the view from our backyard

This is the view from our backyard - well, almost! It's beautiful Lake Crescent, just a mile down the road from our house. We live on the edge of Olympic National Park and had such incredible weather this weekend, I thought you might enjoy a bit of Washington scenery. Glacier-fed, this lake is up to 900 feet deep in places and is very cold even in summer. Both our boys were baptized in this lake, as was Randy. Me, not being the hardy type, opted for the big, warm baptistry at a Baptist church in Lexington, Kentucky at age 12.

So now we're off to busy week with writing at the forefront as I do a little extreme manuscript makeover. Meanwhile, Paul has been fiddling his heart out. He packed up his fiddle and went down to the old general store near here on Saturday, opened his violin case as he heard street musicians in Seattle do, and made a whopping $3.00 in about 30 minutes playing a few tunes. Wyatt went with him as his "manager," he said. Not many people came by but he was thrilled. He can't wait to do it again but I don't know if our rural road can handle it. He's only 9, after all.

I finished a fascinating historical novel by Ann Rinaldi this weekend entitled, Or Give Me Death, about the family of Patrick Henry, the famous statesman. The author said it was the hardest book she'd ever written because, unlike George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Henry left no paper trail. We do know that his wife, Sarah, had a mental breakdown and had to be confined to the cellar of their home in a strait dress where a slave woman cared for her. Legend has it that he would go down every day and feed her. By all accounts, Henry was a wonderful father to his 17 (yes, seventeen!) children. The author wove an interesting thread into the novel by suggesting Henry's wife, Sarah, begged him to give her her freedom or let her die. She did die in February of 1775 at the age of thirty-seven, just weeks before her husband gave his famous "liberty or death" speech. A very moving, intense novel.

On a lighter note, happy Monday!