We've been here and there. Ramblers and loungers. A nice mix for me. A little bit of home and a little bit of away for a day. Then home by dinner. Late-summer sunlight. Fields and furrows. Gray layers of light over fuzzy blue hills. Cold mornings and cold water. Regiments of geese fly low over the river, right above our heads. They thread their ways upstream, stopping to rest just beyond the rapids. Four eagles circle high in the clear, sharp light, talking to each other. Yellow leaves flashed silver as they fell. My body warmed the shallow pool of river water in my chair. I dared not move lest I chill it again. He examined stones and skipped rocks the size of salad plates. A river crayfish tried to git me. I insisted it was lobster. But Andy saved me. I have certain fears: going into banks, vinegar, wet cat food (disgusting beyond belief), crustaceans. He does his best, as always. Helping me always. My dear love.
Thank you thank you — for all of your orders, and your kindest words about the new ornaments and the new shop, and all of your gentle kindnesses, and constant generosity, and sweetness here all summer, and always. I feel raggedly sensitive lately, in good ways and difficult ways. I'm disheveled and flushed, a purple and smudgy September plum, ready to bust and ooze at a light touch, taking things personally, and I'll take your kind words personally, too. I'm grateful for them, more than you'll know.
Monday. He picked lavender for me while I sat in an old metal lawn chair with a poufy cushion and ate a chocolate ice-cream cone. Bees and butterflies rushed the blossoms, so many it felt like a fairy meadow. Harvest ball. There was a box where you put your five dollars for a bouquet. A broken-down shed. An ancient apple tree. Across the field, a wooden house. Once I was in the chair I felt like the field felt: tired, wilted, relieved. Four o'clock. Nothing else needed, then, beyond his quiet company and the holy, golden sunlight. How grateful I am for all these things.
Loving your photos as always. If I could only follow one blog, your's would be the one! Your home looks like it is filled with love and peace. I am so grateful you share your life with all of us! Blessings to you!
Oh Alicia, your pictures are as beautiful as always! And how wonderfully surprised I was to find that you are selling some in your shop. One day, when I have a little extra money, I will buy some and frame them and put them in my Southern house and love them. My mother is from Seattle and I have many family members that live in Oregon, and sometimes my heart just aches for the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Thank you as always for sharing a piece of your beautiful life with us. You are a treasure.
Spoken again just perfectly......... Xox
As always, I love your poetic words and pictures.
A life well lived. xoxo
I had to set the geese picture as my desktop pic. All of them are lovely as usual. It must be nice sometimes to be a goose. Change of scenery each season. But exhausting. So, nah.
Oh, I'm such a lurker but your blog is my absolute favorite. Both your writing and photography are exceptional. Hugs and prayers for you.
What lovely photos and a beautiful post Alicia. I just visited your new web site shop - excellent! I'm glad there were still some of the ornament kits left. ;) I can't wait to make them after I finish some projects I currently have on the needles. I love all of your designs - you are so creative! Take very good care.
Beautiful words and pictures. It makes me feel dreamy...
A beautiful post, as always! And, cat food, yes, totally gross. But, Alicia, what is this fear of vinegar?
and again you make me see the beauty of summer, enjoy it, even!
What a beautiful post. Oh, how I love me a river. It took me this long in life to realize that it is rivers and brooks and streams that I yearn for, not the (much more accessible) ocean.
I've been feeling much the way you have, lately. But without the comfort of nature, or the peaceful afternoons. Thank you for giving me images to dream on.
I am so touched by your words about the comments you get and what they mean to you. Such connections though words online is a new kind of beauty in the world. I for one feel like you've been teaching me about gentleness, and I am thankfull for that possibility of learning from someone so far away. I wish you and your family the best.
Love,
Stina from Oslo
You totally brighten my day. Days without Posie are less inspired. Still waiting for an update on the triple Irish chain, and your thoughts on the great iced tea experiment. But I guess I just can't rush genius. BTW Your ornaments are positively darling. Well done.
oh my! will you share where the river is? i have a thing for swimming in rivers! we will put it on our list and trek there next summer. so lovely! thanx for writing, you often make my day!
you brought me to tears my friend...what a beautiful life. xoxo love from muskoka...
you have the loveliest way with gentle words.
I love your space here more with each passing day. Your words, your images, your words that create images. They are all so lovely and I read them over and over. I love the quietness and contemplation and simple beauty. So thank you too, for sharing these pieces of yourself with us.
Thanks for posting, Alicia. Your posts are gifts that I open with anticipation...expecting beauty and wonder and fun and receiving so much more as you lovingly touch my heart and mind. Praying for continued comfort and blessing and encouragement for you and yours. xxx from Gracie
And how grateful we are that we have your beautiful words and images to remind us of what really matters!
alicia, having read the comments above, it seems there is little to add...you seem to have such a way to reach right into our hearts...just reading your post gave me a bit of that fragility and my eyes filled with tears...maybe it is something to do with the change of season and time continuing to pass...my thoughts are with you...x
Girl those words you use to create your beautiful stories make me feel as if I'm living what I'm reading, never felt that way before. I can see those bees and butterflies having themselves a Harvest Ball and I'm right there with them, the beautiful colors and all it's warmness. Oh yeah, I'm at work, no daydreaming HEE HEE!!
Oh so lovely. You and your husband have such a special, special relationship and its so lovely for you to share it here. I have tears in my eyes too for all that closeness and the private little world I used to have with my husband, it all changed so much after we became parents.
love. love. love. i love the rock cairns in photo 2. i love the pseudo-juxtaposition of swimming in the river and 'deckdock1' with the blankies. rumbly-tumbly thunder and spotty rain here in omaha. is the mist in my eyes from your eloquence or the rain? alicia, you are a treasure and loved by all. take heed of all the comments. you bring sunshine and healing with your words. thank you.
Beautiful, thanks for sharing. I love your photographs. Made the Buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake you recommended and it was fantastic!