image: flickr, by manyfires
When you go looking for trouble, you will find it. (I found it.) A photo shouldn't make you cry. (typed with tears streaming down my face.) The above picture is of somewhere in the Redwoods.
All the places I love are too far away to renew me.
The photo below made me think about standing in front of my parents' home on clear nights and looking up at the star-filled sky. In the winter with the snow-silenced air between me and the universe, I can always find Orion.
This photo also made me think about the bridge over the Elizabeth River at Yorktown Virginia. The air is not snow-silenced, but warm and muggy. And waves calmly lap the beach. We've seen dolphins out there, a stingray, and one night we watched a crab swimming beside the boat dock. It's a great place. Below, I've written a snapshot of my memory.
The photo below made me think about standing in front of my parents' home on clear nights and looking up at the star-filled sky. In the winter with the snow-silenced air between me and the universe, I can always find Orion.
This photo also made me think about the bridge over the Elizabeth River at Yorktown Virginia. The air is not snow-silenced, but warm and muggy. And waves calmly lap the beach. We've seen dolphins out there, a stingray, and one night we watched a crab swimming beside the boat dock. It's a great place. Below, I've written a snapshot of my memory.
image courtesy of flickr, by manyfires
Tidewater Virginia.
Under the bridge in Yorktown, right across the street from where Nick's used to be. If I'm very still, I can feel the warm, damp air and the feeling that we'll be on the Colonial Parkway soon, whipping past dark, dense woods on our way home. I peer out the passenger window.
photo: flickr
Nick's Seafood Restaurant. Oooooh, man. Nick's had greek statues and silvery-blue ceilings.
Lobster, anyone?
Lobster, anyone?
Another snapshot of a different place I love, the one I've been really, really missing lately:
Oregon Coast.
Ecola State Park. The road through the moss drenched rain forest twists and turns. Up in the tall branches, an owl: silent, still, majestic. On a coastal trail, and the path through the woods is spongey with moss and the mulch of a thousand years' making. Ferns line the path. Old, giant trees protect from the elements. Thick December fog obscures the view of the seemingly-sheer dropoff to the Pacific and the migrating whales.
When you reach the end of that road through Ecola State Park, this is what you'll see.
Ecola State Park. The road through the moss drenched rain forest twists and turns. Up in the tall branches, an owl: silent, still, majestic. On a coastal trail, and the path through the woods is spongey with moss and the mulch of a thousand years' making. Ferns line the path. Old, giant trees protect from the elements. Thick December fog obscures the view of the seemingly-sheer dropoff to the Pacific and the migrating whales.
When you reach the end of that road through Ecola State Park, this is what you'll see.
Do you ever yearn for somewhere else, and if so, where?
P.S. I've begun the Book of Mormon again and I'm positive I should be listening to those verses about not murmuring and complaining. The verse that really struck me: 1 Nephi 18:16
P.S.S. This post was written in parts. The crying was only momentary. It's now Monday, a new week.
P.S.S. I will write about what's going on with us someday and even include anecdotes about my darling children.
The big barrel in the background collects rain water, and mosquitos perhaps.
That's Bruton Parish Church/churchyard in the background. Different varieties of peas are growing up the trellis. I did not know there were so many different varieties of peas. Also, the gentleman let us try Alpine Strawberries, but the other three varieties were not ripe enough.
And I loved the miniature greenhouse (above)--white planter boxes with window coverings to let the sunlight and warmth in when it's still too chilly outside. Brilliant. Also, the Governor's Palace Gardens had large glass bells covering some of their plants for the same reason. (not pictured, also brilliant.) And I just missed huge flowering pink peonies (pee-uh-knees, please.) I love them. 
Meanwhile, P. was rummaging for snacks. Jackpot, an apple. On the ground, the white stuff is crushed oyster shells. The colonists lined their garden paths with oyster shells to reflect the moonlight, so they could see where they were going in the dark.
Bruton Parish Church. This pic makes me feel like I'm in the Old World. In the United Kingdom somewhere with Christianity not completely established. The first little while we were there, it was strangely chilly and one night we stopped the car on a bridge and just sat and listened. It was sweater weather and so drenchingly green and misty. It was magical. I wish I could have captured that moment to relive it. I think God must have some kind of recording system for times like that. 
When I was 10, we hid our eggs in this spot. The boys are sitting in a grassy area across Duke of Gloucester Street from the Palace Green and the Governor's Palace in the distance. L (4 1/2) is sharing his apple with P (1).
Share apple, get bitten. 
L. and my dad.
L. really wanted to see the inside of the old jail. But we didn't have tickets the first day we went, so we couldn't go inside. We were about to go home, and I told him we had time to see one more thing and asked him which way we should go. He chose the jail. I said that we could walk down there, but they probably wouldn't let us in because we didn't have tickets. L. said carefully, "But if we done sumpin' bad, they'll let us in for free?" Anyway, we did eventually get to see it and it was creepy. This photo is not near the jail. It is next to the Courthouse. L's in the stocks.
These flowers were in the trees lining the Green. I do not know what kind of tree they are. I even tried looking it up. Do you know?
Feeding chocolate chip cookie bars to the fish in the pond. This college-aged couple sweetly shared their "fish food" with L. 
The kitchen garden. See the glass bells I mentioned earlier?
The maze. This picture is taken from the top of the icehouse mound.
I include this picture because I like it of Pete. 
Luke didn't get the memo.
