Same time next year?

Cherished ones,

I'm honored by your presence, inspired by your words (especially yours, Caroline). I looked back at old posts and laughed at the ways some of us use the same phrases and make the same jokes. I love that within overlapping Venn diagram communities, this one is a community all its own.

At the end of January, Eve Hoffman and I climbed Mount Kenya, as you probably heard ;] Throughout the hike, I kept telling Eve she had to wait for me to take a Harry-Reis-Extreme-Close-Up photo for my forthcoming book, "Flora of Mount Kenya." By book, I guess I meant Febproj post. So, here it is: 

the one that looks like a muppet, which is soft and you can touch it and pretend it's your friend

the one that looks like a flower you've seen before, but has super pretty droplets

the one that looks like a grapey alien

THE FUZZY ONE

the one that sort of looks like pine needles but is stars, which is obviously cooler

THIS ONE WHICH IS FULL OF WATER AND WHICH IS SO SYMMETRICAL AND I LOVE IT THE MOST BUT DON'T TELL ALL THE OTHERS

I took more (obvi) but they came out blurry on account of also trying to climb to 16,000 feet. Multitasking is hard. I felt more present during this hike than I can ever remembering feeling before, and it makes me feel happy and full to share a little bit of the experience with you, here. 

With all my love and admiration,

Ruthie

PS we really did do it:

the one in which the hardest part of the final ascent was how much my nose was running and how much it hurt and yes, if you must know, I did cry about it