We took Elsie and cousin Ida on the longest hike of their lives the other day, to to Angels Rest in the Colombia River Gorge. It was gorge-ess! We saw two snakes on the way and I tried to catch one of them, thinking that it would make an interesting show and tell for the girls, but then I couldn't remember whether Oregon has poisonous snakes or not. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Later I caught a dragonfly and Elsie was pretty delighted with that.
I put Elsie down on the ground at one point and she grabbed a little fistful of dirt and stuck it in her mouth. I've heard that dirt is actually good for you, in small amounts. Not sure if this was the case with Elsie. The above picture was takn shotly before this event. Also pictured is cousin Ida's prodigous head of hair. Several folks here have commented on it and in fact whenever I've been with her in public at least one stranger has made a remark along the lines of "is that hair real?" or "is that a baby or a doll?". This latter question is particularly perplexing because why would a grown person take the trouble to carry around a lifelike doll, especailly up the side of a mountain? She's real! Here is proof as you can see her hair blowing the famous Hood River winds. Could a toupee survive that?
Speaking of fibers which grow on mamals, my friend and talented artist Whitney Van Nes has an interesting new blog/column going on this website called purlbee.com. She works at this high end knitting store in SoHo as a day job and here she writes about a fascinating trip to a sheep wool festival. Even if you aren't a knitter, check out those crazy sheep!
