Reaching the snow zone...

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A Tuesday night with no plans, other than the need to do yard work, but since our spring monsoon season has left the yard wet and muddy I decided to take Daisy up the canyon for her walk instead. About half way up the canyon the Millcreek Canyon road gets closed for winter, becomes a cross country ski trail and is not scheduled to open to cars until the first of July. Tonight I decided to drive up to the winter gate and walk up the road a bit. We had an big snow year and a cool spring (it actually snowed at my house on Memorial Day), so I was curious how the snow melt was doing this year.

We walked the mile and half or so up to Elbow Fork. The road turns sharply there, and around that bend is when we first encountered snow on the road. It wasn't much past there that the entire road was snow covered. I ventured a quarter to half mile past Elbow Fork, and found the road covered with anywhere between one and three feet of snow, and I imagine it only got deeper in the next few miles. It will be interesting to see if the upper canyon road really opens on July 1st this year.

Daisy was a little sluggish walking up the road tonight. In all fairness, she is old for a big dog(10 1/2) and overweight (just like her "mama" LOL) and it is an uphill trek. I kind of wondered if Sarah may already walked her today and wore her out. But as soon as we hit the snow zone I got my puppy dog back. She was totally thrilled to be able romp in the snow and play a little "snowball". She really is a "mama's dog", a lover of snow just like me.

Just past Elbow Fork


My happy doggy!


The next big bend in he road.


Snow getting pretty deep...

Bead bouquets!!!

No, I never gave it up, but between taking up pottery last year, and finding a social life, my bead making time has been more limited and sporadic. And I swear, every time I want to make beads I don't have any mandrels prepped and I have a hard time rounding up any, straight ones at least, to prep. Time to sing my least favorite song... "Where have all the Mandrels Gone?" For I have no idea where they all disappear to. Some where, out there, I am SURE there is a black hole filled with my mandrels.

Knowing I had a long weekend coming up I decided to round up and prep mandrels. A bunch were in use holding beads I'd made about a week or two ago that had yet to be annealed. Other than that I could find just a few. So Friday I booted out of work a few minutes early so I could make it the welding store by 5pm (or in my case 5:01) to purchase some new rod for mandrels. On Sunday I got out my bolt cutters and am now the proud owner of 40 new, shiny, STRAIGHT mandrels, with plenty of rod to spare for future mandrel shortages.

Now that I'm beyond the mandrel crisis, I can work on my creativity crisis. I'm feeling a little technically rusty, and creatively stymied. A week or so ago I was feeling the same way so I asked a friend for color inspiration... he said "turquoise" and so I did a bunch of turquoise themed beads. I had no one to ask yesterday, so I decided to just to play, and work on things I can't do well, like raised florals. It was not a terribly productive day, but I did get some good practice in.

Later that evening I opened the kiln to start a new game of kiln-jenga with the few sessions worth of beads to be annealed. (Kiln-jenga is arranging all the mandrels full of beads in such a manner that the beads don't touch each other,or anything else.) Imagine my surprise when I found a kiln full of beads... I had completely forgotten about a whole kiln load of beads I'd made a month or so ago.... I think I must be losing my mind... or at least my memory. But now I know where all my mandrels were!!!

Looks like I have some serious bead cleaning to do... and that's a chore I don't look forward to... I guess thats my penalty for being sporadic with my glass melting fun.

But meanwhile....some bead bouquets!!!

The forgotten bouquet... I can't believe I had forgotten all about these!


The recents... happy to finally be annealed


Yesterday's, nothing notable, except my need to practice and get my mojo back!


A single long stemmed hollow... a product of my "turquoise" day. I decided to practice hollows as they are alway hard, especially when I am feeling rusty. After the first one I decided to get tricky and make a bead inside a hollow... it took a few trys, but woot, woot.... I have success!!!

First Hike of the Season

My first hike of the year was with the meetup, a social hike followed by a barbecue up Millcreek Canyon. We hiked the Desolation Trail out to the Salt Lake overlook. It's a nice hike, about 2.5 mikes out to the overlook, and perhaps not quite as steep as many of the Millcreek Canyon hikes. A perfect first day of the hiking season hike.

