It was raining only a little this afternoon, so I went for a walk.

Here in northern Oregon, it has been raining for nearly two weeks straight now! Though this is nothing new, I was getting antsy for a long walk. Today was reasonably dry, so I decided to go on a lengthy stroll in the woods along the lake shore. Cloudy days and long walks are the very best for contemplating life and purpose. I also took some pictures during my walk, I feel they do better justice to the beauty of this landscape than my words do....

This is a view of Foster Lake- just peeking through the trees. Its a magical body of water, when I was a child I was convinced Mermaids lived in it. I have yet to see them, but any kind of magic worth believing in is all about faith!

A trillium flower. A long time ago, I was dismayed when told that I couldn't pick them because they were endangered. I longed to weave them into flower necklaces and crowns... Now that I'm a little bit older, I can appreciate them staying in the ground, lending their beauty to the forest.


A really dear little bridge that has never ceased to absolutely charm me.

That's me, surveying the wonderful blue tones of that cloudy sky. Sometimes, I see a particular shade of color, or the design trees make silhouetted against a dark sky and it gives me a whimsical feeling- as though I am both reassured and yet saddened that everything in nature is made up of such particular, exquisite aspects that it can never truly be replicated....

I adore these old stumps. They derive from trees that were cut decades ago when they were building the lake (it's man made, maintained by a dam). They didn't bother pulling out the stumps, just left them and every year the lake washes away more of the soil around the roots. Well, to me, the stumps look like woody octopi who are climbing down the shore back to the lake. It's something that's special and beautiful to me, though I don't know if anyone else can see an octopus in a tree stump. Hmm.......