Here are photos from our recent trip to Maui, Hawaii. His friend Greg married his long-time sweetheart Mary and we were fortunate enough to be able to attend such a lovely wedding located in paradise. We stayed two glorious weeks and I miss it very much! I wish I could have brought back some of that sunshine but no go.

Rain or not, these are happy days for Tim and I. We're building a three car garage with upper living space including an art studio for me and a large entertainment area for our new bar and pool table. We're also finishing up an incredible garden space and preparing for our own special event, our wedding in December! So much to do!

Here are photos from my birthday trip to Summerland, BC. Tim and I had a wonderful time golfing, visiting various wineries with fantastic views of the lake, a train ride, and enjoying a lovely room overlooking the water. The locals were very nice, the weather was good and it was one of my better birthday trips. I would love to go back and spend more time there as the short trip we made wasn’t enough to experience a fraction of the wineries. It really was a mini Napa.

My boyfriend Tim is creating a beautiful new vegetable garden for me. I've added photos to show the progress as it's being built.

I turned 40 on September 12th and for my birthday I went to Port Townsend. I probably should have been depressed turning the big "40" but it was the most lovely day I can remember. Here are some shots from Port Townsend, the B&B, and some cemetery shots from Port Gamble.

Here are some shots from a trip to Volunteer Park.

Another sweet animal story where a seal comforts a woman stranded out at sea.

My sister Theresa got married! Her ceremony was at a lovely Japanese garden. The pictures were taken around 7:30 p.m. so the lighting wasn't ideal, but they still turned out pretty good.

Enjoyed an afternoon at Deception Falls. I was delighted to find a swimming spot (image #26) that was slighly off the beaten path. I want to go back and swim there. It's not only deep but also encircled by rock so there is no chance of being swept away downstream. This really was a lovely afternoon. Very quiet, warm and just a few visitors. This really is my idea of a perfect summer afternoon.

With all the glum news these days, I can't help but be warmed by this article. This couple has been married for 80 years! That is just too romantic. I think it's everyone's dream to find that special someone who lasts a lifetime, and at the end, you are still in love with one another. Awww...

Added a new link, under Favorites, for My Art There isn't much there but I hope to post my other artistic endeavors soon.

I have to share the treaty negotiations speech given by Chief Seattle (where the city of Seattle got its name from), given in 1854. It was so moving that it brought tears to my eyes. I could relate to it so deeply; the connection to earth and the soulful spirits that used to roam this continent. I think anyone with a drop of Native American blood in them will always feel a profound connection to mother earth and her inhabitants. We will always want the feel of soil under our feet, to gaze with never ending wonder at the stars, to allow our spirit to emerge and follow its own destiny, and not be told where our essence exists.

Why reinvent the wheel of writing if someone else can so something so well? I really applauded an article by a journalist from the San Francisco Chronicle. It's called Earth To Humankind: Back Off Say good-bye to your car, computer, everything. We are burning up the planet too fast to hang on.

This is just too funny to pass up! The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners.

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

Karmageddon (n): It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

Dopeller effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

When are we humans going to clue into the fact that we can't rape this earth indefinitely? But I guess, what can we expect when we've got, as this writer so eloquently puts, 'Mr. Magoo' running (or should I say 'ruining') the country?

Excellent quote by Moby in reference to the Terri Schiavo case: “My note to the far-right would be: you can’t have it both ways. If you genuinely believe in the sanctity of life then you cannot support the death penalty and you cannot allow people to buy automatic assault weapons and you cannot support wars that result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. And if you genuinely believe in states rights then you can’t pass intrusive federal legislation when the states do things that you arbitrarily disagree with.”

It's the morning of March 7th. I'm still here in Melbourne, Australia on vacation. This place has so many beauties. I fell in love with the Yarra Valley and really wish I could live there. It was very pristine and of course, located near terrific wineries (all the reason in the world for me). The people here in Australia are very nice and for many reasons it will be hard to leave. My dear friend Mike has been a wonderful host and was so kind to take me to all of the places I wanted to go. I'll dearly miss him and this place and am so happy I could capture my experiences on film, though no camera can truly capture the essence of the people and environment.

Felt moved to write a new prose called The Glass Window.

I just took a trip to Ilwaco this weekend. The face concealed by the Playdoe Princess Pony tube is my niece Madison. She's so cute! I took shots of their lighthouse, Black Lake, cemetery and a church in Oysterville. And I was also, for the first time, able to capture a raven that flew overhead. I heard its unusual 'caw' and took about five shots, but only one came out. Not many people know that ravens are not the same as crows. They are twice the bird (size, wing-span, weight, and probably intelligence.) They are so magical...

