Traveling Sisterhood

What a week it was.
My friend "D", from Montana, arrived at Sacramento Airport last Friday night, with a heavy bag and a weary expression. She had all her big camera equipment in her "carry on"  and wanted to keep her luggage with her, so she didn't check her bags... she carried them and they were heavy.  She had a long layover in Seattle where she had to switch planes. She was really glad to be done with being "in the air". We drove back up to Jackson and settled in.
We rested up on the weekend, only going to the River Reflections celebration at Pardee Reservoir on Saturday and going to dinner at Teresa's for dinner on Mother's Day.

 This was one of the really creative artists that contributed to the River Reflections festivities. Her name is Leslie Vasquez and this is an interpretation of the beautiful Mokelumne River.

Amazing costume. Amazing idea. She is the river.

She is all the parts of the river that make it what it is... the rocks, the flora and fauna, the water...flowing from her finger tips. I'm not sure how this was done, but it was mesmerizing.
We had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful day.
Sunday I showed "D" how to blow out eggs and create little ornaments out of them. She even did some Squeekie eggs. One of the reasons that she came down was to learn how to make these eggs... kind of like a Mother's Day special workshop. She was inspired by my post on my mom's eggs at Easter. We had a great time working on them. She was an egg-obssessed woman. She created 6 or 7 of them and then we packed them up and sent them to Montana. When the mail guy asked if we had anything "fragile" in the package... we laughed and said "Oh, yeah." at the same time. I forgot to take a picture of them before we packaged them. They were beautiful.

On Monday we left for Yosemite. We drove south on highway 49 through Angels Camp and Jamestown, continued south to Coulterville where we stopped for coffee and information. The place is called Mary Lou's Cup of Brew and it was just what we needed.  We were able to stop and stretch, use her bathroom, drink some good coffee, eat a blueberry scone and... she gave us some great information about getting to Yosemite.

She  recommended the route east, over to 120 instead of the really winding highway 49 into Mariposa. So we drove east to 120... which was a nicer drive and went into the park at the north entrance. 

We drove through the Rim fire area, the fire that started in August of 2013. It's such a scar on the landscape.

 It was the third largest wildfire in California's history and burned 257,314 acres (402.053 sq. miles). It was the largest wildfire on record in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.Yes, there's some green growth on the ground but the trees are burned beyond anything you can imagine. It's very sad. As far as you can see, there is nothing but scorched earth.
Even after we entered the park the burned area continued. The fire consumed 78,895 acres of parkland on its North edge.
We drove to Crane Flat and decided to drive east to the upper part of Yosemite. We had reservations in Yosemite Valley but couldn't get into our room until 5:00 p.m. anyway, so we thought that a drive east on Tioga Rd. would be fun. Donna had never seen any of this and it has been years since I had traveled in the upper part of the park.This is an amazingly beautiful drive.
We stopped many times. There were trees growing out of the granite.

 Looking like someone just stuck them in place.

These are, I believe called Bristlecone pines. Some are more than 5,000 years old.

These beautiful twisted trees sometimes have roots that are growing out on the rock, as if they didn't need dirt... as if the elements are giving them what they need and they are completely adapted to their environment. This is deceptive though. They are really kind of endangered because of their low rate of reproduction and regeneration. It is thought that under present climatic and environmental conditions the rate of regeneration may be insufficient to sustain its population.

We parked and got out at Olmsted Point.  It was very cold and extremely windy.  It was so cold that I forgot to reset the settings on my camera and over exposed every photo at the lookout. I did get better results coming back that night. I will show some photos of this later.

Then we drove up through Tuolumne Meadows where the Pacific Coast Trail and the John Muir Trail come through. This is a beautiful high mountain valley... with a visitor's center and facilities (yes... bathrooms.)

With a beautiful Coyote that greeted us on the highway.

This Coyote was way too use to people. It was weary but not that afraid.

I think it was young and thought we might have some food. There is up to a $5,000. fine for feeding the animals in the park, but still... this animal acted like he had been fed before. 

What a beautiful creature .

It stuck around for quite a while... waiting and watching  for anyone who might give it something to eat. We loved being so close to something so wild but it's a shame that they aren't afraid of humans.

The Stellar Jay was the same. Waiting in the rest area for someone to throw bread or food in its direction.
Looking annoyed about the situation...

Demanding attention...

