Mount Adams out my window

So, yesterday I saw a bluebird -- not an indigo bunting (wh. we have in Arkansas) nor a jay, but an actual bluebird.

Today we went for a long walk with two big dogs, wh. is a v. different dynamic from walking cats. Though in both cases it puts the local wildlife to flight.

We saw three natural bridges, as well as the rubble from what clearly had once been a fourth such bridge. These had all clearly once been part of a lava tube, the roof of which had collapsed at all but a few places. The gorge between them was perhaps some fifty feel deep, so it must have been quite a cave in its day.

After that, we went and saw an ice cave (descending into it until I cd stand on and touch the ice--which ominously cracked under my feet), the opening of Cheese Cave (which I descended once years ago but cdn't bring myself to this time, what with the acrophobia, though Janice did), and Butter Cave (which was new to me; I liked it v. much), and Christmas Tree Cave (the stairs going down were all rotten, but we managed to scramble down on the rocks -- you cd get a good idea of a big chamber that must have collapsed, exposing the side-tunnels and alcoves around the edges, but I really cdn't tell which was the main passage).

Then it was back to base, and later a pleasant walk with just the two of us along the Little White Salmon River, which was milky-green from snowmelt and v. cold. Then a quiet evening, dinner, and an early evening -- while I read a little Le Guin (seems appropriate, since today I got a good look at Mt. Hood), some more of the increasingly eccentric Bernard Ackworth, and gave a close skim to one of my pieces that's about to come out soon ("The Missing Women: Tolkien's Lifelong Support for Women's Higher Education")

And tomorrow, more hiking, more visiting, more enjoying being in a Tall House with friends.
And for the cats back home, it's day two of the World Domination Plan.

--John R.