Happy Leap Year!

Yesterday was like an extra day! Not really. I still don't understand how some years there is February 29th and other years there isn't. Does anyone out there know?

Well, the snow is finally melting and ground is beginning to appear on driveways and some county roads. The old white Bishop's Marina that marked the south end of the lake has now disappeared. If anyone clicked on the Coolin Bay web cam from the Leonard Paul store you could watch it in real time. It's absence follows the removal of the old barn in the field on Hwy 57, that was torn down last year. Many of us watched as the years went by using it as a landmark, signaling the halfway point to the lake. At least you can still see the remnants of it (wood ladder and boards) at the new lodge style Priest Lake Realty on Hwy 57, in Priest Lake. Terrene Mack and her husband, Dan, used many of the character boards to enhance the interior of their new office just past mile marker 28.

It is sad to see these old relics go. But most melancholy of all, is my grandpa's old "Lilac Homestead" that finally crashed to the ground from the weight of the snow this winter. Over the years I've photographed the many seasonal phases of the old barn-looking homestead. It has been one of my best sellers at Autumn's Loft, as a postcard and a 4x6 blank photo card. Like a passing era, it has evoked an emotion in some of us... a lingering sweet smell that we don't want to let go.

I'm so glad to have this photo in remembrance of summer days gone by... my grandpa and all the hard work spent caring for the surrounding Forest land... the horses that grazed behind the homestead as our 4th of July fireworks began to light up the fading sky... the potluck of potato salads, BBQ hot dogs, beans, chips and cold pops. We'll never see the lilacs the same again.