My Adventure – Part 3 – Sedona November 11, 2009

 

Now the Grand Canyon is a very magical place in its own way. I love that I got to see and experience it once again, and look forward to going back some day. But I do have to say, my favorite place on the whole trip was Sedona. Again, I had been there 7 years ago with Bernie, and loved the little bit of exploring we got to do then. It was wonderful to feel the amazing energy of this place again.

 

 

The whole area is immersed in these magic Red Rock formations. The colour in these photos is not messed with, they are really that red. Its a great experience to be surrounded by so much vibrant colour provided by nature. And look at it against those amazing clear blue skies.

 

 

We went for a couple little short walks. The wonderful thing about being immersed in the middle of these formations is you can take a very short walk, and be right next to the rocks. This walk was 1 mile each way, mostly flat. It was a good healing walk for moms cold. We got her out in the warm sunshine, enjoying some beautiful scenery (that is her in the white shirt)! The weather continued to warm as we were in Sedona, and we were able to melt the little bit of chill left over from the Grand Canyon from our bones. Being from northwest Washington, it was really nice to experience that warm dry air for a change.

 

 

There are a few energy vortexes in the Sedona area. This is a unique thing to experience, and is quite advertised in the area. We went to one that was easy to get to, and sat there just after sunset until the sky got nice and dark. I can not say that I have had a life changing experience on one of these vortexes, but I do believe that I can feel a slight difference in energy, kind of comforting and cozy. I am sure with some time spent just being in these places, one could tune into the energy more. It is an aspect I would like to explore sometime in the future. Its easy to understand why these vortexes exists here once you have been to the area. The energy of the whole valley is just different from anywhere else you have been.

 

 

Above is part of the town of Sedona. Its both lovely and sad that it snakes its way through the rocks. What a magical place for a town to be, but also a bit sad to see chain stores and mini malls right in the middle of such a view! But the beauty does attract people….. and where people go, building follows. The fun aspect of all the people in the area was watching the trick or treaters in uptown Sedona. This is the main tourist shopping area, and lots of people turned out to get treats from the businesses. We sat at a sidewalk cafe and had dinner, watching everyone walk by in their costumes. There were mostly plain costumes, cute, but not creative. But I do have to say we saw a couple unique ones. Probably the cutest of the night was a girl of about 10 or so dressed up as Barbie, but they went one step farther. They rigged up a whole box to look like the box you buy Barbie in. they had the little viewing windows, painted pink, Barbie written across it. Very cute! She walked around inside the box, lifting it up as she walked, setting it down to pose for pictures. Wish I had gotten one!

 

 

 

This was the view from our room. I was standing on the little balcony attached to our room to take this photo. It was truely peaceful. We had a little creek, Oak Creek, flowing right below the balcony also. It was so lovely to sit out there in the morning and listen to the water, and watch the sun slide across the Red Rock. Then at sunset the rocks would glow like this. Amazing!

 

 

Well, the trip was magical in many ways. And we had a beautiful time in Sedona. We got some Christmas shopping done, did some lovely little walks to see some rock formations, relaxed in the warm desert sun, and had a good time together. We packed up our belongings, quietly said our goodbyes to Sedona, promising to return in the future and started our drive back to Las Vegas to catch our plane. When we started our road trip out of Vegas we had seen a couple herds of Big Horn Sheep near Hoover Dam. There was no place to pull off to get pictures, but on our way back, after we had crossed over the dam and started to get back into the populated area of Las Vegas, we saw a herd of males next to the road, enjoying the well watered stretch of grass along the highway. We were able to safely pull off, and I snapped some shots. This guy seemed to enjoy the photography session. I have loved Big Horn Sheep since I first saw them in Yellowstone, they are quite majestic creatures.

 

Well our flight home went well. It was a bit sad to see the grey skies again, and the rain. But we enjoyed our trip, and the photos are a good inspiration for us to return to this beautiful area some day soon.

My Adventure – Part 2 – The Grand Canyon November 7, 2009

 

Las Vegas was interesting, but I have to say that the trip really started for me once mom and I took off on our road trip. First destination: The Grand Canyon. We made it to Williams the first night out of Las Vegas. This is the gateway to the Grand Canyon, and it was a very cute little town. We spent the morning shopping a little bit, finding a few good gifts. It was SO cold though! I really did not expect it to get so cold on our trip, but alas it did. It spit snow on us a little bit driving into Williams that night, and then the next day right as we made it into Grand Canyon Natioinal Park we god a couple more snow flakes spit at us before the clouds started to slowly give up and drift away.

