A Lake in the Olympic National Forest

You may have wondered where I have been. I have been on a road trip that began the end of June. This photo is my favorite photo of the entire trip. You see, my grandchildren are the silhouettes on the two piers. It was a lovely place and a calm beautiful evening. The crescent moon and the north star hung in the sky as the tiny lake waves lapped against the beach. I wish we had been able to stay there a couple of days. When you’re on a road trip, it’s hard to not plan ahead and give yourself the authority to stay an extended time, especially when you are caring for two little ones.With all that said, we drove through California, Idaho, Washington, cruised into Alaska, stopped in Victoria, drove through a different section of Washington, Oregon, and California to get back to Graeagle so the kids could go kayaking. I’ll be filling you in on the places we went in the coming weeks. What I want to leave you with today, is this photo of Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Forest in Washington. If you ever get the opportunity to go, do it. It is an amazing slow-paced place. It’s a bit like going back in time and there’s nothing wrong with taking a deep breath and slowing down a little now and then.

Aloha Kauai / Aloha Rain

Last week we went to The Grand Hyatt, Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii. It was for business and pleasure. We landed on a clear and beautiful day. We discovered that rain had been falling for the last two months and we were fortunate to be there on a day that was sunny.

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We saw a few reasonable sunrises and I saw my very first “green flash” during the first sunrise. I thought I was going to have to go to Maine to see that. Such a nice surprise. We traveled a little ways to sightsee and then the rains picked back up. It was very soggy there. It didn’t dampen our spirits though. Hawaii is a lovely place and I like being there, come rain or shine or frizzy hair. So I leave you with, “Aloha” and a few photos that capture my memories of Kauai.

Additional Spaces

I’ve been pulled away from my blog for a few weeks. We are in the process of having an addition put on our home. It takes a lot of time to find and purchase those things we need to make this project complete. So I apologize for failing to send Happy Holiday Wishes your way. I want you to know that you were in my thoughts and intentions to send greetings to. I hope you had a wonderful season  filled with family and friends.

A Sierra Winter’s Lake

We have found the smallest of time to go to the Sierra Mountains and look at a Winter Wonderland. The snow has been relatively scarce and it has made the lakes available that would normally be snowed in. The sights are abundant and amazing. Winter there, feels like it is still approaching.

Fragile Ice Near The Shore

For me, looking into the shallow depths of the lake and realizing the stillness that permeates there in the winter months, calms me in a time that seems so turbulent to me. The addition will be done soon and all this will pass also. I wish you all a warm and calming winter.

 

 

Lazy Daisy?

Why is it the daisies                                                                                                                      Seem so struck by the bugs?                                                                                                                 Is it in their color                                                                                                                                 Or their look from above?

Sierra Daisies

For me it’s the wonder                                                                                                                    In these flowers so white                                                                                                                         The attraction they have                                                                                                           Though it often seems trite

France Daisy

I do love the daisies                                                                                                                         As they sway in the breeze                                                                                                           With the free way they seem                                                                                                        To do just as they please

Bonnie DiMichele 2017

Just a little whimsical thought as many men work on my new addition. It’s loud, dirty, and may be slow in progress. My beautiful backyard is an absolute mess but it will make my home so that we can live on one floor. This surely is a thought I never had as a younger person. I refuse to let those thoughts make me feel old…I’m simply being practical.    

 

Reflective Waters

I have been waiting for this day for the entire Summer. Cool, slowing, lazy, Fall days. I thought they’d never get here. I couldn’t go towards the coast enough days last Summer. I kept thinking that we would get one more round of hot weather.

Fall In The Sierra Mountains

Leaf Peeping In Delaware

Then it snowed yesterday in the Sierra’s and I knew that Fall was finally upon us. I can’t remember a summer that was hotter than the one we just had. Maybe I’m getting older and less tolerant of the climate changes, season to season. There have been times, recently, that I have thought of the seasons, liking them to the seasons of our lives. If this were the case then I think that Spring would be our baby, toddler, elementary school years. Summer would be our teens and twenties or even our early thirties. Fall would last a very long time before Winter would creep in coldly somewhere around our late sixties and beyond. The changing seasons, you can’t ignore them, they’re upon us any way we may look at them.

I’m hoping that all of us have a very long and glorious Fall Season.

Between the Heat & Smoke

I haven’t written in my blog for quiet some time. I am sorry for this but the heat in California has been constant this summer and oppressive. We’ve now added to that by having large sections of the state on fire.

Sepia Dahlias

This has all left me a bit unable to find the beautiful color in the world around me. I know that sounds crazy but I’ve always tried to find the bright side of any circumstance and here I am, a little gloomy.

