**note; any blogs that are associated with the book Finding Home will have a title that includes the name of the book at the beginning. In this way, if you are not interested in the story you can skip by those entries. Anything else wil be labeled for the particular story presented and categorized as “Travel Diary Entry from this point forth.. Hopefully this will stop any confusion between the two very different blog entries (you may or may not see that all the previous posts were labeled “uncatgorized”).
We were house sitting this weekend and so I just wanted to share the photos I took over the few days I was there. it is such an amazing place which you arrive at once you climb “The Driveway”. So this post will be mostly pictures of this beautiful place, a piece of land on the top of the world in all it’s peaceful glory.
Saturday, a beautiful hot sunny day. This is the view from the bench which I loved to have my coffee on to watch the vultures ride the thermals.
Josephina (pronounced Yosephina here). She was one of the reasons we were house sitting. I brought her out to pasture in the morning after her breakfast, and then back to her pen at night. She is expecting soon and so is an eating machine right now…. I hope I am still here when she gives birth.
It is unfortunate i have to downsize the photos so much to get them imported to this blog. I’m sure the image you receive on your end is not nearly as dramatic as even the one on my iPad, which takes surprisingly good photos. Seeing them in a bigger format gives a better impression of the beauty here, it’s difficult to describe.
On Sunday, it remained quite foggy (actually cloudy) for a few hours. It was beautiful to watch the display as the landscape changed with the moving clouds. The sun trying to get through, succeeding before noon.
I’m not much of a photographer, but it’s hard not to get a decent picture even for me with such beauty all around.
Can you believe this guy? He is number 8, just amazing to see in real time. Unfortunately it wouldn’t open it’s wings when I was ready with camera in hand. He only opened them when I left my phone on the table, even landing on my jacket which was tied around my waist several times. I am not one who carries my phone with me at all times, preferring to leave it in my room, but in these moments, I curse myself for not having the habit of bringing it. With it’s wings open you see the top is mostly black with vibrant blue markings and red at the top. The red is in the same place you see it in this picture only it’s a larger amount and it’s brighter. He sure packs a punch for one so small.
I can’t remember what the fruit is called that it’s taking it’s meal from, but it is delicious, tasting almost like vanilla pudding. Mali took a liking to it as well when some fell on the ground. – so I fed her more. Patrick would throw it and she chased it a few times and then ate it. What a kook!!!
Mali learned how to play while spending time with their dog Bernie. She has never played with other dogs, so this was very nice to watch. Like me, it seems, she did not have a childhood, growing up far too fast. Bernie is just a puppy though (isn’t he beautiful?) and Mali is almost 9 years old now, so she wasn’t as enthusiastic about playing ALL day like he is. She taught him about the joy of chasing sticks and balls as she raced to grab them. He really didn’t understand that it was a competition until he got to one first by accident. Then the growling began. Here the ball was unripe avacados (who knew) which they tended to eat after a few dozen throws. With 40 avacados trees on the property, you can imagine there are plenty of them to pick up. Mali got a taste for them after those few days, something she never ate back home. It seems most dogs here love them, pulling them out of the compost buckets to lick clean. Interesting…..
I was brushing Josephina and we were watching the dogs play (kind of a perfect way to spend time), I did take video of it because I was so pleased to see Mali allowing herself to let Her guard down.
I did not take any photos yesterday, it was misting and raining off and on all day. It was still warm when you went for a stroll looking for avacados, lemons and such, but cool when sitting at the computer. I am still going through the family photos, organizing them for the book. I started with 1000 or more and have narrowed it down to around 500, but there are still too many of course. So I am in the process of naming them and organizing them into groups such as seasonal or by child etc. I can’t seem to do too many at a time, it’s wonderful to see so many beautiful moments after so many years without. The photos were always in boxes stored away, so I had not seen them for many years.
Around 12:45, we felt the earthquake that happened near Cuenca which is near the Peru border. I have never had that experience before and that was not something I thought of when I woke up yesterday. Although that being said I did think about it while I was sitting on the bench have a cup of tea in the morning. Their little house had a wall which was cracked during the last big quake a couple of years ago. It kind of gets you thinking about position – is it better to be up this high or down below. Kind of mixed feeling on that one. When you see the size of the boulders in and around the river, you have to know they came from up high….. so yeah it’s about position. In any case when your time comes, it comes whether you want it to or not, so I realize it’s all about finding the happy in now. So that was my weekend, I hope you all had a nice weekend also, different, but good.
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