IT'S TIME TO SAY.......

GOODBYE, JUNE

 

It was nice to spend June at home, living our Ordinary Life.  

The month started out as good as it could have:  

Ophelia Mae Small was born to niece Monica and her spousal equivalent John on June 1.  She joins brothers John Michael and Carter.

Lea and I enjoyed two hikes.  Lea's daughters Chyanne and Shaylee and young pup Rue joined Maggie, Gypsy and I for the Spring Valley hike on June 1st.  Lea and I took an afternoon hike to Fisher Point this past week.

I decided to try a summer variation to my Ordinary Morning.  Instead of doing Yoga in the morning, I decided to go outside and do Tai Chi On The Deck during the lighter, warmer months, starting in June.  I've been loving this.  It hasn't been quite as warm as I'd anticipated, so often I wear these favorite colorful gloves:

I wear different turtlenecks and a zipped hoodie as well.  I thought perhaps it was the gloves, but the second time I got buzzed in the face by one of the local hummingbirds, I realized I'd been wearing this both times:

Hummingbirds can't resist the color red!

I've been doing Tai Chi for 1 1/2 years now, and can now do the 108 move set on my own.

  I start with the whole set, then work on whatever refinements have been taught in the Monday morning class I go to.  This is the amazingly green spring view I have of the yard from the deck while I'm practicing:

The Tai Chi club had a spring picnic for members and their families the first weekend of June.  It was very enjoyable.  Ron came along and found he knew some of the members from his separate activities at the Adult Center. 

June 11 was an exciting and highly satisfying first:  we had our windows professionally cleaned!  It's as if the outdoors has come right in.  Our house is 2 stories high, and has about 25 windows.  Keeping them clean has always been at the bottom of the list for both Ron and I for a variety of reasons.  However, it took two young men only two hours to do the whole job at a very reasonable price, so it's now on my once-a-year cleaning list for the duration.

Once a year in June the county has a day when you can take all but hazardous materials to the dump for free.  It's very popular, and Ron gets rid of 30 or so bags of needles he's raked up from our property as well as other large trash that's accumulated.  Since in our big clean-out of unwanted things in the house last year did not include the large space under the house, we decided to time that for the free dump day.  June 19th we spent several hours sorting through that detritus that tends to collect under the house-dog & cat crates, bird cages, tires, left-over plumbing ells, extra weights from a weight set we'll never use, etc etc.  Trash, donations & a newly organized area was our reward.

June 21 we went to Phoenix to an informal family get-together organized by my Uncle Chuck & Aunt Lou Ann while my Aunt Ruth was visiting from NE.  Met some cousins & other relatives I've not seen in 45 years.  Both Tucson brothers came with their spouses and we all had a nice visit and some tasty food.

June 28th was Free Dump Day.  Using our little workhorse red 1993 Toyota pickup, Ron took one load of mostly trash and two loads of mostly pine needles. Then he and I went to one of my favorite forest spots and picked up a full load of roofing shingles and miscellaneous trash someone had dumped and took them to the dump they belonged to.

As always, there was reading.  This month author Ellen Gilchrist was added to my Favorite Authors list based on her delightful book Nora Jane.  

June 30 was satisfying in two ways.  When we cleaned out my parents' house nearly three years ago, I kept the 30 or so quilt tops my Mom had pieced.  I had some thoughts about perhaps learning how to finish at least some of them, but as other interests have developed, that one waned.  Late last year at a party I was talking to some women about quilting in general and what I might do with all those tops.  One woman said a quilting group might like them to finish and donate-to the hospital, fire department, etc.  I quite liked that idea.  We found a contact for the local quilter's guild, but after a couple of failed e-mail attempts, I put it on the back burner.  A couple of weeks ago one of the ladies in Tai Chi who summers in Flagstaff and winters in Lake Havasu City mentioned that she quilts with a group of ladies in Lake Havasu.   Our under-the-house clean out brought those quilt tops back up to the surface at about the same time, so the next class I asked her if her group might be interested in them.  YES!  All of them.  She was absolutely thrilled.  And I know my Mom would be thrilled to know both that they're being finished and that they're being donated.