Arriving at the overlook is always a little bit of a PTSD moment for me. The first time I did that hike was with cub scouts... imagine all those young boys scampering over all those rocks. Imagine me as one of the responsible adults on the trip. Imagine me being a Nervous Nellie worrying that one of kids would fall off the rocks. It was nicer today, not having anyone to worry about. An excellent start to the hiking season, hopefully the first of many more to come.

As nice as the view of the valley is, I admit I prefer the views of the mountains. And, of course, me being me, for me the real treat for the day were the Glacier Lilies that lined sections of the trail.








The view from the overlook



First wild flowers of the season

Mouths to feed....

Another handful of pictures from my stop at Aprils house the other days. Her 19 year old daughter is a bird rehabilitator, and she and April are founding members of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. She has been doing this for many years, so I am never surprised what I will find when I stop by their home. A duck in the sun room, an imprinted, now pet, house sparrow flying a round the living room, a box full of chirping motherless baby birds. There is always something interesting.

Spring is baby bird season, and one thing about baby birds is that they eat all the time... like every 30 minutes to an hour all day long. So it is not uncommon to find a box of baby birds on the dining room table and container full of mealworms in the kitchen. This time it was baby starlings, mouths agape waiting for momma to provide their next snack. I was pretty amazed at how wide their mouths open. Certainly a big yellow sign screaming "feed me, feed me"!!!!

Random memories...

When I stopped by friend April's house to pick her up for gallery stroll last week I got to meet a few of her daughters pets. Corn snakes. Four of them, in an assortment of colors, inherited from a breeder who died. So very pretty. I guess I am kind of fond of snakes, so I was happy when she let me hold the gray one, who she thought was the most friendly. I love they way feel, sort of cold and soft and silky as they slither through my hand and over my arms. I always enjoy playing with snakes when I get the chance.

Of course not every one shares my sentiments, and many people are downright scared of snakes. Which reminds me of something that happened way back when I was in high school. My high school zoology teacher had a snake, a boa constrictor, about 4 feet long, named "Baby". She let us handle the snake in class, and it was a treat if you were the lucky one who got to listen to lecture with baby slung around your neck. Of course not everyone was thrilled with Baby, there were always a few people who were scared to death of snakes. Ron was one of these people.

The class room was arranged in 3 arcs of lab benches. Ron was sitting in the middle of the middle bench. On this day the guy in the row behind Ron was the lucky guy who got hold Baby that. He decided to get comfortable, leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the lab bench, with Baby hung around his neck. Baby decided go exploring and started slowly working her down way his torso and onto his leg. Then down his leg. She didn't stop when she reached the end of his foot, but stretched her head forward into the air, right in poor Ron's direction. The way the classroom was set up, most of could see, and were watching Baby and her travels. Of course we all knew Ron was deathly afraid of snakes, but kids being kids, we all sat, watching silently, because knew what would happen would be amusing. Amusing to all of us except poor Ron. So Baby's head stretches further and further forward, her tongue darting in and out, until her head entered the space of Ron's peripheral vision, just inches from the side of his head. My classmates and I remained silent. Then there was the scream, and poor Ron leaping from his chair, doing a dance in the middle of the classroom, shaking. Everyone, except Ron and our teacher, thought it was hilarious. High school kids... lets face it... are mean!

Needless to say, that was the last time, for a very long time, that any one was permitted to play with Baby during zoology class. So I guess we spoiled our own fun, at least for those of us who enjoy holding snakes. Silly kids I still enjoy the chance play with snakes (friendly snakes at least) when I can.

Up for Anything....

Yeah, that's me - "walking on broken glass"


UFA as in "Up for Anything"... that's the name of Facebook social group I belong to... a group that spawned from one of my Meetup social groups. It's also a motto I embrace... I am pretty much "Up For Anything", with caveat that it doesn't land me in jail or cause irreparable damage to my health. (Disclaimer added for my friend Joe who always raises his eyebrows and asks if "anything" really means "anything". So I guess in my case UFA really means UFAUIIIOU "Up for Anything Unless it is Illegal or Unhealthy".)

Tonight I had an interesting UFA experience. One of the groups I belong to (SLC's Liberal Minded Culture Seekers) held a Confidence/Empowerment seminar. Both sounded like things I could use more of so I decided to attend. The seminar was run by one of the group organizers, who is a hypnotist, so I figured it had to be interesting. The evening started with chat, and hypnosis exercise aimed at building confidence, then we moved to the really interesting event of the evening, an opportunity to walk across broken glass.

