A Day of Loveliness and Fun

My friend "C" came for the weekend.

So nice to have her visit. Hadn't seen her since the New Year. She brought her little dog, Max, with her and arrived on Friday.
We went to Dandelion Days downtown and ate lunch at Mel and Faye's. We also drove to Electra Rd. along the Mokelumne River.

The water was very low and the rocks were many.

Some creating beautiful patterns in the water.

And small still life's in the curves and indentations of the rock.

The bedrock is everywhere.  Some holes are deep and filled with gravel, sand, pyrite and maybe a few nuggets of gold. I marvel at the amazing assortment of tiny debris shinning up at us in the sunlight.
These old rocks and their amazing beauty are there for to all who come to walk on the river's ancient floor.

The hard, smooth petrified wood lays like fallen reminders of some old growth forest that lost its battle with a fire or storm, long ago, turning to stone as a result of the its tragic failure.

And... OH! A dog...What animal is this who follows us along the river?

His named is Max ("C"s dog) and he was having the time of his life. Jumping from rock to rock, looking as majestic as he possibly could. He was at one with the river. He was a dog briefly in heaven.

We drove up to the Electra Powerhouse, driving past thousands of Poppies and other wildflowers. This is a most beautiful time in the Foothills. A time of verdant madness.

I saw this sign at the weir and snapped a photo of it, in tribute to my "beans" (my grandchildren).

Someone had written "Cool Beans" on the sign and drew a picture of a happy bean. I know it's graffiti, but... I just had to take a picture of it.
We drove back down river, stopping once in a while to take pictures. The hills were alive with color.

Then we drove on over the river and into Mokelumne Hill, a small town with a rich mining history and a charming presence.

Interesting buildings made of stone and metal doors.
This one was noteworthy...

A secret entrance to the Horny Buffalo Society... This was the WORLD headquarters? In a little town in Calaveras county, California? I think someone might be pulling someone's leg.
There was the old car that sat on the side of an old building... sticking its nose through the fence.

I love seeing this car every time I come over here. It's been there for a long, long time.

We drove up to the Catholic Cemetery and drove through it, looking at all the tombstones and names. Lots of Italians lived here in the last hundred years or so.

Huge old Italian Cypresses, some of the biggest I have ever seen, towered over the graves of so many.

Then we finally drove home. It was a day of showing my friend what a beautiful place I live in... especially in the Spring of the year. It was a day of loveliness and fun. I didn't hear Max on the way home. I think he was taking a nap.

Being a bad blogger... for good reasons... kind of.

I meant to sit down and write. I certainly had enough to say... about friends, fires, pillowcases from blogging friends, emails from Montana. But... here I sat with this and that... always saying, "I will do a post tomorrow, the next day, this evening... sure did intend to write something ... I just don't know what happen. Well... yes, I really do... last week anyway.
A few weeks back I got an email from my friend Dawn, who lives in Michigan. She said she was going to be out here, with her husband, for a visit and could she come and see me. This turned into the biggest reunion you can imagine. We had not seen each other since we were 16 years old. It's a very long story about how we found each other again after all these years. You can find it here.
So in the hottest part of summer, with the huge King fire to the north of us and my drought ridden garden looking like it was just about to lose its battle with Mother Nature... Dawn arrived. I had replaced some bedding plants, made up the sofa bed, planned a few dinners, had a long talk with the dogs about their good behavior (she was bringing her dog with her.) and I stuck this sign on the screen door.

Her husband dropped her off. He waited in the RV while she yelled "Where the heck are you, Connie Mae." and then she made a big scene... crying and everything. My goodness... it had only been 55 YEARS.
We hugged and cried... then hugged and looked at each other... and hugged and cried more. Two old ladies, with a lot of life and distance between them, finally after all those years, seeing each other again. It was quite something.
Dawn is still the pretty, tall, opinionated, noisy person that attracted me to her when I was a little girl. Well... when we were little I was taller than her. I was shy, she was confident. I was afraid to get on the bus and go to school on the first day of first grade and she came over to me, at the bus stop, and asked me if I wanted to sit with her. That was the beginning of a fun and wild friendship.
In Junior High School her parents got a divorce and by the time we were heading for High School she left to live with her mom and brother in another town. I visited her once or twice... maybe more. We had some wild times. Too much so. My mom found out just how much fun we were having (a letter found in my room) and she told me that I couldn't go visit Dawn anymore. When I told Dawn, she got really angry and we had a very bad "parting of the ways". In the next few years we just let go of each other and even though I looked for her over the years, I never found her. She married and had a different last name. I did too.