The second satisfaction for June 30: 



Yep, Ron and I have been married 36 years.  We had dinner at Chili's to celebrate.




One Almost Might

Wouldn't you say,
Wouldn't you say: one day,
With a little more time or a little more patience, one might
Disentangle for separate, deliberate, slow delight
One of the moment's hundred strands, unfray
Beginnings from endings, this from that, survey
Say a square inch of the ground one stands on, touch
Part of oneself or a leaf or a sound (not clutch
Or cuff or bruise but touch with finger-tip, ear-
Tip, eyetip, creeping near yet not too near);
Might take up life and lay it on one's palm
And, encircling it in closeness, warmth and calm,
Let it lie still, then stir smooth-softly, and 
Tendril by tendril unfold, there on one's hand ...

One might examine eternity's cross-section
For a second, with slightly more patience, more time for reflection?

                                                                                              ASJ Tessimond

A VISIT TO YOSEMITE

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

 

Ron and I have been talking about a trip to Yosemite since last fall.  In January, we decided to commit to a visit this year.  We chose to visit the week before Memorial Day weekend in May for the following reasons:  

1) We'd be ahead of the summer crowds.

2)  There would be water in the waterfalls.

3) We'd be back home in time for fire season here.

PART I:  ALLEGORY
 (noun- figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another)

Friday:  We boarded the dogs at their favorite kennel, under new ownership and now named "Hanging With Friends",

 

and started our drive to Yosemite.  We made good time, and decided to change drivers an hour or so after crossing in to CA.  There's a whole lotta nuthin' west of Kingman, so we pulled over in Ludlow, which consisted of a Dairy Queen, a gas station, and what may have been a motel.  We'd been in our cocoon of air-conditioning for several hours, so opening the car door to 100+ degree heat was like stepping into

Here's what Ludlow really looked like:

Yep, that's it.  We were terrible customers.  Used their facilities, ate our packed lunch at their picnic table, and left without buying anything.  None too soon, either.

We chose a route that took us on the east side of the Sierra Nevadas, with a plan to drive across the park from east to west on the single main road.  We turned north toward Bishop on US395, and  I discovered a whole new meaning to desolate landscape.   Having lived for years in the west, I thought I had an eye for western landscapes.  This was outside my experience.   Hot, dry, depressing, miles of alkali flats, more nothing than I've ever seen.  That we weren't far from Death Valley made perfect sense.

However, as we continued north, this scene out the windshield gave us hope:

 Soon we realized we were making an allegorical journey, because we left behind the hellish bleakness and made our way to:  





 aka:  The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.  


 It just kept getting better 

and better.

 

 We couldn't stop pulling off the road to take pictures of the mountains and the sky.

After a long day's drive, we arrived at our choice of accomodations for the night:

This was a delightful campground.   Not too many campers yet, and a creek with running water.

  It's a never ending source of delight to Arizonans to see waterways with water in them!

We'd read numerous warnings that we'd be in bear country.   This campground left no doubt:

We were relieved when we talked to the campground host who told us he'd never seen a bear in the 10 years he'd been there.  

PART II:  TRANSCENDENCE
(adj- exceeding or surpassing in degree or excellence)

Saturday:  We drove about an hour to get to the turnoff on Tioga Road, which would take us across the park.  This was the start of five days of non-stop wonderment, amazement, awe, and unbelievable landscapes.  The scenery was non-stop.

We turned onto Tioga Road and to our astonishment, our astonishment increased.

We knew we really were in heaven when we (once again) pulled off the road to take this picutre:

I'm not lyin', all this is free for the looking!  And yes, that's ice on the lake.

Wait, one more:

  Because Yosemite has been a national park since 1864 (thanks to President Lincoln), there's a certain familiarity with many of the landmarks.  Paintings, photographs, TV specials, movies, etc, feature the stunning views.  None of that second-hand experience prepared us for the impact of being there in person.  Our first Major Landmark was Tuolumne Meadows  (pronounced Twalomay, which despite lots of practice wouldn't stay on my tongue.) We didn't spend much time here as the meadow was marshy from snowmelt.  There were trails from the parking area and most likely more views were in that direction.  We were satisfied with this.

