Cottonwoods

Yesterday I was sent some wonderful and interesting e-mails, some have been around before and well worth a second peek. There was one of our earth taken by one of the astronauts which was rare and unbelievable to look at. The geographical pictures of the different countries are always welcome as it is my travel by armchair to places I will never get to see . . . but, I think the talented artist brings pleasure of a different kind as you can see what their talents are. In this case it is Cottonwood trees growing in Craig, Colorado that became diseased and had to be taken down. The town folks came up with a competition and the big chain saws came out and you are looking at the results. We see a lot of this type of art here in Oregon where we have forests from one end of the state to the other. Our redwoods from the Oregon border to the northern areas of California are world famous although I haven't seen much 'yard' art from the redwoods. Nevada has a lot of cottonwood trees, in fact we had one of the largest ones in the yard where I rented a small miner's cottage. It was such fun to go out in the fall and rake a mountain of leaves and give the landlord a helping hand. A chore we gripe and groan over but secretly love. We have some carvers that come into the Port every year with a truck filed with all kinds of creatures from the sea. I bought one for my son John, a sea lion, supposedly for the back gardens but he is so beautiful, I fear the weather will ruin him so he has a spot on the top of the TV stand and is dusted along with all the other 'stuff' in the room. John seems to like him just where he is. Maybe this year I'll look for a whale. You have to give these artists credit for doing a tremendous job out of a tree stump. I see many of them checking out the drift wood over at Sporthaven beach. After a huge storm the beach is covered with driftwood of all kind and size. Yard art is a big thing around here.

So today, when you are up and ready to go outside, take a walk in your neighborhood and check out the yard art. Send me some pictures, I'd love to see what folks do to cultivate their taste for art in your neighborhood. I had a neighbor in Nevada who collected art, pictures of flowers and scenes and hung them on her outside fence. There was one particular one that I loved and one day I asked my neighbor to put my name on that particular picture and she did something special, she went into the house and got some pliers and took the picture down and handed it to me. It sits on my dining room wall and is one of my most favorite pictures. That reminds me, I had better get busy and drop her a note and say hello and thank her again for giving me hours of pure pleasure. Make your today a good one and just enjoy being alive and well, so many are not. Find a reason to laugh out loud. Hugs to all.