This will be a post of mixed entries, starting with some local stuff and then adding to some of my earlier 'trails'.

A friend of mine is working on a website about the Fairhaven district. Still a work in progress, it's worth a look, I spent a lot of time here one afternoon! http://www.fairhavenhistory.com/

The local branch of the Washington State Archives also houses the collections for WWU and the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. There are all kinds of interesting things to be found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/archives/archives_northwest.aspx

Shelter dogs are amazing. If you are thinking of getting a dog, consider an older dog. They are past the puppy stage, are often house trained, and, are used to a work day sort of schedule where they are alone for part of the day. This is a site I check on a regular basis: http://olddoghaven.org/

Recently a wonderful Bellingham artist passed away: Scott Montgomery. For years he did the artwork for Ski to Sea, but he also illustrated my book Shemsu: a Story Told In Comic Verse. A shelter rescue dog, Shem inspired a poem that started with "I have a dog, his name is Shem. He and I are best of friends." It then took on a life of it's own and became rather epic in length! Scott's playful artwork beautifully captures the relationship between dog and human. It's available at lulu.com

Here are a few books that fit with some of my earlier 'trails', but have been read (or found on a high shelf) recently:

The future: Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future, by Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan (edited by Katherine Chambers). The companion book to a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit. Filled with wonderful pictures and essays of how those in the past thought the future might be. From advertising (picture the Statue of Liberty holding up a sign for a product of some sort) to 'waterproof' houses which could be cleaned with a hose, to films and cars, weapons and space travel, and how cities would cope with a growing population ... it's been a while since I read this book (I rediscovered it when dusting the top level of my book shelves) but the parts I skimmed recently where good and the pictures worth a look.

More on dogs, this time it's working dogs. Warning, this is a sad book and brought me to tears many times. It also made me proud, and once again, amazed at what dogs can, and will do. Soldier Dogs: the Untold Story of America's Canine Heroes, by Maria Goodavage, explains how dogs are chosen and trained for the jobs they do for the military. It follows a few of them as they are deployed, the relationship with their handler, and how important they are (and not just for sniffing out bombs, etc).

Night. Or dogs. Or sled dogs. ;-) In January young Diane is allowed to pick her own puppy from a litter of Huskies. The smallest one picks her out, so that is the one she takes. For the next year she and Kimo go out on the night of the full moon. Even though all the pictures are of night time, the change of seasons is very evident. To See the Moon, was written by Ethel Bacon and is illustrated by David Ray.

Night, well, evening sky: Grandfather Twilight, by Barbara Berger combines many of my favorite things: a dog, the ocean, the night sky, a reader ... and, I have seen the bay look like the pictures in this book. Dusk, twilight ... it's my favorite time of day.

Weather disasters: Unseasonable high temps, an uncharacteristic length of time between rains, unusual winds all lead to the huge (more than three million acres) fire that burned in parts of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia in 1910. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, by Timothy Egan is the story of that fire.

Autumn is in the air!

Reading Hermit With Dog