Finally truly spring at Star Mt.

I've found the perfect word for what Star Mt. means to me. Querencia - a place where one feels secure, a place from which one's strength of character is drawn, the place from which we speak our deepest beliefs. Love this.

Things seem to be awfully busy the last few days. I've gone from helping an artist who's on the same volunteer art council at the art center in town arrange and hang her show that's up all June, to going to a special meeting of our homeowners association for fire safety. I'm not sure what I got out of it other than we're in a bad area if a fire ever started anywhere on Star Mt. Pine and aspen forests with sagebrush (flammable), lots of dead trees on the forest floor, and no water to draw on except a couple of springs make for a bad combination. The forest service, fire dept., emergency rep, and wildlife protection people were all there, which was impressive, but forest cleanup is pretty much on our dime unless it's immediately surrounding the house, and even then the monies that might be available don't go very far. It's already pretty cleared out around our house, thank goodness.
Went to Sherpa Cafe again, this time with friends Gail and Steve. They are pretty adventuresome when it comes to food, so they were all excited about the dinner. Hurray, they loved it, and we chitchatted with the owner/Mt. Everest guide while waiting for our Nepalese Tibetan food. He's guiding later on this fall if you have a yen to make the trek.

Lots of animal activity going on, and the noises have started in the night. One night was 20 minutes of an owl hooting and the next was a coyote howling. Shhh...  The bighorn sheep picture was taken in the same place we've seen them before,up Taylor, right behind two homes. Has the tourist association put them there? Really I think the homes aren't occupied at the moment and the sheep don't care about road noise.

Crazy oriole photos. We have broken two hummingbird feeders so far (a record) and tried a new kind and it drove the male oriole nuts trying to get to the sugar water. They have much better luck on the traditional feeders even though they're not meant for anything other than hummingbirds. Wacky.

Still high water everywhere but no flooding in our area so far. All the fishermen are anxiously awaiting the levels going down (including Mark).
Finished two books The Leap Years; women reflect on change, loss, & love by Mary Anne Maier. It was okay, a collection of authors' musings on life - some happy, some not. It is actually the first book I checked out at the local library. Haven't been to any library in a long time, but wanted to get a card here - guess I wanted to feel more permanent here. The other book was The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. Crazy title huh...it's part of a series that pretty entertaining- British (of course) 11 year old precocious girl who solves murders in the 1940's.