My first ever photo show!!

This is my first photo show!!! I am so excited, honored, and proud. Now, I am eager to move onto my next photographic goal. Hmmmm, you gotta wait to hear what that is:)

If you have any way to come see my photos in person, they will be up for all of September and I can put you up while you are here.

Vancouver Pride '06

front porch of my new house:)

from my new, beautiful camera

one of the funniest sights I have ever seen...

Those are freshly shorn, juvenile llamas peeing in synchronization.

The beautiful bikes!
This was my exciting injury after almost all the blood was cleaned up...in other words, after we all started calming down:)
This is Zeek, my new cycling coach, and Emilene the child that brought us there in the first place.
This is the view from our host's deck, a resort on San Juan Island. The three of us slept out there until I opted for the couch at about 2am.
We ran into a friend on the ferry and got all silly touristy asking strangers to photograph us:)

Picnic, the cat, is the guard-dog on this farm. He doesn't seem to comprehend that chickens are birds and so, they are quite good friends:)


The peacock couldn't seem to decide if he wanted to show off for the camera or knock me out with his big ole tail. We had a couple of close calls:)

More from the farm...

Lake Serene, sight of the hiking wedding

This is the beautiful dog Lady - she lives with the newly wed couple. I think that it is possible the hike/wedding was her idea because she definitely had the most fun charging up the muddy hills and climbing around all the fallen nurse logs.
Lake Serene is about 30 miles from Everett. My friends Julia and Aspen, see below, called me on Wednesday of this particular week and asked if I wanted to go hiking. They didn't mention that the hike was the beginning of a wedding adventure upon which the ceremony was held at the top in the beautiful, cold, wet mist. The fog was so thick, we couldn't see a lake at all. In fact, it was like being on the edge of the world which is an interesting metaphor for marriage in itself. I, odd as it may seem, met the bride after the ceremony for the first time. It was great fun and an amazing hike totalling about 9 miles.

These are my housemates:)

summer has come

I am moving on to one more new home tomorrow. The place I am moving to is kind of a dream come true. Instead of paying rent, I will be eight miles out of town in a farmhouse feeding horses, chickens, peacocks, and cats every day for the next little while. My friend Tonya is house-sitting for the owner who is vacationing in France and is so laid back that we have access to her whole house, car, and animals.

I am incredibly nervous about staying in Bellingham. Should I be in Alaska? I don't know. How am I going to bike a minimum of 16 miles/day just to get to email for the next month? I don't know. I do know that I have made some amazing friends here in the last month or so and the possibility that this might become home won't leave my mind. My gut says to go to Alaska, be adventurous, take whatever you can get, but that is the way I have always done things and I am thinking that the adventurous move now is to stay put.

So, with confidence that addressing one's fears only brings good things, I am moving tomorrow to the edge of town.

With any luck, there will be pictures within a couple of weeks for you to share in the beauty of this simple farm over-run with buttercups.

Sometimes, it can take a while. Sometimes our principles are without body, meaningless amidst their brave words.
Sometimes we take that death-defying leap reminding ourselves to breathe before hitting the water, and other times all we can do is breathe, and hope for the best.
I will pray with each additional exhale that the world will fall that much more softly into its place, and that all my peers, in this game of life, find their places at the table without too much trouble.
Love,
Natanya

Mom, this is for you:)

Okay, this is for those of you who were eager to see my new hairstyle. It's surprisingly difficult to photograph oneself and be satisfied with the pics, so excuse the glamour shots above if they don't seem right to you.

This is Michelle's baby boy, Samuel Jonah Dionne Sharpe. It is almost impossible to get a picture of him without a goofy face so there you go:)

This is hula hoop dancing!
Kelly is the master having done this crazy style of dancing for six years now. She is amazing to watch.
There are other pics of me facing the camera, but I don't look like I am dancing so I picked this one instead.
This is my friend Lina-lotta, a Swedish exchange student here at Western. (These pics are thanks to her camera:)

This is the view to the North and South taken by me hanging out my window. Campus is amongst all those trees on the hill in the background of the picture below. Check out the windowed corner of the furthest building in the picture above - that is the climbing wall at the Y. I, often, watch people climbing while eating breakfast:)

For those who will never see it in person, these are some snapshots of my first fantastic apartment in Bellingham:)