Who Are You Again?

Hi!  Welcome back!  To me, mostly.  I've been deep in the throes of starting my new career over these past two months, to the point where I actually took about a month off from the 365 project just to stay functional.  But today is the day I get back to it, and to celebrate that, I wanted to share what I did from 04/22/18-05/19/18 (which is when I accepted things would need to be put on hiatus).  I took pictures of pages rather than individual pieces, in an attempt to actually get this whole thing done today, so commentary will be shorter than usual (although, obviously, the entirety of the post will be somewhat longer).

Greenbreathing.

I spent several days trying to capture the way that being in the woods brings me peace.  There's a poem in the left image, and here's how it goes:

Steps slow and burdened/Searching for the way I’ve lost/I pace the leaf floor

Following the path/Dark and light and dark again/Deep into the wild

The weight of sorrow/Pressing on my lungs: exhaled/Gathered up by Them

The Ancient Ones, still/Breathing with me in silence/Lifting my burden

From poison to life/In the space between heartbeats/They transmute my pain

Out and in and out/The one becomes the other/The other the one

My balance restored/Light and dark and light again/I find my way home

Sweet Things

I'm super into The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.  You should be, too.  And then I found a pretty pittie who had wandered away from her home, and she was so sweet I called her Dulcinea.  Happy ending: she was reunited with her family after I took her to the Humane Society.  Also Happy Ending: I painted her without drawing first.  Progress!

Unfinished Business

I love what I've got going here, with my maenad and her satyrs, but I spent several days on it and it refused to progress.  I'll probably come back to it, someday.

Blue

I finished the first sketchbook on the last day of April.  I'd been reading a book that dealt with whales (Deep Wizardry) and it inspired my doodling that day (and I quoted it up there in the upper right corner).  (The lyrics in the lower left corner are from a song by Young Summer called "Waves That Rolled You Under", and I highly recommend you go listen to it right now.)

X Factor

Just a little green study of Madame X, because I was still working on painting without drawing first.

Jackalope Got Me Down will be the name of my first album.

More paintings without drawing, with limited success.  The Jackalope thing is because for some reason TLG took it into his head that anytime he fell down it was appropriate to say, "Jackalope got me down!" We have no idea where he picked that up from, but obviously we find the idea of blaming things on random jackalope attacks hilarious.

Damn good appetizer

Not much to say about these, except that I put a million layers into that cherry tomato and I think it looks awesome.  Also, the quote "He's my Wade and I'm keeping him!" is from the last time I played DnD (waaaay too long ago, now), and my character Severan sort of accidentally picked up an NPC squire and basically he's the Podrick to her Brienne now.  I'll hear no arguments.

Rainspheres (as opposed to bows) over the Grand Canyon, and also some Geese.

Red lips and purple ties.

Feet silhouetted in the pool at night, Super Professional Face.

These are all from my trip to Tempe at the beginning of May, where I had maybe five minutes each night to sketch something out before I dropped into bed, exhausted.

Love Undying

This last one, you'll notice, has a whole lot of dates next to it, and no color whatsoever.  That's because after nearly a week of making incremental progress, and feeling super stressed out about it, I realized that I needed to give myself a break.  So I did.  Which brings us to today, and this blog entry.  And once I finish this blog entry,  I'll start laying in some colors.  So stay tuned, Gentle Readers, and thanks for sticking with me for this long.

Stumbling Upon a Secret Place

Neeps and I went for a hike this morning, in spite of the rain.  I've always loved hiking in the rain (so long as I have appropriate gear) because you generally get the trail to yourself.  Also let's face it: there's just something magical about the forest soaked in liquid silver.

A gateway to another world, PROBABLY.

I decided to do a short hike- less than 1.5 miles- because now that Neeps is a Master Toddler, I wanted him to do some of the trail under his own power.  So I figured a quick out-and-back, ending with him doing the last 30 yards or so.

Now, I'm not sure what exactly happened, but somehow we ended up Not On the Trail.  I mean, we were on a trail, but not the trail, and moreover the trail that we were on definitely wasn't an official trail.  But it was a trail, so I figured what the heck- might as well see where it led.

