Happy December!

 I thought I'd share these two photos of Mt. Hood. I took them a couple years ago from Jump Off Joe - the high point of the Horse Heaven Hills behind my house. It was bitter cold, being February, so while my guest was outside fiddling with his camera and tripod, I stayed in the car where there was some residual heat (engine off) and no wind! I put my camera on the dash and snapped these two photos of the sun set. They aren't very good photos, truth to tell, but I think they are interesting. Look how the lower clouds fold up and over the mountain.

 Mt. Hood resides just outside of Portland OR, which is 200 miles away from where I took the picture. My guess is that Mt. Hood is about 150 miles from my camera.

The pictures may not be all that great, but the colors and folding clouds make them unique.

I call this one Moon Goddess. It is the cable bridge in Pasco with a full moon sitting on top. Yes, I played a wee bit with the colors.

I am very happy to state the temps are warming and our snow and ice are melting back to a more social state of being. Yesterday, I braved the roads (main ones are bare and wet) and did some shopping. I bought my Winter Gift from me to me. I always buy me a Winter Gift--that way I am assured of getting at least one present I really, really wanted. My present this year is a nook. Fortunately, I have a friend who works at Barnes & Noble, and she helped me choose the right one for my reading--turns out to be the least expensive of the three they offer!

Because she's a friend, and I gave her my purse, she let me hold a nook (boxed) that wasn't chained to the counter. When I walked four feet away from her and stretched out on the floor, holding the nook as I hold my books when I read in bed, not only did she laugh, but so did at least three other customers. I happily announced to one and all that was the selling point! I brought it home, fired it up, and downloaded a novel of over 1100 pages. Believe me, holding the nook was much, much easier than holding the paper novel! And I am very pleased with the ease of reading. I figure at the rate which I tend to buy books, it will pay for itself within a year. Perhaps sooner;-) How nice it will be to have so many books in one small nook rather than trying to figure out where to stack them. My library shelves are already bowing due to so many books stacked horizontally on them.

After buying the nook, I went to the sewing machine store. I have never been overly fond of my sewing machine, and now that it is 10 years old, and i grumble every time I use it, I think a new one is in order. The nice thing is, the sewing machine store will take the one I dislike as trade in. So, guess where I'm going later today, maybe????

My Gratefuls:
* Warmer temperatures
* Meeting another quilter at the Janome store
* Barnes & Noble for many things, especially their nook
* The Army National Guard for their program to help qualified young men and women get their High School Diploma
* Diana Gabaldon for her wonderful stories!


What I'm Reading:
* An Echo in the Bone --by Diana Gabaldon (nookbook). This is the 7th in her Outlander Series. She is one of my most favorite writers, and this series is wonderful. When I read one of her books, I feel like I'm having a a reunion with good friends I haven't seen for a while. Unfortunately, it takes her about 3 years to write one of these novels (she works on more than one at a time), and it doesn't take me anywhere near that long to read one - even at over 1100 pages! I'm not sure what genre to classify this series - it really crosses several genres and from what I've seen and read, she appeals to both male and female readers. Wonderfully researched and delightfully written. Please visit her website at:  http://dianagabaldon.com/ for information on her books as well as herself.

* The Butterfly's Burden --by Mahmoud Darwish. I'll be reading this book for a while. The poems are to be savored, not gulped. They are like fine wine to be enjoyed, not soda to slake one's thirst.

* Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe --by Laurence Bergreen. This is a fascinating book, alas, it now must compete with Echo, above. However, I'm sure I'll end up finishing them both relatively soon. Bergreen has at least one more eBook that will make it's way to my nook soon. I like his writing style, and do prefer, for the most part, nonfiction over fiction.


Quote for this Post:
"For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary"--Diana Gabaldon (Outlander)