Window Beauty Inside and Out

A greenhouse window in the kitchen shows off the beauty of the houseplants as the sunshine streams through the colored vases and the suncatcher.
At the other end of the house the frigid temperatures were easier to take once the sun came up setting off the clear blue sky over the other side of the lake. As the light bounced off another suncatcher on the deck it made a lovely rainbow through the window.

Weekend Snapshots: Kit in Snow

The snow has piled up to about fifteen inches again in northeastern Washington . Part of the weekend was spent watching our kitten Kit navigate deep drifts, walk on the deck railing heaped with snow, and birdwatching Kit style!

This is the table that was on my header recently.Does Kit think the birds will join him in the feeder?
He pauses for another photo pose.It's harder to stay on the railing when the snow is deeper.

Kit just couldn't figure out a way to shimmy up that pole to eat with the birds!

Happy weekend. Enjoy other weekend snapshots here.

Sibling Assignment # 51: The Heart and Soul of Silver King School

The roof callapsed from heavy snow on January 11th at Silver King School in Kellogg, Idaho. This was the place my mother taught school for many years, I attended first grade, we spend hours outside of school with Mom as she worked in her classroom. After high school I continued to revisit this school on the summer crew that helped paint and clean schools, substitute teaching , and practiced basketball for a town league team.

The school was located under the shadow of the smoke stack at the Bunker Hill Smelter and was bordered by Lead Creek which ran down the hill from the Zinc Plant. We thought nothing of the polluted soil, water, and air that surrounded us. When enrollment went down after Bunker Hill closed the school was used for the bus garage and storage.

Silver Valley Girl gave us the sibling assignment this week. “In light of the collapse of Silver King School , let’s share a story involving Silver King School. “ You will find RP’s here and SVG’s is here. I shared another story entitled The Stock Room about Silver King School that you can find here.

There are images you remember as a child that may blend together into a story that you believe more in your mind. One memory of Silver King School were the bottles in the windows at the end of long elementary hall. There was a two story wall of windows with sills that held bottles filled with different colors of water. This picture was the closest I could find as to how it really looked. When the sun shone through these windows instead of seeing the barren hills killed by the smelter smoke you saw prisms of light dancing along the hallway. I can remember looking way up at those bottles wondering how someone got them up there so high. I think it was a job held by B. Gulman. Another image that has remained with me was the fire escape upstairs in the lunch room. We climbed upstairs and ate lunch in this attic type room. As an impressionable first grader I saw the fire escape that hung on the side of the building each day as Mom parked our car in the back of the building. I don’t know if I just feared going down that fire escape during a drill or if we really did it. I just know those black ironworks stairs and my fear of heights still remain in my memory over forty years later.Entering an older school building as an adult we often remember the smells of wax , wood varnish, wet boots, borax hand powder, and hot lunch and it takes us back to where we started school. Silver King School had these smells. The older building I work in now has the same smells. The green chalkboard is gone, diminishing the chalk smell. We use more environmentally safe cleaners and don’t get that strong hit of disinfectant. Remembering Silver King School my mind recalls the mix of shiny floors, heat registers, cloak rooms, polished desks, and chalkboards. I remember big windows that brought sunlight in after the smelter smoke lifted. Bulletin boards reminded us of spring flowers, Thanksgiving pilgrims, and Washington’s cherry tree. Cooks dished up Witches Brew, homemade rolls, and sloppy joes. The lyrics of “Here Comes Santa Claus” brought Santa in after the Christmas program with brown bags of goodies for all. Long ago Mrs. Germo put away the empty pencil box she filled with hard candy that we could earn as a treat. Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot, and Puff were all put away in boxes. The old typewriter we used to compose writing has long since been packed away. I don’t even know what was still left in the building. Last spring we drove by Silver King School and were dismayed to see the windows boarded up and things in disarray. The sight was even harder on my mom. Looking at the pictures of the collapse of the roof brought deep sadness. The bricks, iron works, glass and wood that formed the foundation of this beautiful building for many years are crumbling . The words we write will keep the heart and soul of this building alive for those of us that keep on remembering.

