{Alternate Title for Photos: My (Adult) Life in Trees}

Have you ever been asked the question, “If you had to choose between living near the ocean or the mountains, which would you pick?”  I have been asked this question numerous times, and I always have the same answer.  Both mountains and oceans are amazing.  They inspire a humbling type of awe that is hard to match.  However, I know (from growing up near neither) that I can live without them near me.  I do need forests.  I need trees.  I need the leaves, the needles, the understory and the animals that depend on forest ecology to survive.

Avalanche Lake, MT, ca. 2010

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{Warning  Warning  Warning: The following post may contain offensive amounts of cliched phrases.  If idioms drive you crazier than watching political ads, then you might as well make like a tree and leave right now!}

Fall is the best season for reading a good book.  In particular, it is the best season for reading fiction.  As we head into the dead of winter, the opportunity to cuddle up with a good book and some tea on an overstuffed chair shouldn’t be passed over.  In our neck of the woods, the growing season has been over for several weeks; and I had the opportunity to concentrate on some house projects and read a whole book.  This may not sound like a lot, but I feel very accomplished!

Halloween fun. Ava was an aerobics instructor, I made a feeble attempt to be a 60s housewife.

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