Turns out it led to something pretty freaking awesome:

That's right, a damn Fairy Pavilion.

It was a beautiful, magical, secret sort of place, and I was beside myself with delight for having discovered it in the company of my son.  We wandered all around it, noting the fire pit and the decaying rope swing and the places where someone had attempted to shore up the roof, which had rotted through in the center for perfect star-gazing.  It looked like it had been abandoned for years and years, but this being the PNW (where all things bow down to Mistress Creeping Green), it's more likely only been one or two.

Eventually we headed back, and I hauled Neeps down to do some toddling.  He stumped around in the woods for a bit, and then retraced everything he'd done at top speed after a dog passed (he wanted to pet that dog so badly).  I carried him back to where he'd turned around, and then he walked some more.  Finally he was tired enough that he was falling down more than walking, so I carried him the final piece back to the car.

It was a good day.

Perfection at Whipple Creek

There are just two other cars in the parking lot, and nary a soul to be seen.

Perfect, I think to myself, as I release my son from the bondage of his car seat, only to switch him into the bondage of the soft-structure carrier on my back.  He is gratifyingly complacent about the whole process, which just makes everything better.  Nathan is at church this morning, and now I'm at mine.  Time to get my spiritual recharge on.

Oh there we are

We've never been to this place before- only twenty minutes from home, and much tamer than The Gorge (capital T, capital G) but wild enough to give me the greenair I'm craving.  The trails are well marked and well-maintained, which is not unwelcome to my still-recovering ankle.  We delve into the shadowy woods.

For the first half hour or so we talk a lot, with plenty of stops for me to sidle up close to the ferns and trees and flowers that have caught his attention enough to demand, "Wha dat?", so that he can reach out and feel them.  I'm realizing I need to get a field guide so that I can give him better answers than, "Well, um, that's another kind of deciduous tree."

...aaaand that is a flower I've never seen before.

He drops off to sleep around the time that I start the second mile, and I spend some time enjoying my pseudo-solitude in the greenquiet.  A bird starts to pii at me from a bush off the trail, and when I finally spot her tiny, tiny brown body I cannot help but exclaim, "Look at your perfection!"

Lulled, by and by

On I walk, looping and crossing, mentally drafting a new story and admiring the early sun on the delicate structure of spiderwebs.  I try to point the lovely orb-weavers out to my newly-wakened son, but he is so engrossed by everything that I'm not sure he understands my pointing to one thing in specific.

Spinning sunlight

I continue my drafting aloud, thinking to entertain him a bit with story-craft, and then all of a sudden we come across a perfectly-ruined mill.  Immediately my thoughts fly to what a fine semi-castle it makes, out here in the semi-wild.

Castle Dreaming

As we approach the final half mile, an owl the size of my son cruises past my face so closely that I can discern the individual spots on his feathers.  "Oh my!" I gasp, like a heroine from another century, and regret that my son probably didn't see it at all- let alone the fact that it was being chased by three birds whose collective mass was surely less than my doubled-fists.

We re-emerge from the greenlight into the yellow of mid-morning, just as my son begins to express his utter doneness with our outing.  Perfectly timed.

Sweet Sassy Mud-Lassy

Several weeks ago, my friend Sam sent me a message saying, "I think I want to do this!!" and a link to this place.

I checked it out, and it looked pretty intense, but who am I to say no to adventure?

"I'm in!" I replied, and also invited Kayla along.  We got it on the schedule for a date and time that worked for all of us, and that date was today, and that time was this afternoon.

I woke up this morning to rain- real rain, not just the sort of drizzling mist we usually get in the upper-left corner of the country.  And it was scheduled to continue for the entire day.  But as Sam put it, "...it would be fun to run it in the rain!"

And again, who am I to say no to adventure?

We showed up, and after a brief delay because someone forgot both their waiver form and their cash, and ended up having to to sign the bottom of someone else's form and then do a PayPal transaction (me: it was me, and I am the worst) we got a quick tour of the obstacle portion of the course.  Because apparently it's like a 1.5 mile trail run followed by obstacles.