 

 

The clouds turned out to be perfect though, it added some dimension to the scenery. And with the lovely lens that Bernie let me borrow, with its great polarizing filter, I got some wonderful pictures on our journey! The colours of the Canyon simply amaze me. Its spectacular to look down into this gaping hole in the ground and see all these beautiful colours accenting every formation and bend.

 

 

Unfortunatly Mum started catching a cold at this point, and was having a hard time breathing. She did not feel up to any of the steep climbs that the Canyon is filled with, so we kept our outings simple. This was a lovely 1.5 mile walk along the rim. We got to see different view points (mum enjoying one of them in the picture above), giving us many perspectives on the Canyon. Its great to see the trails snaking down toward the river at the bottom. It made me really want to strap a backpack on and head down to the bottom. When I met Bernie seven years ago I was not a hiker at all, I developed this skill quickly as I joined him in his adventures. The Grand Canyon was my first real overnight hike with a backpack. We had been doing day hikes up to that point, and driving out dirt roads and camping, but we had not done a hike in camping trip yet (The Grand Canyon adventure was only a month or two after we had met). This was my first time back to the Grand Canyon since that adventure, and looking down at those trails brought back some memories. I have walked literally thousands of miles since then, and it would be great to go back down with a whole new perspective.

 

 

We saw a flock of beautiful little pygmy nut hatches in a tree along our walk. I do love the nut hatches. Such beautiful little birds, and a great personality! They jumped around the tree, gently talking in their happy tones to each other, gathering little morsels of food. I snapped this picture just as he pulled a seed out of the cone, and a moment later he had flown of to hide his treasure in a food stash somewhere.

 

 

There are many buildings along the rim. A good handful of them are giftshops such as this building, the Hopi House. Most of these structures were designed by Mary Colter in the ’20’s and ’30’s. They are all beautiful and unique in their own ways. Showcasing materials of the area.

 

 

The day we left the Canyon we drove along the rim to the east, and stopped at many of the viewpoints. Its amazing how quickly the Canyon changes. Each vantage point is spectacular, and reveals a new perspective.

 

 

Another of Mary Colters creations.

 

 

 

Standing at the edge….. Loving Nature!

My Adventure – Part 1 November 4, 2009

 

This was the sunrise here the morning we left for Las Vegas. What a beautiful send off! I am not a morning person, so I don’t see a lot of sunrises, lol.

 

 

The convention that we were attending was at Ceasars Palace. We stayed at a different hotel about a (Las Vegas) block away. These are the statues that greet you when you first walk in Ceasars. All the details that they have put into this massive building is amazing. It is beyond imagination how much it cost to construct this monster of a resort. The whole place takes up a huge amount of land, and is a maze to get around.

 

 

This is an indoor cafe….. all the detailed painting, and statues. It amazes me.

 

 

One of the fun parts of one of the shopping areas there is the FAO Schwarz Trojan Horse. Only in a building of this size could something like this look at home. Its pretty neat. We went to the Forum shops at Ceasars also, very expensive over all, but kind of fun to look through. Things that I would not normally see shopping around here in Bellingham. I did find a Christmas gift for mom though.

 

 

One evening we made our way up to Fremont street to have dinner, do some shopping and experience the light show. For anyone that has not been to Las Vegas, this is a walking only street that has a huge lightshow built over it. It runs a couple blocks long, and every hour or so each night they put on this big show with music. We happened to be there for two shows, and each one was different. At the end of each show there was a Halloween bonus show. These two pictures are from one of the bonus shows at the end. Its a pretty amazing thing to watch. Nothing in Las Vegas is small.

 

 

Mom and I had a good time in Las Vegas. It is an interesting place to visit once in a while. I have to say it is not a place that I would really enjoy living in, or spending too much time at. But its always good to get a different perspective on life, and Las Vegas will do that for you for sure! It is entertaining in its own ways, if you have never been you might ponder doing it once as a once in a lifetime experience. It’s unique!

A Weekend Full Of Spring April 5, 2009

 My Dad and I outside of the Farmers Market

This weekend finally felt like spring. We had REAL spring weather. Today it made it up to 68 degrees, wow!! And the energy felt like spring also. We got to do some fresh, new things. Saturday started out with my parents and I going to a  local car auction. It is a once monthly thing, and there are some great deals sometimes.

