It's good day when you wear out the dog...

Daisy and went hiking today. We headed up Millcreek canyon, and decided to hike Porter Fork. The first mile and a half or so is a narrow paved road that's dotted with quaint summer homes. A paved trail doesn't exactly sound rugged, but it is pretty steep and a nice workout. Perhaps that makes it a wussy trail and that's why I never hear about anyone hiking it? It's a favorite spot of mine for an evening hike, because I know if I should end up coming down in the dark it's easily navigable.

At the end of the paved road you enter the Mt. Olympus wilderness area. I've hiked into the wilderness area a little ways, but never very far, as I usually hike this trail after work and have limited time before the sun sets. My first picture was taken at my normal turn around spot.

Today was my day to get further up the trail. As you can tell by my third picture, the trail goes quite a ways higher, up to a nice meadow surrounded by a cirque of mountain ridges. I hiked up through the meadow and a little further. Eventually the trail should head up over the ridge, but the meadow seemed like good turn around as Daisy, who's almost 9 years old, was getting pretty tired. She never really understands the point of hiking where there isn't a creek, and we'd left the creek behind a while back. One thing about these steep trails, they give you quite a workout going both up and down. Ask my quads. And my dog!

My requisite weird close up flower shot for the day. The sun light shining through this sticky geranium was so pretty... so why not take a picture from the underside of the flower?

Raindrops on roses...

...and primrose and lilies. I'm not sure we've ever had such a waterlogged June. I checked the NOAA weather site and found a page that said the month to date had 2.4 inches of rain while the average for the month of June is 0.6 inches. I bet those measurements were out at the airport, I'm sure up along the mountains where I live we've had much more. I'm sure I've dumped at least 4 inches of water out my wheelbarrow, which has been sitting in the yard awaiting my planting my deck planters. I've had a flat of plants waiting at least two weeks for a dry night to do do some planting.


Tonight was that night. The second day in a row without rain, I figured the soil in my pots was dry enough to work with, so tonight was planting night. Clearly I should have dumped the water out the wheelbarrow more frequently, because my back yard was teaming with mosquitoes. Or were they from my pond or my fire pit or somewhere else where water could pool? Regardless, I've never had so many squeeters in my yard - it actually made for an unpleasant planting night.

A grand night out!

Sunset over the Great Salt Lake (...this picture's not from todays adventure, but one I had about 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, not what you think at all. We have had the rainiest June I have ever seen. Evening rainstorms nearly every night for what seems like weeks. Very weird weather for Utah. But tonight we had a reprieve from the rain, so I thought I'd make the best of it by tying on my running shoes and taking Daisy for a jog and walk down in the gully.

It was a wonderful night for the gully. When I got to the first bridge there was guy sitting playing guitar. A really interestingly shaped classical guitar, the shape was similar to a zuni bear fetish if that makes sense. He said it was old, passes down through the family. A little accoustic music in the gully is a nice thing.

A little further down the trail I ran into a drummer. Unfortunately he was leaving, so I missed that concert... I kind of like this getting back to nature with music thing.

It was a really nice night, cool and delightful. The air, cleansed by all the rain I guess, was cool and damp and downright intoxicating. I reached the end of the gully and turned back along the creek, walking west. By then the setting sun was filtering through trees, illuminating bits of floating cottonwood fluff. I was serenaded by the moving water in the creek and all sorts of birds. Clearly it was music time for them as well. I wish I knew their songs. There was one particularily loud bird with a lovely song that had to be in a shrub right next to the trail, but try as I might I could not find him. I'd love to know what kind of bird he was. It was getting dark as I headed up the wooded section of trail that winds towards my home. I really enjoy heading through the tunnel of trees in the dark. It's so peaceful and quiet.

Hows that for a grand night out?

I love Biggie Smalls

OK I admit it, I don't really know Biggie Smalls, I know he was also known as The Notorious B.I.G, I know he was a rap artist, I know he was murdered. I don't really know his music, as, with the exception of my "boyfriend" Grieves, I don't know much about rap music at all.

So why do I love Biggie? Yesterday I came home from work and walked into a spotless home. Dusted, vacuumed, garbage emptied, kitchen spotless. The cat's litter box had even been cleaned. I about fell over dead. Sarah must have spent the whole day cleaning. I don't think she's ever cleaned the cat box without me having to give her at least three stern reminders. What a delightful surprise to come home to.

I asked her what had come over her. Her answer? "Biggie Smalls". She turned on some Biggie Smalls music in the morning, and it gave her all this "energy", so she started cleaning, and he music kept her motivated, so she kept cleaning. So you go, Biggie Smalls! I love you! I may actually have to listen to one of his CD's someday

More from last weeks family adventure...

My cousins introduced me to a cool new website, Local Harvest, where you can look up farmers markets, businesses and restaurants that support local agriculture and organic food. They had a hit list of places they wanted to try as they travelled. Squatters Brewery here in SLC made their list, so we went for lunch after our visit to Antelope Island. I hadn't been there in a long time, so I wasn't aware of their buy local and organic effort, I mostly know of their beer. Cousin Ed decided to try the beer sampler, which, with a fun local touch, was brought out in a rack made from skis... a real "Brewski" you could say!
After lunch we stopped home and grabbed Sarah, who'd been at school, and headed up into the mountains for hike up to Donut Falls. It was too cold and the water to high to climb up through the creek to get the close up view of the falls, but it was still a lovely hike.

