My Sunset Sky

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, 

but to add color to my sunset sky."

                                                                                             Rabindranath Tagore

A Quick Trip to Mono Lake....

The weather is turning cold...we're expecting snow tomorrow...we took our house guests on a scenic ride to Mono Lake...freezing cold wind...but gorgeous as ever!!!

Is it Frosty????

No...it's the Sta Puff Marshmallow Man invading Mammoth...

The World's Largest Snow Man...seen from the Gondola by the main lodge...

Nature's Bounty...

Just thought you'd like to see where we ended up on our Naturalist Snow Shoeing Tour....

It couldn't have been a more beautiful day!!!

Convict Lake...the story...

Believe it or not...it's been sunny and warm since New Year's...

I took this one today, at Convict Lake...Looks pretty darned cold doesn't it?!!

It's actually been in the high 40's...very warm for this time of year...

Awhile back, I posted a photo of Convict Lake...actually, there've been numerous...and someone asked how it got the name, Convict Lake...

Well, here's the story....

In September of 1871, 29 hard core prisoners broke out of the Nevada Territorial Prison in Carson City Nevada.   The prisoners broke up into several small groups to enable them to travel faster and confuse the posses that were after them.  One of these groups headed south to the Sierra Nevadas.  On the way to the Sierras, they killed a mail rider near Sweetwater, Nevada.  A posse formed out of Benton Hot Springs and followed the small band of outlaws to the beautiful Mount Diablo, and Mount Diablo Creek where the posse confronted the outlaws.  A deadly shoot out occurred, resulting in two of the posse members being shot and killed.   The convicts fled to Bishop where three were captured and lynched, two were tried and hung, and one escaped.

Mount Diablo (the one on the left) was renamed Mount Morrison in honor of one of the lawmen who was killed, and the lake was renamed Convict Lake, and the creek, Convict Lake Creek. 

If you're an old movie buff, you might remember the old 1951 movie, The Secret of Convict Lake, starring Glenn Ford and Gene Tierney.  The movie was based on the story of Convict Lake.

http://www.convictlake.com/about/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convict_Lake

http://gunplayatconvictlake.com/

http://www.marktwainbooks.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=53&catid=16

Guess it's Just Another Day in Paradise!!!

I just don't get tired of the scenery up here!!!  

Not a bad backdrop to a fun day of snow shoeing!!!

It was a beautiful day...

For snow shoeing!!!

At Tamarack Lodge, where the lodge rents cross country skis and maintains cross country trails, you can also rent snow shoes.  And it just so happened that this past weekend, they had a naturalist guided snow shoe tour...

Our friends Sharron and Steve were visiting and we all decided to join the tour...

This is Julie, one of the tour guides, getting started...

What a beautiful day...

What a fun time!!!

Stylin' on the Slopes!!!

I'm speechless!!!

Next Week...I'm Goin' Skiin'!!!

"Skiing is the only sport where you spend an arm and a leg to break an arm and a leg."

Author Unknown

"I do not participate in any sport with ambulances at the bottom of the hill."

Erma Bombeck

"If you aren't crashing, you aren't skiing."

Author Unknown

Thank God for the Ski Patrol!!!

Do I Dare???

On the top of Mammoth Mountain...

The Cornice or Dave's run...which will it be?

Mammoth Mountain...11,053ft...Darned high, if you ask me!!!

Good friends, wine, and a beautiful sunset...

What could be better than that???

Pismo Beach sunset, from the restaurant at the Spyglass Inn... 

If you look real close...

It's Monarch Butterfly season in Pismo Beach!!!

Now what does this have to do with Mammoth????  Absolutely nothing!!!

We were visiting the Central Coast Sunday through Tuesday...

took some time to go see the Monarchs...

I'm thinking I need a macro lens...

How long is it til Christmas comes again???

Back Again!!!

Guests up here last week and a short trip down to the Central 

Coast to visit some other friends put a dent in my daily blogging...

Darn!!!  This daily blogging is hard to keep up with!!!  

But, I have good news!!!  I may have fixed my camera!!!  I was having trouble with my shutter click and focal point...wouldn't you know, these darned computer driven cameras have a way to reset to default!!!  Hopefully, that will be the end of my shutter issues...

In the meantime...these are a few photos taken with my droid phone from the plane when I was returning from Oregon...

A breathtaking landing, if ever I saw one!!!

Alpine Speedsters...

"But officer...according to my speedometer...I never went above 5 miles per hour!!!"

"Yeah, RIGHT!!!"

A Little Change of Pace...

Fog over Mono Lake...

For more participants in the Weekend in Black and White, click here.

The Road Less Traveled...

"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads.  

Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it."

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                     Rosalia de Castro

Rosalia de Castro was a poet in Spain in the mid 1800's.  She was a native of Santiago de Compostela in the Galician region of Northwest Spain.  She was the illegitimate daughter of a priest and a bourgeois woman at a time when the disgrace of being illegitimate was second only to being the "sacrilegious" child of a priest.  She was highly educated, yet chose to write most in her native  Galician.  At the time, her writing was discredited in Castilian society as the Galician dialect was considered  a dialect "fit only for the illiterate and the churlish".   Outside of Castilian society she was celebrated for reviving Galician literature and the day that she published Cantares Gallegos (Galician Songs) is celebrated in Spain as Dia das Letras Galegas...Galician Literature Day.  Her renown came after her life as it often does with great artists who "push the envelope" and she lived in relative poverty and sadness.  She was a staunch supporter of women's rights and opposed the abuse of authority.  She was a contemporary of Emily Dickinson. 

If you would like to read more about Rosalia, click here, here or here.  

Now, while I would like to take credit for knowing about her before I found her quote in ThinkExist.com, I'd never heard of her before.  So, of course, I googled her.  I rather liked what I read about her and thought it made the quote fit that much more.  Can't say I'll ever read her works, as (dare I say it?)...I'm not much of a poetry reader... 

                                 

A step back in time...

It's been awhile since I've been out shooting...

Looking through my archives, I found this meandering stream...

"If it weren't for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song."

                                                                                                Carl Perkins

I'm Baaaack!!!

And it's "Z" day for ABC Wednesday!!!

Soooo...

ZZZZZZZZZ

Ok...Z is for Zoo...

but not the regular Zoo with Zebras and other exotic animals...

These animals are at home in Quail Hollow Farm...

Oregon...aka my big sister's house...yep...she's a gentlewoman farmer!!!

Now, I do need to qualify my choice of pics...

These are from my last trip to Oregon...

This past week was busy taking care of my sis after her surgery,

and of course hanging out in pajamas, coercing shy, gigantic kitties to come sit in my lap, watching a marathon of the Ghost Whisperer, and of course, lot's of cooking and eating...

It must have worked because she's recovering quite nicely!!!

Soooo...I only took a couple of pictures...ok...5, but all of the same thing!

No...it's not a sunset from our deck in Mammoth...it's sunset in the Willamette Valley!!!

Elmira, Oregon...at my lil' big sis' house!!!

Click here to view more participants of ABC Wednesday...

I'll be back!!!

Hi All!!!

So sorry for the interruption...

I am in Oregon, helping my sister out after surgery...

She's on dail up...

and I didin't have time between New Year's and leaving for Oregon to get photos in a mode to be able to be up loaded from here...

I will be back posting on Wednesday, next week...

Oh...and my sister is recovering very well!!! 

A very successful surgery with happy results!!!

Until Wed...have a good week!!!

Time Out...

A little respite from the cold and snowy...

So SORRY!!!  I thought I posted all the way through Sunday...

But...as you can see...I was away for the weekend...getting a bit sun...

It's a New Day, and a New Year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!