Foxglove around my heart....

Pink Rhody by The Lodge

Lupines near the Meadows

Thanks Ike!

My friend Linda Catalano in NYC makes alot of really whimsical and wonderful things that she sells on etsy. She sent me this wonderful little purple owl that is stuffed with an array of aromatherapy herbs. I Love it so!

Check out her store on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PurtyBird

Traveling Altar Collage

Annie B. Siemer

June 2010

Foxglove/Digitalis

Oregon Iris Beauty






Above is a picture of a fox that was over my head when I looked up from eating breakfast this morning in The Towne Diner in Silverton. This year has been the "Year of The Fox" for me personally. I have seen foxes ( more than once) both in my dreams and in waking life . While I was in Florida this past winter I crossed paths with (most likely the same) fox on several occasions.


While riding my bike up and down my Dad's rural Florida road, Crossing the road, in the field behind my Dad's place, in my dreams.


One day that I ran into the neighborhood fox, he/she was crossing the road and stopped dead in his/her tracks and just looked me in the eye for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only 5-6 seconds. It was so large that I thought it was a coyote at first. One certainly well fed fox.


A few months before my little brother Patrick "crossed over" I had vivid dreams of this fox.
So now I will do research (and look up Jamie Sams Medicine Cards, my favorite interpretations) to see just what this fox stuff means for me.
Thank You to Jim and Liz, who once again have reminded me that everything is happening exactly as it should. And Thanks for the serendipitous ride into town too:)

This found July 1st,2010....
From Animal Speak by Ted Andrews:
"Fox embodies the magic of the world and was revered by every society at some time. It's a keeper of magic, healing, and the gifts of shapeshifting and invisibility. It's active at night but more easily seen at dawn or dusk at the edges of fields and forest which are seen as 'between' places, or doorways to Otherworlds.
It can teach lessons on camouflage, allowing us to see and hear things we might otherwise miss. Knowledge is power and the knowledge you acquire through quiet camouflage will be of use some day, if not the present moment. It has a keen sense of hearing and smell and so can herald a heightening of your senses, especially the psychic. It teaches us to use our senses to capture any prize we seek for everything is possible with the right action. It can also serve as a warning. If something doesn't smell right... if you aren't completely sure, then do nothing. Instead wait quietly for the right opportunity".
From Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams:
Flora is the foxes ally. It can vanish in the woodlands and foliage, which offers protection and medicine. Another of its abilities is to adapt to winter by changing color. Fox medicine involves adaptability, cunning, observation, integration, and swiftness of thought and action.
Its ability to remain unseen allow it to be the protector of the family unit. It is charged with the duty of keeping the family together and safe which is accomplished by observing undetected. It is an excellent talisman for traveling".


Me: Go figure.

Freewill Astrology

As horoscopes go, Rob Brezny's "Free Will Astrology" is my absolute favorite. I am a Libra Sun and Moon, Scorpio rising and a whole lot of other planets in Scorpio (intense yes I know). SO I usually read Rob's Libra and Scorpio every week in the alternative weeklies when I can find them. Here's what he sez this week for those:

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):" Have you been doing a lot of sweating and grunting from sheer exertion in 2010? Have you thrown yourself conscientiously into the hardest, smartest labor you've ever enjoyed? I hope so, because that would suggest you're in rapt alignment with this year's cosmic rhythms. It would mean that you have been cashing in on the rather sublime opportunities you're being offered to diligently prove how much you love your life. The next six months will provide you with even more and better prods, Libra, so please find even deeper reserves of determination. Intensify your commitment to mastering the work you came to this planet to do.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): How's that project coming, Scorpio? You know, that assignment the universe gave you at the beginning of 2010 to loosen up, play more, and periodically laugh like a tipsy Sagittarius. Have you been taking a sabbatical from the seething complications that in most other years are your rightful specialty? Did you throw some of your emotional baggage off a cliff? Are you dancing more frequently? I hope you've been attending to all of this crucial work, and I trust that you're primed to do even more of it during the next six months. To take maximum advantage of your appointments with relief and release, you'll have to be even sweeter and lighter."

The funny part is there is amazing insight in the others (signs)too. http://www.freewillastrology.com/

Matriarchial Collage w/Handmade paper

Right to left:younger me, my Mom Joan Finneran, her Mom Mary Bernice McVay Finneran, her Mom Elizabeth Cecilia Burns McVay...I thought the first 3 "booth" photos were a cool start to this collage. I never met my Great-Grandmother "Lizzie Burns" but I have always identified with her and wear her wedding band on my left pinky finger (her being tiny at her wedding and me being the big girl that I am). AM I glad that it fit perfectly on that finger? You betcha!

"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smaller right and doing it all for love."

