Sunrise Sunday

This morning a little before dawn I woke to the sound of the wind blowing.  At first I was thinking how much I disliked the wind especially when it interferes with my biking activities and this type of wind does do that.  Yesterday also it kept me indoors for most of the day.  However, once I got out of bed today and looked out of the window, I saw the sky and forgot all about the windy wind.  This sight greeted my eyes and said "capture me forever".  I did.


Now the windy wind day stretches before us and challenges me to say "the heck with you wind, I will be out in your windiness anyway - you will not keep me indoors on this day".  Possibly a walk in a forest would be a good thing.  Somewhere where the wind will not blow us around too much.   Wind in the pine trees is a good sound. 


The person I have been married to for over 20 years is drinking coffee and strumming his guitar in the other room.  It's a peaceful and soothing sound with the wind outside in accompaniment.  He cradles the guitar next to his body, leans over it slightly and plays variations on the handful of chords he has mastered.  


I watch out of the ground level window by my desk and see the tough little birds pecking at the bird seed I threw into the brambles for them.  They fight over their various  patches and occasionally I hear a thunking sound as in their aggressiveness with one another one of them will land against the window.  It makes me laugh.  They are not flying hard enough to hurt themselves.

13 years later................and still going.

We returned last evening from what we estimate is about our 20th vacation to the Moab area in Utah since 1998. Obviously we love to go there.

At first, when gas prices allowed, we both drove our Jeep Wranglers there. Here's a typical picture from when we did that (date on picture is in 2004)

We would both drive the four wheel drive (4WD) trails that are in the area, some easy, some difficult. We made many acquaintances and friends during the years with other folks who also enjoyed driving on the trails.

However, gas prices did go up dramatically and so the past few years that we have gone, we have taken either Merle's Big Red Wrangler or, as on this recent trip, my newer four door Wrangler. We pull our little T@B trailer and we camp. We don't 4WD much but tend to hike and bike more.

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Highlights of this most recent Utah adventure:

Merle created rock "sculpture" at our campsite but had to sadly dismantle them before we left.

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Ravens are very intelligent and they are very big and they can unzip soft sided coolers. We know, because they unzipped ours. Luckily there was no food in it, only a couple of old candy wrappers in the front pocket. We drove up to the campsite as two of them gave us the evil eye. Angry, no doubt, at the lack of edible goods.

The next day Merle was sitting at our campsite and saw one fly by a few times. Each time it had a hot dog in its beak. Turns out our absent camping neighbors had left their styrofoam cooler out.

We wrapped the mortally wounded cooler in a gigantic ziplock bag we had and Merle put it in their tent. The campers (two guys) returned shortly thereafter and became new inductees into the "Ravens Can and Will Take Your Food" club. Not just your food. I had a roll of tin foil sitting on the table and a raven hacked it to death. Foils chips were everywhere. I had been sitting about 20 feet away hearing a hammering noise, wondering who could possibly be hammering something in the campground. Campers beware.

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We hiked from the campground to the point viewing area at the end of the mesa and back one morning (about 4-5 miles round trip). As we arrived at the point we saw a guy with a radio controlled helicopter. Everyone got to watch him take off and fly it around in the canyon air. He did a few aerobatic moves that were impressive. It was quite the treat. No pictures - it wouldn't have done the tiny helicopter justice in that wide, deep expanse. Here's a picture of Merle on that hike later, peering over a precipice. I stay back at least 15 feet from any edge like this. They drop really far down as you can see in the background.

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One afternoon, driving back to our campsite in the opened topped Wrangler, we raced a rainstorm and lost. Big drops plastered us as we rushed to secure the camper and the car. In his haste, the husband somehow jammed the Jeep soft top into the open position. It rained for awhile into the car until after much grunting, pulling and soft cursing, it was un-jammed. It was not the first time that we have had weather adventures in an open vehicle in Utah..............or Colorado. On the way home as we drove over Loveland Pass in the open topped Wrangler, it rained/snowed on us until we could pull over and put the top back again.