My car is on its last legs, so I am looking around for some new possibilities. Unfortunatly I have little money to invest in a new car, so I am looking for the best deals out there. I had my eye on a couple of the cars, but they ended up going for a little more than what I could afford. I think they were still a very good deal, but just not for me. I will most likely go again when we get back from our hike.

And then we went to opening day of the Bellingham Farmers Market. I LOVE farmers markets, as I have said many times before, so it was really nice to go and enjoy it again. Bernie did not have interest in the auction, so he met us at the farmers market. I got to visit with some people I know that are vendors there. Christie my good friend that I work for some times was selling her body products, and doing very well.

 

Bernie and I went to visit Heather, the lady that made my purse (which you can see by going here) . She is such a sweet and loving soul, she always gives me a great big hug when I see her, and I barely know her! I can tell she is someone I would really enjoy getting to know more. We told her we are getting ready to hike the PCT, and she was very excited for us. Its always been a dream of hers to hike the PCT. She told us to chose one of her little pouches to carry with us on the trail, to put our things in. So sweet and generous! This is the one I chose, her new peacock design. It will be cherished, and well used!

 

We have a hen hatching out chicks. What we have been doing with the chicks from the last hen and this hen is to take most of the chicks away as they hatch and raise them in the trough with the chicks that we bought. Then the last couple of chicks to hatch (they hatch over a few day period) we leave with the mother. We have been doing this because in the past when we have let the hens raise all of their chicks, things go well for about a day if we are lucky. Then a chick dissapears here, and then there, and over the next couple of weeks we whittle our way down to one or two chicks. So instead of loosing those ones, we are simply raising them ourselves, and letting the moms handle the number they seem to be able to keep track of. It works really well!

 

This lovely trio is the chicks that I pulled out of the nest today to join our growing group in the chick trough. They are sooooo sweet! I had them out in the lawn, featuring as models for an upcoming post. These are some of the behind the scenes photos of them snuggling with me in between takes. They really thought I was their mother. They were sticking close to me, and I could tap my finger around in the grass and dirt and they would run over to see what little snacks I had found for them. My family was making fun of me (in good nature of course) of my love for chickens. I am a bit lost on chickens….. oh well. How could you not love that?

 

It was a very lovely weekend all said and done. Productive and full of fresh spring energy.

Daily Outings January 30, 2009

 Since my photo’s are limited at the moment, perhaps I can convey our adventures with words….. I hope my writing is good enough to express the feeling of our outings.  

 

Yesterdays outing was to the Oakland hills with Bernie’s parents. It was quite a nice walk over all. The route we take is a loop trail that takes you through a shaded redwood and California bay forest. You tread upon an old dirt roadbed, a little creek mianders through the valley you climb, gently babbling and feeding water to the trees that tower over you. Sun rays sneak their way to the forest floor in a few spots, putting natures highlight on little gems here and there. We turn onto another trail, gently climbing up out of this majestic little valley. At the trail junction we are suddenly surrounded by millions of ladies. Lady bugs that is. They are huddled into groups and piles all over the surrounding vegetation. They are mostly close to the ground, little clusters here, large clusters there. When there is sunlight focused on a spot of them, they start to crawl around, you can almost hear them celebrating the warmth. We join in their little community for a few moments, enjoying their company, and watching their habits and interactions.  

 

 

 

The higher we climb the redwoods and California bays are slowly replaced by a towering eucalyptus forest, surrounded with various shrubs and trees. This time of year the Eucalyptus don’t seem to have a lot of resins/saps coursing through them, because the area is not permeated with that all too familiar smell. Later in the year their intoxicating scent will fill that area, announcing to each person their presence. As we move into this area more sunlight makes its way in between branches, dancing across your face. We pass a talking tree, holding a gentle conversation with the wind, and the world around it. As it sways its voice creaks, and as it swings back it sighs.

 

Slowly you notice a new character. Who is this with its little jagged and curly leafs? Ah, we have entered into coast live oak land. These hardy little oaks always amaze me as we walk among them. They create their own special habitat, and seem to thrive where many other plants don’t prefer. Soon these are the main beings that surround us as we move along the trail. What fascinating, sturdy trees these are. We are now getting high enough that the views pop open when there is a little gap between the trees. You can see for great distances, all the homes and cities stretching out below you. You would not believe when you are being embraced by nature up here that there are so many people pulsing through the veins of the city down below.

