small, happy moments

• Running in the woods on a quiet, Sunday morning, coming face to face with a young male deer. The only sounds: birds in the trees, my feet on the dirt, nature
  

• Opening up a container of grapes to see them red/purple, fat and glistening. Perfect grapes.
  

• Myra making her wookie sounds as she rolls around on her back getting a belly rub
  

• Sammy licking my hand when I rub his belly
  

• Gluten-free brownies that are so good, you wouldn't know they are gluten-free
  

• Walking by someone's computer and seeing them reading an article I wrote. It's a powerful feeling to know people are reading your words.
  

• Knowing most of our bills are already paid for the month
  

• Putting letters or cards in the mailbox, knowing the people you are sending them to will like and appreciate them
  

• Chai green tea with vanilla soymilk and a blueberry gluten-free waffle for breakfast
  

hooray for thunderstorms

Portland isn't really known for extreme weather. While it rains a lot, it doesn't usually have torrential downpours. Very few thunderstorms.

I love storms. I love the energy, I love watching the sky just open up and sheets of rain fall down.

I used to be afraid of thunderstorms, and would go hide downstairs in the basement until it was gone. And I was especially afraid of lightning, because I knew lightning often struck tall things, including tall trees. As our house was fairly tall (big A-frame house), I was always afraid lightning would strike our house and cause a fire.

I don't know when that fear went away, but once it did, I would either go outside and play in the downpour, or press my face against the window and watch. I love storm chasing in the car, when you can see the storm, either just ahead or just behind you. I just love the show nature puts on.

And the south is perfectly happy to accommodate my love of storms. The other night, we were driving to the movies (saw Ocean's 13, it was fun, much more like the first than the second), and it was raining so hard, we could hardly see, there were huge flashes of lightning lighting up the sky, it was just cool!

perfect saturday

Woke up, went to my outdoor exercise class, where I had a good run in the rain. It was quietly raining, and everything smelled green and clean and earthy. In between running loops, we did a lot of strength training stuff, planks, high steps/squats, all sorts of good things. I felt great at the end.

Came home, went to the produce stand and got all my fresh fruit and veggies for the week.

We had planned on going to the Chinese garden, but it was raining fairly steadily, and it just didn't seem like it would be as much fun in the rain. So instead, I talked to a friend for an hour (Hi Savannah!) and then journaled a ton. Read some, napped some, made spelt bread french toast for dinner, then we watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith again, the movie is just funny and fun.

A great way to spend a rainy, mellow saturday.

Trees!

I love trees, I feel a connection to them. I say hello to trees. I will stop and put my hand on them and say a silent greeting. I will hug trees. In some of the trees around here, I can see faces, especially in the forests, and I instantly make up stories about tree people and fairies and the lives they lead. I will stop and stare at trees that I think are particularly lovely.

So, when I found this, you can imagine how thrilled I was (found via Magpie and Cake and Neatorama.com).

I don't like the circus trees as much, because it looks like it would have hurt the trees to grow like that (and I'm sure the tree designer didn't think of that), but the other ones. Just wow. The aspens in Utah that are all one organism is really impressive. The tree in Monterey looks lonely and proud. The mexican Tule Tree. Swoon.

You have probably seen the book, places to see before you die? Well, I've looked at it, and I don't really need to see all the places in there, but I have decided my list of places to see includes meeting all these trees.