Northwest Trip - Drive from Spokane to Seattle, WA

Well, the weather broke and turned sunny the day we left Spokane for Seattle. We did get some very nice views along the backroads we traveled. We did the northern route, and ended up taking the ferry from Seattle to Poulsbo, across the Puget Sound, to Jeff's sister & brother-in-law's place. The above photo was just a little town/village we saw along the way. It almost reminded me of a village that I've read about in my murder mystery books set in the New England area.....except for the mountains, of course!

The above image was taken at a little county park that we stopped at to eat lunch - we ended up doing a little picnic, altho we were just steps from our RV, so I'm not quite sure that truly qualifies as a picnic, but I'm calling it one!

This image was taken in the area around the Grand Coulee Dam. That's a really cool dam, and longer than the Hoover Dam, altho the Hoover Dam is taller. I just love the reflection in the river. What a nice bookmark this would make!

Isn't this a lovely shot of a mountain waterfall? I have a feeling this may be a seasonal waterfall, just for the snow melt-off from the mountain, but who knows? Maybe it's a year 'round thing, since this is the northwest, where rainfall is more plentiful. Notice the lush green around the area, too. It sure is pretty, but I'm not sure that I could pay the price - all those rainy days! Still, lovely to see!

Beautiful Sunrise!

Isn't this a beautiful sunrise? We went camping at City of Rocks State Park in southwestern New Mexico (near Deming) and this was what we woke up to Saturday morning. Jeff let Miki out and then poked his head back in the rig to tell me to raise the shade and check out the sunrise. I did, and then quickly threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera and what a beautiful sunrise we shared! I don't know what the plant in the foreground is, but it's really not that tall - I just knelt down on the ground to get it in the sky.

What a great weekend we had, too! City of Rocks is a natural formation of some pretty large monoliths that just rose up out of the ground in the middle of no where! It's rather amazing - apparently, there are only 5 or so similar formations throughout the world. It was cool, in that the state park campground has the camping sites set in and among the formations, so you've got some really private sites that are somewhat surrounded by some of the formations. Our site also had a couple of trees growing there, so we sort of had the best of both worlds. And, you could climb and hike up into the rock formations up on a rise. It wasn't so huge that you were afraid of getting lost among the rocks, but it certainly was cool!

Ah, tomorrow's back to work for me! This week, I'm working 4 days (instead of the usual 3) due to some meetings that I sort of need to attend. Next week, tho, I'll only be working 2 days, so that will even things out!

Enjoy your week!

I'm back!

Finally!! I'm settled in enough to begin to get back into my blog. It's been quite an eventful few months - we are now moved and settled in our new home in New Mexico. it was quite an adventure, but well worth it. I'm now sitting in my wonderful studio/office, looking out at South Mountain in the San Pedro Mountains - the smaller, narrow photo is what it looked like this morning as the sun came up and the clouds were still hanging around from a rainstorm we had last night. The top photo was of the sky this morning just as the sun was rising - at about 6am or so! Isn't it fabulous? I feel so grateful and happy to be here! Life is truly good!

This past weekend, we went exploring in the Jemez Mountains just to the northwest of us, and on Saturday, we took in the New Mexico Indian Art Market. The artwork was just beautiful, and it was very interesting to see the differences between the art created by the various Native American tribes. I found I repeatedly was drawn to the art created by the Navajo artists. Perhaps I'll find a piece in the future to have a place in our home!

More later! Enjoy the day! Nadine

Mountains of Boxes !

The move date is drawing closer and closer! A week from yesterday we will be heading out in our little caravan to our new home in New Mexico! And, when I look around almost anywhere in the house and garage right now, all I see are mountains of boxes and other things we've got loaded with our stuff! So, what could be a better photo to reflect our mini mountains than a picture of one of my favorite mountain areas, Mount St Helens in Washington state! This image was taken on a backroad sort of behind the mountain. We were attempting to find a back way to get to the crater, and sort of stumbled acrosss this wonderfully beautiful lovely scene! The backroad we were on quickly turned into a very rough dirt road and we weren't able to continue on it in our little RV, but it was worth the detour just to see this area and capture this image.

In terms of our moving, I think we're doing really well. I can hardly believe it, but we really seem to be under control, so that we're not having to make ourselves crazy with last minute packing! We were even able to stop and see a movie yesterday - Angels & Demons with Tom Hanks. Good movie - however, I'm glad I hadn't read the book first. I think it might have ruined the movie for me, knowing the ending!

Enjoy your day!

Beascochea Bay, Antarctica

Good morning! What a fabulous day I feel like this will be! It's pretty humid and foggy this morning, and when I skimmed thru some photos, this one jumped out at me. Probaby because it's of water & clouds, which could be some sort of mind-connection to humidity and fog - who knows?!? This image was taken at Beascochea Bay in Antarctica. The bay is one that we were told was not routinely explored by expeditions to Antarctica. The icebergs there were just breath-taking and magnificent!

Well, we're in the final weeks before our move to our new life in New Mexico. Packing is underway, and I think I've finally gotten everything that's going to be packed at my old house packed up! Now, there will still be the decorative items and things on the walls that will need to be packed once the house is under contract, and we've got a few furniture pieces that we need to take now, but I'm feeling like we're pretty much complete with what we can do for now. We've got more packing to do at Jeff's house (which is where we now live), but that's coming along well. I think I'm going to start "wrapping up" the packing for various rooms starting this weekend or next week for sure. I know what's left can be done fairly quickly, so I'm not making myself too crazy over it!

Better get going with the fabulous day! Enjoy!

Napa Autumn Morning

I was playing around with PhotoShop the other day, and ended up with this very beautiful image of the early morning in Napa. We stayed at a B&B at Rust Ridge, which was also a winery. I just love this photo because it is very serene and restful. It sort of matches my mood this morning. I'm feeling very good and calm this morning because we got an offer on Jeff's house yesterday, which he accepted. So, here's hoping everything goes ok, and that the closing happens according to schedule. One of the other reasons I'm really happy is that this means Jeff will be moving with me when the house is ready in New Mexico. He was thinking he needed to remain here in the Midwest until it sold. I hated the thought of the beginning of our home together would be without him. Now, we just need for my place to sell, and the major checklist of things here in the Midwest to be settled will be done! I've got an open house scheduled for this weekend - hopefully, someone will see my place, love it, and make me an offer! This morning, anything's posssible! Enjoy!