Cindy

Sasquatch!

Watching DeVotchKa perform at The Gorge. Beautiful day. Great shows, friends, serious sunshine. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Cindy

Sun Light & Green Leaves

Kelley

Food for Thought

My kitchen knows me well.
As a mostly-stay-at-home mom, a great deal of my time is spent in that culinary space, the food place of our home. I plan, prepare, feed and clean up after everyone. And then plan, prepare, feed and clean...all over again. And again. And again. And again.
Breakfast-time, lunch-time, dinner-time.
The sun goes down and the sun comes up, and it starts all over.
The reality of this is that my days revolve around food.
Food.
Yes, the most basic element of our human existence. Second to water, food keeps our very species here and thriving on earth.
With this realization, that the clock I live by is driven by the quest to nourish me and my family, EVERY DAY, I am struck by another very serious fact.
Our world food supply is in trouble.
It sounds crazy, because as Americans we are used to seeing our supermarket shelves lined floor to ceiling with every food choice imaginable and worldwide produce at any time of the year at our fingertips. Watermelon in December, no problem. And which of the 24 brands of wheat bread would you like today?
Food shortage? No way!
But agricultural experts have predicted that in order to keep up with the world's population, farmers need to double food production in just a decade.
Twice as much food in our grocery stores?
Lester Brown, who is the President of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington D.C., says we are in a food crisis.
According to him, our fixation on oil insecurity in the United States has actually caused a food insecurity. The price of grain will go up indefinitely, he said, by the demand for grain-derived fuel. "We need to rethink our focus on fuel," he told NPR today. "It really comes down to food versus fuel."
One-fourth of our country's grain production goes toward ethanol production. However, according to Brown, a 25-gallon tank of ethanol fuel would actually feed one person for one full year.
A tank of gas versus one year of food.
Hmmmm.
Those who produce and use such fuel are receiving kickbacks in the form of our tax dollars. We are essentially subsidizing a rise in food prices.
So, I sit here in my kitchen (where else would I be?) and ponder these ideas.
A garden in Central Oregon might give me some of the food I need for, oh maybe TWO months if I'm a lucky green thumb...
And buying locally to support those farmers in my region could help...
But what about the population of China, a huge empire that is growing exponentially and only producing more mouths who need FOOD?
I'm just a mostly-stay-at-home-mom, who revolves around food mostly-all-day-long.
But maybe if I'm a lucky green thumb, and maybe if I can successfully feed my child through adolescence, maybe one day I can revolve my day around the solution to this food crisis rather than the unyielding need for food itself- the very problem.

Cindy

Pure Joy

My beautiful mama and one of the horses she rides, showing off the saddle my papa had made for her.

Photo credit: Papa

Kelley

Baby Days

Gone.
Those mini hands
And bitty toes
Have grown,
Big.
A toothy smile
Grins,
Out shouts
A big belly
Laugh.
You run
And jump,
Throw your shoes,
Far.
Sleeping now,
A spring evening
Rolls into
Your second summer.
And I rock you still,
With feet dangling
An arm wedged
Around
Me.
How long
Will you be
My baby?

Cindy

Lola & The Wasp

Let this be a warning to all wasps: you will be captured, tortured, and left for dead. You only hope the humans catch you first. (At least you will have a chance at survival in a glass jar).

Kelley

Charlie's Garden

Snow's melting on Black Butte,
The experts say.
It's time for a garden
Safe to plant away!
Tear open the packets
Clear out the weeds.
Spread the seed starter
And planting soil please.
DON'T EAT THAT!
And clean off your hands!
The dirt in your mouth
Is from far away lands!
Here, take your toy shovel
While I water the pots.
No! Not the dirt again,
Your face is covered in mud spots.
OK, chase that squirrel
While I move to the deck.
COME BACK HERE, YOU RASCAL!
The street is not for your trek!
Finally, a diversion
You've discovered a hole.
Now, can I please finish?
I'm on a role!
Wildflowers, Snap Dragon
Blanket Flower, Lavender Glo.
Basil, Chives, Thyme,
Rosemary, and Oregano.
Now, if you will finally please take a good nap
WILL YOUR FIRST FLOWER GARDEN ACTUALLY GROW?

(wish Charlie luck!)

Cindy

After seeing what good gardeners we are, the landlord offered up a patch of land to call our own. From here on out known as The Farm, as seen in stage II. (I'd like to get a couple goats but I'm afraid the alley cats would eat them).

Cindy

Rooftop Garden

Cindy

The lovely and talented Joelle, channeling her inner Elton.

Kelley

Learnin' the Lures

Cindy

Birthday Surprises. Happy Birthday Love!

Kelley

With my laptop wedged between me and the steering wheel, I am posting from inside my car. It's parked in the driveway with Wee Sing Folk music blaring, a squirmy child buckled into his carseat in the back, and the seatbelt indicator beeping in my ear. Charlie did not opt for a nap today. Not a wink. I've had a long day. "Mama's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'....mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread." Oh yes, the music of choice these days! Now Charlie is yelling at his sock, it won't pull off. While it may seem that motherhood is full of these fleeting moments of solitude and endangered tidbits of adult interaction, it really is the best thing in the world. For those without kids, I do have a suggested reading. I recall what it is like without a child.....and this article is a funny reminder. A good look back at a childless life. It's called "Making Friends" by Amy Ozols in the Shouts & Murmurs section of the current New Yorker. I remember those Timmy's. (Cindy, I thought of you when I read this...did YOU write this article under a pen name?) A fitting note to end on here in my ear inside this quickly-becoming stuffy car, "The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be, many long years ago."

Cindy

Snoqualmie Falls.

Cindy

Waiting for tomatoes to sprout.

Cindy

Moss Monkey

robyn

just thought i'd post what i'm working on right now. myself and two other designers are creating poster templates for all 50 states. this was one of my states. i designed 16 more. i'm kind of over it.

Cindy

Bracket Fungi

Kelley

Here and There

Liquid sky
Drips,
In both places
Melting like glass tears
Rolling off cool live
Foliage.
There.
A Mountain on the sea
And salty air
Seabirds circle
Their calls echo against
Creaking sails
Above Puget nets.
And you breathe
Green rain.
Here.
Water pelts down
In gusts
Like falling sheets
Above the pines,
Through the Rockies.
A lazy river rises
In muddy swirls,
As eagles prepare for young
With wet nests
Up high.
And I breathe
Green rain.

Cindy

Fern & Moss