You can fool the fans - but not the players.... John Cage

Mule Days 2011 snapshots

Mule Days was hard hit this year, first with the economy and fuel prices, then with the EHV-1 outbreak. Difficult choices were made all around and it was definitely a different Mule Days. Precautions were taken to keep stock separate, volunteers were trained on bio-security, and some ingenuity was employeed to keep all the shows full and entertaining. The weather decided to throw some spice into the mix - giving us wind, hail, sun, storm.... oh, and a little more wind. But you know what? It was a heck of a good time.

 

It is hard to have anything but a good time when you are camped in a place like this. Mule Days tends to be RV world although there are plenty of tents sprinkled around. Every day you walk out and are greeted with this amazing skyline.

 

Evenings were spent around camp after riding with a few select beverages of choice...

 

While mornings had their own hot beverage ritual. We took the Holiday Rambler out for it's shakedown stay and it performed masterfully. Photos to come in a future post. I almost hate to pull it to the resort and rent it out - it is so nice and comfy and roomy. Kinda spoils one for anything less.

 

I've been volunteering at Mule Days for about 6 years now... and that replaced working behind the scenes with the pack animals for the pack station I worked for. Mule Days has always been a highlight of my year - a chance to reconnect with people, a chance to be around horses, mules and other people who love them, a chance to shop western vendors for 5 glorious days... a chance to celebrate the versatility and athleticism of the mule.

 

This year for the first time I patrolled on a bike - only once - but not having my own horse at the fairgrounds definitely took a bit of the fun away from the riding. I enjoyed riding the horses and mules of the people who brought their animals but there is nothing like having your own trusty steed. Our saddle club requested that if animals were brought to Mule Days this year  they be quarantined for three weeks before returning. A reasonable request, but one I was unable to work out - so I didn't bring my mustang. I brought my Schwinn.

 

The weather... oh my gosh the weather! Amazing winds, cool temperatures and even a storm on Sunday. Hail about the size of a blueberry while we were riding. Bundling up in May like it was mid-winter. EZ-ups and un-secured tents rolling around the camps. Everything had to be anchored down like you can't believe. Weather like that doesn't deter the packing crowd, though.... they just pull on another layer of Carhart and keep doin' what they were doin'.

 

Fashion and function are approached individually, although there are some common threads...

 

You don't often see this combo although these feet belong to a person I've seen bucking the normal riding attire for over twenty years. You won't find me in this ensemble - I'm far too conservative and always wear long pants and boots to ride in.

 

We don't have mules and I love being around mules - their sweet faces, beautiful eyes and expressive ears. Their mournful braying.

 

There's nothing like a mule. And Mule Days brings together the most amazing mules... from long-legged, fine-boned mules to stout, draft mules.

 

Boots and spurs and Wranglers are the fashion of Mule Days... and hats. All kinds of variations on the "uniform".... an almost infinite ability to individualize the same basic elements.

 

And to individualize your horse or mule's attire as well...

There's no shortage of tack.

 

Chinks are another way to personalize the cowboy / cowgirl attire and these were brand new and very pink!

 

All my favorite things - silver, fringe, leather, silk, and straw...

 

And priceless photo opps.

 

 

 

 

 

And that is what the horse thinks of all this fuss over mules...

Until next year.

Letterpress

via vimeo.com

Sweet little video on letterpress. Won't take up too much of your time and is beautifully shot.

The fits and starts of a garden in spring and other ramblings

It has been an unusually cool spring in the eastern Sierra making gardening somewhat of a challenge. Not that I am really a "gardener" in the true sense of the word - I tend to throw a few things into the ground and into pots each year and practice the Darwin method of gardening. The strong and hardy will survive my neglect and the rest, well those were obviously going to take too much coddling for me. The exceptions are tomatoes. I will fuss over, tie up, look at every day and otherwise obsess over tomatoes. This year I haven't even got any tomatoes in the ground yet and it is almost Memorial Day. Maybe today I will go buy tomato plants.