The rain meant that we were the only people there, which was fantastic, since my ankle is definitely still injured (Kayla and I channeled WFR and taped it up ahead of time) (also for real I think I'm going to go back to the doctor because it shouldn't still hurt) and I had plans to unashamedly walk the entire thing.

Wet, but not yet muddy.

We didn't actually walk the entire thing.  We started off at a little jog, which we stopped as soon as we were out of sight of the start, but we kept it to a pretty brisk hike.  It was gorgeous, but also challenging enough that I straight-up just scooted down a steep hill on my butt on multiple occasions, and did mention there's a stretch where you're wading upstream?  Me and my long legs went first so the others could gauge the depth.  I regretted my pants.  (But not my secure hiking shoes!)  And then when we re-emerged from the woods we jogged a little again.  But it's hard to jog with a couple extra pounds of mud clinging to your feet...

The obstacle course was a lot of fun- the rain definitely made it a lot scarier, and I totally opted to skip a few of the obstacles because of it (and my ankle: I didn't do anything I'd have to really jump down from).  And a couple of the obstacles required us to work as a team, because none of us was fit enough to do it solo, but I actually really liked that we worked together.  And I liked that we all went at the same pace and cheered one another on, and I liked that even tho' I mostly was not super-competent, I did kick ass at the traversing obstacle.  Yay rock climbing skills haven't totally atrophied!

(Speaking of rock climbing skills, I also had a few moments on another obstacle where I had to use my "calming breath" technique.  I was glad I'd developed that little skill.)

Triumphant!  And muddy!  And SOAKED THROUGH. (Also damn, look at our guns!)

Anyway we finished the whole thing in under 80 minutes, which as far as I'm concerned is impressive as hell for a trio of ladies who walked most of it (but then again, we also "Noped" right out of a few of the obstacles, and didn't do any burpees, so take our time with a grain of salt...) and also definitely earned me a nice glass of something this evening.

The Last Taste of Sweet Victory.

A Hike (Ish)

We had decided to hike up to Elk Lake today for our in-by-the-skin-of-our-teeth Monthly Hike, but the Universe had other plans for us.  Which is to say, the Universe decided to make it hot and miserable- so hot and miserable that while we probably could have handled the 4-mile-round-trip-trek (because swimming at the turn-around!), the dogs began to show signs of being dangerously overheated just one mile in.  And so we did the Adult thing and turned back for the car.

Even so, it was a lovely little hike, and I figure two miles is plenty to count, especially in those conditions.  I'd borrowed a hat from Lara, and I was damned glad I did, because Neeps has entered a "rip Mommy's hair out while riding in style" habit that I do not approve of, but am helpless to do anything about.  (Part of me wants to shave half my head.  And it's not exactly a small part.)  But with a hat I was able to hide the temptation from his grabby little hands.

Bonus: looking fly as hell

Because I'd been carrying Neeps in that hellish heat, my shirt was absolutely sodden, and thus I turned it into a purple wind sock on our drive back out of the wilderness.  I was mighty tempted to add my bra to the display, but managed to resist.  Mostly because, if it hadn't actually dried by the time we got back into town, I didn't want to put it back on still damp.  The horror.

Patriotic Pals on Parade

We drove up to Eatonville today, to spend Independence Day with Nathan's sister and her family.  I feel really fortunate that they're currently near enough for us to do Holiday Day Trips.  I didn't have any cousins until I was 13 (and I topped out at two cousins, total) so it's very special to me that a) Neeps has eleven (so far), b) several of them are close enough for him to actually spend time with on a semi-regular basis, and c) the older ones are so sweet and loving towards him (the ones closest to his age tend to be a little more bloodthirsty.  Can't blame them, really: limited resources, and all that.)  Few things are more heartwarming than watching my siblings' children play with mine.

But that's not the point of this post!  The point of this post is that one of the 4th of July activities that we participated in as a family was representing Hike It Baby in the Eatonville Parade!  I'm pretty sure it was my first time being in a parade (and certainly Neeps's), and it was quite fun*.