We spent last week catching up. We talked all day and into the night. It's a good thing that the Prospector was gone on a fishing trip with friends. We would have driven him nuts.
First thing we did was make sure that the dogs were OK with each other. Little lady, Mugs, was not about to let Carl push her around.
She established her territory early on and let Carl and Cutter know that, under no circumstances were they to get up on the recliner with his Dawn.

Mugs told my dogs, in no uncertain terms, that this was her person and this would be her chair while she was here.

She was always ready for the camera... a star was born.

There were some tense moments but all in all, the relationship between the dogs went well enough that

 Mugs finally relaxed, curled up and took a nap.

The first day Carl watched some TV , like he usually does, but never moved from his position near Mugs. He was very nonchalant about it all. He always made sure that everything was under control and kept a watchful eye on her.

After he realized that Mugs wasn't going to cause trouble, or leave, he move himself to the couch and sat there watching Mugs with that regal "I'm in charge." look.

Cutter spent a lot of time right next to me.

 Then, he followed Mugs around ... like a puppy dog. I think he was in love.

We had a great week.
I showed Dawn what was left of our beautiful Mokelumne River and she even posed for a picture... the only one.

It was kind of sad that this was all I could show her of a river as majestic as the Mokelumne.

...the drought has taken its toll.

We spent one day in Sutter Creek. Had lunch and looked at all the stores and galleries. Most of the stores were closed. Business is not very good right now. There were signs in the windows of some shops saying that they were closed because of... lack of people, slow business and sales.
We had lunch and then hit the ice cream store.

Oh that Root Beer float was so good.
We bought some fudge. We ate fudge for dessert that night.
Dawn just lost 60 pounds. she looks so good. I think she may never speak to me again. But, we sure enjoyed the fudge.

One day we went to Walmart. We both had things to buy. My chickens need their scratch. They stop laying if they think that I'm not taking care of them like the Prospector does. Even a chicken can get an attitude.

At some point Dawn broke her glasses, so we went to an eye clinic in Sutter Hill.
That is when we noticed the cloud. I knew it had something to do with the fire but it wasn't until we got up on Ridge Road that we saw this huge cloud clearly.
I stopped twice to take some images of this massive Pyroclumulus cloud that was being produced by the King fire. Check this out. Massive, scary and getting bigger as we watched it.

It's one of those "worlds coming to an end" images, with smoke and clouds that you only see over a huge fire. It was actually creating its own weather. Amazing, and beautiful. 

We stopped a few times along the ridge. So were other folks. It was a sight to see.
We are about 30 miles from Placerville and the fire was northeast from there. It started in Pollock Pines on highway 50. They have arrested someone for arson.
We drove up to the Jackson Ranchera Casino. It was very busy. (Doesn't anyone work for a living anymore?) We had confined the dogs together in the backyard for quite a while. I thought that we should go home... so we didn't go into the casino and we didn't loose any money.
We drove home and spent another evening talking about our families and living in Pleasant Hill, CA. in the 50's and 60's . It was a great place to grow up.
On Thursday we stretched the day out until it was late afternoon and she had to go. Her husband asked if I could meet him down at the Walmart parking lot. He had gone to visit with his daughter in Alameda. Guess my steep, dirt road was a little intimidating for his RV. on that first trip up, so I drove Dawn and Mugs down town. They had to be in Modesto the next day and wanted to get there before dark.
We hugged and hugged... and she started crying. she cries a lot... but that's OK. 
I told her to text me along the way. She did.
They are heading back to Michigan now, with little Mugs. I think they did an awful lot of driving, but they saw lots of family and Dawn and I got to connect with each other again. That was huge!!
Whats the poem..
.

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Friendships that have stood the test-
Time and change-are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray;
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.

 

I hope to go visit Dawn next Fall. We won't lose each other again.

(I'm leaving tomorrow for a week. Sis and I are going to Art Is You in Petaluma. This is our annual creative workshop we always do together.  I will have lots of photos and stories when I get back and some pillowcases to tell you about.)

My sister's beautiful, new rescue dog and saying goodbye to Daisy.

This is Stella. she is a German Shorthair Pointer and she's a most beautiful dog. My sister has adopted her from the Tony LaRussa Animal Rescue Foundation. (http://www.arf.net/)

Listen to her, in her own words...

"I'm learning my new name. It's Stella. I have had other names but I like this one best. Now,  I have a dog friend named Fozzy to play with and a good family that thinks I'm a wonderful dog. I am.
I have a big backyard to run around with Fozzy and a place to chase birds.
I can't tell them my story, but they don't seem to care because they picked me and their love is unconditional. I'm just glad to be here."