That's right, walking across a bin of broken wine bottles, as a "mind over matter" sort of exercise. Elias, the organizer, said he would demonstrate, and offered the opportunity to anyone who wanted to give it try. Wendy said she'd give it a try, and I figured, that since I'm always walking on glass in my glass studio anyway, I'd be game, besides, after all, I am UFA. So we signed our lives away on the legal waiver forms and took off our shoes.

Elias went first, carefully moving through bin of shards. The cracking of glass under his feet was quite audible, after all, it was a bin full of real wine glass bottle shards. Wendy went next, and she too walked through the glass unscathed. Then my turn ... my first though was that I'm not a skinny little thing like Wendy, I have some extra force working against me. This might not be easy. But sure enough I walked through the glass with out even a scratch. After seeing our success, most of the rest of the group decided to give it a try. Not a single cut among us.

The hardest part of the exercise was getting out of the box... standing on one foot, on a bed of broken glass, trying to balance while wiping stuck glass off the other foot, in order to not leave any shards behind on the floor. I'm not sure it really did much in the way of building confidence or empowerment, as it really was more of a party trick, but it was an interesting experience, that definitely gave new meaning to the "Anything" part of UFA!

Pretty and amusing....

The pretty.... a few spring photos. Usually I would have taken lots of pretty spring pictures, but since we have had a total monsoon spring, I have not gotten out with my camera very much. Heck it even snowed here on Tuesday.

But here is my amusement for the week. My horoscope again. As I have said here before I am always fascinated when I have the "accurate" horoscope coincidence. And no, I'm not really a "believer", I don't even regularly check my 'scope. But when I do, I prefer to do it backwards. That is, look at my horoscope for previous days and see if they actually match the days events. Much more interesting then reading the prediction for the day and potentially biasing the result. I also have a strict never read ahead rule, for exactly the same reason.

So yesterday I opened up my horoscope and then read Thursdays horoscope:

Your gift of gab is greater than ever today, so do the world a favor and talk to as many people as you can. Conversations about anything -- from the weather to your deepest hopes and dreams -- are going to keep you interested, intrigued and popular. This is a great day to talk to strangers, too, so don't limit yourself to the folks who are already listed in your address book. Shock a stranger by asking what his or her favorite Rolling Stones song is.

On Thursday after work I had to drop my car off for an inspection. My mechanic is not far from home, so I let Daisy hop in the car with me, dropped my car off and then we walked home. As usual we meandered through the park. It had just rained so the park was quiet, not many dogs friend for poor Daisy. Leaving the park we ran in to Layla and her owner. This ended up being my moment to use my "gift of gab" with a total stranger. Daisy's dog friendly moment turned into a 20 minute conversation between me and her owner, a flight attendant, (for my single girlfriends, a really cute flight attendant!) who had just returned from visiting his family... in Paris! Interestingly coincidental, as my son is currently living in Paris, and I spent 2 weeks there at Christmas, so it turned we had plenty to talk about. So it seems that my horoscope was right on for the day, it was a good day to talk to strangers. It even solved a mystery for me... I had always wondered who owned the house by the park with the golf green for a front yard... and now I know.


And back to the amusing... here's view from my window at work Tuesday... yup, snow on May 17....

Could I have found religion????

Well, I'm sure anyone here who really knows me realizes I am quite content as a "Seventh Day Recreationalist". But sometimes things happen that give you pause and reason to consider other options. Like this week at work, when jimmy,the catholic guy in the lab, came to me and informed me of a miracle: He found the Virgin Mary in our -80 degree freezer. Not in the freezer exactly, but formed in frost on the interior door. So is this a sign that I should find religion? Somehow I kind of doubt it, but if she wants to bless our freezer so that our lab experiments go smoothly I would be thrilled!

Just a small kitchen disaster...

