Monday, November 12, 2012

Lake Creek Lodge


painting at the window

I spent an entire weekend staring out the window of cabin #6 at Lake Creek Lodge. Painting and drinking many, many mugs of warm drinks, taking photographs and painting pictures.

painting

snow level

We'd had a tumultuous week leading up to the weekend, and it was heavenly to simply float away from all this into a completely different place. And it was different, both in terms of architecture and geography. We drove up off the valley floor and past that "snow-level" we keep hearing about here in Portland. We marveled at the gentle, well-remembered fat, fluffy flakes that made us feel downright homesick for the mountains we left behind five years ago. The snow continued all night, and by morning we had a blanket.

from the porch in sun warm phase

The weekend was essentially a wedding gift from a friend -- an extremely generous voucher that had included the cabin, the bottle of champagne handed to us upon arrival, and the man who came by every morning with coffee and a pastry on a tray. All that would have been enough -- more than enough -- without the snow, the thrushes and woodpeckers flitting around the trees, the little bookstore we visited in the nearby town, and the crockpot filled with real mulled cider at the grocery store. It was over the top.

cider at the grocery store tray tray2

And of course, there was that view.

view out window cool phase

maggie

The weekend was both a break from the hard slog of the previous week and (as these things often are) incredibly productive. I finished a few things, sketched a good deal, and came up with a good side-project to keep myself happy during the next bout of work. We both came home a little calmer. Just what the doctor would've ordered.