forest

lets cross here

garden gate

My friends Dale and May are artists. Everything they touch, weather it is paint, yarn, piano keys or an old dilapidated house,they use as a vehicle for aesthetic expression.
They grow incredible gardens and have built wonderful primitive fences around them to keep the hungry deer out. Each garden has an elegant gate fashioned from willow branches and bailing wire. They are simple, functional and each one is a unique piece of art.

pasque party

modean and brita

Modean passed away recently. He was sixteen and had a good life, a great home and a best friend, Brita, whom he spent his whole life with. They were soul-mates, sleeping on the same pillow and grooming each other daily. Dean was a hunter, making rodents and birds in the neighborhood beware. Brita is the show-girl, very delicate and elegant with tiny paws and she will always respond to your greeting with her little voice.
When we went out to see Modeans' beautiful little grave, Brita followed us. As we stood there she began to circle the grave, pausing at most of the rocks and rubbing her head and shoulders on them with her little purring motor going full force. She knows that he is buried there and misses him. I have always wondered if animals have emotions and after seeing this touching moment I am sure that they do.

boulder lit up

Sometimes it is the brief moment when a boulder is lit up by the setting sun that reality becomes timeless.

the wind

Some gusts sound like a freight train rolling across the desert. There is a strange calm before it lifts the sand, stinging your face.

claret cup gathering

There was a gathering, deciding what color to wear.
They decided on red!

desert moods

The dramatic moods of the desert are illusive and sublime, changing with each gust of wind.

landmark tree

I recently did one of my favorite ski tours. There is a tree on the way down perched on a knoll that is easy to spot from a distance. I call it the landmark tree. Some might think that it is a dead tree, but to me it is very much alive. It's weathered branches reach towards the clear blue sky and It lets me know that I am on the right track. An old friend pointing me in the right direction, alive and well!

a star

slope

dream

ornament

snow serpent

fall bliss

drops

boundaries

poppies

iris

hooked

log walker

We skied Augusta four times towards the end of June and Jas earned another nick name. The crux as always was the river crossing at the start. This year there were two logs spanning the river and the crossing was relatively easy for me. But Jas didn't like the looks of those logs and chose the dicy swim. Jas is not an accomplished swimmer and on the way back she got scared in the current and yelped. The next time we went I had a feeling she might hesitate and sure enough she didn't want anything to do with swimming across the river. Anticipating this reaction I brought an extra pack and my intention was to shove her thirty seven pounds into the pack and carry her across. Believe it or not she let me do it! It was not easy and there was some mutual trembling going on, but we made it. The day turned out great with beautiful flowers, good turns and plenty of chip monks to chase. On the way back I retrieved the stashed pack and was prepared to repeat the crossing. When I got to the log bridge she was already on the other side, dry as a bone and looking at me as if to say; "you will never stuff me into that pack again"! On our two adventures last weekend she proved to be quite an accomplished log walker...... Circus quality!

four lines

Skiing is similar to drawing. A line is created on a surface. Each line represents a journey. Each turn an experience.

puddle paradise

My friend Jasmine is a puddle connoisseur. It has been a wet summer so far and to her delight puddles are plentiful. Jas is not particular when it comes to puddles. Big or small, clear or muddy, she will always stop, drink some and most of the time she will lay down in the puddle to cool off or maybe to take a puddle bath. This bath is not to get clean but on the contrary it is to get dirty. A puddle bath instead of a bubble bath. She especially loves to find a really muddy, soupy puddle after she has had a bath (she hates that word!) and comes out slimy and a dark brown color. The best way to get rid of that clean fresh smell of her bubble bath is to wallow in a really slimy mud puddle. Jas is also a puddle poser. When she sees me pull out my camera and we are close to a puddle she seems to gravitate towards the murky water hole and strike a puddle pose. Lately, she has been in puddle paradise!

lilies

calypso orchid

A Blade of Grass

This is a story about a blade of grass. This particular blade of grass wanted desperately to stand out. To be unique. The blade of grass decided that it would try something that no other blade of grass had ever done. It was going to lift a shell off of the ground! All of the other blades of grass laughed at it and ridiculed it for trying to do something different, something that seemed impossible and had never been done. And then it rained. The rain gave the blade of grass unusual strength. The sun came out and all of the grass began to grow with vigor but the blade of grass that none of the other blades of grass believed in began to do the impossible. The shell was elevated magically off of the ground! The rest of the grass looked at this particular blade of grass differently and it became well known in the meadow. Even the towering aspen trees looked up to that blade of grass. Soon the shell became a crown and the blade of grass was ruler of the entire meadow. It was spring, they were all in harmony and green with envy.

pasque flowers

canada violet

the setting sun

paintbrush

Burnt Trees

Thousands of burnt trees cover an area called Utah Hills.
They are speaking.
Their black, lifeless branches move with the wind,
endlessly creaking.

Desert Reunion

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You 're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of
March."
from TWO TRAMPS IN MUD TIME by Robert Frost