Last Weekend of May and Some Pictographs

...and it's a dreary one here! Hard to believe summer is less than a month away with this unseasonably cool and wet weather. Theoretically we should see sun today - we'll see...I miss it!

Last week's trip to UT and CO - flying into Salt Lake City, visiting nine project sites, in places like Vernal UT, Grand Junction, Paonia, and Breckenridge CO, along the Green, Colorado, and Blue Rivers (among others), was time well spent. We even got to sight see a little bit on our way through at a place called Canyon Pintado National Historic District on Highway 64 out of Rangley CO.

We stopped at four of the sites along the route:

East Four mile Site … mile post 61.3

Yes that is a bullet hole above the pictographs!

See the horse?

Canyon Pintado Site … mile post 56.0Those of you who know me, know that Kokopelli is one of my favorite, if not THE favorite, mythological creature!

Waving Hands Site … mile post 53.5

Carrot Man Site … mile post 11.6

This demonish-looking fellow is called the Guardian - don't know why...

These stops were a nice break along the drive - this is definitely somewhere I want to explore more in-depth when I can get back to this neck of the woods on some personal time!

I think that's enough for this posting - will probably post again tomorrow on writing - am still cogitating on that one!

Another Week Gone By

...and gone by too fast! This past week is all a blur to me. Work was extremely busy! However, I did manage to go to My Girlfriends Garden in Auburn on Monday, where we had an excellent guest speaker who led us through a very telling writing exercise. The speaker was Jennifer Basye Sander, who co-authored The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, Hot Flash Haiku, and the Martini Diet, just to name a few. I bought a copy of Hot Flash Haiku and laughed all the way through it - so true, so true!

And of course, since we were at Villa Fiorente, I bought two bottles of Fortezza's Viognier!

And then yesterday, I went on the monthly birdwalk at Heritage Oak Winery with David Yee. We had got the count of birds sighted or heard up to 51, and then he counted 5 more before lunch was over! Here is the bird list, which I know Tom Hoffman is updating again, since we added an Olive-Sided Flycatcher to the list yesterday!

I've been writing my Daily Pages, but haven't got back to the short story I'm writing in response to The First Line's next contest, entries for which are due by August 1st.

And today I am off to fly the friendly skies to visit project sites in Utah and Colorado for work. Another busy week for this girl!

Until next time, I bid you adieu...

Wild and Wooly Weather for May

Yes, I took last week off from this blog - instead I spent Saturday at the Sacramento Scottish Games in Woodland dancing to two of my favorites bands - Tempest and Wicked Tinkers. Sunday, was Mother's Day, and we were entertaining his mother, brother and sister-in-law here, so my morning was spent cleaning like a mad woman and making sure tables were set, flowers were cut, etc. We had a lovely visit with them and as a bonus, my son, his lady, and my adorable grandbabies came by.

In the end, I went back to work on Monday to recover from a very busy and fun-filled weekend!

This weekend is a bit more sedate. We had dinner at his ex-wife's house on Friday to celebrate the 28th birthday of his oldest son - dinner was outside and my allergies decided to hit full force for the first time all season. Needless to say, meds were on the menu when we got home that evening! Yesterday I attended the NCPA meeting and then we headed up to Grass Valley for his niece's wedding. We stayed in the Marilyn Monroe Room at this adorable B&B called the Victorian Lady Inn.


Now, this is where the wild and wooly weather comes in...you'd think a May wedding would have beautiful, if perhaps a bit warmish, weather. Well, for this one, we were lucky that the weather held - it was breezy, with clouds passing overhead, and bits of sun here and there. The ceremony was held outdoors, and the poor bride and her party had goosebumps!


The rain even held off until after the reception, which ended about 11pm. It came soon after though, and then, by the time we woke up, it was snowing! Not heavy, but nice, flowing between light drops to big flakes to what my husband called "corn snow" - and small bits of hail at times as well. So, we got to eat a wonderful breakfast watching the snow come down - beautiful!


On the drive back down the hill, we hit heavy rain in Auburn, and by the time we got back down to Rocklin, we were experiencing thunderstorms - very cool! And we got hit with a bit more hail, both in Auburn and then again after we got home. And now, the sun is peeking through now and again, and the weather is rather sedate - light breeze, gusting at times, some clouds going over.

The AMGEN Tour of California even had to reschedule the start of today's leg and shorten in by nearly 2/3ds the distance due to this wild and wicked weather!

This Week in Life - 1 May 11

Wow, it's hard to believe it is already May Day - Beltane - a sure sign that summer is on it's way. Although we are not complaining about the weather this year, we're really not (she says as she looks to the heavens) - we need the water after all!

I was successful (I think...waiting on word from the daughter) in finding a dress for her wedding in November. I'll post pics AFTER the event. Here are some of the losers of the year though, to tide you over! Oh, yeah, and I figured out the self-timer on my camera in order to take those pics, BTW...yeay for me!!




And wow - I really did write over 30 poems during the month of April - National Poetry Month, as evidenced on my other blog, titled Butterflies of Possibility after a writing prompt I picked up around the time we found out my first grandchild (a boy, Benjamin, now three years old and very adorable and fun to take to the zoo etc.) was expected!








Our latest excursion was to Effie Yeaw Nature Center at Ancil Hoffman Park in Carmichael, CA. Saw turkeys, does and a buck during our walk, as well as some butterflies and acorn woodpeckers. Autumn Rose, my 18-month old granddaughter was fascinated by the kestrel in the Center, and the trees and oak leaves littering the paths. She hasn't quite got the hang of talking yet, but man, she loved Rocky the resident kestrel!

I finally figured out, sort of, how to get things where I want them to be in the blog - pics et al. Okay, now off to make ham, cheese, and spinach crepes for dinner, with a mustard vinaigrette - yum!