Day 61- Arrival In Bellingham, WA , August 15, 2011

We had a beautiful drive through the Fraser River valley and stopped at Hope, BC for lunch and to make several phone calls. I wrote a couple of post cards and we were off. I was amazed to find signs on lots of the creeks and streams tell users they were in salmon habitat. We were a couple hundred miles from the ocean. Boy, those fish sure have their work cut out for them. I missed a turn somewhere near Lyndon and we drove unfamiliar roads for a while until I found a landmark I knew, Rte I-5. Then, I knew where I was and we arrived at my dad’s with no further delay. It’s actually going to be a little weird sleeping in a real bed. Laundry and showers are all taken care of and we got down to some serious catch up on gossip and family matters. We were up a little later than usual but geared up for another great day tomorrow. It’s off to the Northwest Washington County Fair in Lyndon. BTW, Hope's claim to fame is the first of the "First Blood" movies with Stallone was filmed here. There are Rambo cutouts all over town with a face missing. Come and be John Rambo for the moment.

Look For Me On Face Book

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000059968859

This is a link to my face book page. There, I'm Valerie Mooers Hill and I would love to have you request a friend link. There are lots of photos from our trip from NH to Alaska plus more to look forward to on our return through Arches National Park and Gettysburg, PA.

Update on FaceBook

WOW, I was just rereading a post from March or April and realized I'd better give an update on my FaceBook page. I quickly realized the social networking that is at the heart of a site like this had gotten out of had by adding just one game to the site. It's called "Mafia Wars" and over 4 million people play every day. It's a fun game and I got hooked by that same friend who turned me on to FaceBook in the first place. So, since I now have more than 2,000 "friends" and my real family and friends can't get a word in edgewise, I decided to set up a new FaceBook page for my business, family and friends, NO MAFIA WARS ALLOWED. LOL! The new site can be accessed by searching for me under my maiden name Valerie Mooers Hill or by typing in a separate e-mail account I set up, photolady1@hotmail.com This is a dummy e-mail address just for FaceBook so don't try to e-mail to me anything there. I can still be reached for photography related stuff at info@photo-sensitivity.com For some reason FaceBook didn't recognize that as an actual e-mail destination. I would love to have my loyal readers join me there. When requesting me as a friend just put photo-sensitivity in the message section. I'll get the hint.

Facebook

For the past few days, I've been playing around with a new toy, a new project, one that I hope will be of real benefit to me and to my work. It's called Facebook. I don't really know much about it. A friend sent me a link to his page and, intrigued, I clicked on the link. I was disappointed to find out that I had to register ( join ) in order to see his graphic design work. But, what the heck, I dove in with both feet. It was surprisingly easy. You do have to enter a few personal questions and I didn't see the reason behind it until I actually got the account set up. The site opens a page of your own, with all sorts of information about you, your hobbies, likes and dislikes, whims, fancies and you can adapt the pages to make them more like yourself or do absolutely nothing at all. Members network themselves by "requesting" friends, family, neighbors and just acquaintances to declare "they are friends". This enables a whole network to build. In my case, the more friends I allow and encourage to view my site the better. It gets even more of my work out there for people to become familiar with. Already, I have set up seven or eight albums from our travels to Australia, Panama and so forth for people to see and comment.

My one mistake was that I set my account up under my home e-mail address and people looking for my page won't find it with the info@ photo-sensitivity.com address that is on my business cards. The address that you should enter when looking for my work is ryderlady@hotmail.com. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this boo boo but for now, please- go to facebook.com and set up an account. It only takes a few minutes and it costs nothing. You don't have to fill in all of the information. You will be amazed when you search for friends how intuitive and helpful the site is. It brought up people I never realized had a facebook page. Maybe that's because I never really checked it out until my friend, Tom, sent me the link. BTW, he's doing brilliant things with a couple of graphic design programs. Oh, and the photo I've posted is the real me, taken by my dad or his wife, Adena, during our recent visit to the Pacific Northwest.