Color’s Coming Back

I do feel that the temperatures are moving into a Fall like pattern, so the cooler air should help the fire fighters and it will surely lift my spirits which will result in causing me to view the world in my usual way. Hooray! 

Dahlia’s In Full Bloom & Color

There you have it. The world in full color, courtesy of the garden in our own backyard. Go out and smell the flowers. It will make you feel better.

(Could have gone way beyond “heat and smoke” with all the craziness that is going on in the world today. I decided to tackle one thing at a time, mainly those things that I might have a little control over.) Have a Very Happy Weekend!

In The Streets of Lyon

I recently went to France and stayed in Lyon as my last stop. It is a beautiful city and is the third largest city in France. I did not realize that walking about the city might lead me into neighborhoods that were not friendly to people who were not of their same religious beliefs. (I do think there should be an app for that, by the way.)

Stunning City Art

I am a firm believer in not talking about religion, politics, or weight. With that being said, I was so filled with the evil feeling that I received, I decided to write a poem about my experience. (That’s how I attempt to settle things in my mind.) I’m going to share the opening and closing stanzas with you. There are eighteen stanzas in-between as the opening and the closing stanzas are mirror images of each other.

Swans on the Rhone River

I walked the streets                                                                                                                          Of grand Lyon                                                                                                                                    In a place,   I,                                                                                                                                Should not have gone,      

The evil that                                                                                                                                          I found that day                                                                                                                                 Is not a thing                                                                                                                                     To wash away                        

This sleeping world                                                                                                                    Needs to awake,                                                                                                                                To realize                                                                                                                                      What is at stake

If you would like the other eighteen stanza’s you can make a request at bon73sc@gmail.com and I will be happy to supply the entire poem for you. I am putting this out today because, as much as I tried to resolve what I felt that day by writing this poem, those feelings are still very much with me. I just can’t seem to shake them. So the moral to this blog is perhaps, as we age, we should try to stay on the main streets (when in a foreign place) as we are traveling through life.

 

Finding Flanders’ Fields

I’ve missed a couple of weeks of posting and I’ve got a good reason why that happened. I’ve been in the south of France, staying in small villages and fully enjoying the sights. I had wanted to go to Provence, France to see the lavender in bloom but the timing was a bit off so I had to settle for the red poppies as they were still blooming about everywhere we went.

Just outside of St. Martin du Bromes.

Overlooking Lac du la Sainte-Croix.

France is filled with bug loving flowers.

I am happy to be home, but have had an incredible vacation with family and friends. It is a wonderful way to travel and a great way to get to know each other better while in a relaxed environment. These poppies were planted in remembrance of the lives that were lost to war. It seems like we are always at war some place in the world. Sad really. The poppies are beautiful but what they symbolize is war and it’s casualties. It makes you stop and think about the sacrifices people have made to keep us from harms way.

As we traveled about, it was hard to miss the metal doors with peep-holes, the stone buildings with metal shutters, and the lack of children playing in the streets. When I was a child we had many freedoms, so many that we didn’t realize how very wonderful freedom was. Today is different from then. There are often days when I miss those yesterdays.  

 

 

 

 

Beyond The Ocean Blue

There are times when I wonder why I am so drawn to taking photos when I travel to various places. I suppose it’s so I’ll keep those images with me in a tangible way. I find that I keep those images and experiences with me anyway. When I look at these photos from Hawaii,

Pipeline Beach

Tiny Sand Crabs

Majestic Mountains

Shadowed Shell

it seems that I can still hear the pounding surf, see the sea spray on my sunglasses, and feel the gritty sand between my toes. These images bring back the temperature of the day, the wind that completely messed up my hair, and the delight I found in seeing the crab’s shadow rush across the sand. The mountains were quiet, filled with hanging clouds that spat occasional raindrops at us. My mind is filled with these memories but these photos bring back all those other pieces and feelings that made taking the photos so important to me at that moment in time on that particular day.

I take photos because I love all the places I have been and I want to keep those memories with me always.

 

 

Renewing Old Spaces

We had been toying with the idea of taking down the wall between our kitchen and family room for quite some time now. 2017 came, and down came the wall. It has created a wonderful space that we now wish we had done ten years earlier. Since we have decided to stay here, it seemed   

Wall still standing.

Midway into demolition.

New view from the counter.

View into the family room.

that it was time to start making changes. It’s not good to wait until you’re too old to find excitement in making a major change. We like the changes so much that we are now going to expand out the back. Best news is that the dust will be outside instead of inside. Anyone who has ever gone through a remodel will understand what I am saying about the dust.

My least favorite part of the remodel was the dust and trying to adjust to everything being in the wrong spot for cooking. My favorite part of the remodel was how the ideas all came together and looked great….basically, the final product was and is my favorite part. Long story short, don’t be afraid of making positive changes in your life; they can often be quite rewarding.