 

Got the potato tower set up yesterday after scavenging some fencing from friends. Then I find out that they actually make potato towers you can buy - you don't have to cobble it together from scratch. But, this is actually more my style and I'm going to try the Sunset magazine "hide it with bamboo" technique. The potatoes are coming up like gangbusters and I keep throwing straw and compost over them - they seem to like the cool weather. Beets are in, onions are doing well. What else to plant? Tomatoes and basil for sure. I could use more of these containers and line this fenceline with a garden since it is one of the few areas in our yard that gets good sun.

We have a scraggly little rose bush over near where we park that doesn't get the care it deserves but despite that is rewarding me with these amazing blooms this year. Huge roses and I see them everytime I park the dog car. I've tried to pay more attention to it this year and make sure that it is getting enough water - but it certainly is hardy, determined to survive and look good doing it.

Our climbing rose is all over the place. I forgot to cut it back last winter and it makes getting through the gate a bit of a challenge, but isn't it glorious?

 

I was never a big rose fan but I'm converted. They are hardy, showy and don't require much fussing over. They seem to do better when pruned every winter so I'll try not to forget next year. Like thinning the iris it seems so "do-able" right now.

I potted up the peonies I bought last month and while I was doing that I heard this stellar jay - the one that has been hanging around the yard for weeks - going nuts on the other side of the patio.

 

He (or she) must have a nest nearby because I see this same bird every day - all around the yard. And I've seen this bird corner my cat and force him into the house just to get away from the squawking. The same sort of thing was going on - I knew the cat had to be somewhere near.

 

I came out with my camera and that disturbed the jay not one bit - it's focus was still on the cat.

Finally I realized where the cat was hiding -

Under the white chaise lounge there on the right. The jay was flying from perch to perch all around the chaise lounge putting out the panic call - so I shooed the cat out from under and let him in the house just to give the bird some downtime and the back yard some peace and quiet. I haven't found the nest but I'm keeping an eye out. I'd love to see some baby jays.

Despite the cool weather the water hyacinth and the other water plants are doing well and I think this little water feature may take on a more natural chemistry with these plants. I read up on water hyacinth and divided this one so that I could put a chunk in the lower pool... and once it warms up I bet I'll see some real growth. Advice is to let the hyacinth cover about 1/3 of the pools. Their roots harbor little fish (if you have that sort of thing) and take up nutrients, the shade keeps the algae down, and you just keep the plant trimmed so that it doesn't take over. And compost the trimmings. If I want to overwinter the hyacinth I'll probably have to keep it in an aquarium - I don't know that I'll do that - but it is good to see the water feature evolving into a somewhat more natural environment. We have little frogs with BIG voices that live in the rocks around this water and I love hearing them in the evenings.

I can't wait to see the blooms on the water plants.

Mule Days is coming and although I'm not taking my horses I will be riding and enjoying the vendors and the shows. EHV-1 and the lousy economy has really put a damper on the show and many have said that it should have been cancelled. It is a tough call and I'm not the one making it - and I'm not going to 2nd guess those who have - but my horses are staying right where they are until I hear the all-clear from the vets and there are no new cases popping up in California.

We've got the Holiday Rambler over at the fairgrounds and it'll be our shakedown in it this weekend... fun, fun, fun. Photos and posts to come!

Some days you can't help but feel blessed

Spring is such a wild ride and it seems like Mother Nature just about bursts out of her skin after winter's quiet and cold. I feel the same - I'm always hunting for pastel fleece and cashmere sweaters towards the end of winter because even though it might still be cold there is the desire to wear and see COLOR after the muted palette of the winter.

If we aren't at the peak of spring bloom we are getting close because in one walk, one casual amble with the dogs, I couldn't put my camera down. So here you go.... an album of wildflowers...

 

Oops! How'd that get in here? Just checkin' to see if you are still with me....

Locusts are making a comeback after the fire of a few years ago.

The locust blooms are incredibly fragrant - you can't walk by without noticing.

