Camping Trip and "Mini Eyes"

One of the things I love about living in Oregon is the incredible amount of almost mystical forests, rivers, and lakes we have at our fingertips. We decided to take a two day camping trip up on Mount Hood on the shore of the White River which is about an hour or so outside Portland. We were the only people for miles and had an incredible time. Just the sounds of the wild and the crackle of the fire. And the sound of many, many, many beers being opened.

 Aaaaahhhhhh

No hot dogs here! bacon wrapped filets with garlic grilled prawns. 

But I digress.......

Of course, as many of you probably know, if you have been doing miniatures for a bit, you develop "mini eyes". This is the condition where you look at buildings and say "future project" because you see them in miniature, or walk past a furniture store and only see 1:12 scale possibilities. I always snap pictures of random brick walls, interesting chimneys, etc because my eyes see them in miniature. Even scraps on the ground are seen as potential mini objects. I still digress.......

I am trying to read my book "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Chrichton (GREAT book, btw) on the shore of the river when one of my eyes (just one!) wanders towards the shore line and I spy an interesting pile of rocks of various sizes. Next thing I know, I am on my knees picking through the rocks and finding perfect scale mini stones. Then I spy old peeled bark that has a very small pattern and think to use it on my mini trees. Then later, while on a short hike, I notice all the lichen and moss just hanging in the trees and laying on the ground. Needless to say, I came back with a whole bag of sticks, stones, pebbles, moss, etc. I can't even go camping without collecting bits of this and that!

The whole collection is now in my freezer being "de-crittered" in a plastic bag while I nurse a sunburn.

Time to head upstairs. Garth Manor feels neglected. Time to continue painting stone. And figure out what to do with all the things my "mini eyes" brought back!!!