Spiral Jetty Revisited

A fun northern Utah adventure... a trip to the Spiral Jetty, a rather famous 1970's land art installation. I'd been there a few years ago, back when the Great Salt Lake was much higher and the Jetty nearly under water, but now after years of drought the entire jetty is exposed, making it totally different experience.

We found lots of baby jettys on the shore.

While we were there we hiked the hill for the aerial view... and while we were there did a cheeseburger summit!

Having taken this adventure with my nerdy birdy friend April, we had to enjoy all the bird sitings along the way. I wish I had gotten a good shot of all the Long Billed Curlew we saw, but birds are so hard photograph with my meager 200mm lens. I was however pretty happy with shot of this great clutch of burrowing owls! Pretty cool eh?

After a hot springs soak we decide to a sunset spin through the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge would be fun. It was getting a little dark for bird pictures, but sunset is always spectacular there.

My photo question of the day... Which of these do you like better? I sure can't decide!

Some favorite music

So I have a favorite music artist. Kind of an unusual choice for an old gal, as he's a hiphop/rap type artist, and I find that a lot of people my age (54!!) don't embrace the 'new' music. But I am a gal with quite eclectic musical tastes, and love discovering new and interesting artists. Grieves came to me through my daughter, who discovered him when he opened up for Atmosphere, way back when she was about 15. We have a funny bit of history together about Grieves, which I have written about in the past here and here. I really, really love his music, have all his albums and joke that I am his "oldest fan". It really surprises teh 20 somethings at work when I start playing his music in the lab. What? An old woman likes hip hop? Say it isn't so.

Imagine my surprise last week when driving home from work, listening to my totally un-cool and un-hip, 'All Things Considered' on NPR and I hear Grieves "Bloody Poetry" playing! So what does this mean? Is NPR cool now? Or maybe it's always been cool, despite that my listening to it made my kids nuts back when they were in school. Sarah always complained that everyone on public radio talked in a mono-tone! Or maybe I'm cool now? Eh, probably not...LOL Is Grieves now a mainstream artist? I've always thought of him as 'alternative', I don't think anyone I've ever told about him, old or young, had ever heard of him. I hope getting played on NPR is a sign that he has "arrived" as his music is great! Give him a listen!