it's the good ol' summertime

Hmm, it's about that time. About time for another post from this Montana mountain girl!

And I feel very Montana mountain girly today because my friend Jenny and I hiked up to Carlton Ridge (just below Lolo Peak) yesterday, camped overnight near lovely Carlton Lake, and woke up to early morning sunshine and blood-sucking mosquitoes. Ah, Montana! Gotta love it. My legs are not at ALL happy with me, as they have not been subjected to such torture since my days on the Inca Trail, but they will get over it. I love having sore muscles, actually; it feels so utterly lovely to stretch them, and it's also lovely to know that they've gotten a good workout. Ahh.

I'm not feeling overly wordy today, so I think I'll just post some pictures from the past month and a half of my life:

My annual June 13th pilgrimage to the top of Mt. Sentinel:





























My friend Beth and I at the famous Missoula "M"































Andrea and some of her friends attended a wedding in Bozeman, so I drove the short 3 hours to spend a day in Yellowstone with her and her friends. Some silly sister pictures, which are, scarily enough, also NORMAL sister pics:































































































Useful Yellowstone signage:





































































































































































Beehive Geyser, which erupted RIGHT IN FRONT OF US while we were waiting for Old Faithful. We got wet! It was great! Yay, geysers!!











































































































And, in Iowa in July, I got to hang out with Rita before she and David moved to Ithaca































I went to my family reunion on Castle Rock Lake in Wisconsin, and had a blast with my oldest nephew, Dillan. It's great when you find another kindred spirit . . .





























Sunset on Castle Rock Lake





























And, just this last week, my parents and Andrea came through on their to WA! Andrea's moving out to Lynden to start teaching this fall. But of course, we had to do fun Missoula stuff in preparation:


Getting our hair wet in Rattlesnake Creek:































Me sitting happily in the creek, and Andrea all wet and drippy:































Looking sexy at the Old Post (where they CARDED me for the first time in a year--what, because I was with my parents or something??):































And, of course, FLOATING the Clark Fork!! Woohoo!!































The mountains of the Missoula Valley from my hike this past weekend. See all the smoke from the forest fires??































Beautiful (and icy!!) Carlton Lake:

Sunday, Rainy Sunday

Okay, so today isn't Sunday. I actually wrote this two Sundays ago, as in, June 10th. And for some reason I wasn't able to upload the pics I wanted to upload, so I didn't publish the post. This evening, however, I was successful in my picture posting efforts. So here they be!


Sunday, Rainy Sunday

And thus a perfect day for sitting in Bernice's Bakery, surrounded by the smells of fresh bread and coffee, drinking my hot chai, and writing. But first, I feel compelled to blog, since my last post was from Cusco, Peru. Now, of course, I am back in Missoula, Montana, Los Estados Unidos, Norte Americana, back to summer, back to work, back to the routine of my life here. Life is good.

I'll post a few more pics here, but I recommend that you all check out the pics I put in my online web album, if you haven't already.

Blogs are a strange thing. I know this is not an original thought, but last night I was absent-mindedly sitting in front of my computer, and I typed in a random blog address, wondering what kind of person would name their blog "life is good." Lately I've been feeling that life is very good, and I wanted to read the thoughts of someone else who thought so, too. Turns out it's a mother of four who lives in Colorado and blogs several times a week. Randomly enough, she and her husband lived in Lima, Peru, in the early '90s, and their first son was born there, during an earthquake. Huh. Anyway, it's amazing how one can peer into people's lives--and even more amazing that people put their lives out there to be peered into.

So, a few more pictures from my trip:


The ruins of Sacsayhuaman, on a hill just above Cusco





Our porters climbing agilely up the Inca Trail




















hiking in the mists of the Andes














Machu Picchu














Bill and I at the top of Huayna Picchu (the high peak behind the ruins in the above photo)














Here we all are (except for Bill's wife Beverly, who didn't hike the Trail with us) at the top of Warmiwañusca (Dead Woman's Pass, altitude 13,800'):

Brenda D, Brenda V, Bill, Diane, me, and Marco

Estoy en Perú!

Yo amo Perú.

Yo lo amo mucho.

Es un país muy hermoso: la gente, las montañas, las ciudades, todo.

