portland!

Portland

Where's Auggie?

There he is!

Where do the fairies live? I think under the stone step.

Brothers: Jude and Auggie

My great nephews.

Really great.

Nephews.

California!

We completed the western road trip that started back in August (with a five month break in Colorado). Road weary but happy, we arrived at our destination, California!

Eliza and I went right to Davis as fast as our wheels could carry us to stay with my niece Sylvia, her husband Brad, dog Stanley and the infamous baby Alden who took a first mini step while we were there.

We knew were were not in New England anymore when we saw the lemon tree laden with fruit as we entered their house. In January! What a great visit. Eliza's fever is a distant memory now. This healing household got her up and running again and off she went to Oakland where she will be living for the next few months.

And I got on a plane and flew to Portland, Oregon.

Stay tuned!

Cars, trucks, trains, mountains. Nevada.

up and running

Hi All,

I have been having some trouble loading photos and now blogger has a new feature in which comments are being "moderated" to avoid spam. I have to figure out how to approve your comments. I found them deep in a file, though. Thanks to any of you who have gone to the trouble of commenting and being told you had to be "moderated"! I'll work on that one.

So the road trip continues. Here are some last photos of Utah and Arches National Park. Edward Abbey country. Winter is such a great time to go. We were almost the only ones there. This area is scorching hot in the summer and overcrowded with tourists and campers. The snow on sandstone was lovely.

Here is a passage about Arches from Desert Solitude by Edward Abbey.

It seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb, brush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.

I actually take issue with his comment about lifeless sand. There are lichen and other organisms living in the sand and hikers are warned to stay on paths. One footfall on fertile sand and irreplaceable ancient life forms are killed.

utah!

Delicate Arch is the symbol of Utah. How will we find it?

Eliza discovers Delicate Arch.....

and other massive sandstone structures in Arches National Park.

road trip!

Eliza and I completed what I started last summer when I drove from Massachusetts to Colorado. In January, she and I drove from Colorado to California. Here are some highlights.

what a difference a day can make

Portland, Oregon on Thursday

Lincoln, Massachusetts on Saturday