Watch Me Create!

If you want to learn of a good use for extra beads, go read todays post on Watch Me Create!

A fun week...

I had a real treat his week, My cousin Ed, and family, who live in Indiana, came to visit. They are taking a big western US road trip and we are conveniently located between the Badlands of south Dakota and San Fransisco. I took a day off from work so we could take a whirlwind tour of beautiful Northern Utah. First stop, Antelope Island State Park. Antelope Island is in the middle of the Great Salt lake, connected to the mainland by a seven mile causeway. I love going out to the island, especially to the high overlooks. The views to the lake surrounded by the snowcapped Oquirrh and Wasatch mountains is positively spectacular!!!
Besides enjoying the view from Buffalo point we went to marina so Ivy and Mae could dip their feet in the Great Salt Lake... and see the brine shrimp, or as you may know them, Sea Monkeys!!! The water at the marina was teaming with sea monkeys. It's funny how as a kid sea monkeys are such an exciting thing, but right here at the lake
they are so common place!

My Daisies

I admit it, my garden has too many daisys. This is a hard time for me, as I know I should dig a bunch out because they are crowding my other perennials, and I should be planting some annuals were the daisys are, but I can't bear to thin them out when they are flowering so divinely.

A cool thing about daisys that the non botanist may not know - each daisy flower is actually a an inflorescence, a cluster of flowers on a stem. Small yellow disc flowers in the middle, surrounded by ray flowers, each sporting a single long white petal. If you look close the disc flowers are arranged in very precise mathematical order. I've always wondered how many of these tiny flowers make up what we call a daisy flower, but I've sure been too lazy count them.

Hiking Season...

I took my first hike of the season on Sunday. We headed up Broads Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I say up, because like most of out local hikes, there was a substantial elevation gain(~2000 ft)so the hike was a good work out as well as reminder that I need to work out more!
The trail was pretty steep and still snow packed in places. At about 9000 ft, we came to meadow that sported lovely views of the surrounding peaks. We chose to stop here, as the trail was getting pretty snowy.

Most everything in the meadow was still pretty brown and dead, with the exception of these beautiful alpine wild flowers, clearly the first of the season. The leaves and petals of this plant seemed thick and waxy, I suspect it was well prepared to survive the early season extreme environmental variation.
You know me, I needed a good macro shot.
The view from Broads Fork, down Big Cottonwood Canyon, across the Salt Lake Valley to the Oquirrh Mountains on the other side.

Spring Botany

As I left work the other day I decided to take some close up shots of the blooms on the Redbud trees that are outside my building. I love the Redbuds, they remind me of home back in Ohio. The botanist in me finds it interesting that they are in the same plant family as peas and beans, as is evident if you look closely at the flowers, which are distinctly pea like.

As I was snapping my pictures a guy from the lab downstairs came up to me and said "You need to check out the one up there that looks like it's covered in purple moss" and pointed up the hill. Sure enough, on the top of the knoll stood an ancient tree who's trunk was covered in blossoms. I'd never seen anything like that before; flowering bark!
Developmentally, I have no idea whats going on there, but it sure was interesting to look at. I'll have to ask my better botanist friends about why the bark was blossoming

Watch Me Create!

More about my bead making on Watch Me Create..... the good, the bad and the ugly!

The Renn Faire

On Saturday some friends of mine and I headed up to Ogden to check out the Renaissance Festival. I've been curious about renaissance festivals ever since hearing my cousins back in Indiana talk about the one they attend back there. The festival here is pretty new, it's only in it's 4th year so I didn't expect much. I enjoyed he people demoing ancient crafts, like, blacksmithing and armor making. There were craft vendors and musicians, and many people wandering about the villages in period dress playing their parts. The court jester was wonderfull, extemely jovial and entertaining. The woman who played Queen Elizabeth did a positively stellar job. Joseph, the 10 year old son of one of the woman I went to the faire with, was quite fascinated by the queen. In her perfect old english accent she performed a ceremony and knighted Sir Joseph. He had a lot of questions for her and her answers amounted to quite a history lesson. She seemed very authentic, very entertaining and she really made Joseph a happy little boy.

From Across the Pond...

I opened my email this morning and found this message:

Video message from Matt,

Hello,

Matt created a personal video at Tate Modern, London.

Please click here to view Matt's video message.

Wednesday night he and his girlfriend flew off to England. Her family is British and Matt joined her for a three week trip to visit her relatives and play tourist in England and France. The video message was sent from Tate Modern Museum in London... They sure didn't say much,(I bet they were very jetlagged!) but don't they look like they are having a good time? It makes me very happy to see my boy look so happy, and it was nice surprise to get a message and to see that they arrived safe and sound!

It's a jungle out there...