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Geo

Check out the poetry and musings of Geo! I have mentioned him before but this post is one of my favorites.
You can link to all of his blogs by clicking on "View my profile"
http://trainrideoftheenigmas.blogspot.com/2010/06/time-travel.html#links Train Ride of the Enigmas, Gardening with Geo and Invalid #39's Workshop never fail to inspire. And don't ever stop dancing, Geo!

Picture from Michael House's Facebook Page

(a relative of my niece, Mary Siemer House)

"Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon."

Ikkyu - Zen-monk poet, 1394-1481

The Molalla River at Canby

WPA/CCC Built this South Falls Lodge in the 1930's.

It was designed to look like Timberline Lodge.

It was built as a restaurant and now houses a small cafe.

Great fireplace to get cozy and out of the rain. CCC info inside
as well as June Drake prints. Volunteer docents are there to welcome you.

Without volunteer hosts, this park wouldn't run smoothly.

Thanks hosts!

The white dot on the left is a person.
This is a picture I forgot to put on the first week I was here.
South Falls has decreased quite a bit now that the rains are over (for a while).

Shelf Fungus. Official name to come.
Verrry medicinal.
Please leave 'em if you find 'em though!

This is a really blurry picture of one of the types of rock
formations that have formed in the basalt under the shelf of the
Lower South Falls Waterfall.
Picture doesn't do it justice but it's way cool.

(Big) Raccoon ? track on the banks of the Molalla River last week

Wildflowers amassed on the Canyon Trail
A name that I once knew but need to look up again.

Lower South Falls

South Falls with Old Big Leaf Maple

One view from under Lower South Falls

mi summer casa firepit

another view from under Lower South Falls

Firs at sunset on Summer Solstice

This is a Salmonberry. They are ripe at this state, albeit a little naturally tart.

They are everywhere here now.

The lone Columbine in a meadow of Irises and Lupines.

I feel like this Columbine at times....I reckon most people do.

Lupines

Silver Falls State Park

My brother Patrick would have loved it here....

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them".

A.A. Milne (via Eeyore)

Winnie-the-Pooh

Happy Summer Solstice!!!!!

The sun was out all day here!

Really nice to be above the 44th parallel! where the sun goes down really late!

"When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one. "

Paul Brunton

picture of bumpersticker borrowed from a friend of a friend on facebook....

No it's not Obsidian Falls but a cool feature on my el cheapo cell phone camera...

177 ft. South Falls in the reverse

View between some trees of one of the meadows in the park

Can you believe this cell phone tower? A hundred feet away it's really hard to tell what it is...it blends in so well. Apparently it's an Oregon thing....way cool in the woods

see below for the rest of this Silverton mural.....

Beautiful old Silverton Victorian . Maybe it's the Pacific Northwest air...but I have seen more old great vics here in Oregon than anywhere else I've been. Or maybe Oregonians are just smart enough to not tear them down...

Stone Buddha a cool shoppe on Main St. in Silverton, Oregon
The Historic South Falls Lodge built by the CCC in the 30's SFSP


Bobbie the Wonderdog mural in Silverton

Bobbie went with his family on vacation to Indiana in the early 1920's

He was lost but eventually found his way back to Silverton by I think 1924...


Moi in front of South Falls my first week here...

I've got Rocks in my Head too...
WOW a Rock shop too...am I in paradise or what?
it's on Water St. in Silverton
Owner Walker Yeates sez he gets rocks from about 5000 different people around the globe....

mmm Thai food....
water st. Silverton

from behind south falls


Crochet flags on water st. Silverton
The same owners of The Stone Buddha own this...
way cool knitting shoppe called

"The Purl District"

Silverton is a gold mine for old victorian houses and old bungelow/arts and crafts era houses. I am crazy about both....


another old vic, Water st. Silverton This was/is a B and B thats for sale...time to buy a lottery ticket?

One of the remnants of the old logging town "Silver Falls City" that is still in the park. These apple trees are over a 100 years old and were planted by the Volz family...


The base of the same tree...

Another of the great Silverton murals. This one highlights The Mammoth, apparently the worlds largest camera in 1900....

southeast corner of my summer abode

plenty o'room on the floor for say an air mattress

and a coupla really cute little dogs...

Sent out an email to try and i.d. this a week or so after I first posted it.

Jury might still be out but I am going with Yellow Parasol for now.

Thanks Jodi.

A Cabin built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30's.

They refurbished it for me to live in and I Love it.

In the following years other Seasonal Naturalists will now have housing. So cool.

I am happy to be back in the Pacific Northwest.

I think it must be the mushroom capital of the world.

I am determined to learn mushrooms (besides Chanterelles , Puffballs, Shitakes,Amanitas and morrells) as well as Lichens and mosses this summer. Big long time holes in my Natural History knowledge.