first day of snow

below i posted the first of the 'first day of snow' posts.
here is the second, featuring photos that uncle seth took on his walk.
compare the porch one in this post with the porch in the last post---already accumulating.
very nice.
it's hard to capture how much is coming down.

white morning

well, it's a lot whiter right now. it's dumping snow. blizzard style. and we love it. poor uncle seth is walking around the lake trying to take photos.
i'll post what he captures.
for now, here are a few of alasdair and his buddy--gatsby, the boy+papa, snow accumulation this morning and the sweet squirrel---one of many new friends who feast on extras we put out the window and into the bird feeder.
HAPPY 3 MONTHS to the boy.

lazy day

it's sunday morning. ben, sweet man, is cooking up some tasty breakfast for honey, alasdair and i. coffee in hand, and four open windows looking out to trees clothed in their new fall colors and SNOW! not a lot, but flurries.
it's beautiful.
uncle seth arrives today to take honey home tomorrow. bittersweet---i can't wait for seth to get here, but his arrival signifies honey's departure. i'm torn.
last weekend aara came up to visit for the night and we celebrated with our first candlelight dinner.
alasdair is loving his bumbo, new pajamas and many hikes.
the snow is picking up. yessssss.
morley, oh borals boy, loves the mountain life, too.
check him out---glowing in the sunlight. good boy.

my boys

WHAT? are you kidding me?
yes, these are my boys, my men, my loves.
mmmm.
oh so sweet.

back in time

in the beginning, i said this 'blog' would be an image-based one.
indeed, that it has become.
so, here's to more photos. photos taken prior to our boise departure. photos of alasdair and his cousins: stella and asa and etta, and the first love of his life: miss honey--my beautiful mama.
the boy misses his boise people. i know this because he tells me so.

activity

Alasdair keeps me active--not that it's a difficult task around here. We try to hike daily, and each day we find a new route, and a new lake. That's been the case so far, at least. There will come a day when we simply choose the 'best' route, but for now we still have the luxury of exploring new areas everyday.
Stove update: we got a new one. Celebrate. Ben found their home in the old one, along with a toasty little mouse. sick. the new one is plush, white, and mouse-free, for now.
there are traps set behind it: we've already downed 8 of the little guys. poor guys. grow up though, seriously--figure out a different area to hang out in.
i'm not too talkative. just got back from a hike and thought i'd write that much. i plan to jump into the lake today.
whip.
it will be cold.

get it straight

horizontal that is.
geeze. what's my deal with this posting business? i can't even manage to post photos in the proper direction.
frustrating.
anyway, as they are:
(mostly alasdair)
*himself showing off his booty gear, graciously handed down to us from his cousin, Asa.
*he and i returning from a little hike--his first riding in the mei tai.
*a closeup of the boy in the mei tai. and do not fret, we saved the other sock.
*the bathroom mirror, chatting it up with his best friend, himself.
*smiley monkey blanketed in the bouncer. good times.
*his wide-eyed stare. that's when he's really pretty amazed by something. like the times i press my lips together and make that boat(ish) sound. he likes that.
*he in his new pimpy ride, the radio flyer, in the sun. bad mama.
*mama + the boy, outside our front door. it's what we see when we open it up. wow.
*papa's new pimpy ride: the gator.
so, there: photos.
lots.

alasdair

um ... sideways.
didn't mean to.

posting gig

here's the deal: i can't seem to figure out the whole post a photo + corresponding verbage ... then do it again down a few paragraphs. no. i upload a photo, write a bit to go along with it, then post another ... and each time it gets all screwed up. photos of moose sided by a paragraph about my mom's visit. no. those don't go together. honey's visit goes with photos of honey, not moose. seeing as i can't get that to work (no time to figure it out, and extremely slow internet), expect a photo post.
words to follow.
then, in lovely fashion, readers--if any--can read and scroll down to the corresponding photo.
hmm.
pointless paragraph there---surely you will figure all of that out on your own.
now. to post photos, which takes a veryyyryyr VeRRry long time.

photos, moose and mice

alasdair, last friday morning before the boise departure. too cute.




photos, finally. we saw four moose while sitting on the front porch today. amazing. there's a male and a female.










the new home. i know there are other photos of the house, but this is the first actually taken by me. and that feels good.

