What a week of wonder and amazement! We spent our vacation week in the Eastern Sierras, hiking and fishing.
It has been a week of trout-flicked diamond droplets on a pristine lake, hikes along creeks lined with beaver lodges and aspen, and picnics where we found ourselves sitting in a meadow full of wild blueberry and strawberry.
Near Tioga Pass, we made our usual pilgrimage up past an abandoned silver mine, into the back country where Russell caught and released wild brook trout and I, on hands and knees, followed a tiny frog and captured with my camera butterflies and bees sucking nectar from wildflowers.
Silently we sat for almost two hours watching deer browsing on sage and drinking at the edge of the lake. Speckled twin fawns, a yearling buck with velvety little antlers, an elegant doe...
It has been a week of rest and joy.
Next week will be radically different. The whirlwind of a photo shoot for a magazine and the reality of major surgery await me.
Sometimes an island of peace is a precious thing, preparing us for the stresses of life ahead. For me this time apart has been a memory to savor, carrying me through the more dramatic adventures ahead.