Where's the jungle? My yard! Two weeks ago when I went to cut the lawn for the first time this season I discovered my lawn mower was terminally ill. Not that this suprised me, as it was pretty ill last year, but the malfunctioning pull cord completely quit rewinding, making it impossible to start. So for the last 2 weeks the mower's been in the shop, and my lawn kept growing and growing. I'm sure my neighbors were a little confused about why I was spending so much time weeding ly flower beds but not bothering to cut the lawn.

Last night my neighbors little Shitzu came to visit, wading through my long, long grass like she was on a real jungle adventure. As fun as she was to watch, all I could think about was the looming disaster awaiting me when my mower was fixed.
Well, today I finally got the call that my mower was done. $121 later I have a mower that starts like it did when it was new. Good thing as it stalled in the thick grass many, many times. It took me over two hours to get the grass cut. It's normally a 45 minute job. I think my arms are going to be sore from pushing the damn thing and I turned my feet green, but at least I'm no longer competing for the trashy neighbor of the week award.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

Unfortunately, not my flowers, it's a friend's neighbor's house, but all the tulips set against the picket fence looked so pretty I had to take a photo op!

So what's Cinco de Mayo all about? I don't really know. I know it's NOT Mexican independance day as commonly thought. It is he celebration of some important battle, but having spent half my life as a history-phobe I don't know much about that either.
What I do know is that I have co-opted the holiday to suit my needs. I've decided that Cinco De Mayo is the start of margarita season, so I'm having friends over for a fiesta and of course, margaritas!

This year I decided to try some out of the box cooking. How does a chili laced flourless chocolate torte with cayenne flavored whipped cream sound? The cake recipe called for ancho chili powder, but in my last dash, no time to go to a mexican store hurry, I had to substitite, so I used dried guajillo peppers, which I ground into an almost powder in my magic bullet type blender. I figure it will be a interesting, yummy dessert, or a culinary misadventure.... but after a few margaritas it probably won't matter which it turns out to be!

Rain, rain...

Go away. Come again some other day.....

I really don't mind rain, in fact, we really need it here, as Salt Lake only gets 16 inches a year. So in some ways a nice rainstorm is really a treat... but... NOT on the weekends. We have 5 out of 7 days to enjoy the rain, I'd much rather have it when I'm at work, not when I'd like to be working in my garden.

I ran to the store yesterday. When I went in, the sun had finally come out, when I came out, the sun was still out, but it was pouring rain again. I looked to the mountains for the rainbow and sure enough there was one. So rather than heading right home I thought I'd swing by Canyon Rim park in hopes of a photo op, and this is what I found. A rainbow always makes day.

Beat the Flu!

There was a tiny bit of excitement at my coffee shop Thurday morning. One of the local radio stations was there, with a couple of pink pig pinatas. So if you wanted a chance to beat the swine flu, Grounds for Coffee was the place to be.

It was my first time witnessing "grown ups" break a pinata. They are not as exciting as kids to watch. The chocolate candies all were picked up quickly enough, but the many of the hard candies languished on the pavement... not exactly the frenzy of selfish candy collection I remember from my kids parties!

The Birds and the Bees

One of the weirder things in my life is that I have a profile on freebie on-line dating site. It doesn't say much and is more a joke than a real attempt at dating, but sometimes it's amusing. Last week, out of the blue, I had nine different guys contact me. Not that they say much, usually just something like "Hey, whatcha doing?", which I tend to ignore, although occasionally someone will try to start a real conversation and I will chat back. Nine contacts may be more contacts than I've had in the entire time I've had a profile there. I also got a bunch of those weird scam myspace messages from guys across the country who are sure I am their soulmate (yeah, right, ha ha, no, I'm not a sucker for a scammer!!!!)

I was talking to my daughter about this, pondering what was in the air that suddenly caused all these guys to contact me. She gave me that "aren't you dumb?" look and said "Duhhhh... it's mating season, birds do it, bees do it, guys want to do it."

Ahhhh life lessons from a 17 year old... perhaps she's right?

Watch Me Create!

And today you'll find me dishin' out my dirty secrets over on Watch Me Create!

The end of winter...

The Wasatch Mountains, downtown and the Salt Lake Valley

Winter is officially over I think. Brighton closed on Sunday, but I skipped the last day of skiing to spend over 8 hours digging the grass out of my flower beds, a job that's still not finished. I love to garden, but the spring time "dig all the grass out of flowerbeds" chore is a little overwhelming. Monday night I attended the start of the hiking season "social" hike with the local Meet Up hiking group. We took the short, steep trail up to the monument on Ensign Peak and viewed the city. Wednesday, in celebration of Earth Day I went to the free Michael Franti concert at the Gallivan center. It was a lovely warm night and his music was rockin'. I've never seen so many people dancing. That man knows how to work the crowd.

These things all sound like the end of winter don't they? Of course the biggest, best sign of the start of spring is the fact that I've polished my toenails and worn sandals to work for the last four days. Nothing says spring like the freeing of the feet!!!

I probably shouldn't get too excited though... I think they're calling for snow this weekend... down to 4500 feet... that would be my neighborhood! Guess we'll wait and see!
The Oquirrh Mountains and Great Salt Lake... and a sun doggie!