though---that lovely house there smells of mice shit. yes, shit. a derogatory word, i know, but i must use it for emphasis. it appears that mice have been living in the stove. not inside the oven bit, but where the clock and dials are. sick. we turned on the oven to cook up some grub yesterday and there was a nasty odor. we thought maybe it had been cleaned and needed one more 'airing out.'

tried again today. no. bad. bad. so, ben inspected and found a mouse (alive ... he came running outside where morley, red, alasdair and myself were hanging out and grabbed red to chase it down). he also found loads of his loads. sick, again. anyway---he cleaned and cleaned. scared the mouse away. cleaned more. turned on the oven to cook it away. now, five hours later and a container of incense, the house still smells. oh well. ben says it's a small price to pay for life in paradise.

we sat on the porch again tonight and heard coyotes yipping, an owl and branches breaking nearby---the moose again, we think. indeed, it is a beautiful life.

this is life

sunday, alasdair's ten-week-old birthday and our second morning waking up in this beautiful place. we arrived friday afternoon around 3. busy day. ben and morley drove down in a 17-foot u-haul towing the forester, both packed from floor to ceiling. the outback, carrying my mom, alasdair, red (the cat) and myself, was also packed full.
red cried until ogden, when his cries started to slowly drown out.
alasdair slept, praise all who be---and had a ridiculously pleasant trip aside from one red-faced crying episode. that's a long drive for a little baby.
so, we arrived at 3 and by ten that night everything was unloaded, and nearly a third of the boxes were unpacked.
thank you mother. seriously, it was all miss honey.
waking up to feed alasdair in the night, we heard mice, rats---possibly possums---in the kitchen. i imagined entire packs of animals rooting through 'their' new supply of goods. checking out what the new folks brought in from the big city. they clanked glasses and then scurried across the wooden floors. i was scared to walk down the hall to the bathroom. (though i was scared to walk five feet to the bathroom in my old, small, enclosed house, too.)
yesterday we bought three plug-ins that emit a high-pitched frequency that is supposed to keep mice, spiders and cockroaches away (without harming the dog + cat). soon after we plugged them in, red began chasing a little mouse through the house. into alasdair's room. bite, bite, release. run. chase. dodge. ben got involved, attempting to trap the little guy. things got hairy. ben was jumping around. he caught him in the end and proceeded to carry red with him during each trip down the hall for the rest of the night. his protector. red. ha.
this morning i noticed the rug had been pulled up in all the running around. indicative of just how much running around they were doing.

i must say this: we are making every attempt to be kind and understanding of all the spiders, mice and other crawlers that we see around the house. it's cold outside, kind of, i would want indoors too. anyway, we try not to kill them. say hi and walk away. it's their space too, i suppose.

ben and morley nearly ran into a moose yesterday. ben took the morley boy down to the lake for a swim. he said he threw the ball and suddenly a big moose came tearing down the hill and proceeded to get a drink only about 200 feet away from them. fortunately morley didn't bark, nor did he chase the moose, which i thought a dog like him might try to do---dopey morley, all he wants is a buddy, and who knows, maybe a moose looks like a big dopey dog to morley ol boy.
a moose. they saw one on our second day here. that's the point.

alasdair is loving the place. the trees. the breeze. he and i took a ride on the gator today. he just chilled on my lap while we climbed up the rocky road, around corners and to the top of a small hill nearby. our new, pimpy ride---good thing for john deere.
i think alasdair loves it so much that he doesn't even want to sleep. he fights and fights come bedtime. as he is doing right this minute. tense body, eyes heavy, wrapped up all snug as i wish i were right now. i could sleep.
most definitely.

ah---and he experienced his first ever thunderstorm today. a first for all of us up here. it came down--hard. lightening. thunder. rain. rain. rain. i took him outside. we walked back and forth on the porch while watching the rain. he was silent. just watching, listening. i think he enjoyed it.

tonight ben prepared dinner. fettucine. yum. salad. he's an amazing cook. the kitchen is nearly put together. as is the rest of the house. we work fast.

yes, so begin our days here. fascinating how it seems we spend a good portion of our lives figuring out ways to slow down when all we really need to do is go outside. sit. and imagine you live in a place where going downtown, or on a coffee run, or shopping aren't an option. we spend so many of our days trying to speed up time to get to that 'wasteful day, ' in which we can just sit and feel good about it.
one should always feel good about sitting for at least 30 minutes.
sit and breathe.

i'm learning how to do that again.