by Natalie Ogbourne | Sep 8, 2014 | Pondering Life Outside
Gary Smalley, founder of the Smalley Relationship Center, says that the secret to a “close-knit relationship is shared experiences that turn into shared trials.” He mentions camping as one source for shared trials and a potential relationship-building...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Aug 19, 2014 | Pondering Life Outside
Some summers my nephew and niece visit us. The kids picnic and put on puppet shows; they fish and swim and sleep outside and get bit up. They stay busy–all on their own–and they love it. One year, my daughter was recovering from a cracked elbow. She had a...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Aug 5, 2014 | Pondering Life Outside
I wrote this last winter but I couldn’t bear to post one more piece about snow. Winter had been too long and too deep. Summer always brings a day, usually in August, when I step outdoors and know that I will again be ready for snow. This is not that day. This...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Jul 1, 2014 | Pondering Life Outside
Morning is quiet again. Sort of. The distant whine is gone and when I step out on my deck, birds are all I hear. The cicadas started early this summer–not the usual ones, not the dog day ones, not the ones that make me sad. These were the Magicicada Brood III,...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Apr 10, 2014 | Pondering Life Outside
It was hot when we arrived in Montana. Ninety degrees hot. In October. After sweltering for a couple of days, we drove toward Yellowstone over the Beartooth Highway, where the balmy morning temperatures plummeted into winter, one degree at a time. By the time we made...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Feb 27, 2014 | Pondering Life Outside
When we drove away from Yellowstone earlier this month, we went only as far as we could get in an hour and stopped for a couple of days at a resort famous for its thermally fed, all-season, outdoor pool. We expected to relax with our bodies submerged in the...