 

We all stop at a bench to enjoy a lunch with a view. Our feet rest, our faces soak up the sun, our eyes soak up our surroundings. As we continue on we meet a man with a little dog full of enthusiasm, and a larger dog, calm and wise with age. They all jog by, looking quite content with their outing in nature. Our direction begins down, losing a bit of the elevation we have gained. The man has turned around, and passes us again, with the wise dog, the little one is on an adventure, exploring the brush somewhere. There is trust there, the man continues on, he will show up. We bid him well and turn onto another trail, quickly moving down. But wait, we are now joined by a little dog, his eyes asking us if we have seen his dad. We try to point him the right direction at the intersection of trails, he just does not understand our words. Back and forth he goes, a moment of barks that I understand clearly. “Where are you dad? Which direction do I go?”. So Bernie and I turn around. We try harder to bridge the language barrier, he looks confused, not quite listening to us, what do they know anyway? But then a moment of revelation. Ah ha! Dad must be this way, and he bolts off. We wait, making sure everyone found their way. He doesn’t show up again, and so we make our way down, bidding farewell to the hills and the little dog. In moments we have droped back down to the trailhead. There is the car, and Bernie’s parents waiting for the update. Yes, everything is well, we can now go home.

 

Todays outing took us to the Hayward Regional Shoreline. This is an expansive trail along the shore, with many different parking/access points. We started off, the first moment on the trail we are graced with golden showers on both sides of the trail. Some type of Acacia is in full bloom. I take a moment to smell these little wonders, they remind me of something….. I just can’t quite place what it is though.

 

The trail makes its way to the shoreline, and then we turn left. We walk past a water treatment facility with a large mural painted on one of their buildings of humpback whales. Most of them are swimming under water, but one jumps joyously out of the water. Tidal marshlands are laid out to the left of the trail. There are some shore birds, but the tide is high, so most of them are resting, waiting for the water to recede and reveal the little treats that are hidden within the mud. A few poke around where they can get to a shallow spot, but it is relaxed, they seem to be passing the time.

 

Gravel crunches under our feet as we walk. Every now and then Bernie stops to snap a shot. Various birds decide that we are not too bad, and they accept us as we stop to watch them, and click away. Who knows what those silly humans are up to with those clicking machines in front of their faces…… but it seems harmless enough.

 

I have brought a couple of my needle felted acorns and a little note reading “I am a gift to who ever finds me. I am a good luck charm to make all your dreams come true!”. I scan for a place to leave my little treasure. Here comes a bench with a good view…. That will do. I set them down with a couple rocks securing the note from the gentle breeze. I hope they bring someone some joy….

 

We come across a group of Canada Geese, but they have some interesting visitors. Three snow geese seem to have found themselves in this group. Are they lost? Do they just want different scenery than all the other snow geese? Are they having an identity crisis? Or do they just find those Canadians entertaining to hang out with? What ever the reason, I hope they are enjoying themselves.

 

We walk, we snap shots, we turn around, we walk, we snap some more shots. This is an interesting place to walk. We are at water level, but there are no obstructions for quite a ways, so you have an expansive view of the area. You can see the city of San Fran in the distance, from here, it looks like a little toy set of buildings all stacked close together. You can see up into the Oakland hills. Little clusters of houses inching up into the hills like fingers. It always amazes me how much green space is up there. When you can see houses and buildings stretching as far as the eye can see, its really nice to see green hills. Mount Diablo stands in the background. A green giant sticking up above the other hills around it. Bridges crossing the bay, here and there. Little toy cars (or so they seem) streaming in lines across them. Jets roar over at carefully timed intervals. FedEx, Southwest, FedEx, Southwest, some other plane….. and so on.

 

The sun slowly descends into the west. The evening takes on that warm golden glow of late day. The best light for taking photographs. Bernie finds a group of willing subjects, so we linger for a while. The large groups that were resting with the high tide sense the change in direction of water flow. They start to stir. First just a couple take to the air, making the short flight to the other side of the path, landing on the bays edge. Slowly little groups wake up and fly to the feeding grounds. Bernie stands in the middle, capturing their movement as they fly around us. Pretty soon you can see thousands, no millions of little shore birds moving along the shore, poking into the mud and sand, searching for their dinners. As the minutes pass by, the tide slowly recedes, and with it the birds. They follow the edge, each of them working the mud in their own unique ways, with their own unique bills.

 

It is time to make our way back to the car, the sun is setting. As we come to the end of the trail we are surrounded by the Acacia again. But something is different. The magic twilight has enticed them to release their intoxicating scent. The air is filled with their perfume. What an enjoyable way to end our walk.  

