Wet, Nostalgic and Living Color

The palette is there---around, beneath and above us, especially after a rain storm.

Washed, clean, more vibrant than usual, it beckons. 

I enjoyed a few "beckoning" moments yesterday once the morning rain ceased. 

Those moments occurred at home and at another home. 

Yesterday one home in Selle thrived with the wetness and the stunning beauty of ferns, fallen leaves, trees and an overhead palette of brilliant blues and whites, brought alive by moments of sunshine. 

At another home, in the shadow of Greenhorn Mountain our Love family resided for 30 years in between the railroad tracks and the airport.  

Because I was in the area for another errand, I took one of my occasional quiet trips down Quest Aircraft's entrance road and reminisced while snapping shots of the barn and trees in the south field which now hide the house. 

Those trees were ablaze with golden leaves, and, except for the fact that I've already mentioned it, you would never know there's a brown house, built by John Knowles, behind the row of aspen. 

The place looks different, a bit rundown, but at least it's still there to remind me and other family members of times, both good and bad, during our residence there. 

Kids were born. Dogs and horses came and went.  Kids played at the pond south of the driveway. Other kids came and watched air shows, went on neighborhood pilgrimages, witnessed volcanic ash coming or enjoyed a mud Olympics awards ceremony in the upstairs hay loft. 

Our own kids grew up and moved away and started lives of their own.  

I'll never forget the day we left that place to start our lives in a new home, back on a dirt road in a beautiful rural area called Selle. 

In the midst of boxes stacked around the house and before the grand move went into action, a surprise visitor suddenly appeared in the doorway:  Willie. 

It had been a secret mission for my niece Laura to go to Spokane airport and pick up our son Willie who then lived in Boise. 

Somehow, that appearance made this move all seem right.

 Our family was now complete---those kids, Annie and Willie, who spent their formative years on that small farm, joined Bill and me in saying good bye to one "home" and hello to another. 

So, yes, the freshly washed fall colors of yesterday were not only eye catching but also tinted with some treasured nostalgia.

That's what images do for us.  

That's why I live each day to capture them as they are in one place or as they unfold in the grand scheme of life. 

Thanks, Mother Nature, for these changing palettes you provide us each day.

Happy Friday, and Happy Birthday, brother Jim.