Twenty four stray images from the past month that never made it to the blog! Proof of the hard work I’ve been doing with my camera. I love each and every one for a host of reasons. Which do you love most?
Well, it’s really over, my friends, summer, fire, lonesomeness, frustration, elation, the north cascades, our stint in the Methow Valley…it’s come and gone. It’s always bittersweet. I love it here. I miss Idaho. My heart is continually ping-ponging between all the places I have ever loved. And in between all the bouncing and boinging, I continually pine for Saskatchewan. I know too many homes. It’s torture. It’s bliss.
I have a thousand things to tell you about our raft, about rivers and boats as modes as transportation, but I am hanging onto (hoarding) those details for a personal essay I have been crafting, word by word. It will be worth the wait. I promise.
We watched Out of Africa the other night, one of my all time favorite movies, it’s beautiful, wild and Meryl Streep is just…so…exquisite. I want to be half the woman she is in that movie. Half the woman. I want to face a hungry lion with nothing but my pyjamas and a bull whip to keep me safe. Gosh. How about this:
“It’s an odd feeling, farewell…there is some envy in it. Men go off to be tested for courage and if we’re tested at all, it’s for patience, or doing without, or for how well we can endure loneliness.“
Doggone it. That movie is so beautiful.
We’ll be rolling by Wednesday, headed for wild Idaho. The Noisy Plume will be mostly shut down until the end of October due to adventuring and some big project deadlines I need to meet head on — which I cannot wait to tell you about, when the time comes. I’ll be capturing life, as best as I can, between now and then. Thank you all for being here, these past six months. For your kind comments, for your support, for your presence in my Etsy shop, for your letters in my mailbox and your sweet emails. Sometimes I falter. Don’t we all? It seems like you are always there to catch me with your thousands of hands and gentle hearts. I appreciate you more than I could ever say.
See you on the other side of this transition, dear hearts.
X
The mug…the mug. I must have the mug (with the egg). WHERE? Safe travels and see you on the other side. x0
dear woman– your postcard arrived today and was so timely on my birthday! you have been a great support to me through my recovery and i appreciate you more than i could ever say. i look forward to your personal essay as well as the other good news when you are ready to share. as far as the photo i love most, it’s the last one with your ‘danish milkmaid’ hair– absolutely gorgeous! safe travels and adventures as you wind your way back to idaho and a cozy winter in your home sweet home.
so much love to you! xoxo
I love all of your shots but my favorite is of you in the vegetable garden. The pumpkin makes me smile. Wishing you a safe and great adventure as you venture down to Idaho. Looking forward to your personal essay. Until then…
Oh, I love the shot of that horse. It looks strikingly like my old horse Bonus, and almost made me cry. Beautiful.
Funny how we have relationships with these animals–they support us and nurture us, us them. And then when they are gone, we move forward, only to be stopped dead in our tracks with the occasional reminder, and it all seeps back in. The beauty, the love, the friendship.
Safe travels, my friend. May October be good to you and full of pumpkin picking, chai sipping, and home reveling.
Dear sweet plume!
It’s always a real pleasure to come here, your pictures are really awesome, you know how to capture nature, and your photos are really yours, i mean that your soul or what you are is “flowing” through. I wish you a very peace and delightful trip go back Idhao. I’ll miss your words and pictures!
Take care. Anne Laure
Have fun, be safe, meet your deadlines! I can’t wait to read about your project – tantalizing hint!
The photo of the rusted truck by the river just blew me away, I literally caught my breath.
Travel well, joyously and safely, dear friend.
I look forward to seeing you here again.
xx
Swoon. Your words. Your images. Your wardrobe. I love them all. So hard to pick a favorite picture. Each transports me. But this time around I have to say I love seeing inside of your Airstream. I work from home and dream of moving my office from my attic to the inside of a trailer. I can picture in my head and your pictures are such inspiration. Thank you. I will miss your posts but wish you safe travels.
Ah, those sweet Washington apples. Perfect rosy reminders of lazy childhood days.
Safe travels, Jillian. Be sure to honk as you head east!
xxx
i have nothing to say except that i love you and i’ll see ’round the next mountain….
xxxx
[p.s. well….i DO have to say that tater is ripping my heart wide open with his deeply pensive caramel eyes….and you know i love me some pene with her airplane ears….]
