A Summer's Morn

Another stunning summer morning!

I'll be honest.  This photo was taken yesterday morning, but I'd say today is a twin.  

On these lovely days, we continue to mosey along with summer and the ongoing projects.  

Over at my sisters' farm, the hay crew has already started this morning, putting the first of those bales into the barn.  

Among the workers is Jacob, our grand-nephew, so I'll go over after blog time and snap a few pictures. 

Around the Lovestead, turkeys are still showing up, being sent off and, like boomerangs, showing up again.

I think their primary attraction is the service berry bush, as it has been for robins, crows, chickadees and a host of other birds.  

The bush WAS loaded with berries, most of which have ripened.  And so, any walk outside the garage is greeted with a whole lot of fluttering and bird talk and vigorous pecking of juicy purple berries.

I noticed yesterday that each species of bird waits its turn.  At some times, the tree is full of robins.  When they fly off to munch on their goodies, the chickadees fly in. 

The turkeys also want their share.  This morning, the dogs (only after I yelled 'squirrel') chased them off twice, and I, a third time. 

While taking horses to pasture, I was quite please to have to hurry up my pace to keep up with Lefty who is back to walking with a normal gait.  It looks like all the infection from his abscess has left his leg and he's feeling like a real horse again.  

I also enjoyed my walks back, each time admiring the fences with their new coats of paint.  I finished up one whole section yesterday.  

Just a few boards remain to be painted, but that will require another trip to North 40 to get a couple of buckets of white stuff.  

It's been quite a project, beginning this spring, but the satisfaction of getting to admire the almost finished product is nothing less than supreme. 

Beans to pick today and some weed eating as well as enjoying the relatively mild and lovely weather before the real heat (high 90s) starts turning on tomorrow. 

Happy Sunday.  Enjoy your day. Check out the book info. below.  

The yucca plant keeps opening up but more to come. 
It's quite the showy plant out in our southwest garden bed.

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A Summer Read . . . .

I am an optimist, and the more I read about Maslow and his work, the better it all sounded.  As I considered his list of characteristics of a self-actualizer, I found myself there.  

Independent and resourceful, check; ever-present appreciation for life's gifts of sunset, flowers, majestic views, check; comfortable with solitude, check; a few close friends, rather than many superficial ones, check; profound interpersonal relationship, check.  

And the list goes on.

                                                 ---Mindy Cameron

Brand-new author and longtime respected regional journalist, Mindy Cameron discovered a lot about herself while writing her recently released memoir Leaving the Boys as the major project for earning her Master of Fine Arts at her college alma mater, Oregon's Pacific University. 

As promised by the book cover, Mindy, retired editorial page editor of the Seattle Times,  focuses on motherhood, career, feminism and romance. 

Like any good journalist, she presents the facts about growing up as as one of seven sisters, as a driven and disciplined woman encountering few bumps along the road, but always moving onward, knowing all along the way what she wanted most out of life. 

In Mindy's case, as with many of her contemporaries during the unveiling of Feminism, she encountered unpleasant and inequitable situations in the workplace as a woman.  

Undaunted, smart, calm and analytical, she persevered, overcoming several challenges.  

Like any human being, though, she reflects in this book on choices made and the consequences/rewards of those choices. 

In Leaving the Boys, readers will encounter brutally honest accounts, reflections and introspection of a mismatched marriage, motherhood, life in Italy, a congenial divorce, yearning for and attaining a successful career, meeting the man of her dreams, rising to the top of her profession, etc., and, yes, leaving her boys, Matt and Tim. 

Mindy Cameron and her husband Bill now live on their lovely farm southeast of Sandpoint where, besides loving the natural world around them, they have chickens and a horse.  

This visionary couple has played a vital role for several years in supporting local education, especially by establishing the Panhandle Alliance for Education (PAFE). 

I have enjoyed my friendship over the years with both Bill and Mindy.  In Mindy's case, it was that common bond of journalism while Bill served as our family's lawyer AND he loves horses.   

While reading this beautifully written book over the past few days, I was struck several times with parallels to events I have encountered during my own life as a journalist and a working mother.  

I also saw dramatic differences in how Mindy plotted and lived through the consequences of events in her individual story. 

Twas not all rosy and idyllic, but somehow, thanks to the people most closely associated with Mindy, along with her fierce determination, the pieces came together. 

That's how life is, and I'm thinking Mindy has provided us a poignant memoir reflecting honesty, compassion, frustration, personal achievement, strong will, oft-questioned choices, regret and even a relatively happy ending as evidenced by the Epilogue. 

Good job, Mindy.   A great read.   

Mindy's book is also available  at Vanderfords and The Corner Book Store in Sandpoint, the Well-Read Moose in CdA, Auntie’s in  Spokane and Barnes and Noble in Spokane Valley Mall.