My sister Mary and brother-in-law Will also showed me a small cemetery that they had found named Oysterville Cemetery. Note the rare Native American head-stone and the one of a child who did not live but a day... Like I've always said, every cemetery has its stories.

I was really charmed by this church's door and their cherub carvings so I had to get a few shots for my collection.

Enjoyed a weekend trip to Whidbey Island. Photographed Sunnyside Cemetery and local spots. I was really pleased with the small town of Coupville. A cute victorian town situated on the water which afforded me a delightful view during lunch. The snow shot is taken from my room at Fort Casey Inn.

Added photos from my N.W. Washington and Cannon Beach trip under my Pictures link.

I still stand by my prediction that California will get the 'big one' in our life-time. These tremors are unusual not only because they are some of the deepest recorded but because this is the first time they have been recorded under a transform fault.

For Micki, a fellow Poe aficionado, I added the following three poems under my Poetry link: A Dream within a Dream, Evening Star, and the The Sleeper. This weekend I shall add a poem of my own celebrating the stars and the sea.

There is nothing like a brilliantly lit frost covered November morning to inspire me to write (that and a fanciful desire). Today’s prose is called The Lovers.

Added a prose (Winter written by me) and a poem (The Raven written by Poe). If you think Winter stinks (the prose, not the season), let me know. By the way, I adore winter but wanted to write something 'dark' and not the typical blathering of cherubic faced kids pushing sleighs, pretty snowflakes and pure white snow. Bleh! If I were to write something 'light' about winter it would be more about the maddening silence that finally brought about sanity! Oh, is that light? Maybe I'm incapable ;)

Stop the press! My first feedback on Winter! "I'm reading Seamus Heaney at the moment. He's an Irish poet who won the Nobel literature prize in 1995. He is very big on truth and reality. His writing is very prose-like with negligible rhyme. So what you have said is very true to winter: dead, dark and it sucks the life out of us."

I'm hard pressed to see good news these days. Pardoned turkeys (from another big turkey-- President Bush) die of drugs (within three months of being 'pardoned'!) that make them grow excessive in size. Is this what they are feeding all the turkeys we're eating on Thanksgiving? Is there any surprise why Americans are so bloody fat?

A fanatical right wing Christian is elected to the U.S. Senate who wants women, per his book, to pray for PMS related problems and thinks the death penalty should be handed out for abortions though he himself has performed them! Not to mention his unauthorized sterilization of women. Let's make him the first to die, shall we?

The climate is falling apart, extinction is rampant and we're allowing more drilling in our dwindling habitats.

Russia is creating new nuclear missiles while we're blowing up things with laser beams (did they get this from Dr. Evil?) and only the most uninformed wouldn't know we'd be going after oil rich Iran next. Is the intelligence that Powell refers to the same bogus crap we got for Iraq?

Financially things aren't looking too rosy either. We're at a new low against the euro and you can all but kiss social security goodbye with the escalating federal debt that has no end in sight.

Ah, but eventually we'll get our own asses kicked from increased hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, drought, rising sea levels, smog related deaths, and emerging diseases

In the end, I agree with Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr Helen Caldicott, that Bush is going to kill us all!

Great! Finally some good advice on how to deal with annoying Jehovah Witnesses:

Wink knowingly, hold out a $50 bill, tell them you'll have a 1/8 bag of the good stuff.

Tell them you're glad they've come, invite them in, ask them to exorcise your toaster.

Ask questions and check the answers with your Ouija board. Let them know if they're wrong.

Begin speaking in tongues, try to get them to join in.

Ask them to show you all the texts in the bible containing dirty words.

Ask them if there're any good looking women (men) attending their church. Try to get phone numbers.

Tell them you're the son of god (or the virgin Mary), welcome them to heaven, offer them some wine.

Tell them they can come in but only if they agree to sit inside the pentagram.

A small village in Texas is missing an idiot.

How can 51% of voting Americans vote for Bush? We cannot afford to continue going down the path that this administration is taking us. Our economy, environment, and relations cannot endure. People around the world wonder if we are reading the same news they are. I'm embarrassed to be an American. I'm ashamed of our country and my President. Get ready for World War III, the draft, loss of freedom, a radically violent environment, nuclear attacks and witch hunts.

Happy Halloween!

Did you know that Halloween has an astronomical interest in that it is a "cross-quarter" date, midway between an equinox and a solstice?

According to John Mosley of the Griffith Observatory: "The Celts of the British Isles used the cross-quarter days to mark the beginnings of the seasons, and winter began with Halloween. Halloween marked the transition between summer and winter, light and dark - and life and death. On that one transitional night those who had died during the previous year returned for a final visit to their former homes. People set food out for them and lit fires to aid them on their journey -- but remained on guard for mischief the spirits might do on the one night when the dead returned to the land of the living."