Jay Says it So Well - My Own Private Idaho: The Long Autumn

My Own Private Idaho: The Long Autumn: Hawthorn Turning Autumn's come in hard. Sweatshirts and gloves in the mornings when I take Pepper for walks in the hills. The gr...

Change in the Air (When My Husband Says It Better than I Could)

My Own Private Idaho: Change in the Air: The first chill of an approaching autumn was in the air yesterday morning as I walked Pepper down to the county road to get the newspaper. T...

My Own Private Idaho: 2013 Tour de Cure is History - So are Chainrings

My Own Private Idaho: 2013 Tour de Cure is History - So are Chainrings: My Jersey Number Back from the 2013 American Diabetes Association Spokane Tour de Cure, and it was fun again this year. But, not without...

What My Husband Found on the Trail Camera

My Own Private Idaho: Good Week for the Trail Camera: Elk on the Move Cow Moose, Early Morning Mama Elk and Young Young Buck in Velvet

My Own Private Idaho: A Week at the Spring

My Own Private Idaho: A Week at the Spring: You're too close. Step away from the camera. Last fall, we bought a trail camera at Cabela's to capture some of the wildlife ran...

A Lady's Bath - or, the Cat Room

I decided that I'll never finish changing the decor of my bath, so I might as well give a little tour now. Had I realized how large it would be, I would have pulled in the wall to make the guest room behind it large, but - oh well.

During the summer, while the house was being built, we picked out this wonderful marble for the vanities, called Rainforest Brown. It comes from the marble quarries of Rajasthan in western India, the same area that the Taj Mahal marbles come from (that particular quarry long depleted).  the serpentine striations in the marble inspired me to weave my own frame for the mirror, using willow, hawthorn and elderberry from our property. I'm rather pleased with the result, but Geordie, pictured, does like to chew on the corners. Here's a close-up of the marble.

I love my deep soaking tub.  It's here many of my writing ideas take form as I allow my body and mind to relax in a bubble bath.  Scenes and dialogue float into my mind, much like watching a movie.

I wanted a shelf above my tub for special things.

The shelf was a house-warming gift from our carpenter neighbor, Davy.

Since it's my personal bath, I can decorate the walls however I like. Original prints and images printed off the Internet, mostly of cats.  Not my erstwhile cats (that would only make me sad), but cats I've never known, but would like to.

I believe this and the next one are by Louis Wain

Geordie must always be the center of attention.

But other images decorate the walls. Little old things found in charity shops that I thought would like to live with me.

This wooden heart must have been made and hand-painted for a special woman many years ago.

And these pressed flowers in their old original frame.

A small silk weaving made in England for the tourist trade.

I have more wall space left --above this second vanity that fits behind my tub and in the toilet stall with its sliding door and across from the shower stall.

So many walls to adorn, and years to do it in, I hope.

When Good Dogs Go Bad

Pepper back from a run and full of self-satisfaction

Here is my husband Jay's Brittany Pepper, after he came back from a run on our 66 acres, avoiding coyotes, but not mud.  He loves to dig.  Jay had to take him into the shower for a shampoo.  Now that the snow is mostly gone, this may become a daily ritual.