I wasted most of the evening out running useless errands, shopping for nonessentials and such, then realized what I was supposed to be doing was baking brownies for an event tomorrow. On the way home remembered that I was low on cocoa, so I stopped at the grocery to replenish my supply. By the time I got home it was pretty late so I immediately set forth on my brownie making adventure. I put the butter in the microwave to melt, then started measuring out the dry ingredients. That's when I found I was low on sugar too. But, drats, the store was now closed. I raided the sugar bowl and still came up a tad short. So I made up the difference bit a little brown sugar. That shouldn't harm my brownies much. Measured out the last of cocoa from the can in the cupboard, then grabbed my newly purchased can to finish the job. I pulled off the plastic lid, then grabbed the metal pull tab and BOOM, cocoa explodes out the can, streaming across my kitchen counter. What a mess.... cocoa everywhere; on my appliances, my kitchen tools, all over the wall. Ugh. I guess the can was overfilled, and/or packed at lower altitude(higher pressure) so it was essentially pressurized when I opened it here at high altitude.

Physics aside, it was quite a mess.... there's no better way to spend a Friday night than wiping down walls and counters and scraping cocoa out of tile grout at midnight. I sure hope my friends enjoy the brownies tomorrow!

One more ski blog...

Over the edge

Just to make my son jealous....Perhaps my last for the season as Brighton closes on Sunday, and I don't know for sure if I'll head up this weekend or not... kind of depends on the snow report. But last weekend was another great spring ski weekend. I skied with the girlfriend who is my normal Brighton ski partner. We usually ski Sundays, but this week, because we wanted to hit the good snow, we skied Sat. Her husband is a ski patroller, and since he works Saturday we were able to hook up for a couple of runs.

One thing about ski patrollers.... they are good skiers. My friend is a quite an excellent skier. His wife, my friend, not near as good, and she has a bum knee. Of course we should be safe out with a ski patroller, right? Problem is, for a great skier everything is easy. And my friend figures if it's easy for him we should all be able to do it, and that the best way to learn is to just go for it. So he is happy to entice us to go challenging places, maybe a bit more challenging then my girl friend needs or wants. Occasionally hard for me too, so I always get a bit hesitant when he says "follow me" unless I'm sure I know what I'm getting into. It's been this way for 10 years or so... He suggests a route, and his wife gives him this look. The "are you trying to kill me" look. He responds with the "it's easy, really it's easy" look. Sometimes we follow, sometimes we say see you later. One thing for sure, it's never "easy", but varying degrees of "more difficult". I'm a decent skier, and know I can get down anything, albeit slowly if it's tough, and am usually up for anything, so I usually defer the decision to my girlfriend.

Last weekend he said lets head out to Desperado, which looked pretty decent from the chairlift. She acquiesced and we skied off... past Desperado to the resort boundary.... where "the snow was great this morning, and it's wide and smooth".
Ha, ha.... you would think after all these years we'd know better, especially my girlfriend. Wide? Ha Ha, maybe 15 feet. Smooth? Chunky spring snow. From the top it looked like the edge of the world. My patroller friend bombs right down. I follow, no problem, just slower and not nearly as elegantly. My poor girlfriend has to slowly pick her way down and manages to to take a tumble or two. Maybe cursed a little. So much for wide and smooth. I think she may have wanted to kill him. Then back to the lift, and up again, and he suggests a slightly different route... and she agrees.... and we get more of the same, although this time it is wider. I really enjoyed challenging myself a bit, but at this point I think my friend will be asking me for the number of my divorce lawyer. You'd think by now, after all these years she'd know better... LOL ... but she, bad knee and all, is a great sport. I think now I know why we usually ski on Sundays, his day off.

Funny thing, the those runs didn't prove to be the hard runs for the day... Our last run down an easy cheesy blue run was the hardest. By late afternoon the day had warmed considerably, into tricky snow. The melty spots get really slow and sticky, but the cooler spots, like where it's shady stay a little more frozen and your skis glide faster. That last run down was weird, you'd get a little speed, then hit a slow patch and your skies would nearly stop. With all the built up momentum the slow spots are killer, skis halt, and you get abruptly thrown forward. A thigh killer for sure. Fast snow, slow snow. Start, stop, nearly wreck, all the way down the mountain. I call this "Donkey skiing" because in the fast spots the voice in my head is going "Eeeee" and in the slow spots it says "Awwww".... so in my head it's Eeeee-Awwww, Eeeee-Awwww, Eeeee-Awwww just like a braying donkey, all the way down the mountain.

