

just to watch  you squirm.

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Book Review: I Want It NOW!

My overall impression?

Don't bother.

I Want it Now: A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is (co)written by Julie Dawn Cole, the gal who played the little brat Varuca Salt in the original Willy Wanka movie.


There's nothing really wrong with this book. There's just not a whole lot right. It's a fairly linear tale of how Julie won the role, what it was like on the set, and how it affected her life.

The photos are fun to see, but the captions nearly word-for-word follow the text they accompany -- they don't add more insight. Her impression of the other child actors is a little interesting. The lifelong connections she made at that critical time in her life are understandable.

The trouble with the book is that it's written as though this was the highlight of Julie's life -- at 13 years old. And that is just sad.

Oh, sure, she goes on to tell a bit more about her career in film and movies and voice-overs. But it's told only as an adjunct to the next time she sees her old cast members and other post-Wanka celeb meet-ups. So, it falls flat as a story of a child actor that was able to make the transition into the entertainment industry as an adult. There's no depth of description to the characters presented. There's too much name-dropping. There's nothing to sink your imagination into. There are no real lessons learned. It's the old adage: SHOW us, don't TELL us.

So ... eh.

I recommend spending your time reading a memoir that leaves you wanting more, rather than this tale you're glad is finally over.

2 stars

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Join the Campaign

Joseph Kony is one of the world’s worst war criminals and I support the international effort to arrest him, disarm the LRA and bring the child soldiers home.


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

HOW TO HELP:

• Donate to Invisible Children

• Purchase KONY 2012 products 

• Sign the Pledge

Honeybee

My daughter Julie introduced me to this video. Entrancing.
Steam Powered Giraffe - Honeybee



I love the look of it. I love the harmonies.
I want to watch it over and over.

We Need to Talk About Injustice

Simply one of the best TED talks I've ever heard.

Bryan Stevenson: We Need to Talk About an Injustice.

This incredibly articulate attorney talks about the inequities in our criminal justice system, and the role of identity in our ability to perceive injustices worth fighting.