Have a beautiful day!

Baker Creek walk variation

I veered from our normal walk the other day.... several reasons. There's a dead cow out there right now and the dogs are drawn to it like flies to .... whatever. It is hard to keep them away. Our favorite winter walk is now snake heaven so we have to go up higher. We stumbled on this...

Just above our normal walking area and securely fenced off but happily including walk-through gates.

 

It is beautifully green right now and the creek is full of water. If it were any warmer this place would be swarming with mosquitoes but for now, in this unusually cool spring, it is very pleasant.

 

Don't you just love these strange photos that pop up of your animals? I had no idea she was running through the water with her tonque out but here it is - proof. So goofy.

 

I thought this was a wild plant but now I've found out that this used to be a ranch and I think it is a garden escapee. It is a rose, I'm certain, but the blooms are larger than the wild roses, white, and super-fragrant.

 

I want some of this in my own garden.

 

I wish typepad included a way for you to smell this. Gorgeous.

 

It is spring and the Owens Valley is in full glory. Every day there is something new blooming and something to stop you in your tracks. This is the season.

 

The grass is high, the mountains still have a LOT of snow...

 

Remnants of that old ranch make for great photos. Love these aged fences and love imagining the activity of this rustic place. All the buildings are long gone, but the corrals, the old scale, the chutes are all still standing.

 

Makes me think of another time - nostalgia for a time when people were not so bombarded with information and stimulation. When it was more about earth and flesh and sky.

That's why we walk, right?

Boise windows

You would not expect me to travel anywhere and not post photos of window displays, would you? And there is an Anthropologie store in downtown Boise which we visited not once, not twice, but three times in order to accomodate everyone who wanted to browse through (and buy) at Anthropologie.

Before I left I posted a little video clip about the corks and I was pretty jazzed to see the cork display. And yes, the Boise team was creative and the windows were fabulous... they just weren't my favorite. Maybe it was the color scheme, maybe it was the nautical feel... just didn't do it for me.

 

I did like these cork spheres of varying sizes holding little plants. A few of these hanging from our patio lattice would be great. I didn't spend any time trying to figure out how to make one, though - I imagine you could use a child's ball or something for the interior. Cut holes in it, fill it with potting soil and then cover it with corks?

And the interior of Anthro had plenty to inspire me.

This was a brilliant (tee hee) light fixture so simply made from jars, wood and bulbs. A take on the tool shed method of storing nuts, bolts, and nails by fastening the lids of the jars to the wood and then attaching the jars later. With these paint-dipped strips of paper, each with one word printed on it.

 

Over-sized flowers made from torn paper. So simple, so cheerful and such an impact. We all loved these. I'd do this for my wedding.... mix these up with the snow-dusted branch lights I'm still planning to have. (Must remember to order those dang things soon!).

 

 

Mom and I both ended up with a copy of Keel's Simple Diary. If you haven't seen one or you've seen them but haven't taken the time to open the cover and browse through it - do yourself a favor and find one today. Pithy, funny, insightful.... a stroke of genius.

Then we had to stop and photograph the windows of Urban Outfitters.

 

Because these were even more up my alley than the current Anthro windows. I had to wait for the chick day, though, because the comment I got from "L" as we drove past the first time was "Those are just rags in the window".

 

Well yes but no! On closer inspection they do look like torn bedsheets dipped in dye. And rockin' with color, texture, movement.

 

I can definitely see doing this for the wedding. Or other occasions. A great re-use for worn top sheets. Inexpensive, stylish, do-it-yourself...

 

JC's going to have the same reaction as "L" but he'll come around.

 

That's it! Those are my windows of Boise. Already it seems like a long time ago as I am swept back into my routine and life here. I feel so fortunate to be able to take the time to travel and spend a long weekend with people I love.

Next trip is right around the corner, too. Colorado. Please, let it be summer when we get there!

