Summer, please stay!  I realize many parents welcome the return of school.  But as for me, I’m not ready.  I need more of this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this..

Reluctantly, we wave goodbye to a wonderful summer and say hello to a new chapter in our lives.  We miss you already summer, thanks for the memories!

xo

There’s a hint of fall in the morning air.  Smoke from the Pioneer fire occasionally drifts into town and the crickets start up in the evening.  Some people never experience waking up early, while it’s still cool, and driving into the mountains in search of dead trees to harvest.  Luckily we grew up collecting firewood and now Alice is too.  Granted, she spends most of the time in her tent watching movies and playing.  My sisters and I would have much preferred that to working when we were young.  I asked my parents many times if I could please go make cookies, anything to save me from hard labor.

Now I like it.  There’s something about the smell of the woods, the sound of chainsaws, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes with a load of wood.  And just like Henry Ford said, “Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.”  I hated that quote when I was a kid but you can bet I’ll be reciting it to Alice.

xo

It’s weird not having dogs.  After all these years we find ourselves without them.  It’s not all bad, we can leave town and walk around in our yard with less forethought.  It does mean that all the other dogs in our lives get extra love.  I reserve the right to hug on all the dogs we are lucky to know.  And I find it sweet that the lives of our dogs overlaps and intertwines with ours and the lives of our friends and family.

Dogs Gone By…

 

Dogs of Today…

I had a dog

who loved flowers.

Briskly she went

through the fields,

yet paused

for the honeysuckle

or the rose,

her dark head

and her wet nose

touching

the face

of every one

with its petals

of silk

with its fragrance

rising

into the air

where the bees,

their bodies

heavy with pollen

hovered-

and easily

she adored

every blossom

not in the serious

careful way

that we choose

this blossom or that blossom

the way we praise or don’t praise –

the way we love

or don’t love –

but the way

we long to be –

that happy

in the heaven of earth –

that wild, that loving.

-Mary Oliver

*we miss this kitty too

xo