Photo Hunt: Important

Birthdays are a rich tradition in my family. Today is the important birthday of an important person in my life... my mother. I love this picture of Mom, Dad and I washing dishes at my Grandma Woolum's house in Spokane. Seeing the details in this kitchen with my mom close beside me brings me comfort. This was a photo taken of Silver Valley Girl and Mom at Christmas the year she was born. I love the way Mom's joy and love for SVG radiates in her face. Mom is enjoying turkey with Raymond Pert at his first Thanksgiving and this was taken as she departed from my house after a wonderful Thanksgiving week-end this year. She is a vibrant woman that continues in her seventies to do the things she loves: gardening, crosswords, traveling, spending time with family, cooking and baking. Her reassuring voice has always been at the other end of the phone or next to me as I have made my challenging journey through life.

Happy Birthday Mom!

You can find other photo hunters using important here.

Sunday Scribblings: Fellow Travelers

This week's Sunday Scribbling topic is Fellow Travelers. I have had many traveling companions through my life, but today I am going to honor Nikki and Lucy. These two loyal travelers are the first two dogs I owned during my adult life. They traveled with me through the first half of my teaching career, my pursuit of a Master's Degree, a broken marriage, saying good-bye to a wide circle of friends, the death of my father, and relocating to a new job and new place to live.

Nikki came into my life in 1981. She came from a farm in the Horse Heaven Hills south of Kennewick, Washington. From the first day this springer spaniel shivered in my arms on the way home she captured my heart. She was docile, intelligent and loyal. You could always get her excited by taking her swimming in the river, hunting in the orchards behind the house, or having "kissing sessions." Lucy joined our family in 1990. She was a springer/cocker/maybe poodle mix and Nikki and Lucy became fast and furious friends. They loved doing all the same activities. Lucy's energetic personality balanced Nikki's calmer one.

When my ex-husband left us these two became protective of me at home and on the road. We enjoyed trips to the ocean, southern Idaho, and moved to Moscow, Idaho one summer when I taught at the University of Idaho. I always felt safe as I began my journey as a single person with these fellow travelers.



Relocating to Inchelium was a big change for all of us, but Lucy took over the guiding role as she steered Nikki around as her eyesight faded. I think they were both the most at home in my present house. They could run the acres, not worry about gardens( not much was planted yet). and we were close to the lake.



In the spring of 1996 my father's health began to fail along with Nikki's. As my dad spent his last weeks at home dying of cancer Nikki was getting thinner and seemed a bit lost in the world. Dad died in June and Nikki in July that year. Lucy and me were left as fellow travelers for the next chapter in our lives. You can read another post I wrote about Lucy and Nikki here.

Nikki is pointing for the first time and going for a stick in Rose Lake. Lucy is trying out our new home in Inchelium and resting on the grass as a puppy.

You can read other posts about Fellow Travelers here.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Myrtle Beach Ramblings for the following meme.

A.Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself:

1. I have those sticky pet hair removers in my purse, car, and teacher desk.

2. I still have a scar on my arm from running through a window when I was five.

3. JEJ says I am very dependable and take my responsibilities seriously.

4. I am very loyal to my family, friends, and students.

5. I am picky about the type of pens I use, especially if I am writing in my journal.

B. Share five places on my "want to see or want to see again list":

1. The Olympic Peninsula in Washington state

2. Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence Seaway

3. Yellowstone National Park

4. Washington, D.C.

5. The Sawtooths in Idaho

C. Five things I never pictured being in my future when I was twenty-five years old:

1. a laptop computer

2. espresso stands

3. living a peaceful life in the country with gardens, a wonderful husband, two dogs, seven cats, and two rabbits.

4. price of gas.

5. My father dying before his time and my mom having breast cancer.

Feel free to do this meme. I will let you tag yourself.

These are the rules :

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. A. Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog;

B. Share the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list;

C. Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when you were 25 years old.

3. Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.