Recent Events

Well, I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth. But it has been a busy last couple of months with a family wedding and visiting family and friends. All wonderful.

There have been the day to day chores this summer, too, of course. The big deal here in our area since the end of July were fires on nearby mountains. A couple of weeks ago they moved down the mountain and across the valley quite close to our place. We were told to evacuate when the fires moved within a couple of miles and the strong wind was blowing it our way.

My husband and I proceeded to load up our 20+ photo albums plus 3 xerox boxes of additional pictures. We packed up a lot of my paintings too. However, there are so many here I knew they would not all fit in our two vehicles. It was quite the experience going from room to room to pick which ones would fit. Some of my older pieces are very large, especially the abstracts.

What a terrible choice to have to decide which pieces to save. Thank the Lord, the wind died down and then switched direction. And even though all the those hard-working fire personnel fought hard to keep the fires from spreading, there simply wasn't enough manpower to stop the fires. Local farmers saved the day by plowing fire breaks through the fields as the fire moved toward them. True bravery and brotherly love were demonstrated in their actions.

We've had rain since that scary night, and the fires here are at an end, although there are still many areas out here in the west which are still burning.

Those dark areas on the mountains near us testify to the fire damage. We give thanks for the mercies of God.