So Much to Share!

Hello my friends!  Our koi are growing!  We have 5 fish, one old white pond goldfish and 4 koi - can you see the dark one, too?

We so enjoy our deck and pond with 3 waterfalls, it's so peaceful.

Our big cotton candy pink Rhododendron - do you know the variety name of this one?

It's a really pretty variety and is next to our bamboo that is really full and lacy.

This is on the back corner of our house next to our little forest of Douglas Fir and Cedar trees.

Shirley wasn't able to volunteer with me at Multnomah Falls yesterday so Dayle had to postpone a couple of errands and was pressed into service with me.  :-)  We had a great time chatting with this family, they had just driven 9 straight hours with 5 young children so they were having fun with our drawers of natural things such as antlers and raccoon pelt.  I asked them to pose for me and then I sent them this photo via text message.  :-)

As you can see the living green things are making Multnomah Falls beautiful again, the burned trees on the ridge top are a constant reminder of the Eagle Creek Fire that eventually burned over 50,000 acres and was started by a 15 year old boy who threw smoke bombs from a trail into a tinder dry forest.  Luckily a woman saw it, chastised him and hiked back to the parking lot to notify a USFS employee who called the police who just barely stopped the boys as they tried to leave the scene in their car.  She's my hero.  Of course it did not stop the fire from devastating the forest, killing untold wild creatures, burning a family's home and outbuildings, closing the freeway, the loss of jobs and income from many small businesses and hundreds of people being evacuated from their homes and much more.

I snapped a photo of Multnomah Creek as I walked out to the freeway parking lot, unfortunately the sun was hitting the screen of my iPhone but I still wanted to share this with you.

My purple Iris captured by Kristi on my Lumix camera.

Kristi also captured a pair of Turkey Vultures who were probably looking for mice or something after the kids mowed our upper pasture with our tractor.

She also captured a raccoon who was curled up in the crook of this big tree in our forest, he was 25 feet up, it was pretty cute.

We met the new owners of Stargazer, Erica and Warren.  We had such a fun lunch sharing information and stories of our time with Stargazer.  We plan to meet again and I'll bring a book I kept during my time of the "Ranger Round-Up Commodore".  I started the group, designed the website, organized a database of owners and planned several rendezvous of owners and boats over the years.  Click HERE to see my story of saying goodbye to my beloved boat.

My sister Denise and her husband Steve and some friends are in China for several weeks, how cool is this photo of them while hiking along the Great Wall of China?  :-)

This is the book I'm reading right now and even less than halfway through I can totally recommend it to you.  I got it when I learned that the writer of the book that spurred one of my favorite movies, "Under the Tuscan Sun", had written another book.. it's the one below.  It's a very good read!

See why I couldn't come up with a good title for this blog post?  LOL!  Dayle and I are off to do those errands he put off yesterday and get my Ford Flex in for it's 40,000 mile service.  A lunch out will probably figure in, as usual.  :-)  Have a wonderful day and THANK YOU for your thoughtful comments.  It's what keeps a blogger going, knowing someone is reading one's musings and appreciating your photo efforts.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)