Up At 9000 Feet

IMG_0080 IMG_0082IMG_0060

IMG_0094 IMG_0097 IMG_0138 IMG_0148 IMG_0157 IMG_0179 IMG_0203 IMG_0215 IMG_0230IMG_0241IMG_0293 IMG_0316 IMG_0325The dogs and I topped out at nearly 9000ft the other evening, just in time to have our sweat cooled by a strong wind and our hearts devoured by a righteous sunset.  It was a perfect night to get out and fall even more deeply in love with the land here.

I stayed up high for a little too long and made my way back down the steep face of Scout Mountain in the stumbling dusky hours, tripping through sagebrush and talus fields on wobbly knees and ankles, spooked witless by grouse bursting out of the brush beneath my feet.  It was worth it though, it always is.  By the way, have you heard the ruffies drumming in your neck of the woods.  A drumming ruffed grouse is one of my very favorite sounds in nature — it transports me directly back to the wide and wild arms of my childhood.  There’s no sound like it and it turns the key in the lock of my feral little heart.  I hear the drumming and something inside of me howls and shakes its mane.

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I haven’t officially told you yet, but due to some housing technicalities (namely, the LCITW is no longer available for rent), I am not moving to the Methow this summer with Robert!  Thankfully, no, gloriously, Robert cannot begin work until June 16th due to some other technicalities.  Since it feels like summer here already, I will inform you of the fact that we are enjoying, so very much, our first partial summer together in seven years!  We are rafting, hiking, camping and gardening galore as well as sipping gin and tonics, taking evening bike rides, and doing lots of dreaming about what we want to do with our lives.

I love to dream with him.

We feel lucky, time feels precious, no one beats at the big bass drum of my heart like he does.

[Early this morning at Little Cabin In the Woods — before I put on my socks.]

It’s hard to work in the Airstream now.  I dress like an onion, bundled up in endless layers (wool, down, silk long johns). I can’t manage to keep my hands warm as I work and I shiver all my calories away.  I eat constantly and seem to continually have two cups of tea on the go throughout the day.  The thick timber around our little clearing casts broad shadows and blocks the few hours of direct sun we receive on either side of noon. We store our bag of ice out on the cabin deck.  It doesn’t melt.  We leave the kitchen faucet trickling when we go to bed so the pipes don’t freeze in the night.  I bet this is such a lonesome, dark, cold place in the winter months.

RW took a late season work detail starting tomorrow morning and he’ll be away for a week.  I don’t know how I’m going to stay warm at night!  I’ll have to invite all the beasts into bed with me.  What a wild rumpus that will be.

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2012/10/21/5309/

Frozen water pipes this morning.  Someone, please, teleport me a hot cup of coffee!

[I take it with lots of milk and a little honey.]

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2012/10/04/5205/