Token Creek Eco-Inn near Madison

During my recent visit to Madison, Wisconsin, my friend Theresa and I stayed at this really neat eco-friendly Bed & Breakfast that someone recommended to me, the Token Creek Eco-Inn B&B. Being all ecofriendly and environmentally conscious myself, it appealed to my senses, naturally! We arrived in the evening after wandering around Madison and eating at Graze (see pics from Madison here) and proceeded to consume unnatural amounts of cheese with a little bit of crackers and let us not forget the wine!

We stayed in the largest room, the Capitol Room Suite. It has a king bed and a whirlpool tub! We were the only ones in the B&B that night.

Jean Schneider, the owner (along with her husband Jason, who we didn't meet), has been teaching workshops for a couple of years and finally opened the B&B part last year. In fact they are about to celebrate their one-year anniversary as a B&B! The workshops sound really interesting too - everything from cheese-making and soap making to gardening with dry stack stone beds. In the morning she made a delicious breakfast. She is a big foodie, like me!

Apparently a breakfast salad is a "thing" in Madison. It sounded kinda weird, but it was actually very refreshing and delicious!

And of course it went along with something sweet: Blueberry streusel french toast with warm maple rum sauce - yummmmm!!

After breakfast, and before Theresa took me to the airport Jean showed us around outside. This is a hoop house (like a greenhouse) outside.

Theresa and Jean walking around. It was drizzling and raining all morning so we put on some of Jean's boots to explore!

A shot showing the garden and a side of the house/B&B.

She raises chickens too and uses the eggs in the breakfast.

Me being silly and taking a self-portrait with Jean in the background! I look like a dork! :)

This is a fire pit she built as part of her workshop, I believe.

Never mind the white mushroom on my head! Ha ha! I swear that hat, the way it's situated on my head, looks like I am all Mario Bros or something... At any rate it was so great to reconnect with my friend Theresa - it amazes me how God puts people in our lives when we are children that we still are connected to on a deep level as adults. It's like even as young people we really do form deep and real connections with particular people, and it is not random. Is there someone from your childhood you want to reconnect with? Go for it!

California winter days

Me in Santa Monica at Will Rogers State Park. Copyright Paige LaCombe Photography
Paige and I spent yesterday together, and we went to visit our friend Dana who lives in Topanga Canyon. First though we stopped by Intelligentsia, a coffee shop on Sunset Blvd. A random person took this one with my cell phone.
Next to Intelligentsia there is this graffiti mural wall that says I never hated anyone. We loved it. Next we stopped at a great foodie restaurant - True Food Restaurant - in Santa Monica where we met up with Dana! It was a beautiful day and we sat outside on the patio and took photos and Dana and I exchanged our respective turquoise necklaces because it was Monday, the "day of giving and receiving" according to the 7 Laws of Success by Deepak Choptra!This is a self-portrait of me and Paige at the beach in Santa Monica using Paige's awesome new Canon Mark 2! She is starting a photography business and is really excited about it! (Copyright (c) 2011 Paige LaCombe)This is a phone photo I took of the beach. We just sat and listened to the waves for a while. I meditated both with my eyes closed, and open watching the sparkles of the afternoon sun dance on the indigo waves. I had the most peaceful feeling that things were exactly right in the universe at this moment in time.
Next we went to Dana and Ron's house in Topanga Canyon for dinner. I love the meditation room Dana designed there - isn't it cool?
Dana's 13-year old daughter Rachel Riley played guitar and sang for us - wow! She is an incredibly talented young lady! Check out her Youtube channel - it even has original songs. I would say I thought it was even more powerful in person though! Dana made us an amazingly delish dinner, and we played "20 questions" and it was a lot of fun. Then we headed back home (to Eagle Rock)
Renata, Paige, Kim and me hanging out at Paige & Renata's place!

Fun in Portland!

A few quick photos from my trip to the Pacific Northwest -so far! In an hour or so, I'm meeting up with my dad and going to his log cabin northwest of Portland, and tomorrow we're headed to Olympic National Park (my favorite in the US-and I've been to a lot!) Sat through Monday. Unfortunately the forecast calls for rain... so I'm calling on the Lord to supernaturally clear the rain! :) I'm coming back to Portland Tuesday morn, and then driving to the Missoula, Montana for the Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

