headin' out

This is what we're doing this weekend - playing. Leaving in about an hour for Lahontan where we'll stand up paddle board, kayak, play volleyball, nap and read. It's a weekend at the lake. Shown above Patrick and his Aunt Brooke - my grandson and daughter. Ya'll have a great weekend.

Not yet. Not ready. It's only one Virginia Creeper leaf, but it's much too early to start showing color. I'm hanging on to the ease of summer. Not yet. Not ready.

determination

Papa was left alone with his grandson. This is what they came up with. Patrick's first jump. That's love.

busy bees

Busy as a bee indeed. 

the simple life

When 3 wheels and a steering wheel were all you needed…

cruise night

It's cruise time in Reno/Sparks - Hot August Nights. It's been happening for 25 years and this is the first year that my husband and I had a vehicle to take part. This is a line of cars on Tuesday night going down B Street in Sparks. The line went for a couple miles later in the evening. We pulled off with a group to watch the parade. Old music. Old cars. Old and young people. Some of us remembering our glory days. Others still in their prime. It's a come together.

just fun

This is my new paddle board - yes, hanging in the garage. Pretty, heh? and fun. I've had it out three times but can't figure out how to take a photo at the same time I'm setting off on the water. No, I will not take my DSLR on the board. I'm a beginner - with the board and the camera.

This is far more fun than I thought. Had never intended to buy one. Then my daughter took me out - she's a licensed instructor - and I got it. It's you, the water, the board and a paddle, and you move quietly to wherever you want on the water. See the turtles that rest on some pipes, break up the flotilla of seagulls and listen to them squawk, discover a new batch of baby mallards - late for the season. No phone. Just the water, the board and a paddle. 

And then the rain came…

Western Nevada - it's still wild and woolly when it comes to the storms setting in. They're sudden and often violent in the summer. Went to Lahontan to test out my new paddle board. Started with sun; then the clouds started building on mountain ridges. When you can hear the thunder and see the smoke lifting into the sky from lightening strikes, you know it's time to come in from the rain. We loaded the dogs, left my board and Mike's kayak with my daughter (they were camping) and headed for home. Hit this cloudburst but also had the opportunity for some interesting cloud shots from the car. There is always excitement living in the desert.

ACK!!

I took some photos this morning that I loved - and I erased them this afternoon in trying to use my new camera! Ack! So no new photos.


Also, if there is anyone out there who is following my blog, I am not crazy, just am not happy about how my blog looks. Sorry about the continuing changes. It's a BIG sign of frustration.


Tomorrow I'm taking off to Lahontan to use my very own Stand Up paddle board for the first time. My daughter gave me lessons last week (she and her husband are certified instructors), and they will be camping there. A relaxing Saturday. Wow. Will the gardens miss me?


Have a great weekend everyone.

Incomplete

Afghan undone

I finished the parts many years ago. Have no idea why I didn't finish it. But it's on my summer to do list. One unfinished project at a time.

My summer art

The black eyed susans draw swallowtails

Sally Holmes is making a come back after freezing last year…

The lavender - she's weathered floods, 2 feet of snow & withering heat…

I guess this is my art. Spend most of my free time tending the many gardens. I take great pleasure in this project - one of the reasons I love summer.

celebrations

It's been a few weeks of celebrations all coming together on Monday, July 4th. We have a family Monday dinner every week and all come home for a meal together. We also celebrate family member birthdays on the Monday closest to their day. It started on the 27th with my husband Mike's birthday; then to July 4th with my son-in-law Perry's birthday. Grandson Patrick gets in on all the candle work, so we all figure he's going to think he has a lot of birthdays (we celebrated his 2nd in May). July 4th's Monday family dinner also included a celebration of our nation's birthday - Patrick led the parade, his aunt followed.

Papa & Patrick

Uncle Perry & Patrick

Patrick & Auntie Brooke

a nevada mountain

Traveling in any direction from Reno brings a different set of scenery. Go west and you're in the Sierra Nevada range, forested, full of bears and other wild things and covered in snow through the winter into spring. Go south and you hit grasslands, cattle, horses and miles of wildness. Go east and you hit barren sandy land until outside of Fallon where the terrain takes on a wild desert beauty. Go northeast, and after the first 100 miles or so of alkali and sparse sagebrush - the country the pioneers pushed their wagons through - you get sagebrush covered desert backed up to lush mountains. A spring storm turns these mountains picturesque. 