Lined up and ready to go (behold my glorious leggings: SUPER patriotic!)

Yep, nursing boobs = wearing a sports bra to make my go-to party dress family-friendly.

You'll notice Nathan isn't in any of the pictures- that's because he was (shockingly) the photographer, and circling about our group like an inquisitive shark.

Look at that waving action!

Parading is hard work.

After the parade we had a family picnic, where I carefully fed Neeps the food of his ancestors: GF fried chicken, potato salad, and watermelon.  And Cheerios, because what's an 8-month-old's meal without Cheerios.





*The other great thing about today was it gave me a chance to try out our new hiking pack, the bright red Escape by Phil&Ted.  (please notice I matched my lipstick to it)  I liked it pretty well, but as with most adjustable packs, I ran into the problem of my torso being just a little too small for the smallest setting.  Still, it was a lot better than any other ones we've tried, so I look forward to using it out in nature very soon!

Pre-Funking Father's Day

I've been skirting the edges of Depression, lately, so last night my Very Wise Husband informed me that we'd be going for a hike today.

And we did.

Early on, while it was still sunny and hot.

We had some pretty classic Washington State Summer Weather for the hike, ranging from too-hot-for-what-we-were-wearing to too-cold-for-what-we-were-wearing, with some rain for good measure.  We adapted mostly by slowing down or speeding up accordingly.

The view from the first viewpoint.

The nice thing is that we managed to stay right on the edge of the storm, so Neeps didn't get too wet.  And Nathan got some really nice photos out of it.

That guy.

Look at that rain edge waaaaay back there, right on Beacon Rock.

Needless to say, I am refreshed body and soul (well, slightly sore in body from shlepping a near-20-lb kid on my back for 5+ miles.)(I need to get out more.) and my husband is rightfully Smug.

Filling Up My Heart Tank

An Old Friend of mine came to town recently, and when he asked if I was "able to do anything this week", I replied:

"Should be- if by 'anything' you mean 'hang out at my house'."

Because honestly it is hard to get "out" to places with a baby, if you plan on spending a good chunk of time at said place (and I did want to spend a good chunk of time with my friend).  Infant schedules complicate life, you guys.

But then I remembered that I had today off!  And so I suggested we go out hiking, instead, because a) I haven't hiked on a weekday in a while, and it is such a treat to be on a less-crowded trail; b) I was craving some good Forest Time; c) I need more miles; and d) honestly I think hiking is one of the best possible ways to spend quality time with someone you care about (it also works as a good first date- it's a pretty quick way to weed out the ones that aren't going to be worth your time).

We ended up doing one of my favorite hikes, the Multnomah-Wahkeena Loop, which meant that all told we got in more than five miles worth of back-and-forth catching-up, and since I was schlepping an 18lb kid (plus a backpack) that was a good chunk of time, indeed.

So pale.  So very, very pale.

I've noticed over the past year or so that there are some breezing-through-town Old Friends that leave me feeling exhausted after our "catch up" sessions, and not in a good way.  Other Old Friends (such as today's companion) leave me feeling energized and happy.  I think I'm now in a stage of my life where I'm going to try to gently disengage from those people who deplete my energy, the ones I tend to see out of a strange sense of obligation to the past, and instead save myself for those who leave me feeling better than I did before I saw them.  I need to embrace opportunities to refill my Heart's fuel-tank, and avoid those that drain it, because I just don't have the time to recover like I once did.

Falling Silver

We've wanted to hike at Silver Falls State Park for a number of years, now- Nathan even attempted it one day when I was otherwise occupied, only he made the mistake of bringing Isis along, and as it turns out, dogs aren't allowed on the trail (not that this seems to stop people- but we're actually responsible dog owners).  Anyway, we decided that for our April Family Hike, the time had at last come to make our dream a reality!  (and Princess Pig got to spend the day on the couch: win-win)

South Falls started our loop off right!

And from the other side!

Basically there were a LOT of waterfalls, you guys.

