Creative inspiration in nature

Bob and I went on a hike Monday in the Three Sisters Wilderness of Central Oregon. From Bend we drove to the Broken Top trailhead. It's an easy half hour drive to the Todd Lake parking lot, and from there, a harrowing, rut and rock strewn 3 mile forest road to the trailhead. It's worth it, though. We've been there a couple of times before over the last 9 years. Monday was just about as perfect as you could get: Cool and overcast to start, trails not dusty since it had rained the night before. As we got to the ridge that would be our turnaround point, the sun began to come out, and soon we had backdrops with bright blue skies. It only got hot on the final quarter of our return walk.

Even though I'm racing the clock to complete another piece in the series that will be exhibited in December before we head off to Spain, this long weekend was very important. Turned out I needed to regroup on the design for my next piece, so I was able to work on that design back and forth with Rebecca on paper over the weekend. The physical exercise did wonders for both body and mind, and we were able to walk every day. And the inspiration in those mountains! More mosaics will come from that inspiration in the years to come…