The Ball that Got Away...

Coffee Time

Nighttime Ritual

Walker's Baptism

Mirror, Mirror II

Mirror, Mirror

Getting to Know You...

While browsing through our new favorite toy store, Melinda and Belinda, Walker and Audrey were more interested in each other...

Our Precious Godson, Walker

Goodnight Kiss

Beppe

In June, just before leaving us to teach English in South Korea,
we had the luxury of spending a few brief days with Uncle Everett.
The pictures that follow are a tribute to him - we miss you!

Sunday Morning

...and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon.

...a red balloon...

...there was a telephone...

In the great green room...

Shoo, Bird, shoo...

For Kate...

Feeding the Ducks

A Rare Moment of Perfection

Sandwriting

Sunset

A Glimpse at Shelley's "Sublime..."

On our anniversary we drove to Cannon Beach.
We took a short hike through a narrow, muddy stretch of state forest. The path wound back and forth, opening, now and then, to wide glimpses of oceanfront. As this photograph illustrates there are some views for which the word "breathtaking" leaps up, begging to be used...

First Touch

Walking the Pearl

Nana

Jamison Square

Lazy Days at St. Honore's

Uncle Ryan helped us begin our vacation on the right foot
- or should I say, le droite pied - at our favorite French bakery.
'Twas almost perfect but for the absence of our dear Aunt Kate.

Can You Spell Cappucino? ...H-E-A-V-E-N

Fireworks Parade

Cousin Silas's One Man Scooter Brigade

Berry Picking

In July we visited Sauvie Island's Pumpkin Patch and enjoyed a day of pleasure picking... Always loath to "experiment" with new foods, it took some coaxing to get Audrey to take her first nibble of rasberry. However, once whetted, her appetite could not be quenched!

A bird, a plane - no, it's my belly button!

Sweet Summer Days

Pied Beauty

My father and I happened upon this magnificent koi swimming in the ponds of Portland's Japanese Gardens during an afternoon of (book-browsing, coffee-drinking, and rose-smelling) leisure.

It's been almost twenty years since he first introduced me to the poem, "Pied Beauty," from which I have borrowed the phrase. In it, Gerard Manley Hopkins praises God "for dappled things -- / For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; / For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim."

Both image and rhyme are fitting descriptions of our life these days. It is beautiful, but its beauty is of a kind that is "dappled" with imperfections. It is "counter [to our expectations], original [that is, filled with a mixture of joys and sorrows all our own], spare [as opposed to lavish], and strange [filled with unexpected, unfamiliar turnings]." Nevertheless, we are grateful for it; indeed, we, along with Hopkins, praise God for the "sweet" along with the "sour;" for all that is "adazzle" (namely, our sprightly daughter) as well as all that's "dim" (such as the real estate market).

For those interested parties I invite you to keep up with our happenings here.