I am having a marvelous time, and at the moment I simply don't have the words. A few appetite-whetting pictures will have to do:

Salcantay:












Yo (la joven), Bill (el viejo en el grupo), Brenda (la soltera otra), y Marco (nuestro guía guapo):












Yo a Machu Picchu, despues de 4 dias en el Camino Inca. Soy guapa, no?












Estoy contenta.

Earth Day & Ranching & Fencing, Oh My! (and a brief digression into Pride & Prejudice)

I do love Pride & Prejudice, in all its forms. Currently I'm delving into the written form. Just a few tidbits:

"The stupidity with which [Mr. Collins] was favoured by nature, must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance."

Oh, Jane Austen, how delightfully snarky thou art!

And better yet:

"'Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?'"

Indeed. But I digress . . .

Earth Day has come and gone, and along with it, a mobile glass pulverizer from Helena. A group of EVST students worked hard to get that darned thing over to Missoula, and we were not disappointed! Missoulians (and Montanans from farther afield) flocked to Caras Park on Earth Day (April 22), and brought about 10 tons of glass for us to pulverize into cullet. It was quite a satisfying day, all told. Here are a few pictures:

Two years' worth of glass from our Recycling Cave of Death:































Other Missoulians' glass stashes:






























The Pulverizer from Above (the big vestibule into which all the glass is being thrown is called the "hopper"):





























Me working hard! (Ooh, pretty bottle!)







































The crew:
Derek, me, Aubree, Marlee, Stacey, Bill (from Headwaters Recycling in Helena), & Robin (EVST prof)--and the pulverizer, of course!



























Let's just say that our Earth Day demonstration was wildly successful. :)


So that was two weekends ago. This past weekend I headed out to Central Montana with a group of EVSTers to do a little fencing for a rancher who had 95% of his 11,000 acres burn in an enormous wildfire last summer.



























It was one of the most lovely weekends I've had in a long while. The weather gods were smiling on us, giving us 75 degree days, cool breezes, and warm sunshine. And the lush green beauty rising out of the blackened ash of the wildfire was utterly glorious. One evening we drove up to a high ridge on the Terland's land.





























To the north were the peaks of the Crazy Mountains, misty in the setting sun; to the south were the snow-capped peaks of the Beartooth Mountains, and on the hills all around the grass was green and dotted with wildflowers--bread & butters (white six-petaled beauties that taste delicious), fire flowers, bluebells, and even some bitterroot plants (Montana's state flower), though they were not yet in bloom.







































On Friday morning as I sat out in one of the sloping meadows above the river, I realized that THIS is what human beings are meant to do: We are meant to be outside. We are meant to breathe and run and live beneath the sunshine, in the path of the wind, along the curve of the earth, drinking the air, smelling sunlight on grass and leaves, hearing the sandhill cranes cry as they drift on high currents of air. It was a moment that could not be bought by anything but my experience of it.

The Baltimorian Escapades of Rachel and Allison

I just returned to cold, cloudy Missoula from cold, sunny Baltimore. So much for spring! Baltimore went from 80-degree weather the weekend BEFORE I arrived to an average of, oh, 37 degrees for the six days of my stay. Go figure.


But we did not let the chilly air negatively influence our activities! We toured Baltimore, from the Inner Harbor to Fort McHenry to Hamden, spent a day in D.C., took walks, cooked delectable dishes (pizza. whole grain waffles with strawberries. roast beef. brussel sprouts. crepes. pumpkin stew. mmm.), drank gallons of hot tea, ate pints of mint chip ice cream, and ate out at various quirky restaurants. Among other things . . .


Rach and Kara's neighborhood (this isn't their street, but it's close by, and aren't the colors splendid?):





























Rach and I looking gorgeous, as usual:




























And . . . oh my, what's this?! Where art thou sitting, oh Rachel? And what's that on thy foot?







































But she wasn't the only one . . . what IS that on my back? Oh dear! What is this place into which we wandered?







































It appears to be some sort of peculiar art studio . . .
a body art studio . . .







































But is that a pen or a (gasp!) needle?































Oh my goodness oh me oh my oh!!


What HAVE we done to ourselves?


One may not think it possible that Rach and I could be any more gorgeous than we already are, but we now have evidence to the contrary.







































Branded beauties, we are!


Hee hee hee . . . I do so love new acquisitions.