Visiting Winter.

October was a really long month.  I don’t mean to say that it was a bad month, indeed just the opposite!  I was able to travel to Seattle and to Kodiak, Alaska – both for work.  Though I have developed a strong fear of the small planes that get me out of Homer, I still love to be on the go – I love airports and the entire feeling of traveling and transit.  However, at the end of it all (especially having just come off of Cross Country season with State on October 2) I was tired.  Tired and looking out my office window at bluebird skies and crisp fall-winter transition days.  Too beautiful for idle contemplation – I made reservations for a US Forest Service cabin in the Chugach Mountains, at the Crescent Lake Saddle Cabin.  Ben, me, Kaya, and Pemba headed out on Saturday morning….after Ben did some last-minute excavating.

   

I manage to always get a lot of pictures of Ben walking in front of me, generally with dogs. 

So I have to take pictures of myself every now and again…just to show I Was There!

Kaya and Pemba enjoying a small shrub-toy outside of the cabin

Ben, playing with my new-ish stove.   The giant flames terrify me.  Must.Be.Calm.  Ben is very assured that we will not burn down the sweet cabin, but I’m not always so sure.   He’s generally correct, and the stove is a *much* faster way than the woodstove to get hot coffee in the morning .

The woodstove, however, keeps us warm.  And Pemba warm.  Which is very important.  This small little black dog may not be the toughest, not that Ben hasn’t tried to harden her throughout life.  Come to find out she’s VERY restless if she only has a cold hard floor, not  her couch to sleep on….

And below is a small sampling of my photo shoots.  The weather was incredible – some snow on Sunday morning, blue skies, frosty crisp air.  The mountains were snow-covered, rocks starkly outlined by their white counterparts…I was often struck still by the beauty & immensity.  Sometimes I think one can get too wrapped up in their own personal world.  However, when push comes to shove, there is so much more out there – more sorrow, more beauty, more depth and brilliance than one individual can truly pull all in and grasp.  Which is fabulous – it’s all out there, the exquisite and the sorrowful, to lend and learn wisdom, experience, compassion, etc etc etc etc…..

   

Happy Winter, everyone!  May you embrace and enjoy the still cold beauty of it, in whatever way you experience this life.