My dear friend, environmental reporter, Terri Hansen graciously is hosting me while I'm in town. We went out to get some coffee at the Fresh Pot and then took our annual photo at Ben & Jerry's!
Our two mochas from The Fresh Pot. So yum- especially with the double chocolate flourless cookie.
Me outside Fresh Pot!
Inside... funny thing that on Beth Moore's blog, she just wrote about how her daughter's favorite coffee is Stumptown Roasters from Portland and that's what they serve here! Good taste! :)
I made Terri and her roommate Amy this delicious Vegetarian Times magazine soup I'd been wanting to make - spinach zucchini soup and like almost every recipe I've tried from their magazine it didn't disappoint! As the website says, "This light soup is full of sunny flavors like lemon, zucchini, and dill." Ironically the recipe ingredients did not list dill so I didn't include it but after the fact I realized it would have been delightful in it! We did not have white beans so we subbed red potatoes as a starch, which were great but I would recommend peeling them.
Sauteeing onions, scallions, and garlic. The recipe only calls for onion but I always add garlic and they had some scallion on hand so I added that too.
We served it up with a yummy salad - a most excellent meal!
We had a little get together at the Laughing Planet Cafe on SE Woodstock, one of my favorite places to eat in Portland. They have an assortment of plastic dinosaurs on the tables... for fun and entertainment. This is writer Bill Lascher, me and Terri. Plus dinos. The stegosaurus has special meaning for me because in my Beth Moore bible study workbook she talks about how stego is Greek for "protection" in the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 bible verse that is so famous "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." - the "protects" word has stego as a root.
Terri looking beautiful as always!
My high school sweetheart Jimmy and me.
Bev, my dad and me! It was so great to see them! I was here last August for their wedding - they are soul mates! I'm headed out right now to meet my dad and Bev for a long weekend. I'll be back with photos! If it does not rain too much, that is...

agghhhhhh

My dad's log cabin in Oregon where I spent part of my younger years...
Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp

Wow this sumer has absolutely flown by. I think I am in the middle of a whirlwind. I want to update my blog more, but only feel like I am being responsible in doing so when I'm on top of my work, which feels dreadfully behind. So, here I am just to give a quick update. This is Shark Week so all my Animal Planet blog posts were on sharks (between 8/7 and 8/3), which was fun! I love sharks! Check them out if you can! As always I love comments, so post some comments - let me know if anything resonates!

Next Tuesday I fly to the Pacific Northwest and am more than a little excited! My dad is getting married to his soul mate, Bev, and I'm delighted for them! And I'm more than excited to be back in the Oregon air, and go hiking, and hopefully see the seashore. I'll try to update from there, but my basic plan is to fly into Seattle, Washington where I'll stay with my cousin in Tacoma and her two cute kiddos (her husband Ross in in Iraq for his second tour of duty, so prayers for him are much appreciated!). Then I'll spend the next few days alternating between working in Portland at a wifi coffee shop hotspot, visiting some friends, and spending evenings with my dad and Bev. I am hoping to get to the beach!!! Oregon's coast is incredibly beautiful, and it's been a long while since I've feasted my eyes on its shores so even if I have to go alone I probably will go. My dad gets married Saturday. As you may recall my last trip there in December I got snowed in!!

While there, I have helped organize a get together for writers in the Pacific NW, some of whom are driving in from out of town! This should be a blast. We're going to Wildwood Recreation Site on Mount Hood which looks amazingly beautiful. Here's a brochure that may take abit to download. Then after a half day hike, heading to Hopworks Urban Brewery, Portland's first eco-brewpub with organic hand crafted beer, and a sustainable building powered by 100% renewable energy. Coolio!

Then it's back to Tacoma to visit my cousin again before flying home. It should be a much needed respite from the drab suburban scenery of Houston... I would say the heat but it had been a scalding 108 in Portland! I heard it had cooled down to a high of 80 so let's hope and pray it stays that way! I hope to get a bit of work done in between my visits and explorations, too.

I took a bunch of pics from my birthday party in July and my trip to Dallas to visit my mom, stepdad and niece. I'll upload as soon as I get some time. I have to do "personal" things like this in micro-steps because I have soooo much work to do!! I'm sure I'm not the only one to have felt that way before. :)

field hockey etc

Today I went with Jenny to her field hockey semi-finals. I'm totally hopeless when it comes to sports - they're just not my thing - so I had no clue what was going on but it was fun to see her do her thing! I spent the beautiful sunny day out there reading, hanging out with Brooke, and text messaging :) We're home and had a lovely dinner and Abigail just threw up, all over Jenny! Buckets of vomit! And then she just said, as I write this, "That was my dinner." (she is 22 months old). Now, it's back to work.

Jenny doing her hockey thing. She is right fullback.