Challenges and weird spring snow... still a great ski day! Maybe the last for the season, maybe there will be one more... and then again Brighton may close Sunday but Snowbird will have lifts running through June,,,,

Not wide or smooth!


My friends!

Art and music

Third Friday of the month is gallery stroll night here in Salt Lake. "Stroll" is a bit of a misnomer, as gallery stroll is at various galleries all over the city, and there aren't many with in walking distance of each other. So, for the most part gallery stroll is more like gallery drive, and since there are way too many locations to peruse in 3 hours of the stroll, I have a fairly set list of favorite galleries I like to visit. One of my favorites is the Michael Berry Gallery, where I go not just for the art, but for the music. Michael has invited a great band to play for stroll nights; the Quintento Noir and I make it a point to go listen when ever I can.

The music is kind of tango style, sort of european gypsy sounding, lyrics often sung in foreign language. They also have an interesting mix of sounds: guitars, violin, bass, flutes, accordion, and vocals. Tonight they brought out some new instruments, some familiar, some new to me. A kazoo... when was the last time you heard someone in a band play the kazoo? Then there was a soprano banjo. I'd never seen such a tiny banjo before before... it looked kind or like the 'ukulele' of banjos. The there was another small unfamiliar instrument. I had to ask the musicians about this one. It was a Bolivian instrument, a charango. I really, really enjoy the Quinteto's unique style of music, stopping in to listen during gallery stroll has become an monthly addiction for me.

And for another dose of unique music...
On the way home from gallery stroll I made a quick stop at Dan's grocery. I heard music as I got out of the car and was surprised to find a band playing outside of the store. A bunch of high school kids, one on guitar, another playing harmonica, a third using wooden spoons to play percussion on a bunch of buckets and boxes, and a fourth, the most unique, was using his wooden spoons to play a longboard. I have to say, I have never seen anyone play a skateboard before. Despite their young age and unconventional choice of instruments, these kids were quite good. A really fun late night shopping treat.

Stellar Spring Snow Season!

The view down to the Salt Lake Valley from Snowbird


Well I have been a bad blogger again.... funny how time flies when you are having fun. And I have certainly been having fun. We have had a great snowy spring, and I have been having a great time out on the ski slopes... Yes, I am a very, very lucky girl. In addition to the great snow, I've also have new ski buddies, who have stolen me a way from my beloved Brighton for a few days at Deer Valley, a magnificent powder day at Park City Mountain resort and bluebird day at Snowbird. April skiing is not a given, some years April gets warm, slushy and even muddy, this year we've had constantly replenished, fresh, fluffy snow, followed by long spring days and sunshine. It could not be better!


While at Snowbird we had to take a trip through the tunnel over to Mineral Basin. After riding a chair nearly to the top of the mountain, you can ride a rubber conveyor belt through a tunnel in the mountain to the Mineral Basin side of the resort. It's kind of unique Snowbird thing, so we had to ride once. Getting on was a little weird, partially because I was paying more attention to my camera then the grip of the rubber on the bottom of skis, so I got quite off balance and momentarily had a vision of being sprawled and dragged through the tunnel. A few expletives from my friends as they embarked made me realize I was not alone in my clumsiness. Fortunately we all regained our balance before wiping out. Then, half way through the tunnel the belt stopped, lurching us forward, once again I thought it was going to be my big wipe out for the day... but again, recovered... and laughed and laughed.






Two of these stellar ski days were when my friend Joe's friend Mara flew into town for a ski vacation. Having an out of town guest turned an ordinary ski weekend into a ski vacation.... or should I say "stay-cation". Our powder day at Park City was extra special, because we got a private powder tour through the trees and powder stashes by Joe's friend Joe, a stellar skier, and Park City regular who knew all the best places. The next day we cruised all over Snowbird, and at the end of the day headed up to to spa on the roof of the Cliff Lodge, for a soak in the hot tub. The views there are beautiful and the water delightful, especially after 2 hard days of skiing. After our soak we headed downtown and met a few more friends for sushi dinner. As a "local" I usually ski and go home, getting the luxury ski/spa/dinner out treatment was a real treat for me. A total vacation! A good time was had by all... especially me!!!