Naturally, the first one, wearing your Saska-prairie mukluks!!!
But, the one in your miss maple studio with the dogs, looking happier than a meadow lark, is rally my favorite.
Summer flew by, didn’t it? Now you’re going home.
Here’s my send off to you:
and you see your soul
like some picture show
across Idaho
===>Gregory Allen Isakov
From the the song IDAHO
My favorite photo? The dogs in the doorway of the Airstream….or maybe the river trip with the husband doing all the work….it’s hard to pick just one!
I too love the place I came from, but equally love the place that called to me as I travelled in the world. I once told my family I felt like Hemingway, torn between the places I love, never able to fully give myself to either one. Yes, it hurts, but in a good way. It’s all a learning experience.
Happy adventuring and best of luck with your upcoming projects.
My, what a gluttonous camera! I’m especially fond of the shot of you and Tater in Miss Maple, (I smile every time I see it) and of course Goldilocks avec beautiful jacket. I always get a bit sad around the edges with these transitions. But then I think of you off on a wild adventure and brimming over with stories and images when you return and I’m just so glad. So very glad. Catch you on the other side, lion tamer.
If I had to choose, it would be the old truck. I am a sucker for them!
And Out of Africa is one of my favorites, too. Exquisite is a great word.
Fun, safe travels, sweetheart!
My favorite is the water photos – but then I’m a Pisces and I love rivers and moving water like that. And your boots, haha.
Love that photo of the old abandoned truck, too; I come across things like that and I think about ruins we find, old Roman roads crumbling and foundation walls of cabins and pottery from Native tribes that lived in a place 400 years ago and wonder if in 400 years they will be looking at these rusting old trucks and talking about what we used them for.
Enjoy your adventuring! I’ll look forward to your next blog post but the wild is calling and I know how that is. We’ll watch for your return, and this makes me want to go on an adventure, too 🙂
hugs & love, lady friend.
Safe travels home, & adventures in between.
I want your mukluks. (sp?) I love many of these photos, but I think my favorite is the last. Your braids and the woods – so fairytale-ish. I wish I was more adventurous with my hair. It’s to my waist, but I just stick it in a ponytail everyday. Boring!
I have a funny feeling that one day I will be telling people that I *knew* Jillian back before she was famous! Really! We’ve exchanged emails! 😉
I see a photo/nonfiction book in your future, filled with your splendid prose.
Can’t wait to hear your news and to see your adventures through your camera lens! BE well, and enjoy this most fabulous of months! As Anne (of Green Gables) said, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
I always love seeing pics of your pups on adventures with you. Our sweet Jack left the world early on Sunday morning (a terribly unfair heart tumour) and I know seeing pictures of your pups will bring me comfort in the months to come. So, thank you! I don’t need to tell you to keep them close to your heart, you know all too well. I think that’s why I like looking at them so much…they are so loved and so tame and wild all at the same time. Just like our Jackie.
So sorry for your loss Kelsey.
And do we so appreciate you, Jillian! Safe travels and see you at the other end! Oh, and as far as a favourite photo is concerned, it’s almost impossible for me to pick just one – they’re all stunning and poetic, but if I really had to, I would pick the one with the paddle coming out of (or going into) the water … ahhhh, I just love that sound XX
Oh, I have too many favorites..perhaps #1 would be you in the studio #2 the oar out of water #3 the horse face.
You say it so beautifully, I always missed any place I have left, and reminded myself that I would revisit again…we are so rooted, aren’t we, even when we are not. I think I even get attached to the road if it were possible. I have tried so hard to not get attached just to not feel sad when I have left, a constant practice of mine.
I must see Out of Africa because I do like Meryl Streep quite a bit.
I will reconnect with you in Idaho. Enjoy the road and safe travels.
xxx
Photos? The meadow with the deer and the mountains fading into the foggy distance – but – and – the old truck by the river. Sweet, lovely blissful heartache for places and days now past.
I have that quote from “Out of Africa” in a notebook tucked away with momentos and dreams from other lives. You ARE that person that Meryl Streep plays so well – didn’t you know? We don’t often plan the adventures of our lives – we take a step in one direction or another and they come to us. You DO face the lions every time you step out into the swirling mists of your surroundings and live and explore and breathe each and every place, making it a beloved home. To bounce back and forth between the places in your heart means that you took the time to know them and you are alive and willing to step out again.
