Sunday, August 31, 2014

Thing Are Happening

On my vintage trailer. 
Yellow Wheel Come on over to Daffodil’s blog and see what we’re doing.  You may be surprised!

(You can visit Daffodil’s blog by clicking on the ‘Daffodil – My Vintage Trailer’ tab at the top of my blog.)

Friday, August 15, 2014

What Would You Do. . .

If you were camping and it rained when you had planned to roast marshmallows over the campfire outside?  Well, you could improvise.  You could put your thinking cap on and come up with a new plan!
Roasting MarshamallowsYou could very carefully roast them inside – over the burner of the stove in your travel trailer!  You would have to be careful not to catch them on fire or your smoke alarm would go off and the campers nearby would come running!
Roasting Marshmallows InsideYou could turn them and roast them - and then you would eat them!  And they would be good!  So good you might eat a few too many.

(There’s a new post over at Daffodil’s blog.  If you haven’t seen it, click on the ‘Daffodil – My Vintage Trailer’ tab at the top of this page.  It will take you right over to her blog.  We’re making progress!  I’d love to share it with you.)

Sunday, August 10, 2014

I Will Trust When I Cannot See

Pathway2
 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Lean not on your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge Him
And He will direct your path.
Proverbs 3:5-6



When I do not understand God’s leading
When I do not know the reason why
He should choose the path that lies before me
Still to Him in faith I can reply:

I will trust when I cannot see
When I’m faced with adversity
And believe Your will is always best for me
I will trust when I cannot see
- author unknown

Friday, August 8, 2014

Happy Portraits

I don’t often advertise on my blog.  I’ve had offers to ‘go commercial’ and I’ve turned them down.  I’ve been cautious not to recommend products or services or suggest that you contact people whose skills I believe in.  That’s not been the purpose of my blog, but today I find that I must ‘advertise’ a young artist whose work I highly admire.  I’m not prejudiced at all – in spite of the fact that this young artist is my grandson!  You see, artistic ability runs in our family.  My grandmother was an extremely good artist, although she didn’t share her skills very often during my growing up years.  I remember when she told me that, as a young girl, she longed to draw so much that she didn’t let the fact they couldn’t afford artist’s supplies stop her.  She peeled bark off a nearby tree, took a piece of charcoal from the fireplace and drew to her heart’s content.  Her daughter, my mother’s sister, was a wonderful artist and her son, my cousin, attended art school after he graduated from high school.  His work was later featured in galleries and sold to discriminating buyers.  My father had some artistic ability, too.  My ‘art’ skills didn’t come through in drawing or painting – it came through music.  Music I studied and music that just came comes from my heart through my fingers on the keyboard.  Our son’s art abilities captured the attention of a middle school art teacher and she encouraged him to continue to learn and follow a career in art.  He chose not to do that, but his son – Mr. G. – has obviously inherited the same talent.  I would like to introduce you to him (my favorite young artist!).
Gavin Mr. G. loves to draw and it’s obvious he has a keen eye for the reality of his subjects.  At a recent family gathering Mr. G. proudly presented each person gathered there with a portrait he had carefully drawn of them.  It was obvious he had given careful thought to the personality of each one.  He has a book about drawing caricatures – he said it gave him some ideas.  So, without further adieu. . . here are the portraits he drew of my sweetheart and me.  My sweetheart . . .
Grandpa Stamback - Gavin's Art And me. 
Grandma Stamback - Gavin's ArtWith each presentation he explained why he had chosen to draw each of us as he did.  I was almost afraid to hear his thinking about my portrait!  When he told me why he drew me as he did, I was a bit overwhelmed.  He said, ‘Grandma, I drew you this way because you are a happy person, and I wanted you to be happy in my drawing!’

If that’s how Mr. G. sees me, I have accomplished something I hoped my grandkids would see in me.  You can’t trick kids to believe you are something you are not.  I gained a bit of confidence as a grandmother that day and I am happy – happy that he sees me as a person who is happy!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Friday, August 1, 2014

On The Lake

Are you ready to take a boat ride?  Would you like to have a tour of the lake?  My sweetheart and I have our life jackets on – we have one for you.  Joey is going, too.  He’s not thrilled to have his life jacket on, but he’s ready to go.Joey - Life JacketLet’s get in the boat and get settled.  It’s not a very big boat but the seats are comfortable and we even have drink holders.  Would you like a soda, or a bottle of water? The top is on the boat today.  It gave a bit of shelter from the rain yesterday.  Today it will shade us from the sun.Shallow LakeThe water is shallow right here at the edge.  It’s not deep enough for my sweetheart to lower the motor into the lake so he will push off with the paddle and row until we’re into deeper water.Rowing To Deep WaterWe’re ‘under motor’ now and heading west.  There’s Diamond Peak in the distance.  It’s one of the inactive volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Mountains and Water The wind has come up a bit.  You can see the waves it makes on the lake.  It’s blowing our hair – and it’s even messing with Joey’s hair.Joey in the WindThere are some homes and cabins scattered along the north shore of the lake.  It would be nice to own one so we could come here often.  Some of them are only accessible by boat.Shore HomesOh, look!  One of them is for sale!Lake House For SaleThere are several more lakefront homes but we won’t go close because people are outside enjoying this beautiful day on their decks and out on their docks.  Now we will round the end of the lake and pass another campground.  Then you will see the marina at the resort across the lake from our campground.  Resort MarinaJust past the marina a train track can be seen at this opening in the terrain.  It’s the north-south line up and down the West Coast.  Amtrak comes through a couple of times a day, taking people to and from their destinations from Canada to the border of Mexico.  Freight trains travel through here several times a day.  We are high in the mountains here at the lake - at about five thousand feet elevation.  The trains are noisy because they have to go full-throttle as they climb through the Cascade Mountains.  Just ahead of them is a hard push to crest the summit of the pass before they start their descent into the valley below.  We can hear them from our campground on the other side of the lake.Train TrackThe wind is picking up and the water is getting pretty choppy so we're going to turn and head back across the lake to our campsite.  You can see the ski trails that cut through the woods on the mountain ahead of us.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to see it in the winter?  We don’t plan to be here next winter but the resort is open year round for people who enjoy summer and winter sports.  We will come back to the resort soon.  We need a few things from the little store so we'll drive around the lake next time.  It’s a pleasant place to visit.  The people are friendly and there's always something to see.Joey - Boat
Did the fishermen catch more fish in the rain yesterday, you ask?  Yes, they did.  It was the best day so far!  They were fishing for Kokanee, a medium-size fish in the Salmon family.  It's delicious, especially when we wrap it in foil, season it with lemon pepper and top it with slices of fresh lemon.  Thank you for sharing our tour of the lake.  It was fun to have you along for the ride. Now, let’s head back – we have fish to fry!