Our next stop was at a big pullout at the highest elevation of the road, about 9,000 feet.  We took a short trail to our first view of the Major Landmark we never tired of seeing.  This is Half Dome, nestled in Yosemite Valley.

We continued our drive through the park, constantly agape.  We drove all the way through and to the campground where we hoped to stay for the rest of our visit, wanting to be sure of a campsite.  This campground is about 5 miles outside the park.   

 

We were pleased that sites were plentiful, and took advantage of the recommendation of the campground host for the best one.  We agreed we couldn't have done better.  The view looking up:

 These Bear Boxes were provided at every site, and use was mandatory.

 We asked this host about bears as well, but again breathed a sigh of relief when he said it was too early in the season for bears.  Add a bonus to our list of reasons to visit this particular week:
4)  It was before bear season.

Settled in to our campsite, we had time to go back in to the park for our first look at Giant Sequoias.  There are three groves in Yosemite, two smaller ones near the western park entrance, and the largest and most famous, Mariposa Grove, at the southern entrance.  As our campground was near the western entrance, we chose Tuolomne Grove for our first experience.  Though the Giant Sequoias are the Main Event, the forest had lots of fir and ponderosa pine. We were surprised at how much bigger the ponderosa was than it is here at home.  In fact, in all our visits to groves, this was our posture:



Again, we marveled.  Here's the bottom of a small Giant Sequoia:

 and part of the rest, showing the top.

Dead-and-down.  Giant Sequoias have no natural enemies (other than humans, of course).  When they become so big they can no longer support their own weight, they fall over.  I'm thinking when one of these trees falls in the forest, it makes a thunderous sound!

In the early days, cutting a road through trees for driving thrilled the tourists.  It doomed this one, but it's still available for walking through.

 Sunday:  We spent this day in Yosemite Valley. This modest sign belied the wonders we were about to encounter.

The road into the valley is several miles long, and itself full of scenery.  Our first Major Landmark of this day was Bridal Veil Falls. 

We walked a beautiful trail to the base of the falls.  The mist was significant, as was the breeze caused by the force of the falling water.

Back in the car, we rounded a curve and I gasped when this Major Landmark came into view:
El Capitan.

It's hard to describe the emotional and physical impact of this sight.  I'll say it this way:  if I hadn't been sitting down, I would have fallen to my knees.  Stupendous.

Our next Major Landmark was Upper Yosemite Falls.

Yosemite Falls is seasonal, fed by snow melt.  It dries up in July.  This is the drought version of the falls. We saw photos in the Visitor's Center with four times the volume of water.

By now thoroughly dazed, we continued to the main parking lot.  We found we'd been accurate in our prediction of the number of visitors, and easily found parking.  Like other National Parks, Yosemite has a easy-to-use tram system which accessed all areas.  We took the tram to the trail for Major Landmark Mirror Lake.  The particular pleasure of this short hike was the enticing views of Major Landmark Half Dome.

At Mirror Lake, Half Dome was overwhelming.

This is North Dome on the left and Half Dome on the right.

Better cameras than mine can capture reflections in the lake, which are the cause of the Mirror Lake name.

We stopped briefly at Ahwahnee Lodge.

While historical and beautiful, it was a high-end hotel, with more than one concierge at the door, formal dining, and a destination wedding site.  Where the lodges at the Grand Canyon are tourist-friendly, we felt uncomfortable here and didn't stay long.

A stop at the Ansel Adams Gallery was mandatory but also brief,  what with the real thing right out the door.

It was a full day and we drove back to the campground for the night.  Last fall there was a gigantic wildfire in the area of our campground.  While the campground itself wasn't affected, both sides of the road in were heavily burned.  No access was allowed, and crews were starting to take down the burned trees closest to the road.  They had a big job ahead.  It was an unmistakable reminder of the severe drought conditions that exist in the west.

