The weather said, “Go winter camping!” with clear days and the night sky lit up with a fullish moon. Camping below Mt. Rainier, or high on Artist Point, with coral sunset bathing the mountains followed by the radiant moon and a billion stars. Bundled in wool and fleece and down in unearthly quiet and silvery cold air sounded like peace.
But it’s pretty here, too, out in the boondocks of the Puget Sound area. If I left, my neighbors would have been slogging warm water for the horses because the cold got to my tanks, faucets and hoses before I did. I never really finished cleaning up after the last windstorm, and another system is coming in with wind and rain this week.
Sun rising through freezing fog and illuminating the pasture
It’s also been a long year, with ups and downs, travel and learning and people and change. We are in a truly crazy and endless election season. Terrorism rages at home and abroad. Home alone for four days, with a break to eat Thanksgiving dinner with friends, started to sound pretty good. Anyway, those sunny mountains would be trampled by people in droves out for fun and pretty pictures on a long holiday weekend. Good for all of them- enjoy, people!
Trumpeter swans flying at sunset
Oh, and there’s a new kids’ animation movie out- beautiful graphics with doe-eyed creatures and a neatly packaged coming of age story. “Never growing up” doesn’t have to mean arrested adolescence; rather, it can be the crazy dreams and imagined adventures of childhood. As someone stuck at age 10, with a collection of animal puppets and kids’ adventure books, I was sold.
So I stayed home, doing my usual weird routine of cooking a turkey after spending Thanksgiving with friends- just for the leftovers, mind you. Filling the house with the scent of savory soup and freshly baked bread the next day. Raking up the last leaves, and wandering out with a camera when the light and animals cooperated. A quiet, kinda sustainable holiday. A break.
Silver Snag Studio 