NEW TREND: TATTOOS ON BUTTERFLY WINGS!

This page from Mrs. Trowbridge's journal takes me back to those summer days in the high meadows of the Olympic Mountains, where Mrs. Trowbridge once lived. It brings back memories of a summer skinny-dip swim in Sundown Lake with our son, Brad. Or strolling through the high meadows among the lupine flowers swaying in the summer breeze, while rare endemic butterflies fluttered around us. This page makes me long for summer. It doesn't come to the high meadows until mid or late summer.

You may recall from a previous episode that Madam Lucy opened a tattoo parlor so that ladybugs could get their shells tattooed. Now she's tattooing butterfly wings...

MRS. TROWBRIDGE BECOMES A GRANDMA!

The day before yesterday was a momentous occasion in the Smith household. It was the day that my wife, Jacquie, and I, along with Jacquie's parents, visited our first grandchild. Ellie was born  last Saturday. There were four generations together in the hospital room last Sunday. Jacquie's folks are Ellie's great grandparents.

So it is most appropriate that the current episode from Mrs. Trowbridge's journal involves her experience as a first time grandparent, just as Jacquie and I are now. Thankfully, our daughter-in-law, Carlee, didn't have sextuplets as Mrs.T's daughter did. Congratulations to Brad and Carlee!

SKYLAR'S DEATH

There were times in Mrs. Trowbridge's life when she and her family were hit by one emotional storm after another. One of their family's greatest challenges was the death of their son, Nils' best friend, Skylar. Mrs. T recalls the family's time of grief in her journal entry below. Her seashore painting recalling their times on the beach with Skylar and his family is one of my favorites of all her paintings. It seems that the emotion she was feeling at the time shone through in the glow of Pacific sunset.

Have you seen my other blog? It's called Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy

WOODROW THE ROCK CLIMBER

For those of you who are new to this blog, Violet Trowbridge was a Trowbridge shrew who lived about two centuries ago in the Quinault Rain Forest in Washington State, USA. As a young shrew, her mother taught her the art of calligraphy and watercolor. Using her pen and brush, she recorded life as she saw it through most of her life in the village of Huckleberry Hollow. 

A number of years ago, while hiking up Wild Rose Creek in the Quinault Rain Forest, I found a tiny gold box on a mossy ledge that contained a toad-skin leather cover book, which was titled The Trowbridge Chronicles. I had found a myth-shrouded treasure, which today provides us with a glimpse of life long ago among the small creatures in the rain forest. These journal pages are her story, in her own hand-scribed words. 

Today's story: Woodrow, Violet's husband has taken up rock climbing and has brought his new rock climbing equipment along on their family summer outing in the high meadows. Mrs. Trowbridge has deftly sketched her handsome husband as he enjoys the view from atop a towering five-foot boulder.

Mrs. Trowbridge captures Woodrow in charcoal as he rappels down a boulder. I have spent many days and nights in the high meadows of the Olympic wilderness. I have, in fact, made a number of treks into Wild Rose Creek, where Mrs. T lived with her family. My times in the Olympic Mountains have been among the most special and memorable times of my life. 

Have you seen my other art blog? It's called Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy.

MONKEY FLOWER MEADOW

I photographed these Monkey flowers (Mimulus tilingi) growing alongside a stream in the beautiful Grand Valley, one of my favorite meadows in the high Olympic Mountains. Monkey flowers are a common sight in sub-alpine meadows, dancing merrily in the summer breeze beside a rushing stream.

Mrs. Trowbridge and her family spent many memorable days on summer outings. Sometimes they would go to the nearby Pacific Ocean. Other times they would hike to the high meadows. She referred often to their "special boulder", a boulder that served as their destination when they followed Wild Rose Creek up to the high meadows. She painted this picture of her husband, Woodrow, napping on the boulder among the Monkey flowers, while the children play nearby. I hope her painting brings thoughts of days in the coming summer season when you too will be sunning beside a stream in your special place.

Have you seen my other blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy. Check it out.