Monday:  Today we started out at Happy Isles, a smaller and less visited area.  It had a nice trail, and the Merced River ran right through it.

Next, Major Landmark Yosemite Falls, Upper and Lower.  Spectacular.

Our afternoon was spent visiting Glacier Point.  As much as every place we'd been so far was superlative, the scenery both getting to and at the Point was even more so.  Tunnel View is a large scenic pullout for this reason:

The Clark Mountain Range.

Nevada and Vernal Falls have trails to reach them.  Besides not having time, they were beyond Ron's knees and my nerve for trails with edges.  This view made us plenty happy.

Half Dome and companions.

Breathtaking, all.

Rain was predicted for Monday night.  We didn't see much evidence of it even at bedtime, but were awakened about 12:30 by ground-shaking thunder and lightning that lasted about an hour.  Accompanying rain lasted all night.

Tuesday:  Cloudy views today as we made our way back into the park.  

We found out that the road we'd come in on Saturday, Tioga Road, was closed....due to snow!

We went to the south end of the park for our last day.  First we visited the Pioneer Museum, which is a collection of original buildings moved to this central location for viewing.  This sample is the Yosemite Transportation Company building, which facilitated horse and motor transportation between the park and the railroad terminal. 

The Wawona Hotel is historic and still in use.

A nearby visitor's center explained how influential artists, photographers, and writers have been to the preservation of this park.

On to our final Major Landmark, Mariposa Grove.  It's the largest of the Giant Sequoia groves in Yosemite.  Yep, they're Gigantic!  The tree on the right was cut for cars to drive through, and still lives. 

Our visit over, we left grateful and awestruck. As with our visit to Washington D.C. we realized how privileged we are that such large treasures are preserved for our enjoyment and that of the whole world. 

Part III:  Disquietude
(the state of disquiet; uneasiness)

On the way to Fresno, our destination for the night, our cell phones started to ring.  When we saw it was our next door neighbor Deb, we quickly answered.  Deb was calling to inform us of the Slide Fire.  The third reason for the timing of our visit had just become invalid, in the most frightening of ways.  We had one more day of visiting planned, and with her reassurances we decided to stay in contact and finish our itinerary. 

Wednesday:  This day we drove to Kings Canyon National Park.  We'd been told that having been to Yosemite first, we might be disappointed.  Not at all.  



As we rose in elevation from Fresno, we drove into clouds lingering from the storm the day before. At the entrance to this park is another Giant Sequoia grove, and the clouds made it enchanting.

 
 

 

Though less famously known than Yosemite, Ron and I discovered the trees are if anything bigger, certainly more numerous, and the visitors significantly less.  In fact, we decided another time we'd spend time at Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks, as well as Sequoia National Forest/Giant Sequoia National Monument which are all in close proximity, and skip the Yosemite groves altogether.  These parks are more than deserving of their own visit; more than the afterthought to Yosemite we gave them. 

 

 

The drive down into Kings Canyon was through some rugged country.

This is a fork of the Kings River.  There were many signs warning of river dangers.  There's not much recreation allowed on this river.

Grizzly Falls required a stop, as did Roaring River Falls.

At the bottom of the canyon, we walked the Zumwalt Meadow trail.

The trail afforded fantastic views.
  North Dome is equivalent in size to El Capitan.

 

 

Zumwalt Meadows was enchanting.

 

Too soon it was time to start the trek home, with an evening destination initially planned for Bakersfield.

Though the remainder of this trip was dominated by concerns about the Slide Fire which were described in the post of May 30, the pure pleasure this trip gave Ron and I was in no way diminished.




SONG

Here is calm so deep, grasses cease waving.
Everything in wild nature fits into us,
as if truly part and parent of us.
The sun shines not on us but in us.
The rivers flow not past, but through us,
thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell
of the substance of our bodies,
Making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom
in our bodies as well as our souls,
and every bird song, wind song,
and; tremendous storm song of the rocks
in the heart of the mountains is our song,
our very own, and sings our love.
 
 ----John Muir