NOVEMBER 1, CDP THEME DAY: ROCK & ROLL

Rolling Rocks--Literally

The Missoula Floods (also known as the Spokane Floods or the Bretz Floods) refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age. 

Geologists estimate that a cycle of flooding and reformation of Glacial Lake Missoula occurred several times over the 2,000-year period between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. Scientists have found evidence of at least twenty-five massive floods. 

After stripping away 200 feet of topsoil, the Missoula Floods ripped away huge boulders from the underlying lava rock. These boulder were picked up and carried in the floods only to be stranded in fields and prairies when the floodwaters subsided. Some boulders, called glacier erratics, were rafted on icebergs and transported great distances from their source by the floods of Glacial Lake Missoula. (Wikipedia)

One could say these rocks were rolled by the floodwaters, hence my submission for this month's theme--rock and roll.

For more CDP interpretations of this month's Rock and Roll theme, follow this link: http://cdpbthemeday.blogspot.com.au/

SPOOKY NEIGHBORS

Green Gables Inn in Walla Walla is ready for Halloween guests, if you are brave enough to stay there. 

It looks rather spooky to me!

The inn is a bed and breakfast, but if this is what they're serving, I think I'll pass.

NOT FOR MEN ONLY

Capital Barber Shop

I've worn short hair most of my adult life and have always gone to women's styling salons where I've paid upwards of $40-$50 to get my short hair trimmed. That was until my path crossed a year or so ago with a former 6th grade student who was now cutting hair at Capital Barber Shop. Nici became my go-to "barber" for nearly a year until she left this fall to return to school and other pursuits.

So yesterday I had an appointment with the head honcho himself, KC Pratt. 

Here he is cutting the hair of the customer before me.

An interesting fact I learned on my first visit is that the barber chairs in which the customer sits traditionally face outward, away from the mirror as is common in women's salons. The idea is that the customer can see and talk to friends as they enter making the barber shop a hub of conversation and conviviality. 

Below, Richie concentrates while working on this dapper gent.

And Olivia awaits her first customer of the day.

RURAL ART

Shredded Wheat, Mammoth Size

Once the wheat is harvested, the straw that is left is cut, baled, and stacked in the field. 

I like to think of it as sculpture.

AUTUMN SUNSET

My Roof is a Drive in the Country

Since Walla Walla has few tall buildings, my calm space is a short drive or bike ride into the surrounding countryside. 

It is there that I can hear this favorite old song playing in my head. 

When this old world starts getting me down

And people are just too much for me to face

I climb way up to the top of the stairs

And all my cares just drift right into space

On the roof, it's peaceful as can be

And there the world below can't bother me

Let me tell you now

When I come home feelin' tired and beat

I go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof)

I get away from the hustling crowd

And all that rat-race noise down in the street (up on the roof)

On the roof, the only place I know

Where you just have to wish to make it so

Let's go up on the roof (up on the roof)

At night the stars put on a show for free

And, darling, you can share it all with me

PTERODACTYLS LIVE AMONG US

As Seen in the Walla Walla Valley

I LOVE ANYTHING RED

The Colors of Fall

Patience and luck worked together to capture this view of the Blue Mountains east of Walla Walla. After a hot and smoky summer, cooler days with blue skies and white clouds are most welcome while the red leaves and pickup truck add a pop of color.

WATER FROM WINE

Creating a Funding Source for 

Clean Water Projects

With all the tragedy lately from earthquakes and hurricanes to the most recent gun violence, it's comforting to know that there are still people in the world doing good for others. Such as Water From Wine, a non profit organization and winery that raises grapes, makes and sells wine, and donates all revenue from sales to non profits addressing the global water crisis.

I had a vague recollection of hearing something about it a year ago on Facebook, so when a friend and former teaching colleague asked me to join her to pick grapes last Saturday, I thought, why not? At that point I knew little about the non profit nor how intimately my friend was involved in this multi-generational family project.

Water From Wine partners with another non profit Water1st International who in turn work with one community at a time to implement high-quality water and sanitation projects that provide permanent solutions for the world’s poorest communities. 

For more information click on this link: https://water1st.org/about-us/

Water From Wine owns 6 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in Paterson, Washington as part of Sandpiper Farms 

which was first farmed years ago by my friend's grandfather. 

From these six acres squeezed in among larger circle irrigation fields of wheat and corn, they have the ability to produce 1000 cases of wine! 

Also, 100% of the revenue from each bottle of wine sold is donated to nonprofits such as Water1st working to provide clean water around the world

Water From Wine depends on the support from 140+/- volunteers each year in September/October to hand-pick the grapes used in the winemaking. Between the two shifts of volunteers, morning and afternoon, the entire six acres can be harvested in a single day.

Before we began picking, Pat Tucker, manager of Sandpiper Farms and Water From Wine, hands Angele Hunskor, Water1st's representative for Partnerships and Corporate Relations, a sizable check from the sale of 14% of the 2014 vintage. That means there is more to come! This tidy sum will provide 580 people with clean water and toilets for life.

Pat also instructs those of us who are novice pickers in the hows and whys of harvesting a row of grapes. 

Since this is the third year of harvest, many people have volunteered before.

Then we're off to our assigned row. Each picker is armed with a pair of sharp clippers and a blue lug, 

which when full will make the equivalent of one case of wine. 

This is a half-filled lug.

As the blue lugs are filled, they are dumped into a large bin which will be taken to the winery to be crushed as the first step of the wine-making process.

Each person supporting Water From Wine, through volunteering, donating or purchasing wine, makes it possible to support their partners working in areas of Honduras, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and India to provide clean water.

For more information about Water From Wine and Water1st International, follow these links:

https://www.waterfromwine.org/

https://water1st.org/our-work/

OCTOBER 1, CDP THEME DAY: SENSUAL

I Love These Hills

Before I moved to eastern Washington state from the Puget Sound area (and from Michigan before that), I thought the eastern half of the Evergreen State was a wasteland. Dry, rocky and not particularly beautiful compared to the majestic vistas around Seattle of the Cascade Range with snow-capped Mt. Rainier to the east and the Olympic Mountains to the west. Still, on a sunny day, nothing is more beautiful.

But after a move to Walla Walla in the late 1980s, I soon came to realize that less can indeed be more. In particular, the hills that stretch from the Washington-Oregon border in the south all the way to Spokane in the north. This area is known as the Palouse Hills, and it is simply stunning and very sensual. 

Regardless of the season, these gently rolling hills are like a harem of Rubenesque women with curves and crevices that collect the snow in winter, and from which sprout green shoots of wheat in the late winter and early spring, only to be covered in a blanket of golden corduroy after harvest. Plow lines and combine trails accentuate the curves and draw the eye through the vast landscape much like a contour map. 

For more sensual photos from CDP bloggers from around the world, click here: http://cdpbthemeday.blogspot.com.au/