Boise snapshots

Many of you who read this already know that I was out of town for the weekend and it seems that despite hauling my laptop everywhere I have a problem blogging from the road. I don't know why. And amazingly enough my flights were timed so that I didn't have much airport waiting time.  Excuses, excuses, right? Well, anyway, I am home sweet home again and thought I'd post some snapshots from the weekend.

 

Boise is a cute, cute town. At least downtown. We really never left the downtown area so I only saw the outskirts of town from the air. The downtown area is old, vibrant, and extremely walkable.

 

And rideable. I've never seen so many darling bikes. Cruisers of all sorts with baskets and fenders and straight handlebars.... city bikes. Loved it.

 

Maybe because it is a University town it seemed very hip and almost every restaurant we ate in touted the locality of the food they were serving. Idaho beef, vegetables, beer, distilled spirits... locally grown seemed to be a mainstain.

 

We ate out a lot over the weekend - BarDeNay, The Matador, Pollo Rey, and Fork. The only restaurant photos I have are of Fork - cause I liked the logo, cause it wasn't raining at the time, and because they served s'mores for dessert:

 

I was in town for my niece's graduation from Boise State and what a wonderful event that was. Two thousand one hundred and eighteen graduates.

 

My sister went all out with t-shirts, blue and orange jelly belly bags for all, those pom-pom things that cheerleaders use....

 

And the graduate's face on a stick for us to wave wildly as she accepted her diploma...

 

So fun. The weather was typical mountain west weather.... sunny and warm on Friday and Saturday then turning to rain on Sunday and Monday.... it didn't deter us in the least.

 

This church and old school are on the edge of the Boise State campus...

 

On Saturday afternoon we gathered at the graduate's apartment for a late lunch and celebration...

 

and enjoyed the sun and eighty degree temps.

On Sunday we took in the Boise Art Museum and three wonderful exhibits.

 

It was a lovely weekend packed full of family, friends, a momentous event and many, many smaller but just as important moments together.

Thoughts on swimming

I don't know what made me think about swimming but I spent some time yesterday reminiscing about times in my life I've turned to swimming.  Swimming for exercise, swimming for solace, swimming for escape. These days I don't have that much opportunity for swimming although I could - there is a nice big hot springs pool just down the road. Evidently I don't need to swim right at this time.

 

These are not my photos by the way, so I will give credit when I know who shot it, and if I don't and you see this someday on my blog, please contact me and I will. This particular one is from WikiCommons and is in the public domain.

I learned to swim pretty early in life but didn't really start swimming in earnest until I moved to Oahu after high school. I think I must have taken some classes on teaching swimming since I had a job at a pool as a swimming instructor, and then I started swimming on a master's team. All cause I had a huge crush on some guy. That crush didn't last but the swimming has lasted a very long time.

The solitude of swimming appeals to me and swimming laps is an excellent time to get lost in your thoughts with very few outside distractions. I think that is why I have turned to swimming during the most hectic and stressful times of my life.

 

Photographer unknown

Paramedic school was one of theose times. I went to learn to be a paramedic in San Diego at the USCD School of Medicine EMSTO program - now long supplanted by some other training facility. It was a fabulously demanding program with great instructors, dedicated classmates and a heavy workload. I lived with my mom during that year and among the many other ways that arrangement helped me emerge successful from the school was the pool where she lived.

The last part of paramedic training is the ride-along (or was, I have no idea how it works now). For two months I rode with 2 other medics on Hartson Ambulance getting grilled in medication dosages and protocol, running calls and calling the shots, getting grilled some more, and learning how to put the classroom knowlege to work in the field. It was demanding to say the least.

I'd get back home after a 24 hour shift, put on my bathing suit and head to the pool. Slipping into the silky water, floating on my back with my ears underwater and the warm sun on my face and that glorious silence all around me, getting into the rhythm of swimming laps... it saved me. It was a perfect release from the intensity of the work.

