My treasures from this year

My treasures from last year



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I love what Sandra says here.

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Back here, again.
We call it our "backyard beach"
because
(even though
it's a 5 hour drive to get there)
we have visited this place
every year
since I was a baby
and a summer would feel
preposterously incomplete
without our trip there.


While the photos on Folkloric
may not show it,
it has been a stressful few months
and this trip
felt almost medicinal.


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I took a walk yesterday
with my favorite walking companion
and we reminded each other
and agreed
that the smell of blackberries
just past their peak of fullness,
hanging so heavy on the vine
that they fall to juice in your hand
when you try to pick them
and baking slowly
in a sun that is already setting,
earlier than it was setting just last week
is the most beautiful,
heartbreaking,
and utterly golden smell
of the time that is
Late Summer,
Early Fall.

We walked,
taking deep, gasping breaths,
cherishing this scent
of mourning and thankfulness and memory,
and then we waded through the brambles
and gathered enough of these late berries
to bake one more blackberry cobbler.

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...And our final visit.


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Laura Veirs - July Flame



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One of our last visits
to Summerland
on the other side of the mountains.



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Final(ly)
blossoming.


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I used to visit
the Ice Caves
with my family
many times each summer
when I was little
(the hike is so short,
and the destination so spectacular)
and I wanted the boy
to see this place too.

That's him
in the last photo.

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Junip - To The Grain


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