Only 7 of the 10 of us could go this year for the Salem Art Group retreat…4 days off the grid in a beautiful place. Katy’s family has owned this cabin on the Metolius River for 40 years, but only the cabin…the land is owned by the Forest Service and is pretty strictly regulated (no adding on beyond the original foot print, etc.) as is the river itself…Katy’s family could not rebuild the footbridge to the island or reinstate the water wheel that got washed away in a spring flood. Trees are encouraged to fall across the river to make good fish habitat…and we did see a LOT of fishermen out this week. The cabins are rustic, dark brown, seemingly of an earlier era, wonderful to some eyes. No great rooms or giant masters with walk-in showers…that’s all over at Sun River or Black Butte. Here, just perching near the sound of the river. Hummingbirds, bats, river.
Nancy and I went up Monday with Katy to open up…turn on the hot water…empty the mouse traps. We ate at the new restaurant in Camp Sherman…HOLA! Peruvian/Mexican with wonderful margaritas, if you’re up that way…and then sat out on the deck watching night fall…
…and Tuesday, after K, N and I did our 1 minute warmups
everybody else arrived. things got lively and everybody dived into work, cooking, the now-traditional small book making….
Jessica brought her button machine which was the highlight for me…I COULD have made a hundred of them but exercised some self-control…
and for me I drew with a piece of charcoal left from a dangerous fall fire that stopped just feet from the house…a “controlled burn” that jumped the fire line…
Lucy did a river piece…
Susan was embroidering…
we drew a LOT…
we ate a lot…Jessica’s pancakes with blueberry sauce, everybody’s ingredients for “bowls”, and
Susan always like to cook us a dinner…this year cold borscht, panzanella, apple galette…
there was singing and laughing, there were hikes…my phone ran out of battery power, we went to Black Butte for dinner and there was a rain storm…(and a bread pareidolia…ET?
(my kind of remote…)
and finally we packed up and went home knowing a bit more about each other than last year…all happy for the creative respite. Everybody left…we tidied up…Last look…
On The Way 
a lovely place to hid away for a few days!🙂 makes me look forward to when our family can go camping this fall!
Deb there is something pretty nice about just stepping out of one’s normal life and setting aside some time to breathe…have fun camping this fall…! xo
No mosquitoes? (No mosquitoes here in Salem this year either even at dusk.)
A few…though it often gets very chilly at night so the mosquitoes aren’t a problem. Hot days, cool nights, fun days. the best.
Making art, with friends, enjoying beautiful food in a super place/ OFF the grid. What could be lovelier??
Thanks, Bonnie. Ginny
My pulse just slowed a few beats reading this. Thanks Bonnie