 

Photographer: Tim Laman

Maybe it has to do with being born under a fish sign. I love the ocean, too. The salty, sticky, sandy feeling after a day at the beach. Working your toes under the hot sand to the cool, damp sand underneath. Unfortunately I liked roasting under the coastal sun for many years and am paying dearly for that now.

 

Photographer: unknown

There are and were some amazing bathing facilities around the world... I haven't been able to experience very many of them save the fabulous hot springs around the eastern Sierra. There's a whole history, culture and mystery around those huge pools like the Sutro Baths. What that must have been like to visit!

 

Photo credit: www.jedroot.com - from Vogue Italia

And then there's fashion - so much fashion around swimming. I could do a whole blog post and more about swimsuits and associated swimwear. Don't you just love these swim caps?

That's it... those are a few of my thoughts on swimming. I don't know why they popped into my head. I haven't been swimming in a long time although I am taking a suit with me this weekend to the graduation. Maybe I'm moving towards another swimming period in my life and this blog will become a watery journal. Maybe not.

Western Blue Flag (or wild iris) walk

Disclaimer: These photos don't do the sight justice. To walk through a meadow full of thousands of blooming wild iris, blue-eyed grass and ranunculus is to render one speechless and the camera practically useless. Still, I tried. I couldn't help myself.

 

This is our cow meadow - well, not OUR cow meadow cause we don't have any cows - but the meadow that has the cows that we frequently take walks in. Because it is beautiful year 'round. And right now it is in full spring glory with the flowers. And ticks, so come prepared.

 

These are what the Blue Flags look like close-up. Not particularly bright or showy but very lovely flowers that multiplied by the thousands give me a new aapreciation for the extravagance of spring. Like our wisteria, these don't flower just enough to get the job done, no - these flower to excess. It is like a shopping spree without spending money, gorging without eating, full sensory overload without taking a drug. Get outside and see what wondrous things are going on out there.

 

It's a common plant in the west, not some exotic find, but a good lesson that being common isn't synonomous with being boring. Far from it.

 

The day I took these photos the weather was just turning from glorious and warm to windy and cold again and I was going to leave this place and hide away in my studio for the rest of the day. So I had to get the dogs out.

 

She's so darn photogenic, isn't she? Without consciousness, even.

 

The cows were out too, with their calves, so we had to steer clear around them. Our dogs have gotten good with cows but sometimes the calves try to engage them in play and I don't even know where that might lead so I just keep the dogs away from the cattle. It is bad enough they like to eat calf poo.

 

I got down to change perspective and this was to plague me for the rest of the day as I felt imaginary ticks crawling on me all afternoon. It is tick season and the dogs have had their drops but the only thing a foolish human can do after she's practically sent out invitations is carefully inspect. And I've been diligently inspecting.

 

I love this photo - because that is what she does so well. She's a licker... she likes to try to lick the lotion off my legs, she likes to spontaneously lay a big fat lick on ya while you drive, she LOVES to lick. Drives us crazy.

 

Ok, so you get the picture. If you live anywhere in the west where there might be a dry meadow, or open woodland - do yourself a favor and plan a little visit. You too might be greeted with a sight that sends you running for your camera, cursing yourself for never taking a proper photography class, wishing you had just one other lens...

 

Oh yes, there were other flowers. Overshadowed maybe, but there for the finding. Blue-eyed grass is one of my all time top ten flowers in the Sierra. So little, so vivid blue.

 

So easy to overlook. These flowers are just the first indication that the door is opening... with all the snow and all the water we'll have in the Sierra this year I think flowers might go through August. And it might be August before we can get into the high country.

 

One last image for today... I had some fun with overlays and frames while editing these.

 

Now. Got get outside!

Kingdom Plantae – Plants Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class Liliopsida – Monocotyledons Subclass Liliidae Order Liliales Family Iridaceae – Iris family Genus Iris L. – iris Species Iris missouriensis Nutt. – Rocky Mountain iris
Source: USDA Plants Profile

Choo Choo Swap Meet just isn't the same without a friend....