 ... looking for food and making a lot of noise about it. "D" wanted those blue feathers to decorate her eggs, but there weren't any lying around so... here are your feathers, m' dear. Frame them and enjoy. The bird didn't want to give them up. You know I tried. I talked to him.  He said "No... no food, no feathers."

The scenery is awesome on Tioga Pass. It's so huge and wild.

Every turn in the road takes your breath away.

This is somewhere near Tioga Pass and the eastern entrance to the park. I'm going to stop now and save Lee Vining and Mono Lake for another post. I'm still tired from all the activity and need my beauty sleep.
Haven't really caught up yet. It's all Donna's fault. She's been dragging me around and getting me in trouble since we were 10 years old.... but I love it.

Wordless Wednesday: A little Hummer and Clouds over Butte Mt. at Sunset

Chick talk

A lot of you know, from Facebook, that we have four new baby chicks. We lost one of the silver Wyandottes the first week but the others are doing really well.
They were so tiny and cute when we brought them home. Now they are "teenagers" and they are still cute, but a little ragged. All legs and pin feathers.

We let them out of there little cage, yesterday, to roam around the chicken house and see a bit of the bigger world around them. They were all looking outside at the big hens and being very curious about what was going on.

"Do you suppose that we will be out there, someday?"

 

"It looks awfully scary and unprotected." said one of them.

 "Do you think that we will be as big as them?"

"I don't know. Hey, what was that noise?"

The Plymouth Rock, outside, came up and poked at the chicken wire door, then walked away.

Miss Poloma (on the right) told them all not to be afraid. "We have to listen to Squeeky. She says that two of us will be as big as the hens out there and two of us will be like Squeeky. I think that I'm one of the big hens. I'm taller than all of you all ready."

"So, what I'm I going to be?" asked the beautiful little hen with the Cleopatra eyes, "I need to know, so I can practice my behavior. I want to be big and beautiful."

"Look at me. I've got the best feathers all ready. I've got the prettiest eyes."  said Cleo.

"Yeah.. will I bet you can't do this."

 Poloma reached back and pecked her side with her beak... "My neck is long enough to clean my feathers with my beak."
Then she looked Cleo right in the eye.  "It can only be one of us that is regular size because I heard Farmlady say that the Silver Wyandotte is one of the big hens. That means two of us are going to be big and two of us are going to be little. Guess we just have to wait and see."
Cleo walked away saying, "I heard her say that she doesn't want a rooster. I sure hope I'm not a rooster... because then she will have to change my name."

The discussion was over and their attention went back to a wood bee that had flown in through the chicken wire and was buzzing around above their heads.
That night when we put them back into their little cage and we picked up the eggs for the day, we found a  little egg in a nesting box. A Squeeky egg. These chicks have inspired her. She is ten years old and she has laid her third egg in two weeks. What a girl my little bantam is. She thinks that these chicks are hers and I think if we had brought home fertile eggs she would have sat on them until they hatched.

I love you little bird. You can be their "mommy" and maybe they will protect you from those old grouchy hens. You are my little survivor and you can be anything you want. Bantams rule!

"All right, (Ms. Farmlady), I'm ready for my close-up." ...

 Gazania species are grown for the brilliant colour of their flowerheads...

 which appear in the late spring and are often in bloom throughout the summer into autumn.

 They prefer a sunny position

.and are tolerant of dryness and poor soils.
The little pale yellow specks are pollen... flying everywhere. You don't even see this until you us a close up lens. It's in the air. It's what makes you cough and sneeze.
I love these colorful flowers. They are so hardy and this is the third year that they have returned, bigger and better than ever.
I used a Nikon 5100 camera with a 105mm macro lens for all of these images.

Wordless Wednesday (a day late) : Wildflower Walking

The Happiness of Rain

All night I listened.
The rain was outside the open window,
making small consistent sounds that, in this time of drought,
make me feel like one too long away from its soul mate.
In the morning the sky still weighed heavily with dark clouds...

...still filled with moisture... but moving away, across the landscape, to the East.

The Abe Lincoln rose seems to say, "Oh, I've been waiting for you, Rain."

The bush rose, hardier than its neighbor, concurs.

The newly planted Columbine is most happy without the sun and is pleased with the moist, cool morning.

The Basil, a sun lover, is even looking better for the night of rain.

The Kangaroo Paw was not as happy... but it's an Australian native and isn't really happy until Summer arrives.

My garden ladies survived the night. One always looks like I feel with rain on my face...

The other is younger and is never really please with the moisture and what it does to her hair.

She will learn...