Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

It's not that I've been avoiding the blog...it's just that the days are running into each other in a way that isn't always (or even often) blog-worthy, however they might be delightful to experience in person. (Also, the only real "excitement" has been new drama with my mother-in-law, and trust me, you don't want to hear about it!)

There have been some lovely moments over the last week, though...A walk with Mom through the community forest, full of good, spicy pine-forest smells - Christmas smells! And it seems I wasn't the only one who thought so:


I love walking through the forest. It's not majestic and awe-inspiring like the cedars back on the coast - rather, it's scruffy, scraggly, untidy...and it smells wonderful at the end of a hot day. (Not to many skeeters, either, thankfully!)

I've spent some lovely hours with good friends, puttering, watching kids smush cake into their ears or pick sprinkles off donuts one at a time, sitting on decks chattering or in comfortable silence...A highlight was a particularly tasty (and elegantly simple) lunch with Anie - juicy tomatoes on sourdough toast, with a white wine spritzer to wash it down. Doesn't it just look like summer to you?


Yesterday I had a couple of hours to myself in the afternoon. I had a successful expedition to the thrift store - new jeans & a pair of capris for a grand total of $6! I celebrated by going to Elizabeth Lake to see how the geese were growing. The fuzzy wee fluff-balls from May:


Have grown into sassy, over-confident adolescents...with Mama still on guard, of course!


It was a little unnerving to have all of them come at me hissing, wings raised, when I got too close!

I've been "camping out" in the back yard...built a cozy nest for myself in the tent, where I read late into the night with my flashlight...feels like I'm in Girl Guides again. Such delicious sleeps! This morning I was woken up by a hummingbird doing a fly-by around the tent. It's going to be weird sleeping in a bed in a room in a house when I go home! Maybe I can set up the tent in the Magic Room or something...