Mystery No More!

A good weekend in my watergarden! Last year I bought two waterlilys for my pond. My first, a lovely peach colored lily (Georgia Peach), the most expensive one at the water garden store (thanks to Sarah's good tastes) and the second, a much less expensive "mystery lily" (I shall call it Mystere). The mystery lily was purchased late in the season, and never bloomed last year, so until this weekend was still a mystery. Four of my mystery buds opened this weekend, reveal ind white flowers tinged with the palest shade of pink. I do hope Mystere proves to be such a fecundid bloomer for the rest of the summer!

My poor son...

I got to take a couple days off of work this week. Unfortunately, not for a fun reason, but because my poor son had hernia surgery on Thursday, and I got to play "good mother" and take care of him. The surgery went well, he got the first appointment of the day and we were actually home by 10:15. Between the anesthetic they used in the surgical site and the morphine they gave him in recovery, he was actually feeling pretty good. He wasted his favorite salad from Cafe Rio, so I ran out and pot it for him, and he sat at the dining room table and we chatted while he ate his lunch. It was actually really nice to sit and have some one on one discussion time. By mid-afternoon all the "good" meds had worn off, and my poor boy became a hurting puppy... it's hard to watch my active boy lay on the couch for 2 days. He was sure that by Friday night he would out with his friend. Surprise! He was still playing couch potato Friday night. Hopefully he'll be feeling better tomorrow... I'd hate for him to get to used to being waited on. Get me a drink, fix me bagel, bring me some ice cream, help me sit up, rent me some movies... I don't imagine I put on this "good mother" charade for too much longer.

One nice thing about being home when I'm normally at work is that I got to see my first waterlily blossom of the season!

Talkin' about the weather...

Yeah, yeah, talkin' 'bout the weather.... so boring, I know. But this spring has had the strangest weather I can remember. I think we have had a rain storm, or two or three every week. I have yet to turn my sprinklers on, quite unusual for this time of year. It has also been cool, more often than not. I normally have this "rule" that I don't wear long pants (unless I'm camping high in the mountains) between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Well, this year, unless I wore a skirt, I've worn pants to work every day since Memorial Day. I don't think I've ever done that before!

A question about this spring: has the wet weather increased flower, and thus pollen, production? Hmmm, I suppose I should ask my allergy prone friends. I'm not sure if it is because of the cool air, or if there is more pollen in the air, but this spring has been as olfactory delight. The air has been intoxicating, thick and fragrant. Mornings nave been especially lovely, I find myself standing in my yard, drinking in the air, thinking how wonderful it is just to stand there and breathe! A nice way to start the day.

Duckies!!!!

Lets have an "Awww... so cute moment!!!!!" today. Aren't these ducklings just adorable? A couple or years ago my good friend brought home a little duckling as a pet. Why a duck? You know, I don't even remember, but this duckling, Mocha, became quite the quite the pampered family pet. To make a long story short, Mocha grew up and needed a friend and the next thing you know my friends had two more ducks and started digging out their backyard to install a pond, and fencing off a corner to keep predators away from the mew where the ducks sleep at night, then came a couple more ducklings to keep the first three company, then add a few more that needed to be rescued from a local park.... and well, my friends have a lot of ducks now. If I told all the duck stories you'd know why I now refer to my friend as the "Crazy Duck Man" of Canyon Rim.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I took Daisy for a walk this weekend and stopped by to say hello and see my favorite ducks to find that Mocha, the grand matriarch of the duck clan, had hatched a clutch of ducklings. Actually I was a little surprised, because I'm pretty sure my friends wife had hit her "no more ducks" limit, but regardless, there they were, just as cute as can be, racing around in the water, exploring the pond.

Of course I had to go back with my camera, so thought I'd share.

It's a small word...

My one guilty pleasure in life is my daily morning stop at a small local coffee shop. Since I've been doing this for years now I've become friendly with the owner, the baristas, and many of the regular clientele. In a lot of ways the coffee shop is the equivalent of bar for us goody-goodies who don't drink alot and hang out in real bars. There's always someone to talk to, someone who'll listen to your problems and even offer up advice. I'm never sure which I'm more addicted to, the caffeine, the cream and sugar I put in my coffee, or my chatty early morning social life.

This morning I had one of my weird cosmic coincidences. One of my coffee buddies showed up when I did, so we sat and chatted for a few minutes. In the course of our discussion I mentioned something about 'back home", and she asked me where "home" was. I answered "Ohio", and she asked "Where?". "Cincinnati" I said and she got this quizzical look on her face, laughed, and said she was from Ohio too. I asked "Where?" and she said "Kind of north of Cincinnati, in Fairfield".... then I laughed. The subdivision where I grew up was litterally right across the road from Fairfield. I spent plenty of time hanging out in Fairfield. It also turns out that her father lives a half an hour away in Oxford, which is where my in-laws lived and where I went to school. Next time we chat I'll have to ask her if she hung out at the roller rink there, or the bowling alley, or if she or her friends ever drove their cars too fast over the hills on John Gray Road. Funny to find a Utah connection to my childhood 1400 miles away. The world shrinks once more...

Start singing Disney tunes now...

its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world........

(Don't you hate me?)

Waterfall hike

On Saturday I met a new friend for a hike. He is into waterfalls, and suggested the Adams Canyon hike. Adams Canyon is about 30 miles north of here, on the mountain side just east of Layton, Utah. Considering the fact that trail head has such easy access, the hike not terribly long and culminates at a beautiful waterfall, I'm surprised I'd never heard of that canyon. It was a really pretty hike. After a series switch backs through rangeland, the trail entered the canyon and followed the creek. The vegetation was lush and refreshing and there were 3 waterfall to be seen. Unfortunately, my camera battery died at the end of the trail, so I wasn't able to take a picture of the big 40 foot waterfall. The last shot I snapped was of my poor dog Daisy. She's 7 1/2, pudgy like her mom, and since the trail was steep (1200 ft elevation gain in less than 2 miles) and there were spots where she had difficulty scampering over steep rocks, she was tired at the end of the trail. Doesn't she look pathetic resting on the rocks? Like she was too exhausted to bother to find a comfy place to rest. Be assured she actually had a good time! As did her mom!