I have some medical issues that we are working on and the vet thinks I'm about 5 or 6 years old... maybe older.

"On the 4th of July, my mistress had a party. The whole family was here. It was fun.  Her sister came too. She has a camera that she takes pictures with... all the time. I can't seem to find a place to get away from this lady... and now she has a camera in her phone, so she acts like she's making a phone call and then takes my picture."

"I was getting tired and wanted to take a nap. This lady was still there taking pictures of me and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open."

"Finally, I decided that enough was enough and I hid my face behind a pillow. She got the message and left me alone."

"I love this place."


( Stella is a beautiful dog. My sister and her husband are so happy with her. Fozzy enjoys having another dog to play with and they seems to be very compatible. Fozzy is a poodle mix... with an attitude. He's a character. He always looks kind of above it all and sometimes carried an annoyed expression around with him... but he is so happy to have Stella there. Dogs love being with dogs and the two of them are becoming good friends.)

Save an animal... ADOPT.

**************************

This post is dedicated to a dog named Daisy. My sister-in-law, Carol, lost her dog this weekend. Daisy was a sweet old lovable dog who was fighting Cancer and finally had to leave us. 
Daisy will find her master Jack, over Rainbow Bridge, where he has been waiting for her. Now, she can keep him company and they will be together forever.
We love these dogs so much. They become a part of our lives. What a gift each one is to us. I think that they are sent to teach us about the goodness in life and unconditional love. They come to us with joy and sit by our side in our sadness. They are the beautiful, mute "guardian angels" in our lives.
 RIP Daisy. Your pain and suffering is over. We all loved you. Goodbye, sweet dog.

The Hopeless Case

"Carl... wake up. It's springtime. You should be outside."

"The weather is beautiful. Cutter is running around chasing birds. What are you doing in here?"

"Look at the beautiful daffodils. Don't they smell good? Wait... Carl, you don't eat them. What are you doing?"

And then he laid his head down next to me and gave me that "wonderful dog" look.
I hugged him and... well...

 His message was clear, without saying a word.

" I love you Farmlady, but I'm staying right here on the couch."

Stubborn little Corgi!

Call of the River

Yesterday the Prospector and I took the dogs and drove to the Mokelumne River.

It was a perfect early spring day. The dry winter is deceptively enchanting with its green carpet spreading under the leafless trees, along the banks of the river and over all the hills nearby. We need rain badly. It's going to be a hard summer if the next 6 to 8 weeks doesn't bring us some moisture.
I think about the water situation when I look at this beautiful river.

The river seems to have an endless supply, but is already being held back by the "powers that be", to conserve water for the "drought" year that is expected if it doesn't rain next month. There seems to be so much water but there is such a demand for this precious commodity that every year there is more worry about not having enough.

Cutter is still not use to this huge river and the noise it makes. He pulls away from it and looks to Carl for reassurance.
Then the call of the wild makes them forget the huge, noisy river when they get a scent and start wondering what other animals have been here before them.

I left the dogs with the Prospector and walked out onto the bedrock.

I love being "in" the river, on these huge rocks.
It's like standing on the bones of the earth.

 Bedrock is the layer of solid rock formations below the soil or underneath glacial drift in a particular area. 

 The rock comprising bedrock can be sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic.

Bedrock is the native rock underlying the surface of the Earth. It's solid and goes nowhere. It's the solid, foundation of the earth's crust.
It feels elemental and secure. When I'm on this huge consolidated rock I feel safe, as if I'm standing on the only ground that will never be moved out from under me.

We walked down to another beach area, called Box Beach, where the water gets deeper and slows down. In the summer this beach is packed with people. Now, it is quiet and serene. 
You can see that people have been here. A small toddler's wading area was built in the water.

And a rope swing is suspended from an oak tree.

There it hangs waiting for the hot days of summer.

Can't you just feel, or remember what it felt like, jumping from a rope swing on a hot summer day?

We walked back to the car, on the road, and past a couple of signs. One warned about the change in flow of the river which can happen quickly and needs to have some forewarning.
It says CAUTION: Flow of river subject to sudden rises. All persons enter channel at their own risk. They are not kidding. I've seen the river go from "You could almost walk across it" to "OMG! What a torrent." It's scary how fast this happens.

The other sign is kind of funny. I guess I have a weird sense of humor. Just drive right in...

The dogs had a great time. We should do this more often. We ALL need the exercise.

Until next time.... goodbye wonderful old tree roots.

Goodbye reflections in glassy water.

Goodbye mud that makes its own art.

And sparkles under melted snow water.

Goodbye old river... until we meet again.