reflection

the point

we said goodbye to mama elainey today but we will see her again soon, at the end of june.

we love you mom!

boat and bird

another beautiful day in our neighborhood

baby bugs

"I had been to school most all the time, and could spell, and read, and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any further than that if I was to live forever. I don't take no stock in mathematics, anyway."

--from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

after dinner

violet-green swallow

"Like many other swallows, it lives in colonies, basically because of its feeding needs; where one finds food there is usually enough for all, and when feeding communally these birds can more readily detect and defend themselves from hawks."

--The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region

mama elainey and son

her luggage never arrived, but we're glad she did!

sam skips a rock

family

deer gather at the salt lick

water water everywhere

another birthday

kk leaps into her thirties

north wind

"Boreas was the purple-winged [greek] god of the north wind, one of the four directional Anemoi (wind-gods). He was also the god of winter, who swept down from the cold northern mountains of Thrake, chilling the air with his icy breath. To the north, beyond his mountain home, lay Hyperborea, a land of eternal spring which was never touched by the god's cold wind.

"Boreas and his brother winds were often imagined as horse-shaped gods."

--http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AnemosBoreas.html

goose

HONK!

throne

a few weeks ago, i came across a chair in pine cove that i'd never before noticed

some whimsical person built it right into the landscape, so that the trees would conceal it

i don't sit in the chair -- it doesn't look very strong

but i love the idea of it

sunset

The sun sets in the cold without friends
Without reproaches after all it has done for us
It goes down believing in nothing
When it has gone I hear the stream running after it
It has brought its flute it is a long way

--"Dusk in Winter", W.S. Merwin

waterfalling

melt

the creek finally overflows into the lake

the dark dots over the water are swallows (if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see about a dozen of them frozen midflight)

tomorrow: a photo of the voluminous waterfall

a boy and his buoy

sam rights one of kilroy's buoys, some of which were overturned by ice.

gathering

members of the kilroy community reunite after a long and snowy winter. mama sharma, rich, barbara, claudia, lou, john, sam, doug, paul and nancy revel in one another's company.

spider

"Apart from leaving me spent and depressed, [nature] programs remind me that I am rarely, if ever, alone. If there's not an insect killing time on the ceiling, there's surely a mite staring out from the bath towel, or a parasite resting on the banks of my bloodstream. I'm reminded, too, that, however repellent, each of these creatures is fascinating, and worthy of a miniseries."

--David Sedaris, "April & Paris: caught in the web of nature", March 24th issue of the New Yorker

chocolate cake and beer

kk loves millsy so she baked him a delicious and lopsided cake.

eve of sam's b-day

warm welcome

friendly garbage washes up on a beach near pine cove

raining at night

'I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you.'
Catherine Earnshaw in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

flight

mud puddle

backyard

"The ice age left its mark on the landscape, but the first human impact on the area was cast by native inhabitants including the Kootenai Indian, the Kalispell, often called the Pend Oreilles; and the Coeur d'Alenes. The Spokane Indians, to the west, were also known to visit the south end of the lake. These Native American tribes were flourishing when the first white travelers caught sight of Lake Pend Oreille...
"Early maps called the lake by the name of Kalispelm or Kalispell. Many writers conclude that it was French speaking fur trappers who gave the lake its current name after the local Indians they called Pend Oreilles because of the pendant ornaments they wore in their ear lobes, the literal translation being 'pendant in the ear.'"
--Linda Hackbarth, from the book Bayview and Lakeview and Other Early Settlements on Southern Lake Pend Oreille

bald eagle

I was sitting on a bench in the park when
I saw this large hawk circling overhead. I had
my eyes on it when it suddenly swooped down and
picked up this little baby right out of its
carriage and flew away with it. My heart almost
stopped beating. I ran over to the mother, who
was eyeing a dress in a window. "Ma'am," I
stuttered, "that bird just stole your baby...."
She looked into the carriage and then up at the
sky. "Oh, I know that bird. She's a good bird.
She just took my baby to play with her babies
for a while. She'll bring him back in a short
time. My baby loves her babies. But thanks for
telling me. By the way, what do you think of
this dress? Is it right for me?" I thought of
her baby sailing through the sky in the claws
of that bird. "Well," I said, "I think the
mignonette green captures the amplitude of your
inner aviary." "What are you, some kind of loose
nutcase? Get out of here before I call the
police," she said.

--James Tate, Memoir of the Hawk

bud

in honor of grandpa anderson's b-day

centipede