A girl and her niece

Since Ashley has officially announced her plans, I can safely share here. She is moving to Seattle on Saturday!!! She has accepted the position of Nurse Manager at the Seattle Indian Health Board. It is an incredible opportunity and I am thrilled for her! She starts her job on June 1. The story of how it came together is really incredible--I cannot possibly do it justice. Suffice to say that it is one of those things that totally just falls together as it should and she connected with the women there on such an intimate and emotional level. I won't say it was an easy decision for her, but once she acknowledged that she wanted the job, everything fell into place. She has rented a condo and made one trip to move some stuff. 

This year has been a rough one for her and finally moving in a positive direction has her glowing with happiness and pride. It is a beautiful thing to see. One of her hesitations was leaving me. I won't lie--it has been a comfort to have her next door, but it is way more important for her to keep moving forward with her life. I am *so* excited for her! I've always loved Seattle and am really looking forward to visiting again on a regular basis (looking at you, Sarah and Maribeth!).

Ashley and I took off last week on an adventure. We ended up wine tasting at Balletto Vineyards and then doing a 2-mile guided nature walk at Pepperwood Preserve (I almost didn't make it!!). It was a beautiful time together and capped a week where so many good things happened for Ashley. I am glad that her final weeks here are sending her on a wave of positivity.

The nature walk was guided by Clint McKay and was simply terrific. The only problem is my complete and utter out-of-shapeness!!!! We started out by billy-goating straight up the hillside. I almost turned right around. At first we were in front, but then I got super wobbly and thought I was going to fall down. I had to just simply flop right down on the side of the trail!! Honestly, I was too friggen tired to even be embarrassed. How awful is that? There were eight other hikers besides me and Ash (plus the two guides) and everyone was super patient with me. Being bald clearly offers some advantages when you're a woman--it seems to clearly indicate health issues of some kind. Well, I didn't turn around, but it felt like we were constantly walking uphill. How??? It really was quite strange. Of course, I was utterly loopy with exhaustion so maybe I was hallucinating...

At the end, I flopped right down on the road on my back and just tried to catch my breath. I got applause and encouragement from everyone--it was really lovely of them. Ultimately, it took me three days to recover from that outing, but I am so so glad I persevered and had that adventure with Ashley.

The blue cheese was incredible!!

Looking north toward Mt. St. Helena.

Clint talks about land maintenance. His knowledge is amazing!

Soap root leaves.

Looks like googly eyes :-)

Very apropos!!

Full rainbow on Hopland on our way home.