I'm getting pretty bad about letting posts pile up in my draft folder. Here's one written a few weeks ago:
☽
Off to the forest, off to the sea. With the events of late, anywhere that takes me away from a screen is a good place to be. For days I watched, then checked and rechecked the news after the storming of the Capitol. If you're shocked or didn't see this coming, I don't know where you've been the last five years.
The last couple of days have brought us wind and rain, with flood alerts coming every few hours. I don't want see damage done, but I really love stormy days. Being out in it is thrilling, but being tucked inside our cozy house is pretty nice, too. We've had a fire going nearly every day since mid October, and yesterday we had one going in the upstairs fireplace and in our tiny camp woodstove in the basement as well. The glorious scent of woodsmoke curled into every corner.
On a recent visit to the coast, we drove around looking at little beach houses. We had a coastal getaway cottage years ago and have once again begun talking about the possibility of another one. The next to last picture is one I think would be perfect (if only it were for sale).
Also taking me away lately:
Watch: We received a free year of Apple TV and I just finished Dickinson, which is really fun. I haven't been watching as much lately as I usually do, but I hope to get lost in a series again soon (any recs?). I did catch the first episode of PBS's All Creatures Great and Small and look forward to more of that. I remember my mom loving James Herriot's books when I was growing up.
Read: I just finished Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest by Jack Nisbet. Several of the chapters were about the part of the Pacific Northwest I'm from and that made it much more interesting to me than it would have been otherwise, I think. It's part geology, part story/myth, part natural/cultural history. Also just completed was The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen, about a family living on an island off the coast of Norway in the early 20th century. The pace is very slow and it seems like not much happens for most of the book, but there are struggles, dreams, and inevitable change. You really feel the isolation and remoteness, not just of the wondrously atmospheric landscape, but of spirit as well. Just beautiful.
Well, next week will be a doozy (Inauguration!), hopefully in a good way. See you on the other side.