Double Falls

 At about 4.5 miles into our hike, Malachi decided he needed a snack (and so did we), so I obliged.  After all, I'd already learned that nothing beats nursing in the forest-

...unless it's nursing in a forest with a freaking WATER FALL TO GAZE AT.

We had planned to do five miles, yet somehow ended up doing a little over eight- but that's okay, because it gives me a nice fat cushion for this month's Hike It Baby 30 challenge!

Trail Food and Sun Baths

Today was a fun and adventurous day.

For starters, my buddy Kayla made the effort to show up at my house before 0730 so we could get a nice, early start on our hike up at Beacon Rock.  The plan was to leave the house between 0730 and 0800 (I've learned that when you're packing a kidlet, it's best to work wide windows into your plans) in an attempt to get into the Gorge before the big weekend crowds really hit.

And as it turned out, it was definitely good that we left when we did, because we sure did manage to pack a bunch of misadventure in before the actual adventure.

We got to Beacon Rock and discovered that we had the wrong park pass with us- so Kayla very sweetly offered to buy me the right one as a belated birthday present.  I accepted her generosity, and made the mad dash across the highway to the Ranger Center.  Just as I was puzzling out which of the several doors to knock on, I heard Kayla yelling,

"It's free!  It's free!"

Sure enough- we'd managed to pick one of the 2016 Free Days ("Saturday Spring Day", as a matter of fact) for our hike! Woo!  So I dashed back across the highway (and of course my phone bounced out of my pocket on the way so I had to scramble back to retrieve it as I heard traffic getting closer and closer wheeeee) and we suited up.  It was much colder and windier than we had anticipated (although we are true PNW girls and were prepped, regardless), and I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about whether or not it would actually be a fun hike, or more of a fun-in-restrospect-because-we-survived-it hike (we've all had those, right?).

But then that didn't matter, because we got to the trailhead only to discover that it was closed: apparently an autumn storm had torn away part of the trail.  So.  Change of plans for us.

Long story short, we headed for the next closest hike, only we headed the wrong way.  Twice.  No, wait, three times.  But anyway, nearly an hour after we'd originally pulled in at Beacon Rock (and I'd had occasion to be grateful for the Subaru's all-wheel-drive and high ground clearance), we pulled in at Hamilton Mountain trailhead (almost literally across the street from where we'd starteddon'tjudge) and decided to do the Pool of the Winds Hike.

That baby was confused as hell after all the in-an-out he'd been dealing with.

It was much less windy over there, and much less cold (::coughcoughbecausethesunwashighercough::) so I think it was probably a much more pleasant hike than we'd otherwise have had.

And it really was a lovely little hike!  I hadn't done that one since Isis was a puppy, so it was nice to go back (and not in the rain this time).  Of course, doing it with sixteen pounds strapped to my chest was... an experience.  I was glad to be with Kayla, who was willing to let me take as many breaks as I needed, and also as many as Neeps needed:

Everyone knows the best trail food is fats and proteins.

I highly recommend nursing in the woods, by the way.  It was incredibly relaxing for me, made a lot of fellow hikers smile, and Neeps was utterly taken by the trees soaring overhead.

Poetic Energy in Motion

I had such a good time, and it was so damn good for my soul, that I realized I really need to get back into hiking on a weekly basis, especially now that the weather is getting nicer, and Neeps is getting hardier.

Speaking of which!  As he and I waved goodbye to Kayla from our front porch, I decided that it was so warm and sunny that I should take advantage of it and get him some vitamin D while we waited for Nathan to get home.

Just blowing out camera sensors with our alabaster skin.  No bid deal.

This, in turn, led to some sunbathing.

Check out his boldly clashing patterns.

It was the first time I'd put him directly on grass, and he was quite taken with it.  My wonderful little wild child.  Once I'd decided he'd had enough sun on his skin, I covered him up and got a little on mine.

Yes that is my shirt.  It is merino wool and awesome.

Welcome to the New Year

What's that you say?  It's an even-numbered year?  Well we all know what that means- time for a new 365(/6) project!