Be safe in your journey to the other side.
That big ear on that little red dog….. my own little red girl has been gone two and a half years now, and I miss her so – that ear made my heart stop. All of the pictures are beautiful – such a tribute to a beautiful season. The horse is my favourite – striking. Safe travels to all of you, and a big kiss for that little red girl.
Hi JL,
The pic of the water in movement…so clean, alive, refreshing, and true. That is my fave. I am in love with your approach to each day…a good reminder to decide to really be alive and choose wisely what you surround yourself with. A quote from Thomas Jefferson that I keep close is: “That which we surround ourselves with, becomes the museum of our soul and the archives of our experiences.” Thank you for sharing the ” museum” of your soul. Xoxo CC
Oh how I love the horse photo. But they are all gorgeous, of course. Safe travels!
Oh wow! Can I be lame and say all of them!?!?!? Your blog was recommended to me a by a reader of mine, as something that might be opposite of the current blogger paradigm and boy was she right!! I love finding an amazing blogs with archives to comb through. Happy Travels, I’m sure I’ll see you on the other side.
I have no trouble at all seeing you as the brave adventuress – bull whip in hand et al!
To think that it is based on the true story of Karen Blixen… you might even like her other stories Jillian (where she wrote under the pseudonym of Isak Dinesen) – I have her Winter’s Tales which are so spellbinding and magical…
PS: I fell in love with that beautiful horse!
I love the golden meadow with deep blue sky above – spoke to me and I had to pause a while as I scrolled through.
Love them ALL, but I especially admire the lighting of that last snap of you. No matter how hard I try, I can never ornately braid my own hair!
Happy Trails, Dearest Jillian! Can’t wait to hear the NEWS!! XOXO
the water close up. but they’re all gorgeous.
good luck with everything. essay writing. transitions. adventure….
Thank you Plume for the beautiful lick of photos…always a pleasure to stop by here…xo,hbb
your exuberance for life is so admirable, i love how you seize it. you may be hoping to to be half the woman Meryl is, but maybe someday I could see the positive side of life half as much as you.
Just stunning photos! I LOVE them – thank you for posting them. I find myself saying, out loud, that I wish I could take photos like yours!
Out of Africa, the only movie that I own. It’s wonderful.
Enjoy your journey!
It’s nice to wrap up a season in photos, isn’t it? I especially like when you include photos of R.W., maybe because you share so much of your solo adventures.
I’ll miss your posts for the next few weeks. Have fun!
Happy Thanksgiving, Jillian. Thank *you* for all the gorgeous photos and words.
Much love from one Sask girl to another.
i’m torn between the one of you with the garden, and the one of RW and the weenie in amongst all the down garments…love you. Saskatchewan pines for you right back. xoxo
RW and sweet Penelope tug at my heart. But I truly do love seeing the world through your lens. Safe travels to you and your family. Catch up with you soon!
Xo
You in your red patagonia jacket because your faces reveals so much – you’re kind, adventurous spirit with a smidgen of sass in there!
Hi Jillian, What a wonderful summer you have had for yourself! And the doggies look pretty happy too! Can you please please tell us how you braided your hair like that in the last shot? I really want to try that while I still have summer sun streaks in my hair! Happy Traveling!
Sure thing! I parted my hair and up-side-down french braided two separate braids. *Instead of a topside french braid, a regular french braid, weave the hair UNDER as you braid, instead of over. Then the braid will stand up off of the surface of your head.* Then I simply tucked them up and around each other and pinned them in place. It’s really easy, if you are able to french braid your own hair.
you are half that woman…plus more!!!
don’t know whay but this post brought me to tears
the images
the joy
the love
the words
the world is just such a beautiful place
and i love to see that through others eyes….not just my own
so thank you
thank you for all that you are
my dear friend
you are a joy to my heart…in so many ways
Love and Light
THANK YOU ALL
for these wonderful, kind, thoughtful comments!
LOVE having you all here.
X
Jillian! I really love the photo of the doe in the field. Would you mind if I saved it from my iphone and put it as my background and home screen display? It reminds me of my home.