 

Whew, I have not written that much in quite a while. But it’s a wonderful exercise to get me to reflect on the details of the day. We are surrounded with beauty each moment, take the time to enjoy it!

 

 

The lady bug photo is courtesy of Bernie from our outing the other day. I played around with some different effects and created the final product.

 

 

Getting Ready January 24, 2009

I am in the process of getting ready for a couple of things. The biggest one is a road trip. Monday Bernie and I are heading south to visit his parents in the San Francisco Bay area. We do this just about every year, around this time. We will most likely spend about two weeks there, and then we are continuing on with a road trip. We are heading down through the desert. We have no idea what route we are taking, but we are just heading toward Arizona and see what catches our attention.

While we are at Bernie’s parents house we will have our computer and be able to do blog entries, but there is a high chance we will be leaving the laptop at his parents house so that we can leave the car for a couple of days to do hikes and not worry about things being stolen. In that case we will not be able to keep up with blog land *pout*. I have to say I have quite enjoyed the opportunity to meet all my friends out in blog land, and I will be sad to not be able to keep in touch for a little while. But we should have a quite enjoyable time on our road trip, so we should have lots to share once we are back near a computer.

The other thing I am getting ready for is participating in the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. I am trying to get together a nice giveaway package of items that I have made. I thought I would share the link in case anyone else felt like participating. Its fun, and its amazing how many people have giveaways during this week. It runs January 26th – 30th, with the drawings on the weekend. If you are interested in having your own giveaway or just entering in hundreds of giveaways when they come along visit:

Beauty in Everything January 8, 2009

 

Its been raining and raining here, which is just part of life in Northwest Washington. Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the rain when you have been immersed in it for days. So I went digging through the picture archives on the computer and came up with this one. This is to remember there is beauty in everything. This picture was taken a few years ago by my dad. Most of the time our clouds are just a flat sheet of grey extending across the sky, but every once in a while they work themselves up into something special.

To see more beautiful skies visit:

Merry Christmas! December 25, 2008

 

We Have had a most beautiful Christmas! We got a good bit more snow over night, so we are having a wonderful white Christmas! Its been an extremely relaxed day of opening presents, eating brunch, and going outside.

Bernie and I went out to do a bit of sledding. This is the new sled that we got as a present. We don’t have the biggest hill in the world, but its still pretty fun. We have a pretty good track going on it now, so the sled flies down at a decent speed.  

 

I spent some time doing scenery shots when the sun came out, and Bernie headed over to the pond area with his camera to get some birds in the snow. I love this shot of our big Fir tree’s shadow stretching out accross the field in front of me. We have had feeders up since it started snowing, and we have quite the flock of birds coming to visit us and eat. The list of birds grows on a daily basis. Today the most exciting ones for me were the slate colored junco, fox sparrow, Oregon junco with no tail, mourning dove, and towhee. I love to sit by the window and watch them. Bernie will probably be posting some of his photos from today over the next couple of days, if you want to see what he has been up to visit:  

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday, and enjoying each beautiful moment! For those of you with snow, I hope you are unleashing your inner child and spending some time out playing in it! For those of you who didn’t happen to have snow this year, I hope you are enjoying your inner child in other grand ways! Merry Christmas!

For other peoples view of the sky visit:

A Snow Angel December 21, 2008

 

A couple of evenings ago Bernie and I went out for another snowy frolic in the back field. We tackled a different hill this time, and took turns being pulled down the hill (it wasn’t quite as speedy as we thought it would be on its own, so we implemented the pulling system). Angel joined us on the journey, and enjoyed chasing us down the hill.

After a bit mom wandered out to the field and she tried out the sledding thing. She quite liked it, and did it a few times. And then eventually dad even showed up, he just couldn’t resist. He was sliding down the hill head first. We all had an enjoyable time out in the snow, experiencing the joys of sledding again after many years.

So this is my version of a snow Angel. Much easier than getting snow down the collar of your coat! hehe. As I write this the snow is coming down amazingly thick, and the wind is howling. I just got a weather update from dad who has been watching the news, and I guess they are saying we are getting hurricane force winds here, oh fun. I best finish this up before the power goes out……

Tomorrow is the last day of the craft show, and I was hoping this winter storm would hold off until Monday or Tuesday, but here we are, and it is what it is. Hope I can make it in tomorrow! I hope everyone is warm and cozy where ever they might be tonight!

For more fun critter photo’s visit: