The last night of our bookmaking class at Sweetwater Creek Farm Studios. Above, teachers Sandy and Meredith demonstrate how to figure the amount of thread needed to stitch the pages in. Not an exact science.

 Here are our covers, folded and ready for pages.

 Students could continue to add color and design to their pages.

Sandy demonstrated getting the pages ready for sewing.

 Woke up to a frosty morning!

 Sadie kept warm sleeping in the car.

 We welcomed the sun - a beautiful sunrise on the far peaks.

 Love the massive trees

 Occasional bits of cloud caught on the mountain tops

 Sadie, Sue and Ginnie at the pretty mountain lake.

 Ginnie looking east toward Steven's Pass from an old log landing site

The logs have been weathering for many years into interesting shapes and textures.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

 We had high wind gusts and loads of rain all night long, making for very little sleep. It was cold and wet in camp!

 Lots of fog and clouds.

 Everyone once in a while we would see a tiny patch of blue sky, and the sun would tease us. But, alas, it pretty much rained all day.

 We headed out anyway looking for huckleberries, but it was a dismal harvest - actually, we didn't find any! But, the forest was still lovely. Found a tree with spiral trunk - Sue said they are spruce.

 Lots of very wet branches.

And, as we climbed higher on the logging road, the rain began to turn to snow! You can actually see some of the snowdrops! Geez - it's still officially summer, isn't it?

A teasing glimpse of the sunset over Puget Sound - hoping it foretells clear skies tomorrow!

Somehow I didn't get any pictures today, but it was a busy day. The ECV guys cleaned up and headed out, with the exception of a few who stayed over another day for Monday Night Football in the shop. After countless thank-yous and hugs and good-byes, I also packed up and headed for the mountains for a little camping trip.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

Lots more tents!

 They were cooking a whole pig in the train BBQ.

Lots of hungry guys waiting for the pork!

 It was David's birthday, and I had a cake made.

 Everyone gathered around to sing happy birthday and have some cake.

 Then it was time to sit back and enjoy the fire and libations.

 We got a kick out of Cara's joke - she delivers the mail in her Ford Escort. She got a lot of funny looks!

And, the invasion of Red Shirts has begun. The ECV brothers are arriving and setting up their camps. We'll see how the weekend goes!

 I put together a board with maps showing places where friends have scattered David's ashes.