A View of Summersend

Summersend is the name of the house where the main character, Ellis, lives in our Nightbird's series that will debut next summer.  It also describes how I feel during the warm days of fall.  It's as though summer is giving us a backward and regretful glance as she leaves to give-way  for autumn who will succumb, too soon, to winter's embrace.
Here are a few photos from the season just past and a glimpse of the cover of the first Nightbird's book. (Click on the pictures for a larger view.)

I absolutely love the cover.  The publisher and artist were very considerate of our suggestions.  It will be out next July.  She is holding a witch moth.

Early in the summer we took a long-overdue trip to Florida.

I found this fellow calmly strutting on the lawn near our room.

I was so surprised to see this pod of manatees while on a boat that I nearly missed taking the shot.

I had the opportunity to take a week long watercolor class from Osral Allred down at Snow college.  He was a wonderful instructor. (He is a Spring City artist.)  I enjoyed taking pictures of some of the structures in and around Ephraim.  

I love architectural details!!!!

Here I am at Nasa with Robo-Naut.  It was our second tour of Nasa.  We got the cool tour this time and we got to walk around the Mock-up of the International Space Station as well as see what the inside of a Soyuz space capsule is like.  It is cramped!  (Incidentally, I thought the movie 'Gravity' portrayed things quite well.)

I found pretty little 'Portia the Praying Mantis' on my window screen at home.

A visit to Albion meadow to see the wildflowers is my favorite day of the season.  This year the flowers were an absolute wonderland.

Which way to point the camera?

This handsome moose kept his eye on us as he ate lunch and I kept a respectful distance.  I didn't realize until later that his mate was foraging in the background.  He was on guard-duty.

Sojourner.