Beth and Em Moving to the "Cabin"

Yesterday was the last day for the outdoor public swimming pool in Mytrle Creek. It has not been hot yet this summer and the pool is closing already. It is suppose to be hot this week ( I hope) and we will just have to swim in the river. Of course how hard is that? Emily stayed with us a few days while her mom made a trip to California to get another load of their things - they are moving back to Port Townsend, just in time for Emily to start Kindergarten.

They are moving to the 5 acres we still have 20 miles south of PT. Beth is going to fix up the cabin. William says it is not cabin, it is a shed. I think it is charming but it needs ah, everything. See for yourself.....

The view from the cabin is awesome, it faces west and looks out over our neighbors 40 acre meadow to the snowcapped Olympic Mountains! There is a small pond, huge cedar and maple trees and more blackberries and salmon berries than anyone could want. It is 3 miles down hill to the town of Quilcene, Emily's school and the saltwater of Hood Canal.

I am going up next week and hire a friend of ours with a machine to do some clearing around the cabin. Get rid of some of the blackberries that have taken over.

It kind of needs it.
What a fun project, it will be so rewarding to see it opened up and space around the cabin again. I have been wanting to do this for a few years now.

I will of course take lots of photos.

I am back to one grandchild - the State of California gave Caelan back to his mom.....she was back in jail 2 weeks later and who knows who he is staying with. It was very hard for Beth and Emily to let him go but they were there for Caelan when he needed them. Because of Beth, he got to stay in his house and finish this year at his school when his dad died four days before christmas, and I am very proud of her. I can't say the same for the state of California.

This move back to where she grew up and has old friends could be good for her.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for thinking. I would love to hear from you.

Abundance

We have a great garden this year; cucumbers, eight ball zukes, lemon cucumbers, spaceship squash, regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, artichokes, green beans, melons, basil, onions, green peppers, apples and pears! Abundance! Abundance seems to mean too much. Anyone need any cucumbers?? How about tomatoes?

Emily is coming today and she loves to pick the strawberries. Si como no!

Our flowers are awesome this year too. I already can't wait till next year, I have big flower plans. This is our second summer here and by next year, the flowers will be established. Things grow really well in southern Oregon.

Live to water.

Old Friends

Our old friend Peter Powell and his daughter Claire stopped by on there way from LA to Port Townsend. We knew when we left Port Townsend where we had lived, me 26 and William over 30 years, we would miss our old friends. We live about a mile off I-5 the interstate from Canada to Mexico. Our friends from PT or California are often driving by going north or south....

We were really glad to see Peter. He loves swimming and we took them to Cow Creek. He is stopping on his way back home next week and if the weather cooperates, we are planning another afternoon at the creek. It was especially lovely to see Claire again, what a bright, beautiful, young woman!

William has known Peter since they both had kids in the Swan School, a small private school that William help start in PT. They both built there own hand-made house in Port Townsend and played music together with their friend Aaron, every week. Of the 3, only Aaron still lives in Port Townsend.

Thanks for listening.

Eaten by a Shark!

Ocean World
Crescent City, California

Watch out for sharks

I just returned home yesterday from the 6 hour round trip to Crescent City, taking Emily back to Beth. It was worth it. We got to have her for a week and she is such a joy. Emily has been to Ocean World lots of times as they go by it on the way home from Myrtle Creek. They have gone in the winter when they were the only people, and then the trainers bring the seals up on the deck and they kiss Emily on the cheeks, I was told. Of course August is peak tourist season for the California coast. The Ocean World tour was packed, and the roads were full of traffic, tons of trucks, RV's, trailers. The cutoff from Grants Pass, which is already in the mountains, across the coast range mountains down to Crescent City on the coast, is not for the faint at heart. There are many miles of following the Smith River up a canyon, where a passenger could touch the rocks on the curves. Never the less, it was packed. My 20 year old BMW did great though, left many a newer rig behind on a hill or curve, which there are many a hill and curve. It does help to have driven this road so many times. I first drove it 30 years ago. It has improved and I have declined and so it still works for me. Compared to then, half the time.

Holding starfish

Petting Sharks!

Thanks for listening and I hope you are having a great summer!

Saving Fish From Drowning

This is the book I am reading, first of a stack I got at the Klamath Falls bookstore on our adventure last week. This hasn't even been in paperback a year. I love Amy Tans books. When her first book "The Joy Luck Club" came out in 1989. I was not interested. It was not until a few years ago in Mexico that a friend encouraged me to read it and as always in Mexico there was a lack of reading material in English and so I tried it. Wow. Then I was fortunate to find 2 of her other books down there that winter too; "A Hundred Secret Senses" and "The Kitchen God's Wife", both fun and absorbing reads. I am 2 thirds of the way through this one and find it a tad more contrived but also see her experimentation as a writer, which is a great experience in itself.

The next book is "Cause Celeb", by Helen Fielding of the Bridget Jone's Diary fame. I just found "Bridget Jone's Diary" at the thrift store this summer and thought it was v. good. The story was shallow but the writing new and refreshing. I then had the good fortune 2 weeks later to find the sequel to the Diary, "Bridget Jones, the Edge of Reason", equally silly story but v. v. good writing idea. I totally enjoyed it. Great fun summer reads. Saw the movies, terrible. So here is her first book, I am looking forward to seeing her beginning writing.