Over the past three projects I've done writing, art, and i-photography.  This year, in an attempt to work with the fact that I'm adjusting to a very new way of life, I'm keeping it broad- a post for every day of the year, be it words, images, or some combination thereof.  "Combination Thereof" is what you're getting today, since I'm hearkening back to the "moments" aspect of 2014:

Frostfell

It's especially nice when I get around to making my Year Album, because for some reason these little out-of-context images are very powerful in terms of bringing me back to the moment I captured them in.  In this instance it was our first hike of the year- 2.2 miles to start things off on the right foot.

It was beautiful mix of frost and green.

Frosty Family!

Glowing Green!  (Same hike, honest!)

I made several Resolutions for the year, but the first and easiest to make is that I want to do at least one Family Hike per month.  To further this goal I signed up for the January Hike it Baby 30, with the goal of doing either 30 miles in 30 days, or else 30 minutes three times a week.  I'm pretty excited about it, so expect to see at least one hiking entry a month on here.  But now?  Now there's some ice cream with brandied pears calling my name!

Happy New Year, ya'll.  I hope it's more than you dare to dream it might be.

Slice of the Road

Ah, our first full day in Wallowa!

After chatting with some friendly strangers yesterday evening, we decided to head on up to Hell's Canyon Overlook.  Our original plan (you know, the one we had before car troubles and road closures) had us exploring Hell's Canyon, so being able to view it via the overlooke had a certain appeal.

The drive up there was beautiful in and of itself, and consisted of many pulling-over-to-the-side-of-the-road-to-take-photos-moments:

(actually part of a failed panorama)

Oh look!  A rare photo of the two of us that does not involve Nathan scowling at his camera in the background, or the expanse of my arm reaching out to the lens...

recreate-ing SO HARD right now

There wasn't much actual hiking involved with any of this, so after we got back down out of the higher altitudes, I demanded that we go do a little hike near the campground that someone had mentioned the night before.  It was about 2.5 miles round-trip, and involved a waterfall, so it sounded pretty much perfect to me.

As it turned out, it went beyond the reasonable-expectation-of-perfect right into actually perfect, because we were the only ones on the trail.  And because we were the only ones on the trail, and knew that no one would be starting the hike so close to sunset, we let Isis be off-leash for the return trip.

my loves  (some of them)

She did quiet well, as it turned out: she alternated between walking between us and ranging ahead, but would wait when I gave her the command (which I only gave if she was getting out of sight).  It gives me great hope that someday, someday, she might actually be 100% reliable off-leash.  But not just yet... I feel strongly that a large part of her cooperation was due to being tired from the first half of the hike.  Knowing your dog's (or child's) limits is a large part of raising them properly, I suppose.

We came back into Joseph for dinner, and decided to try out a different brewery.  Mutiny was swankier for sure (in the way where I count local carving and photography as marks of swank), but delivered the same delicious food and friendly service.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's even possible to have a bad food experience in this town.

Shelter in the Stone

We got up relatively early this morning in an attempt to take a (much-enthused-over) gondola ride, but apparently those don't start up until the 13th of this month.  Lame.  So instead we just ventured back over to Emerald Bay (now we've driven all the way around the rim!  Hooray!) to do a hike that Bridge's dad highly recommended.

And boy was he right to recommend it!

Niiiiiice trail surface.  Goooooood trail surface!

The hike was up to Cascade Falls, only about two miles round-trip, without much in the way of elevation change.  The only thing that made it at all challenging was the relentless sun, which wasn't even all that bad so long as there was wind going.  At one point Nathan stopped to take some shots of Cascade Lake, and I found a convenient stone to snuggle up to.  Here's what I jotted down at the time:

I love how I can be almost too cool here in the shade of this rock.  I feel sheltered, safe from the too-harsh sun.  I always knew I was a water-girl, but it took me until my thirties to realize that I am a stone girl, as well.

We reached the top and I had a lovely time splashing about in the stream, and scrambling over more rocks to the edge of the waterfall.  Nathan was dubious about me doing these things until I coaxed him close enough to see that it was basically broad, flat stair-steps all the way: nothing precarious about it!

Plus, like I said- I'm a stone girl, as well.