The Land

We had a bit of a scare yesterday here in my little town. A car accident off the highway became a car fire, which ignited the hillside - which hasn't seen rain since May - which quickly spread up the hill into town.









I raced home from work after hearing from both my husband and our neighbor that evacuations of some parts of town were beginning. I arrived to a swarm of helicopters dropping water on the fire, and fire trucks stationed throughout town.


The air was thick with smoke, smelling like a campfire. After living in California for so long, I'm finally starting to associate that smell with danger, and not fun.

Nobody had to be evacuated due to the competence of the local firefighters. I'm tremendously grateful for their knowledge and work.

Here's a little jewelry homage to them...

Summer Travelin'

This has been a wonderful summer. Now that I live outside of the Fog Zone in the Bay Area I now get to enjoy summer weather. As I write this the crickets and peepers are singing, and the windows are open, letting in the fresh night air. Nice to not have to be bundled in a sweater...in July.

The summer has been full of lots of fun travel. I started the summer by going to visit my friend in southern California to celebrate her birthday. It's always tons of fun visiting with her. We even got to spend a bit of time in Santa Barbara.

There's never enough time with close friends, and the weekend flew by.

Then I went to Vermont to visit with my family. My Grandma is 94, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time visiting with her. I wish I could bottle up her stories. She's a wonderful storyteller - in fact, she's one of my primary influences for getting my BA in Storytelling as Cross-Cultural Communication. Thanks, Grandma!

Vermont is gorgeous in the summer. This was one of the only times that I've taken pictures while I've been there. I've always felt that if I want pictures of Vermont all I have to do is look at a coffee table book or calendar with Vermont pictures and that's just what I'd be getting in my own pictures. It's true, but there's still something nice about having my own.

Besides, if I hadn't been taking pictures I wouldn't have gotten shots of the Flying Monkeys in Burlington...