The Calm Between The Storms.

This morning it is very calm and quiet outside. The numerous birds are chirping their various songs. The temperature is a lot cooler. The air is a bit damp.

This is the calm between the storms. It was so ugly and violent yesterday and the forecast is calling for more over the next week. But today. Today, at least right now at 8 a.m. in the morning, it is absolutely beautiful.

Sure, we get overcast, partially sunny, damp days a lot during the late Fall, Winter, and early Spring, but during the Summer - this is way cool!

Things out there are so fresh and clean. True, there is debris everywhere. Tree branches. Leaves. The watering hose storage container lid - laying in the driveway - again! That thing doesn't ever stay on in the wind. The placemats were blown off the table - I left the dining room windows open - no rain of course, 'cause there's a 12 foot eave over the deck. But things are otherwise, washed off and clean out there!

As I was checking and reading my favorite blogs around the country, and a new one, Down Under - www.abeachcottage.typepad.com, I noticed a trend in the world. Stormy, rainy, lightning, thunderous weather. Could it be the whole world is having a storm right now? One wouldn't think so, but something is going on.....

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of views from the house this morning.

This is the view this morning from outside the dining room off the upper deck. We discovered this oak tree a couple of years ago. How you ask do you just "find" an oak tree this size? Well, you see, it was obscured. Literally "buried" by 8 surrounding cedar, douglas fir and pine evergreens that were taller than it. When we decided to have those trees cut down, which weren't so healthly, but made GREAT firewood, we found this oak! It is SO much happier now. The trunk had grown into a slight curve just to get some sunlight. And from one side, it has a bald-spot in its canopy, but we love it just the same. And it is finally starting to grow straight up! PLUS, it has TWO rounds of mistletoe growing in it. Phillip decided those were for us!

Here is the view from the same upper deck - looking to the right. See those two little trees in the middle of the photo? Well, they really aren't so little in person. The taller one, with the naked trunk, bends and sways a TON in the wind storms. It's amazing how much it can bend without breaking. The other, smaller one to the right of it. Well, it used to be taller, but the top blew off back in November 2008. Its somewhere on the forest floor, recycling itself. That side of the mountain has a pretty steep drop off!

OK. So back to the left - over the oak tree. There is usually a mountain in this view. Today, the top is covered in clouds. On this whole side, at the base of the mountain, runs the Applegate River. Many times a year, we watch the fog roll in and settle down over the river, like a blanket of clouds. Also, at times, we watch and listen to the geese as they fly through the valley following the river. I love it!

Lastly, is this photo to the East. It is taken out our family room/main living room picture windows. You can see the horizontal lines in the photo. That is not a jet stream, it is a reflection off the glass. BUT, just look at that sky. Isn't it beautiful?

Even though the house needed a ton of work, and still needs more, this is why we bought it. The location. The views.

Phillip and I spent a number of years moving around and feeling ansy about where we lived. We always had the "bug" to move. We just hadn't found HOME yet. There HAD to be somewhere we'd feel content. Somewhere we would never think about moving from. Well, let me say, this is HOME!!!! And NOW, the thought of moving NEVER even crosses our minds......