Best Friends

Today is the birthday of my best friend, Carol Hansen.  Carol and I have known each other for 35+ years.  We met while taking horseback riding lessons and have been friends ever since.  We've held garage sales together, as well as driving around looking for garage sales to visit.  We done Competitive Trail Riding together, as well as just trail riding for fun locally.  We've weathered heartache and happiness, and many, many birthdays together. 

Carol's always there for me when I need her, and I hope I always return the favor.  Just knowing there's someone who loves me for who I am, and who overlooks my foibles and missteps, means a lot.  Carol has enriched my life in more ways than I can name.  So this post is dedicated to you, Carol.  May our friendship continue to grow.  Happy birthday, dear friend.

Yet More Pictures

Washington State is a perfect environment for green and growing things. We have a maritime climate--lots of rain and mild winters (usually) and also lots of sunshine. Rain and sunshine have been in abundance this year, and as a result things are growing as fast as a speeding bullet. (Case in point: the apple above, taken in bright sunshine right after it rained) You can almost hear the vegetation growing in the pasture. So I've been taking lots of pictures lately. Pictures of the cats and dogs playing, of the horses playing, of flowers blooming, of trees in all their leafy glory. Lots of pictures. Here is a sampling.

This is the underside of a leaf from the apple tree. Love the veins!

And if you don't believe in our rains, here's a picture of part of my driveway during a huge rainstorm.

This is a single tree in my pasture, an ancient alder with three trunks. Quite a rarity for an alder.

And last but not least, one of my favorite pasture pictures, showing a meandering path made by my horses and wild critters. I find this picture very calming.

Two Nerdy History Girls

One of my clients has started a new history blog with a friend, and it's so delightful that I wanted to pass it on to you.

Two Nerdy History Girls is a new blog by Susan Holloway Scott and Loretta Chase. Susan writes historical novels and Loretta writes historical romance. The focus of the blog is history in all its fascinating aspects, including talk about who wore what and who slept with whom, not to mention sorting out rumor and myth from fact. If you're a history buff, do drop by their blog for a visit. These ladies know their history!

New Pictures

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately, taking advantage of the recent spate of overcast, rainy days. An overcast day is excellent picture-taking weather if you're doing close-ups of, say, flowers, or portraits of people. Bright sun casts harsh shadows on faces and objects, so whenever it gets overcast, I head outdoors with my camera. I took the picture on the left, looking up through one of the Alder trees in the pasture.

This is a close-up of leaves in the apple tree. I love the veins that are so prominent in apple leaves.

I guess this is going to be a "green" post, since apparently all my recent pictures are of green things. The below picture is a close-up of bracken ferns. I'll be back in a few days with more pictures.