Weather: Lovely summer weather, maybe a bit too hot for my liking but really nice.
Highlights from our family reunion:
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| Us! |
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| Top: Floating the Deschutes River at Cline Falls State Park; Great-grandchildren with Mom Middle: Hiking Mt. Bachelor; hanging out in the shade; Mom and my sister Grace at Bend HS reunion (Mom was the oldest person there) Bottom: 2nd cousins; Me and my sibs floating together in the pool; my sisters and sister-in-law |
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| Plume of smoke from forest fire near Prineville, about twenty five miles from where we were staying. |
Forest Fires: Forest fires are really awful right now in Eastern and Central Oregon. A few of the days we spent mostly indoors due to smoke in the air.
Juniper trees:
-Anne
Juniper trees:
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| I became oddly obsessed with juniper trees this trip. It all started with me musing about juniper berries and wondered why we never see flowers before the berries. As it turns out juniper berries is a misnomer. They aren't really berries but teeny-tiny cones disguised as berries, so no flowers. Then I started noticing how interesting the trees are. I generally think they are ugly trees but if one looks closer, they are very unique trees and very resilient. Not ugly at all. Look at the twisty bark and the growth patterns, which show age and abuse, but they are still standing. And if the tree dies, it can still be used as a decorative feature in the landscaping. |
Hope: I've been thinking about hope lately. It is hard sometimes to hold up ones head when so many things are going so badly for people in the US and around the world. But as you see from my little quote found in Libba Bray's wonderful book, Going Bovine, Hope has not forgotten us and perhaps we need to invite it to dinner, to sit with hope for a while. Here are a few things that are bringing me hope for the future:
- Midterm elections. I voted (by-mail) yesterday. (Our primary is on Tuesday) I still believe we can effect change by voting. And the polling is looking good for the Democrats to tack over the House of Representatives in November and there is a possibly even the Senate. It will provide the checks and balances to rein in this out-of-control president.
Click on image to make it larger so you can read it. (From: Hopium Substack.) - Focus on good news for a change. I like spending time on sites like this: Daily Climate: Good News Among the good news there is a link to how a graphic novel is spreading the news about how climate change is making hurricanes stronger. (Islands in the Sky)
- World Cup International Visitors fell in love with the real America, saw become our cliches. (NBC)
- Grandkids! Our grand boys came over the other day and had a great time building their KiwiCo and CrunchLabs kits. We had a great time witnessing them in engineering-modes. They give me such hope for the future. Video is of Ian's gyroscope after he and grandpa built it.
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| Jamie building a Frog Catapult with his KiwiCo kit. |
Books: Don and I finished the audiobook for The Warmth of Other Suns by Wilkerson. We've been listening to it on and off for two months. It was a lot of work but we got a lot out of it. Now I am finally making progress on The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Desai (83%) and Land by O'Farrell (73%). Egads, these three books have dominated my reading this summer and I am ready to move on!