Abigail - What a cutie!
Brooke and Abigail ready for bed. They came upstairs to hang out with me and we took some cute videos of them counting and talking.

Tabletop Mountain

We went on a walk up Tabletop Mountain this afternoon, which is really more of a steep hill,not far from Toowoomba. It's pretty steep at first and goes through some scrambly rock beds and took about an hour or so. It was a good strenuous hike, and not too far.

A view of Tabletop Mountain from the lookout point in Toowoomba.

Part of the trail to the top involved going over these very rocky bits!

Rin and I on top of Tabletop Mountain. We had fun taking a bunch of self portraits. :) They have sunspots though... in one picture it was my "third eye"! I love this one!

The trail to the top of Tabletop Mountain.
Fields of grass on top of Tabletop Mountain.
I look like my leg is cut off - but this is me at the top of Tabletop Mountain! Joy! :) At the top of Tabletop Mountain, joyful Rin!

One last thing - check out this page, Right Brain vs Left Brain, and tell me what direction the lady is spinning for you. Some people see her spinning in first one then the other direction, but others she always goes in the same direction (at least for that day!). For me, she has always gone to the right and I can not envision how she could possibly reverse and spin the other way. It makes sense though because I'm totally in my emotions at the moment, emotional and creating and writing... so I guess when I'm back into my more scientific rational mindset she will switch!

friends rock

Dana, Paige and I in Santa Monica
Say "prune"! Look at how colorful we are! Orange green and blue! Karlie, me and Raku in Australia!

grateful

Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp
Iguana lovers

This photo of these two marine iguanas in the Galapagos (Fernandina Island) reminds me of two lovers. Notice how the one is looking at the other and has its hand on the other (if you click on it, it shows a bigger version). The looks in each of their eyes is priceless (you can't really see unless you see the bigger version). The ocean is roiling away in the background but they're oblivious. Of course they are probably not really lovers, but it just reminded me of that image!
.....

I have often whined about not liking it here in Texas, and in suburbia, and not fitting in, etc. That is still pretty much true but I've started to notice a shift inside my soul a bit lately. Maybe it's because of reading A New Earth and how he talks about living in the present moment and appreciating what IS, and appreciating the Now. I've kept a Gratitude journal on and off for many years. I actually am not keeping it now, but I still try to nurture that daily gratitude and thankfulness in my heart - and with my kids too. I've just been feeling abundantly blessed, thankful, grateful, happy. I adore my friends. I am incredibly grateful that over the past couple of years I've gone from really not having many friends here in Texas (or the ones I had abandoned me, left because of the divorce or various other supposed "reasons") to having a bunch of really amazing, joyful, kind, generous, spontaneous, funny, progressive-minded, awesome friends. I love that I have people I can call and put together a girls night out in a couple days and lots of people come! And this goes for my friends all over the world, too. I love that they say kind things to me, are supportive and comforting when I need it and make me feel good, but also give wise and sage advice and can call me on my stuff when I'm being irrational. It's all just life and love and amazing. They are part of my pocketful of sunshine.

How did this happen? God knows our desires, but sometimes it seems to help to voice them and then turn them over to Him. I am just really thankful for this wonderful change in my local environment. I went for a walk around the neighborhood with Amy last night (which we do on a regular basis), after having gotten an awesome spa pedicure (love physical touch) and was just thinking about all these things and how I have my own home, the kids are so grounded and smart and wonderful, and I feel so blessed and lucky. My career is doing wonderfully. Yes it can be a struggle, as a single mom, financially - more than I can explain - but God always provides. Always comes through. Yes there has been some turmoil over the past months but right now, things are great! I am really at peace, now, this day, and this moment. Going with what happens daily, and loving it. I just hope that I can give back to my friends and to life and God as much as He has blessed me with.

I'll put some pics from Seaworld up soon. I loved the behind the scenes Save a Species tour we went on, and I was impressed by how much they do for conservation! I'm writing an article on their efforts there. I also took Savannah to see Mamma Mia yesterday, which was a really great feel-good movie. I love those Abba songs! Dancing Queen - ya baby!

My gorgeous friends Trish and Amy! Taken with my cell phone camera so a bit grainy! :) Elise - peace out!

too much fun

The two birthday girls - Stinky n me! Our tongues were blue from cake Amy brought! I don't know what we were doing here - getting cake off our teeth?!

Lovely Smurfette, I mean Georgia! :)

These are pics from my birthday gathering last evening, which was a blast as always. And when we got done, guess what we did, with two margaritas in me and totally stuffed with Mexican food? We went walking! Aren't we ever the energetic ones?!