Saturday, November 29, 2008

 
Thanksgiving was lovely. We kept it simple but with all our traditional favorites.It has been rather cool and drippy, and it promises to be the same for the next week. 
We bought some fun craft things and plan to make some Christmas ornaments this week. I'll post pictures when we have completed them and if they are worthy of being photographed!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Welcome new Blogger

Barbara Helper has started a new blog. She is the mother of Polly's long time friend, David. Looking forward to following her adventures as she visits David while he recuperates from surgery.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Home again, home again, Jiggity Jog

 
Portland Union Station 
It was a 13 hour train ride home from Montana, but pleasant enough, If I were going cross country for longer than one night I would get a sleeping compartment. But the train was not full at all and we each had a double seat to ourselves. Polly had never ridden a train in the USA. She traveled by train in Europe quite often. 
We boarded at 9 pm and in the morning we had tea and ate breakfast. We arrived at 10 am. Peggy picked us up at the station and drove us home. We spend the rest of the day unpacking doing laundry. 
We had such a great time. It was great to see Pat and Leland again. I do wish their house would sell and they could move down there to Portland. 
This morning Polly and I went to the last Beaverton Farmer's Market of the year. We bought several kinds of squash, parsnips, quince, and peppers. Then, we stopped at the market for some fresh things, milk, cheese, etc. Now we are all set for the week.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Goodbye Montana

As we were leaving yesterday, it began to snow!

Glacier

Glacier Park as seen from Big Mountain Ski Area, above White Fish, Montana

Another beautiful sunset

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Wolley's Lakeview


This morning the wind is still here, on shore, but on the lake the wind is driving the water before it as if it were a river. There is an occasional white cap. An occasional shaft of sunlight piercing the clouds, lighting a patch on the opposite shore.

We have been being lazy around for 3 days. Getting up when we want to, having brunch around 11am, sitting in front of the fire and kibitzing. Finally, today we got up early and headed to Kalispell. We poked around in some of the antiques shops, had lunch at the cowboy bar in Big Fork, and then home for “happy hour”.

The Wolley's Home on Flathead Lake, Montana

We arrived in Montana at 10 pm. We slept in the next morning. I got up first, made a pot of tea and brought it up to the “sunset room” to watch the dawn over the lake. It is just the most wonderful way to start the day.

Pat’s house is so beautiful. She has such a unique talent. Her houses, and other buildings she has decorated, always reflect the area or the personality of the residents. Here in cowboy country she has used Indian blankets, leather, tin, antlers, antiques. It fits perfectly in the setting. The style is ranch, but the look is opulence.




The front porch
The entry and front stairs
  
The back stairs from the kitchen to the Sunset room  
the Sunset room 
 
The power room off the entry
The breakfast room
The Kitchen fireplace 
The dining room 
The living room

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Unfortunatly I am not able to upload photos for the time being. I will try to find a wifi spot and post the pictures as I take them. I have some beauties. Perhaps Thursday when we go into Kalispell.
We are having a really wonderful time. The weather has been rain and cool temps. There is snow in the hills behind the house. There are deer in the yard. Wild turkeys in the fields near here.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Off to Montana

After a long and tiring few months of campaigning, Polly and I are heading to Montana for a little R&;R. Our dear friends of many years, the Wolleys" have invited us to stay with them at their lovely house near Big Fork, on Flathead Lake. We may decide to stay for Thanksgiving. But I'll be blogging while I'm there. 
I plan to spend some very lazy days watching the Bald Eagles and Ospreys swoop over the water and snatch fish that are foolish enough to swim too near the surface. I hope to see bears hunting for their last fish or last berry before heading up to  their winter caves in the hills behind the house. I want to watch the sun set over the lake and hopefully we will see Northern Lights again. 
I have often thought of John Muir's beautifully written account of his experience in Alaska, when he saws the Northern Lights in 1879.  In the chapter 19, "Auroras" in his book, Travels in Alaska, he describes the sights so well that I have included it here for the pleasure of reading it again.
Travels in Alaska By John Muir,
"On the third night I reached my cabin and food Professor Reid and his party came in to talk over the results of our excursions and just as the last one of the visitors opened the door after bidding good night he shouted Muir come look here Here's something fine I ran out in auroral excitement and sure enough here was another aurora as novel and wonderful as the marching rainbow colored columns a glowing silver bow spanning the Muir Inlet in a magnificent arch right under the zenith or a little to the south of it the ends resting on the top of the mountain walls And though colorless and steadfast its intense solid white splendor noble proportions and fineness of finish excited boundless admiration In form and proportion it was like a rainbow a bridge of one span five miles wide and so brilliant so fine and solid and homogeneous in every part I fancy that if all the stars were raked together into one windrow fused and welded and run through some celestial rolling mill all would be required to make this one glowing white colossal bridge After my last visitor went to bed I lay down on the moraine in front of the cabin and gazed and watched Hour after hour the wonderful arch stood perfectly motionless sharply defined and substantial looking as if it were a permanent addition to the furniture of the sky At length while it yet spanned the inlet in serene unchanging splendor a band of fluffy pale gray quivering ringlets came suddenly all in a row over the eastern mountain top glided in nervous haste up and down the under side of the bow and over the western mountain wall They were about one and a half times the apparent diameter of the bow in length maintained a vertical posture all the way across and slipped swiftly along as if they were suspended like a curtain on rings Had these lively auroral fairies marched across the fiord on the top of the bow instead bright and solid and steadfast as before they arrived But later half an hour or so it began to fade Fissures or cracks crossed it diagonally through which a few stars were seen and gradually it became thin and nebulous until it looked like the Milky Way and at last vanished leaving no visible monument of any sort to mark its place I now returned to my cabin replenished the fire warmed myself and prepared to go to bed though too aurorally rich and happy to go to sleep But just as I was about to retire I thought I had better take another look at the sky to make sure that the glorious show was over and contrary to all reasonable expectations I found that the pale foundation for another bow was being laid right overhead like the first Then losing all thought of sleep I ran back to my cabin carried out blankets and lay down on the moraine to keep watch until daybreak that none of the sky wonders of the glorious night within reach of my eyes might be lost I had seen the first bow when it stood complete in full splendor and its gradual fading decay Now I was to see the building of a new one froside of the bridge and down over the western mountain like the merry band that had gone the same way before them all keeping quivery step and time to music too fine for mortal ears While the gay throng was gliding swiftly along I watched the bridge for any change they might make upon it but not the slightest could I detect They left no visible track and after all had passed the glowing arc stood firm and apparently immutable but at last faded slowly away like its glorious predecessor Excepting only the vast purple aurora mentioned above said to have been visible over nearly all the continent these two silver bows in supreme serene supernal beauty surpassed everything auroral I ever beheld"

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The blog over at Krallspace by Dr. Mabuse, from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada was so good, today, that I thought it would be appropriate for my last political post. From today onward I will not be commenting on national politics. I have purged my political postings from this site.

They went ahead and did it

The Americans voted for a narrow-minded radical race pimp as president. It really wasn't close. As I said before, to see what's going to happen to the U.S., all you have to do is look at the Episcopal church. Now you're going to discover that this isn't a fluke, but the kick on the door that brings the whole rotten structure down. Conservatives who reassured themselves all along that their country was really strong and sound at heart are going to discover that that was all a facade; the rot has been undermining them for years, and now the full extent of the decay is going to be obvious to all. 
You can continue reading by clicking the link above 

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