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We are Jeep Wrangler lovers and any sunny day with the top down is a good day.

This tremendous view is everywhere in Canyonland.

December - Colorado High Country

The Yurt

This past week we stayed in a yurt for the first time. Here's a video I made with music soundtrack.

From Wikipedia:

A yurt (üi or kiz üi in Kazakh, ger in Mongolian) is a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. A yurt is more home-like than a tent in shape and build, with thicker walls. They are popular amongst nomads.

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Ours was not as primitive and it was constructed with more modern materials. There were three layers on the walls consisting of heavy plastic inside and out with something else in between - couldn't see that. It was built on a concrete pad, was very sturdy and probably not useful for the typical nomad as it was all put together with hardware and such. It did have three big windows. They unzipped on the outside and had screens. We opened them all after it warmed up outside. Our day weather was perfect, sunny and a high of 65F.

The rest of the time, the propane stove kept the inside very cozy. When we woke each morning there was frost on everything outside, but we were just fine inside. Cooking was done on our little Coleman propane grill/stove outside on the picnic table. Each morning, after the sun came up over the hill and warmed things up a bit, we made a crackling fire in the sturdy fire pit outside of the yurt and sat beside it wrapped in blankets with our coffee.

The yurts were in Sylvan Lake State Park southish from Eagle, Colorado. I made the reservations online. Cost was $60/night and a maximum of two nights.

What a beautiful area. Although we visited a little late to see the aspen in their full glory, there were still many that were still shimmering with their golden leafy disks. Aspen leaves in the wind are delightful. They dangle and the slightest breeze sets them dancing to and fro.

We hiked a little. We drove to a old mining town called Fulford that was a mishmash of old, ratty shacks and brand new cabins. We had a little trouble understanding why anyone would want to build a new cabin there, but as we all know, there are all kinds of lifestyles and all sorts of different tastes.

As I was driving us down the mountain road on our return trip from Fulford, my eye caught a movement at the right edge of the road. I slowed. Merle opened his window and looked down. Right next to our Jeep was a little weasel with a big mouse (deceased, thank goodness) in it's mouth. Our little weasel was quite cute, even with a mouthful of mouse. It couldn't decide where to go with it's meal, so it loped down the road in front of us for about 20 feet before veering off to the left into the brush. I had the camera, but was so fascinated by this first time viewing of a live, in the wild weasel, that I didn't think to capture it digitally (I almost wrote "capture it on film" - not). Here are pictures of long tailed weasels that I think are the same as the one we saw. I got them off of Google Images. It had a black tip on it's tail. It was very small, about 10 inches long including the tail. Teddy bear ears. The mouse was so big that the little guy had a hard time seeing over it.

I'm so cute!

Sylvan Lake itself was around the mountain about 10 miles away. We went there both evenings of our stay to take showers at their well kept campground. We sleep so much better if we can get cleaned up before bed. The lake was small, but lovely. Cabins around the lake were very intriguing and I imagine that we will go back sometime and stay in one of those overlooking the lake. This time of year, there were very few people around.

There are all sorts of beautiful places in Colorado that we have yet to discover and we've lived here a long time.....

Ireland - June 2010

(has music soundtrack)

Our two week visit to Ireland was a 20th wedding anniversary gift to ourselves. We were married on St. Patrick's Day in 1980. Believe it or not, we did not plan our wedding date or our 20th anniversary to be "Irish" things. They just turned out that way.

After our return, I sat down and wrote my immediate impressions. Here is the list with some other pictures we took. Although I could go through our itinerary while there, I feel that this best conveys our experience.

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Ireland

Upon arrival we drove from east to west Ireland (less than a day's drive across) and stayed with a friend, Una. A schoolteacher, she lived in the above pictured house on a lush hill surrounded by trees, rock walls, horse farms and a distant view of the sea. We stayed there 4 days before heading eastward along the southern coast area for several more days before reaching our starting point and flying home.