Another treasure found is a fairly recent Moon Travel Puerto Vallarta Handbook. Which is good as I spend a lot of time visiting friends near PV, it was my first love on the Mexico mainland and my old book is just that, really old.

Statues in Puerto Vallarta

"Oregon River Tours" by John Garren is a great guide to touring Oregon rivers. It has great maps and river profiles. It was published in '76 so we will still need to check something more recent before we head out but many of the maps are still accurate.

The Rogue River in Southern Oregon

"Journey Into Cyprus", by Colin Thubron looks really interesting. The New Yorker says, "A master of the telling anecdote....who makes travel writing an art." I love travel tales almost as much as I like to travel. Many more books get read, then travels taken....

A lucky find was the Lonely Planet, "Bali and Lombok". William and I are traveling to the East next winter and one spot considered is Bali. This is a very recent guide book and only $4.

Bali

This next one is one I am not familiar with, "Arrow of the Blue Shinned God", by Jonah Blank. The cover states, "Possibly the most perceptive book that I have come across on India since the British Raj ended." We are also thinking of going to India and this looks like a great book to give us insights into this fascinating country and culture.

India

This next book, "The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata", is a book written by a sometime collaborator of Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares. This is a treasure to have found. This is why I like bookstores.


We are also considering visiting Thailand and the next book is "Tales from Thailand", by Lotus. This is an old book, 60's but it really looks interesting, Lotus is an Englishman who lived in Siam (Thailand) from 1902 to 1930.

Thailand

I have to be honest, the next book in the stack in "Sultry Climates, Travel and Sex", by Ian Littlewood. I know nothing about it, I liked it's cover. And title...

Next is a great book, "How To Get Lost and Found in New Zealand", by John McDermott. We do have friends here we would love to visit, it sounds like a fascinating place.

The last 2 books are by Louise Erdrich, "The Beet Queen" and "Tracks". I feel in love with her first book, "Love Medicene" years ago. When I found "The Beet Queen" and realized it was a sequel, I was thrilled. I bought this copy to give to a friend, but I didn't even know "Tracks" the first in the series exsisted. Wow. I can't wait to read it. Not only in does Erdrich look like she is a lovely person she is a Chippewas of North Dakota and writes some of the most compelling stories I have ever read.

Louis Erdrich

So that's it - that's my score from Klamath Falls secret bookstore. I mostly do buy books online now. Sometimes great books are to be had for little more than the shipping. But there is still something magical about going to a small book store and finding books that become treasures to you that you would not have even known existed. Just like this store, pile of books on the floor. Special ones set to the top or side. You could never go through all of them, booty for another day.


Now, on to finish "Saving Fish From Drowning"....



Thanks for thinking.

The Great Eastern Oregon Adventure

55 and Drive

Yes we had a great trip and yes we found some Plush Diamonds but the most exciting part of the trip was staying at the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge near by!

Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge is located on a massive fault block ridge that ascends abruptly nearly three quarters of a mile above the Warner Valley floor in a series of rugged cliffs, steep slopes, and knife-like ridges. We almost gave up when we saw the road - but it was so worth it, all 23 wash board miles of it and 2,000' climb. Myrtle Creek is about 500' and now at the Refuge we were almost 7,000'.

We camped next to Rock Creek which had enough cool and flowing water in it that we could get wet in the heat of the day. Rock Creek was a oasis in the high desert. Leave the shade of the creek and it was sagebrush and 30 degrees hotter as far as you could see, which was a long way. In addition there were natural hot springs in the area and as it cooled down in the evening they were very relaxing.

This pool was natural and over my head. A stone wall had been erected around it for privacy but a natural outdoor pool was also available and it was lovely in the middle of a large meadow, with hot hot water and a sand bottom. I had forgotten how many stars there are.

We saw more wildlife in 2 days there then in the last 2 years! We saw 2 herds of antelope. Pronghorns, one with a baby. Also a coyote kit, that was as surprised as we were. We saw several mule deer, ospreys, eagles, and dessert rabbits with huge ears.

As for the diamond mine - there was no place to stay there and that was why we stayed at the Refuge which on the map looked close but in reality the roads were 15 miles per hour from the Refuge to the mine. We knew it would be warm and we left the reserve at dawn after taking one last hot spring dip. By the time we got to the mine it was noon and very hot. We looked for a while and found several small diamonds (Oregon Sun Stones). I was surprised how easy it was to see them, they glinted in the sun like real diamonds and we had not gotten very far off the beaten path. William lasted longer than me. Finally I had to sit in the car in the air conditioning and wait while he searched another area. I knew I would regret not searching more and I do, but I could not go out into that heat again. I swear it was 110 in the shade! But there was no shade, only sagebrush as far as the eye could see. It took hours to get back to a main road.

We did collect a lovely handful of sun stones, at least 55 for my 55th birthday - which was my goal. They make me happy. Would 2 handfulls make me twice as happy? On the way home driving through our own downtown Myrtle Creek, we stopped at our friend Lena's the local rock shop and William bought me a lovely sun stone ring that Lena made. It was a great birthday and it is always fun to see something you have never seen before.

Oh and there is an amazing book store in Klamath Fallls that we found last year on our first visit there. This year we knew to stop and we were not disappointed. I found several great books and felt very blessed.

Thanks for listening.