AND SO WE RETURN...

And so we return to where it all began...

Here they are...the Trowbridge Chronicles.  After several years of keeping this illustrated journal secretly hidden away in my attic, I have decided to post the pages in bite-size bits over an extended period of time for the whole world to enjoy.  

About five years ago, while on a solo hike in the Quinault Rain Forest in Washington State, USA, I happened upon a tiny gold box on a mossy ledge beside Wild Rose Creek. I placed the box in my back pack and opened it later that evening back home in my studio. I was stunned when I lifted the lid of the box to find a tiny ledger, smaller than a match box. The title on the cover read:  The Trowbridge Chronicles. It was the personal journal of Violet Trowbridge, a tiny Trowbridge shrew who lived over 200 years ago in the Quinault Rain Forest. I was up most of the night reading through the hand-scribed journal pages with a magnifying glass, each illustrated with lovely soft watercolor paintings (as seen below). From reading Mrs. T's journal, I have learned a lot about what life was like in the rain forest village where she once lived with her family so long ago.

I chose this page first because Mrs. T spoke often about how her husband's teas and cakes had so much flavor.  I wish I could have sampled them.  You won't find fiddle fern tea at Starbucks...only in Huckleberry Hollow.

Don't forget to check out my new blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy

SUNSET SKY

I've always been fond of Mrs. Trowbridge's sunset paintings because they take me back to the many times in the high Olympic Mountains when I have sat on a rock with a companion and watched a glorious sunset. The mountains that you see in Mrs. T's painting may not adequately depict the rugged nature of the Olympic Mountains, but they are, in fact, the most rugged mountains in the continental United States. The high meadows of the Olympics are a glorious wildflower wonderland that has left me with indelible memories to last a lifetime.

It has long been my intention to give you a view of the proximity of the Dungeness Valley where I was born and raised, to Mrs. Trowbridge's mountain realm.This photograph that I took from Blue Mountain in the north Olympics is a good example. It shows the high meadows where Mrs. T once lived, with my hometown  of Sequim, Washington, situated in the Dungeness Valley, and the expansive Straits of Juan de Fuca in the distance. 

Now I have two blogs to keep up with. If you haven't yet seen it, check out my new blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy. After many years of displaying Mrs. Trowbridge's paintings, now I have the opportunity to display my own work.