It has been our habit for a few years now, meeting for coffee and then meandering through our local bi-annual swap meet fundraiser for the Laws Railroad Museum. Once on awhile one of us will miss it and I don't know how it is for KA, but for me, it just isn't as much fun. I still go, but I miss the coffee and the conversation and the looking at stuff together. Yesterday I was in and out of that place in two hours - very focused and scanning the booths instead of really going in and investigating. I found a couple of good take-homes but I hope the next time it rolls around we're back to coffee and shopping together. It's really just a good excuse to make a morning of it.

 

I know, I KNOW! I know I just bought those Mason jars last weekend for our wedding, but I couldn't pass this one up. Only $3 and this lovely blue. And I passed on, but probably should've bought, a large, blue glass insulator. It was on the first row, though, and truthfully, I didn't want to haul it around. It was heavy and it was ten bucks. So I just walked away.

Not a lot of cowgirl stuff or horse tack this year and I was thinking how a cowgirl, western focused booth / shop would do well around here. Especially if it had an online presence as well. I was on the same circuit and pace as another couple of women and I could tell that one of them had similar taste as me - our eyes would light upon the same merchandise and she was spending... she could have been my best customer in my imaginary shop. This has been an idea floating around for awhile now and while I don't think I'll ever open a storefront I could see on online store and also a corner of the resort store - Cowgirl Corner. An eclectic mixture of things that no self-respecting cowgirl would want to pass up.

These were too blue to pass up. I'm not sure what I'll do with them but it will probably involve working them into another piece. They are just very pretty and I love that shade of blue. Like ice, like snow, like the sky, like a mountain bluebird.

 

And a frame - I thought I found the perfect frame for our thrift store, Andrew Wyeth inspired painting. Alas, I got it home and it is just a little bit too big.

 

I've got it in the frame and on the wall but you can see the gap at the top and I am racking my brain for how to fill that gap.... any ideas out there? A thin piece of wood? Top or bottom? Or just keep looking? I do like that I have the painting on the wall now.

I seem to be noticing trailers more these days, and it could be because we had a Holiday Rambler parked on our front lawn all winter, but I am loving what people are doing with vintage trailers now. All kinds of repurposing going on.

 

This is a vendor's trailer and they not only have the cute trailer but they have a vintage ice chest and other period accessories set up outside and they have developed catchy names for their products. I bought a $5 lemonade from them just cause they were so darn cute and I want them to make it. And the lemonade was actually very good and quite large. Lasted me most of the day. I felt so American nursing a 32 oz. drink. The Magpie Cafe could have morphed into something like this - nothing like hindsight to make one a wealthy and wise business person! These ladies will be at Mule Days as well and I'll probably buy another $5 lemonade from them... and I hope their business makes it.

Another idea I'm stealing immediately is captured on a very blurry iphone photo I took off of Smokin's back that I won't torture you with here (I'll try to get back and take a decent photo) but will translate very well to the resort. Paint the employee trailers. We passed by the back of a row of houses on our ride two nights ago and in one of them was a trailer repurposed into a guest house. It was a smallish older trailer, like a Prowler - not an Airstream (which, of course, needs no introduction or changes beyond restoration), and the owner had painted it a medium green with a darker green stripe going around the middle. He or she had built a wooden deck around it and had two old motel chairs sitting out front. Adorable.

I've been racking my brain about how to fix up our collection of employee housing trailers up at the resort and this is it. Small decks, gallons of paint. Gut them and lay the flooring that we used in the HR. Cute cute cute. Can't wait to get up there and get busy.

And this morning I'm going back up to our walking meadow with my Canon to take photos of the wild iris in bloom. I went nuts with the iphone camera yesterday but the quality of those photos doesn't do it justice and the light was from the west - I think a morning light on all those Blue Flag iris with the snow-capped Sierra in the background will be lovely. Just to show you what I mean, though.....

 

 

And not only iris, but blue-eyed grass, wild roses, flowers I don't know the names of... the meadow is exploding into bloom.