Beatrix and me

My life has now turned into a Beatrix Potter book. Spring has sprung in my yard and I'm floating in wildlife! The girls are crazy for the pansy-gorging groundhog that took up residence under our front steps:


And the proliferation of bunnies in the backyard:

When we first found them about a week ago:


The mama giving them a last nibble before sending them out into the world yesterday:


The wee baby before she hopped off with her siblings:


And my even more local wildlife (at the zoo while Rowyn and I were rafting):

Bob the Elusive Mountain Cow

My life is rarely simple. Having a copius amount of daughters leads me to frantically schedule girl scout meetings amongst gymnastics and playdates. I have a bounty of boys in my front tree all calling for them to come out and play, I know these same kids will be the ones trying to take them to prom so Bryan's getting his game face on early and practices his gun-cleaning skills.

This weekend, I took Rowyn on a girl scout rafting adventure in Pennsylvania.


Being true Oregonians, we marveled at the beauty of the river and the carpet of trees in varigated greens. Then reverted to our wimpy state as soon as the rain started at 2am and I slept in a puddle. Who designs these tents? Edward Scissorhands? It reminded me of a time in college where I was in a class that met only one time at Crater Lake Park in Oregon. I broke my toe the night before so missed the informational meeting and decided to drive up anyway the next day. Never having pitched a tent before and more than hoping to find someone to pity me with firewood (never did), I found myself alone and cold but happily eating marshmellows that night and telling myself ghost stories at the campground. The next morning, I awoke to idyllic sunshine and stuck to my pillow. I had inadvertantly rolled onto the marshmellow packet and the baggie was stuck to my head. Imagine a woman with a swollen foot, frozen butt and marshmellows sticking off her head emerging from a wonky tent. I was magnificent!

The remainder of the day was spent searching for wildflowers (the original intent of the class) and talus formations (rocks I assume, I never really did find them...). As I traveled the crater, I noticed I was being followed, by cows. Immediately I'm thinking they want my marshmellow- encrusted hair, then I wonder what the heck cows are doing in a national park. I have yet to figure out the true reason for the bovine fascination but those dang things were everywhere! True to my pioneer spirit, I had a fabulous time the rest of the day and now think of this as one of my best camping trips ever. :)

Go ahead... call me Fool on the Hill for this blog entry...

Latah Vadah~

Welcome!

Well this is awkward.

I hate filling out the "meet your blogger" bios, it reminds me too much of the "what you did for summer vacation" essays. How often can I write, "I ate a bug."?

I have four daughters, four because I did not want five. My husband is currently building a house on a nearby mountain, I'll just refer to him as the Fool on the Hill from here on out; it's now going into it's 2.5 year of construction with no end in sight. Granted, we had a wee setback when he flew off the roof last summer and broke his butt so I'll give him a little healing time :)

At the moment, I'm a graphic artist (meaning I can draw a stick figure), writer when I feel like it and make fabulous salve to heal itchy skin. What can I say... it's a gift. I'll be posting here when new things pop up and whenever I feel the urge to post a ghost story.

Come on over and say howdy! What kind of salves would you like to see? Know a good ghost story? I'm compiling stories of objects that have ghosts attached so if you see grandma's mirror with an odd face in it, give me a hollah!