a visit to the Central Valley & Yosemite

Once Reggie & I realized I had a couple days off before summer school and he had the same days off before his next business trip, and the weather was not to be terrible hot in the Central Valley, we hit the road to go see our Last family and Yosemite National Park. We got there in time to meet our kindergarten granddaughter at school. We spent the rest of the day together, which included a visit to Old Town Clovis that evening and the next.

Loved the old typewriters we found in antique shops - my Dad had one like this that I used to type on.

shave ice and strawberry treats!

They had a farmer's market and a live band for dancing in the streets!

Reggie & I got up early the next day and headed to Yosemite. (The Lasts still had school and errands to run.) The waterfalls, the lakes, the seeping rocks - so much water everywhere - it was beautiful! Some areas were even closed because of the amount of water/snow/runoff that still exists.

Love the mirror effect. Printed this one up for our wall.

The water was moving! We compared the view from a bridge with pics we took a few years ago of Samantha on the bridge and Luke wading in the water. Can't do that this year! In fact, the bridge had been flooded weeks earlier.

We compared pictures from a few years ago of rocks the kids sat on to watch the waterfall, which are now in-accessible.

Another picture of the reflection. An upside down waterfall!

We stopped at Mariposa Redwood Grove which is on the outskirts of the park. We didn't go very far because we had already walked so much that day. We found an interesting bench to sit on - it leaned back quite a bit. After trying it out I realized why - it made it much easier to gaze to the tops of the trees. I appreciated this so much. With my dormant thyroid-eye-disease it is still painful to look up very far. But this bench made all the difference.  We hope to go to Sequoia and King's Canyon Nat'l parks in the near future to enjoy more tree-gazing.

a covid-window story

Recently Reggie & I were talking about how much we love our living room window. It brought on a 2020 memory that I didn't blog about at the time because, well, when you are breaking the law you don't advertise it. Ha ha!

The Pandemic Shut Down happened in our area just after we had ordered new windows for the house. In fact, if I'm remembering correctly, the only window left to install was for the living room. It would have been done earlier but something was wrong with the one that had come in, so the old window was in place and we were storing this huge, picturesque-window piece of glass in the basement. I was so worried about it getting broken! By the time the new one came in the shut down was in place and window replacement was not a necessary-to-life occupation, so it was technically "illegal" (my words) to have it installed. Well, our window company wanted this resolved as much as we did and so we all agreed to have it done anyway. We and they were nervous, because we couldn't hide the huge truck and ladder and work that was happening in the view of all the neighbors. But nobody ratted us out (ha! ha!).  

In fact, come to think of it, we also bent the "shelter-in-place/stay at home" order by moving my Mom back into the house in April. She had already given notice on the apartment, and she needed to not live alone, so we went for it. While she lived her last year and a half here that big, beautiful living room window was quite important to her. I know I blogged about the middle of the night lightning storm that woke us all up and we watched out that window. I've also posted pictures of her sitting in her recliner facing the window. She loved watching the hang-gliders above the ocean and above the house tops.

Lastly, this last winter, we have been so thankful for the strong windows throughout the house during our 9 atmospheric-river storms. 

Thought I'd include this picture from the internet. Though

I am not taking the time to understand, it shows what a

Pineapple Express, bomb cycle, atmospheric river looks like:

all words we heard a lot this last winter.

Pa'u Riders

 While in Hawaii last February we ate lunch at a farmer's market on a ranch that houses a small museum about Pa'u riders. I took a bunch of pictures because I wanted to learn and blog about them later. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the pictures. Thankfully I found some good information online.

Pa'u riders are women horseback riders in Hawaii.  They wear long, beautiful skirts and adorn their horses with elaborate flower leis. When horses were introduced in Hawaii, in 1803, King Kamehameha was not impressed. To convince him and the people of their capabilities the sailors began riding them on the beaches. The paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy, and the Pa'u riders, came into being. Differing from the European who rode side saddle, the Hawaiian women learned to ride "astride" - same as the men. But, rather than wearing pants they wore long skirts to protect their legs. 

As the Kingdom of Hawaii declined, so did this tradition of Pa'u riders. Thankfully the early 1900s brought a new interest in the tradition, and women's clubs were formed around it.

Today Pa'u riders are a main, unique and beautiful part of parades and festivals - most especially during King Kamehameha 1 day.

a quote of all quotes, and Yosemite

These lyrics from a country song speak so deeply to me right now. I am very grateful to the author.

This might not be an easy time

There's rivers to cross and hills to climb
And some days we might fall apart
And some nights might feel cold and dark

But nobody wins afraid of losing
And the hard roads are the ones worth choosing
Some day we'll look back and smile
And know it was worth every mile

Poisonous Plants Answers, from previous post

 1 day later I decided to list the plants at the bottom of the last post. Chime in if you have any opinions or relevant knowledge.😃

test your poisonous plant knowledge

 Today I went on a nature walk after work to gather leaves for tomorrow's art project. I made sure to take a picture of each plant before I touched it, and then looked up it's name in order to avoid picking anything poisonous. (Which is a great phone app, by the way). To my surprise, two of the plants that I would have otherwise touched, if not for the app, were poisonous! Here are my pictures. Can you spot the poisonous plants? I will reveal the answers later.

Actually, it's one day later, and I've put the answers at the bottom.

#1 - Plum, or Hollyleaf Cherry

#s 2 - 9  FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

#2 - Poison Oak

#3 - Willow

#4 - Yarrow

#5 - Poison Hemlock

#6 - Bracken/Fern

#7 - Redwood

#8 - Rubus Berries/Blackberries

#9 - Nightshade/Southern Balsampear