Visited a "working farms" exhibit on a typical Irish day, slightly cloudy, slightly cool and slightly damp. It was a walking tour that led us down down peaceful dirt roads lined by swaths of ever abundant Irish foliage while stopping to visit little farms of varying size. There were thatched roofed cottages and peat moss fires burning quietly in some rustic fireplaces.

Shaggy sheep on a verdant mountain pass. The highest mountain in Ireland is 3,414 feet above sea level, so there is no timberline area. Every Irish green thing has enough oxygen to survive.

Field after field in valleys and on hillsides, bordered with timeless rock walls and thick varied hedges.

Soft, clean cattle eating mouthful after mouthful of long luscious, delicious grass

The fine aged face of a widowed farmer who was born in the house where he lives with two grown sons. His name is Michael. Una's good old Dad. He has tended his cattle. He has never lived anywhere else or set his Irish foot outside of his homeland. His bride he brought to the house, his children she bore there. And there the angels bore her away to be with them on a sad day.

Bleeding heart bushes several feet high and long

Tropical palm trees in unusual places like next to an old church ruin.

Abundant forest ferns growing from crevices in ancient stone walls

Flat fronted Irish homesteads in creamy shades of white. Then the occasional bright burst of a buttery yellow abode.

Clothes hanging on the clotheslines. Dryers not preferred in Ireland it would seem

Beautifully landscaped gardens

At the San Antonio B & B in the pretty harbor town of Kinsale, our gracious host loaned Merle his guitar in the parlor.

Thick cream for your sweet, hot cup of perfectly brewed tea

Irish Fry – heart attack breakfast of fried egg, sausages, bacon and black and/or white pudding. It’s not a pudding really, but a type of sausage. Black pudding has blood in it. All the "fried" meats and toasted breads done up in the typical Irish oven broiler.

Butter on your brown bread, your soda bread and your scones. Marmalade too.

A thick chowder of oysters and fish chunks and carrots and potato eaten on a pub patio with a neighborly cat and intermittent rain clouds and sun

Very old rock walls bordering the narrow country roadways, overgrown with so much vegetation that they can hardly be seen.

Suddenly, a compact forest of pine, neatly growing in the middle of an expanse of grass

Changing skies of blue, gray, rain, sun. Wind.

The smell of the harbor

The fishing boats. Some large, some small. All festooned with floats. Some with rust, others brightly painted along with the rust.

Walking in a salt marsh where several narrow bridges span small rivers of salt water. A sudden rain shower. We pulled our rain hoods close to our faces and turned our backs to the blowing water drops.

Open toed sandals – the footwear of the Irish ladies in summer.

Beautiful children with fresh wind chafed faces and wild hair.

Vivid music played by rough and tumble toe tapping lads

The Auto Loo

(It does everything but pee for you)

Evenings. Light until 11p and later.

A pint of Smithwicks, bangers and mash

A pint of Smithwicks, cabbage, bacon and parsley sauce

Babies. Baby carriage with babies. Toddlers at the beach. Lots of children here.

Down a one lane valley road with pullouts. Black Valley. Pony carts of tourists toodle by. Pull over we must.

Moments of tenseness on the road as inches separate you and the car or immense tourist bus traveling in the opposite direction and the impenetrable hedgerow on your other side.

Breakfast at a sunny roomed B & B served by the owner, a lady from Germany.

Being the passenger of the car on the right side of the car and as the car goes around a curve on your left, you lean to the right – it’s too close.

Blacksmithing. A doorway into a dark small room. A fire glows heavily. The steel is pressed to the flame and it glows with the fire. The blacksmith bends and pounds it into curling shapes that become the horns of a ram and then snuffs out the glowing in a quiet, cool barrel of water.

Everything against a background of many greens

The sea