Adrift in the Puget Sound

August 27, 2010 by

I drove onto the ferry and then commenced to drift about the Puget Sound, across the water to Bainbridge Island. 
All the while, I kept an eye out for the world’s largest octopus;
I heard it likes to nibble on miniature dachshunds.
I don’t want to tempt fate, but I reckon Penelope would look dashing 
as an octopus garden installation.

JUST KIDDING.
I’d like to keep her soft and furry and cuddly and darling.
So I locked her up in the truck for this ferry trip.

Bainbridge ahoy!!!
Filed Under: bainbridge island, traveling, washington

Crossing Over

August 26, 2010 by
I popped over to the West side of the Northern Cascades yesterday.
Blinded by the sun, nearly, as I squinted up at the toothy peaks of this range.

A sharp intake of breath now, 
the residue of winter clinging 
to a handful of valleys, 
twisting white in the summer air.

I turned and floated my way down to Diablo Lake:
cool blue drink, pebbled soul, whisky warm wind.
I stood by the lake edge and pondered on why I love traveling so well.  I do a lot of it!  I hop in my truck and I go.  I pack the dogs, a pair of jeans and my fly rod and I take myself places.  But I also love my home.  I miss it, the quiet space that lies inside my 102 year old farmhouse walls.  My books.  My herbal tea collection.  The sound of the breeze in the grapevines…
I think I travel to free myself from the things that find their way inside me.  
I travel to get back to the core of myself.
To rest.  To recover.  To pour myself out.  To be filled up again.
To see friends and family; to be in their care.
To take moments at the edge of lakes, beneath the boughs of trees, under the wings of eagles; to rise up, to descend.
To wade through all of those emotions I’ve stored up, to cure those little heart bruises inflicted by the carelessness of others,
to understand the world around me and to be in it and part of it.
To feel space.
I’m just:
Another organism. 
Another soul.
Another truck on the highway.
One more girl with her windows down and the breeze in her hair.

To collect a nest.
To inspect a fish.
To feel the sun.
To call the wind.
To trip and fall and get up again.

Do you travel for the same reasons?
Do you travel at all?
To test the water.
To be tested by the water.
Today, all is full.
Full of love.
Filed Under: north cascades, traveling, washington

Young Mountains

August 24, 2010 by


Yesterday, RW and I hiked in a couple of hours to this beautiful lake in a gorgeous little cirque that featured jagged little picturesque peaks in the round.  The North Cascades are still growing and you can practically see them waving their stony fists in the air, reaching closer and closer to the sun.  We had the place to ourselves and we made the most of it!  You’d have loved it.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  The lake was flanked by a larch forest!  I strolled about for quite a while, petting the needles on those trees.  They’re soft as kittens and one of my favorite sorts of conifers.

We love fishing these kinds of lakes.  The trout that inhabit them are starving little things that can’t afford to pass up any food that lands in the water.  As a result, a girl and boy will bring in a fish on nearly every single cast.  They aren’t big fish, like I said, they’re starving, but they put up a lovely little fight with their tenacious spirits, and once held in hand a lady can fully appreciate their coloration, speckles and softly flashing sides before she removes the hook and sets them free once more. 

Additionally, alpine lakes are a great place to fly fish, there’s hardly anything to snag with a back cast!

Farley did a bit of swimming and managed to get water in his ears.
I inspected, quite closely, dozens of beautiful little cutthroat trout.
Gorgeous wonderful fish.
I watched RW do his business.
He was born to fish.
I’m convinced of it.
I basked in the landscape
and then laughed out loud when RW caught two trout at once!
He’s really that magical — a mythical beast of sorts.
We stayed until the sun dipped down beneath the overhanging peaks that wrap around this lake and then hiked back to the truck and made the trek back into town.
And then we fell asleep in each others arms 
and everything felt right with the world once more.

*Disclaimer*
I have to apologize for the quality of some of these shots — super bright, mid-day, neon sunshine lighting for most of them.  Ick.
Filed Under: fishing, north cascades, washington

Wheat

August 24, 2010 by
Standing hip deep in my heritage.
Loving on Eastern Washington, most fiercely;
missing the Great Northern Plains of Saskatchewan, most tenderly.
Filed Under: Saskatchewan, traveling, washington

Taddyporterville:

August 24, 2010 by
It was a long hard pull between Pocatello and Spokane
but I arrived late, at Taddyporterville, and dove straight into a couple pairs of healing arms.

Missus and Mister Taddyporter played host to me after my first night on the road and I don’t think there could have been a lovelier or more healing stop over on all of the planet for me.  There’s just something mysteriously and wildly healing and about that woman, and her loyal and lovely man is just as wonderful.  It was the delight of my heart to stay the night in their vintage mansion on a hilltop in Spokane.
The delight of my heart.
Their home is done up in the most breathtaking and comfortable antique fashion, true to the character and age of the home, with perfect taste and delicious quirk in every single room.  I’d like to share some of the experience with you, if you don’t mind looking:
I didn’t even manage to capture an image of Taddy’s rescued deer mouse!  Oi vey!  And the stroll we took over to Rebecca’s house, just down the street, had me swooning, holding a parrot and exclaiming about a cock-a-doodle-doo in a bathroom!
I love it when I get to visit places that I so obviously belong in.  It makes the world seem small and friendly.  It makes my life feel full of destiny.

To say the least, I was sad to pack up and leave in the morning (er….afternoon).
But a giant bag full of corn on the cob and the promise of a swim at Grand Coulee Dam in the heat of the afternoon pushed me onward and closer to Winthrop; to love and a BBQ at the North Cascade Smokejumper Base!

Tallyho!!!
xx
Plume
Filed Under: smoejumping, taddyporter, traveling
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