Happy Birthday, Steph

Our grand daughter turned eight years old today. This isn't really anything special except for one very important thing. The day she was born she was 10 weeks premature and weighed 2 pounds. It was almost surreal looking at her in the isolette. I read her measurements over and over and wondered to myself how, in later years, I would be able to grasp just how small she really was. SO I took those measurements and hunted high and low for just the right bunny rabbit. It had to be exactly 14 inches long and weigh no more than 2 pounds. it had to have thin arms and legs. It took me a while but I was relentless finding just exactly the right stuffed animal. The nurses let me put it in her isolette and we took a photograph of her next to the bunny. We've taken this photograph every year on her birthday to remind us all of how tiny she was and to remind Stephanie as well of what a fighter she was. She came home from the hospital a little over 4 pounds with very little health issues. We thank God everyday for sending her to us and allowing us to keep her. I just thought you'd all like to know how wonderful the staff in the neonatal unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock really is. I even wrote a piece on her first birthday and sent it to the papers along with her 1st birthday photo. Attached to this piece is the one I took today.

I Didn't Know Dogs Could Get That Sick

I never realized what the phrase meant until this past month. I hated the ride north in the car though. The further north we went, the more pressure built in my head and by the time we got home, I was in tears. In fact, there are no posts for the month of February because I was so miserable. I spent more time curled up on the couch than I did on my feet. Carl thinks the misery of this head cold actually lasted longer because I also tend to get cabin fever during this time of year. Some call it Seasonal Affective Disorder and if you think about the initials, S.A.D. then it must be true. The days are finally getting a bit warmer and I can feel the urge to get out and take photos burning inside me. I'm not there yet, but my husband always knows when I'm feeling better. He says I get grouchy. LOL!

Long Lapse

I can't believe that it's been almost four months since my last post. I hope I haven't lost all my readers because of this lapse. I have to report that I haven't been idle during this time. I mentioned we would be building an addition on our house for Mom and this is nearly complete. With one of the wettest summers, and I use that term loosely, everything took weeks longer than it should. My photography, too, has suffered due to lack of good light, the expense of driving and the time to set off to search for adventure.
We've also started a side line to my business. Our 7 year old granddaughter, Stephanie, has been taking photographs since she was about 5. This past week, I taught her how to make some of her better and more interesting images into note cards. We spent this past weekend at the Sandwich Fair where she spent time talking with customers who showed an enthusiastic interest in her work Of the 60 note cards made up of nine designs, she returned home with only 36 and was very excited to find that people loved the image of her cat, Mrs B, and her ponies, Fancy and Lily. In the next post, I'll tell you about the foliage season and what's on tap for the next couple of months. The image I've posted is Steph's photo of Mrs. B.

When The Lights Go Out

It's been a very long three days! I was working at my computer on Monday, the day of the April Nor'easter, when a tremendous roaring began outside. I brushed the curtains aside near my desk in time to see the evergreen trees behind my studio lay over as if a massive hand had pushed them aside. This happened over and over, each gust of wind seeming to be stronger than the previous one. I could hear limbs snapping and the rain was driven sideways into the windows of the house. As the intensity of the storm grew, so did the damage outside. The small broken trees of just an hour before were being quickly surpassed by trees of more substance. It was then that the lights went out. They didn't come back on until Thursday afternoon. It was three full days of burning candles, worrying about the meat in our freezer, wondering if the electric crew forgot us and pacing the floors because every time I remembered something I needed to do, it took electricity to make it happen. We have become so dependant upon the almighty wall socket, we become as disconnected as the wires do from our homes. That first night there was an unnatural quiet. No hum from the computer, refrigerator or florescent light bulbs. The three of us sat in silence until, out of boredom, I began to play solitaire, badly. My husband and grown son joined me and for two hours, we played rummy and laughed, but more importantly, we talked. Not the "did you take out the trash?" kind of dialog. It was more like three friends that haven't been together for a while. If you ask me, I say loosing the electricity did us a world of good.