Rural Roadside Resting Spot

Today Bev and I left McCall after a five day retreat and a Writing Project Rural Sites Networking Meeting. The weather turned very hot today. When we stopped for a break at White Bird, Idaho it was 95 degrees. As we traveled through the Clearwater Valley toward Lewiston the car thermometer hit 105 degrees. When we saw the sign welcoming us to Uniontown, Washington we decided to stop for a break. When you leave Uniontown and head north toward Pullman, Washington it is easy to notice The Barn. The fence around this old dairy barn is the first thing that catches the eye. The Dahmen Barn is a dairy barn which was built in 1935 by Jack Dahmen. In 1952 Steve and Junette Dahmen bought it. She was an artist and he decided to create the fence. As he began building this border of wheels people began contributing more and more unique wheels. The fence goes around the entire property. The dairy barn has been renovated and it now called Artisans at the Dahmen Barn. The restored barn contains three floors of booths and displays of a variety of artisans. This week on the second floor is an amazing display of photographs of the wheels outside. When people stopped to take pictures of the wheel fence the owner would go out and ask them to send her a copy of their best photo image. She chose her favorites and asked these photographers to frame and display theirs for this show. The collection ranges from black and white photos of the wheel fence in winter to photos of the wheels framing the landscape of the Palouse hills around the barn. Bev found a small surprise on the first floor as we meandered through the rooms of art. On a bulletin board was the ad for the retreat we just coordinated in McCall. It was nice to see our poster among such beautiful works. We did decide to take it down since our retreat was over. Driving south of Pullman, Washington toward Uniontown is where you find The Barn. It is a perfect resting place on a hot journey. You can find out more about it here.

Wordle: Visual Cloud of Words

I loved learning Wordle today. You can find it here.

Photo Hunt: Bright

The table in the cabin I am residing in this week is the perfect place to display this bright collection of limes. For other photo hunts on bright go here.

Wondrous Words: Winding Down the Writing Retreat

Our writing retreat ended this morning. After open mic last night and this morning I am convinced the participants will continue writing wondrous words long after they drive off today.Our visiting writer and my brother Raymond Pert inspired people to "let it rip" and they felt safe and supported doing just that.
HT said good-bye to the lake with our group mascot Dexter playfully following close by.
It was a good week. To keep wondrous words flowing our writers had a quiet setting, time, an inspirational visiting writer, support, campfire smoke, great camp food, tears, laughs, examples of good literature, songs sung by LR, reader's theater,hikes, fresh air, s'mores, camp dogs, and gorgeous sunsets.

Photo Images by Thea: Postcards from McCall

The area around our retreat center in McCall is breathtakingly beautiful. One of our participants Thea Carter took this series of photo images and gave me permission to post them.A group did a guided walk around the area yesterday and she captured some of these images.
I love the combination of textures in this photo.
The lake here is a deep blue, but here the beach along the shore creates quiet beauty.
I love how simple things like steps up from the beach can be an incredible creation of light and shadows. I will close with this postcard-like picture and let the beauty speak for itself.
photo collection by Thea Carter, June 2008

And This Is Life

Life
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double.
And this is life!

A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and tears to refresh us,
And joy seems sweeter when cries come after,

And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter
And that is life!

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

I enjoyed this poem recently in a novel I was reading. The ideas matched well with what we learned in our writing workshop today. Raymond Pert explained that the basic thing every writer needs is"to be awake". We need to pay attention, open our eyes, and listen. I was reminded of this poem as I reflected on my learning later. Whether it is thinking of a corner to sleep in , an Ode to Socks, or a favorite childhood food writers need to be awake to it. It is so simple.

Dexter pictured above is a perfect example a creature that enjoys life. His owner works at the camp and this dog pays attention to the lake, the squirrels, the guests, and just wears a smile that says, " I am awake."

I had to take a series of pictures of him because his face reminds me so much of my dog Annie. Dexter is a Springer/Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix.