Easter Morning

"Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees
Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

The hunt began...

There was no getting dressed first, even though it was 7:00 a.m. and quite cold outside. 

The sun was just coming up. The eggs were hidden everywhere.

 The excitement was palpable.

 

The Bean... the wild man with wild hair.

 We even got an email from the Easter Bunny.

 Amazing technology!

 There was no doubt that Easter had arrived.

Later, after Breakfast, they settled in for some quiet time.

I even got Little Bean to pose for a formal portrait.

And The Bean settled into a Lego induced relaxation mode.

I took the boys outside for a while to give mommy, daddy and Papa a rest.  

We went out back and decorated the concrete with chalk.

 When Noni asked them if they wanted to go for a hike, they took a few seconds to decide...

(Oh, that hair.)

And then...

Off they ran, up the road, leaving Noni to catch up.

"Hey! Wait for me." I called out... and they did.

We went to the Manzanita grove on the next knoll beyond the old orchard.

 Where the fox live in dens around the trunks of trees.

It's were the wild things live. 

This is a magical place. 

 We learned about poison oak and what it looked like.

How a plant can be so small that you will step on it and not notice... or it can grow into the oak trees, become like a huge vine and makes the oak tree unclimbable.

 They learned that it is beautiful, has three leaves and the new leaves are shiny and tinged with red.

By the time we left, the Beans were able to tell me what poison oak looks like and could show it to me.

Yea, Beans!!

We talked about wild things and where they go when we humans arrive. How they are watching us and keep their distance until we leave. 

We collected special rocks and "cool" things. 

As we walked back down to the house, Little Bean spotted some holes in the hillside. He said that this was were the Rattlesnakes sleep until Summertime. 

Another good lesson learned.

They all left after lunch. 

The dogs, Papa and Noni took a long nap. 

We miss you, Beans. 

We love you all.

Come back soon.

Oh, What fun we had!

The Bean, Little Bean, Mommy and Dad arrived Friday night.
We started our weekend with energy, happiness... and a full house.

The extra bedroom instantly became the central headquarters for artistic endeavors. I really need a bigger workspace for two little boys that love to create things. Little Bean moved his projects to the dining room table and that helped considerably. The house was filled with activity.

...and getting to know each other again.
Playing outside...

Lots of drawing, cutting and painting.

And throwing a Frisbee.
(Nice job, little Bean!)

Later that night we had some Apple Crisp and ice cream... and we all settled in for a good night's sleep.

Saturday morning Dad and Papa took the Beans downtown to an Easter Egg Hunt on Main St.
 Mom and Noni went shopping and ate lunch in Sutter Creek. YES!
We went to a few of our favorite stores. Fine Eye Gallery and On Purpose.
On Purpose is filled with New Age, mystical, magical things... Buddhas, books and all things to transform your life. This is the store that promises positive energy to all.

 We talked to a man about a car.

 He and his wife were sitting outside of the Twisted Fork Restaurant. We asked if this was his car and he said "Yes". So we got permission to take some pictures and he told us that he buys and sells these beautiful old "masterpieces" and I think he said this one was for sale for something like $50,000. THAT'S a lot of money... but it was completely restored. It's an old bakery wagon with a wood ceiling in it.

We walked down to a favorite store for clothes and holidays. 

Tomorrow's Heirlooms is eye candy for beautiful things.

It's filled with charming good taste.

Beautiful window displays...

Hand made banners, soap and good smelling things.

 There is a wonderful children's section.

 And beautiful clothing.

I always ask if I can take pictures. The lady who owns Tomorrow's Heirlooms always says "YES".
When  you do a pictorial on your blog about a store it's kind of like free advertising for them but, even though, sometimes I'm told "No". Then I put the camera away. It's a good idea to always ask first.

We came home. Robbin and I took a short nap and then started dinner . The Beans went fishing with Dad and Papa. It's getting to be a tradition in this family. It's a good thing that we weren't having FISH for dinner though, because the fish decided to lay deep down in the Mokelumne River and didn't come home with the guys.
 The weather was beautiful.  The dinner was good. We had Easter dinner on Saturday because our kids would have to leave early on Sunday.
 I don't cook big meals much anymore, so the ham took longer than expected. I hate to admit that I'm a little out of practice but I will just say that everyone was good and hungry when we finally sat down  to eat.
We held hands and said, "Thank you for this food and bless all of those who couldn't be with us.".
We enjoyed the meal and discussed The Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy as we ate. The Bean lost another tooth earlier in the day.

He wanted to be sure that the Tooth Fairy would know where to find him. We assured him that she (or he) would know where the Bean was for the weekend.
The day ended with a bath for the Beans. They went right to sleep.
Robbin and I did the late night bunny run... leaving a few plastic eggs with glow sticks coiled up in them so the Easter Bunny could find us up here on the mountain.
This looked so cool. Hard to take pictures of... but it looked wonderful.

We floated them in the birdbath to take pictures and them scattered them around the yard. ( A Pinterest idea that Robbin found.)

Tomorrow I will show you our lovely Easter Morning, and the hunt for Easter Eggs. What a joy to have the Beans looking for eggs in our garden. Can't express my happiness at this.

OH... and guess who came back Saturday... just for an Easter visit?

The little Screech Owl came back to see us. He hasn't been here for two months or so. But, he arrived on Saturday. We never know when he is going to come and perch on our porch eaves, but it was nice of him to arrive on Easter weekend.
I don't think that he liked all the commotion, but he stayed up there and surveyed the comings and goings underneath him until dark. At some mark, on his internal clock, he flew away.
Now, he is gone. I hope he comes back soon.

Tomorrow... The Egg Hunt.

Messing around with filters from an old camera

Do you know that the old Nikon lens that you used on your Nikon film camera will fit your new digital camera???

I know! I get really excited about things like this. But, I love these kinds of discoveries.
This is our old Nikon EM film camera (above). It's a beauty. I haven't used it for a long time... NEEDS FILM. What a drag.
But, the other day I was looking at all the attachments and checking to see if any of  them worked on my Nikon D40 camera. Some do, it seems.
The close up lens do...

And so does this yellow Spectrum 7 optical filter.

I've only begun to explore what I can do with these lens and filters but look at this...

This is a photo of the oak trees outside the bedroom window taken with my Nikon d40 and the yellow optical filter.
They come out looking like impressionist paintings.
This is one that I lightened and sharpened on Picasa3.

This filter gives the trees a magical quality that is beyond anything I can get without the filter. I need to go outside on a sunny day and see what happens using this filter. It seems to darken the shot quite a bit, but if I'm in really bright light it will probably have a light softening affect on the picture.
I just love the ethereal look to the subject matter.

Then I tried the three close up lenses. They were a Pro 52 +1, +2 and +3 lens. I threaded them all on my Nikon and ...take a look.
Carl... up close and personal.

These are not cropped photos. This is how close I was able to get with these lenses. Cool ! The only thing that I noticed was the dark corners. I'm not sure if this was the result of using three lenses all at the same time or what this was. I'm not sure how to avoid this.
I need to keep reading up on what these lenses do and how to use them.
That means a day on the Internet.
And that isn't going to happen this weekend BECAUSE....
We got a phone call yesterday and my son, my daughter in law and THE BEANS are coming up tomorrow night and will be here for the weekend.
OH, JOY!!
I took a few more photos outside yesterday, without any special lenses.
So I present them to you as a pre Easter gift.
Have a good weekend.

The garden toad says Happy Easter.

 The sky, the Tulip tree and the mountains say Happy Easter, too

 And the real, little toad says "Please don't step on me."

Going once, going twice...SOLD.

We have a new auction house in town. They auction just about anything you can imagine.

Saturday morning The Prospector and I decided to go and see what they do and how they do it. What a good time we had.
The Amador Auction House  is a well organized, interesting place. It's in the old Prospect Motors building coming into town across from the park and library. I didn't think they would ever use this old car lot for anything worthwhile again... but they have.

We Got our "number" and then, because we came a little early, we got to preview the items that were going to be auctioned off.
There were books and old boxes.

There were all kinds of old bottles and lanterns.

Furniture...

 And signs of every kind.

There was a lot of mining equipment...
Some of the artifacts were old and antique... some not so old and from the "gold" tourist industry... but all gorgeous items.
 I loved the mining carts. They even had the track underneath them. That's how they got these very heavy carts down into the mines. Track is very hard to find now.

There were hats, holsters, and pick axes... and some fake bars of gold. Ya gotta know the difference between the real stuff and the fake. I WISH that I had a BAR of Gold.
As of 4/3/12 at 9:00 p.m. PST, the price of gold is $1,643.18 an ounce, so those "bars of gold" would not be just sittin' on a table like that if they were real.

There were heaters, old milk cans and fire extinguishers.

You can decide what you are willing to pay for something you really want... ahead of time. The preview lets you take a look at all the items, write down the number of the item and drool all over yourself. Like the wonderful old school desk that was talking to me from the minute I walked across the room.

But the desk wasn't what we came for. We were looking for old mining artifacts or something that we could use as a planter.
The auction started and what excitement it was. A noisy, fast paced process of bidding, shouting and confirmation of sale.
I bid on a box of books but someone else wanted them more than I did. I started the bidding on some of the wonderful signs ,but that Fort Defiance sign (in the fifth photo) ended up being sold for $100. I loved the signs and wanted one but I was unwilling to pay the price.
Then we focused on an old water trough that had a couple of gold signs attached. The bidding started at $25.
We went back and forth with one other person and finally.... WE won the bid.
The old trough was ours.
Oh Joy!

They had a lunch break and some entertainment.
Calamity Jane was causing all kind of trouble as she kicked a chair over and accused one of the men at the poker table of cheating.

 Our local thespians were giving us a good show and everyone had a great time.
I drove home in a raging wind and rain storm, around lunchtime, worried about the dogs. The Prospector stayed to see the rest of the auction... and the entertainment.
Yesterday, the Prospector drove the truck downtown and picked up our "water trough" planter..
We are delighted with it.
Here it is next to the garage.

It came in two pieces. The legs and frame are separate from the box. There is a sign on the front that says

"REAL GOLD" and one on the end that I forgot to take a "before" picture of.  The Prospector unscrewed them from the front and side of the trough so I could paint them. I have redone them with acrylics and today I gave them a coat of Urethane.
We lined the box with a metal liner and filled it with dirt. Now I can filled it with all kind of beautiful flowers for summer.
The signs turned out nice. It was fun to work on them. The old outlines of the words were there so I just redid what had already been there before.
The sign above ended up looking like this...

And the smaller sign that will be put on the end facing the driveway looks like this...

I think that this trough was used for a panning tough in a state park like Columbia, CA. to teach tourist how to pan for gold... but, for the rest of its life it will be holding flowers.
The auction was really a lot of fun, even though I didn't stay for the whole day. I wanted to bid on so many things but you have to stay focused and you really have to stay within your budget.
Some items went for a lot more than I thought they were worth. But, what is the worth of something when you really want it? I guess only the person who bids on that wonderful thing that "has their name on it" knows what it's REAL worth is.
But we are so happy with our new planter and the experience was really great.
The storm brought us a wild auction day and a rainbow at the end.
This seemed like a happy day to us.
******************

Guess who called me last night? THE BEAN.
My grandson called to thank us for the birthday present and we talked for quite a while.
 He says that I need an IPad so I can learn to play games better and practice more.
 He says that the IPad would be a better choice than an IPhone. It's bigger and "Is more fun."
So, I have it on the best authority, that I need to invest in another form of electronics to improve my life and "play games better." He proceeded to tell me how to play a specific game which I didn't understand at all, but he was being very patience with me. After all, I'm his Noni. and he knows how easily I can "drop my transmission" over these games.
He's seven. He knows everything about computer generated games and programs and "apps".
I just love listening to him tell me how to do things.
He is such a smart little boy and he is so full of knowledge about the things that are important to him.
I'm still not sure how to play these games but I sure like the idea of carrying the Internet around in my purse.
IPhone? IPad? IPhone? IPad? Kindle? Laptop? Oh my gosh!  I know they all have different uses but I'm so confused . I will have to have another discussion about this with the Bean, before I buy something. He'll probably be eight by the time I buy anything. He'll be even smarter by then.
His brother talked to me too. Little Bean is fine. He was watching TV at the same time so I only got bits and pieces of a conversation.... but, he's fine.
Then I got to talk to my son.
I love it when they call.

My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky.” ~ William Wordsworth~

It rained all day yesterday. Heavy rain, dark skies... and wind.
Late in the afternoon the sky lightened and small openings of sunlight came through the clouds. Knowing  this  combination of storm and sun would produce a rainbow, I took the camera outside and waited.
There it was...from one canyon to another.
From one neighbor's house...

To the other neighbor's creek.

And then... a pale image of another rainbow appeared beside the first.

No pot of gold... simply a refraction of light split into a spectrum of color.
 But, the beauty of this rainbow has lasted, in my mind's eye, and made this Palm Sunday more than it could ever have been.
 Because of this rainbow I stood in the rain and saw my own humanity reflected from the earth that I love, into the sky and back again. As if this magical light was created not only for my eyes, but for everyone.
I wish this rainbow on the world... that its beauty brings a moment of happiness... of joy... to everyone on this Sunday before Easter.
I'm not sure about the reasons... the stories of this man... this savior... this son of god.
 But, I know that I saw a rainbow and watched my life take a step closer to heaven.
*********************

This is for my family. This is also for my friend Carol, my cousin Jeanne and my sister. With hope that they will always see the rainbows in their lives.