Flora, Fauna, & Camping in the Olympics

July was spent traveling to Washington: Seattle, Port Orchard, Bremerton, & more. My family has one-by-one migrated up there & I am rooted in Texas, but I love visiting. My son hates the Texas heat, he won't go outside EVER. In Washington it's a different story! He loves the cooler weather, he loves the farm, the outdoors, the water, the animals, & even grandpa's garden!

It's important to get in touch with nature. The fresh air, the beauty... everything is a reminder of how amazing life is & how precious it is. It reminds us how small & insignificant we are, but also how important we are.

This blog is (as usual) picture heavy. Scroll through the beauty, breath, & relax. It may not be more than a photo, but let your imagination go into it & you might think you are there. Here is your DE-STRESS moment for the week! Enjoy

The foxglove were about 7 feet tall,  some getting cloer to 10 ft! The white is my favorite!

Wild ducks return to mom & dad's pond each year to have their babies. A few Canadian geese joined them this year. This is a mallard hen enjoying a break.

Just a handful of "weeds" from my morning walk to the mailbox.

MMMMM....Marie's rasberries!

My niece, Teal, keeping the boy entertained while we unpacked & set up at the camp site in the Olympic mountains. 

Can't go camping without the essentials!

Pumping water from the well... then carrying it back to camp. Life is just so hard.

My older sis, Ann, is the Camping Goddess. She brings all the good stuff. 

I had to carry bear spray with me, so D2 was a bit nervous about getting chased by a bear.

I wanted to show the drop in water depth, so I got my brother to step in. He was not too please, especially since the cold temp was low enough to kill you in 15 minutes if you fell in!

Yep, that's right, I got lots of ideas off Pinterest before camping. Entertainment is a good filler for down time. 

 Merging two bubbles into one.

Ann works out/dances with poi balls. I asked her to bring her glow-in-the dark balls so I could do some night photography. I was going for something a bit different, but this is what I got & still cool. I wish I had a tripod with me...or even had the forethought to set the camera somewhere & use the timer. They would not have been so blurry if I had. Oh well. 

We took a hike up the mountain to a lake. It was a 2000 ft climb, over 3 miles up. Little D2, my sweet 6 yr old boy, made it all the way & back down again! Aunt Re, my twin, gave him a few breaks by giving him a piggy-back ride, but for the most part he did it on his own! We were so proud!

mmmm....salmon berries!

This tree fell between these two others & snapped. Like twigs!

What are these?

The remains of a fallen tree, a spike just waiting for something to be empaled on it!

Aunt Re with D2. 

Where do the little kids get the energy?! The rest of us are wishing we had 1/2 his energy!

Watch out for monsters in the forest! They tend to jump out from the woods when you are not looking...

Taking a break on the hike.

 Daisies! My sister took pictures of me, but she looked way better in them so here is one with her in them.

Dad took D2 fishing... no fish, but a great time! That water was sooooo cold! 

Queen Anne's Lace! They look like snowflakes!

 Poppies

 Cornflowers... mmmmmm, pretty!

 I like what's on the menu. This guy chose crab for lunch. I wanna go out to eat with him!

 From dad's garden & orchard... yes, the orchard is mom's too.

Just the shell & face are left after a gull had his lunch.

HUGE Lillies...

I took over 1000 shots in 2 weeks. I held back from shooting too many, so this post was hard to narrow down to the 100 or so that I included. Look for the next post to have Pikes market & more... a much shorter blog next time. For now I shall prepare for a friends memorial service, my late daughter's birthday, & the start of what should be a very interesting school year at work, all happening tomorrow. Goodbye summer! See you next year.

Beware the Power of Prayer

    The power of prayer is a dangerous thing. What you are really doing is sending deep, heartfelt thoughts into the universe, into the source of energy that feeds our souls. This is a strange blog for me, but I have had trouble sleeping, and as a dear friend lies in a doctor-driven coma for another month I am painfully aware of the prayers people so freely promise to send.

    Let me preface the rest of this by saying that I am fully aware that there are those who really do feel fear of the negative turn life might take for the one in need & their prayers are so deeply genuine for the healing of that person that magic happens. True magic!

    You see... it is my feeling that many people, though some are unaware they do this, are actually thinking of the (dare I say) excitement of the drama unfolding around their otherwise mundane lives when they are sending up a prayer for someone in urgent need. It might be a crime victim, a disease ridden friend, or a sickly infant, but the genuinely thoughtful person doing the praying is really rubber-necking in traffic to get a closer look at the wreck on the road as he passes on his way to wherever he is going. Somehow being able to say to others "I prayed" makes them feel better I guess.

    People can often mistake "healing" as physical recovery too. They are genuinely feeling the compassion and the desire for recovery, but sometimes for healing to take place, the physical body must be left behind. Prayer is often selfish. We want them here with us, so we can hold them, see their smiles, hear their laughter. That was the case for me when I prayed for my daughters to live. They didn't, so I stopped praying. I never lost faith, I just stopped praying. What's point, right? I mean if it's the universal plan, the destiny, or whatever you want to call it, then it's going to over-ride us anyway, so why bother? That was what I thought for many years.

    Quoting from a favorite movie, Kingdom of Heaven, "God will decide, God always decides." I am reminded that we are not in control, thought we do still have free will to strive for better experiences and growth in our lives.

    We pray because it's in our human nature to fix things. To feel productive and helpful. If we don't, then after that need is gone - no matter the outcome, we have not truly participated in that life. I have seen individuals who truly feel the compassion and the desire to help those in need actually create miracles.

    So keep praying, keep sending your compassion & your desires for the betterment of the source of your prayers to whomever you call that which is the eternal source of energy which feeds our souls. Prayers truly are medicine for the soul.

But beware the power of prayer. You might just get what you ask for.