my nevada

run to winnie

It's been a great week that started last weekend with a car club run to Winnemucca. Cruising along I-80, then hopping onto old Hyw 40 was great in our new 1967 GMC pickup. It was a perfect weekend to be traveling through the desert as slower speeds, windows open for air conditioning and temperatures in the moderate range with occasional clouds. Heaven. Relaxing. A blast from the past. Renewed my appreciation for the colors and contours of Nevada and the very fun of having all of us on the run staying in a line, no hassle with traffic, and then ending up in a 1940s motor hotel, again all lined up in front of our rooms, each named for a place in California. it was traveling at its best, stopping to talk and see the byways along the way. Thank you Scott Shady Court Motel for still being there and having space for all of us, visiting from room to room and just hanging out. Eating at the fine Martin Hotel Basque restaurant (that happily seated our gang around the family-style restaurant). Talk about just plain fun. It was a great way to kick off the summer.

Old building along Hwy 40

Grandson Patrick stands at the front of the line of oldies but goodies

Our new old pickup in front of our room

And there we are, side-by-side at this quiet stop.

Isn't this bathroom just cute - and clean!

A stop on the way home - this place and property behind was quite a desert museum!

reading…

A glimpse at inspiration

Did you ever get hooked on Joan Didion? I first discovered her in a book of essays I was teaching from, and she has been a mainstay ever since. I am transported by her flow of thought through words. My heart was cracked when she lost her husband. Her mind has always served as inspiration. She made me realize the infinite possibility of words.

flowers, sun and feeling better

Hello poppies in almost summer

After being sick for several days - an intestinal thing that kept me running between the bathroom and the bed - I finally made it outside yesterday. The occasion? I was watching my grandson for a while. I discovered that it's warm, really pleasant, one good reason to live around Reno - sweet summer evenings. And I was blown away by these. It's late for Oriental poppies and these are volunteers. It's all magic. These are growing outside the flower bed in a tiny speck of dirt. Maybe the seed blew there. Maybe the birds that tend my yard decided I needed these - here - now. And I did. And I do. And I get to enjoy for a little while longer before the heat leaves just the beautiful green plant.

what, you say

No, it's not a iPod.

What is this? What is that photo of? This old radio/cartridge player sits in my closet taking up floor space. I'm very good at cleaning out my closets, going through everything and getting rid of stuff that I haven't used in a year. But not this radio. When there was a Gemco in town, and when my mother was alive and when my sister was alive, we all put these portable radio/cassette players on layaway at Gemco. They would provide our music when we all went camping. We all got the same player; we all took them camping. All my family, my brother, my sisters and parents, our children - we would head out to Lahonten, a reservoir that is a big ole camping lake, and we would - camp. For a weekend or a week, we would ski and swim and float and cook and eat and play games and stare at campfires and sometimes fireworks and sometimes the strange lights on the far mountain range. Our dogs and even my mom's cat would be there. We'd build sand animals and castles, bury each other, bathe in the lake and be a big ole family. And we would listen to cassettes, some I had recorded and others that we bought, and just sit together under the broad, star studded sky. That radio that ran on batteries is more than that - it's history, and it's something my mom and my sister and me shared. I have that left of them.

some garden work

Flower bed revisited

It's been cold and windy and generally crummy for months, but with a few hours of warmth making an appearance,my husband and I managed to redesign one of the small flower
gardens in front. This had originally been a daisy covered flower bed, but through the years, other flower, weeds and a strange weed vine took over. It was taking most of my gardening time just trying to keep the encroachment out, and the daisies had almost disappeared. So I dug everything out last fall, covered it with a layer of black plastic, weighed it down with big rocks and waited for spring. Spring didn't come, but we got to work anyway. This is the result, a sort of river bed effect with a couple of big planting barrels. I've already filled the one with a Persian daylily and some other Sunscape daisies and some allysum. One job done, so many waiting.

spring defies winter's strong hold

It's not unusual for us to have up and down days for the entire spring season, but this year, winter just does not want to let go. So I took these photos of some of the crabapple trees in my yard so I would have something more to remember than fresh snow on the surrounding mountains at least once a week, chains over Donner summit at least once a week, a daily winds from breezy to blow you down and demolish the newly planted red peppers. No, we are not having a pleasant or even tolerable spring – but spring reminds me to be ever strong and optimistic. 

the evening sun added some nice backlighting

One of the crabapples in back was particularly boisterous with blossoms

i'm back

At 2 years and 12 days

It's been way too long since I've posted. I was in the burial ground of work and am just now catching up. What better way to start off than posting a photo of my now 2-year-old grandson. I babysit him on Friday's - a day I look forward to always. He makes me laugh. He makes me feel young. I take photos of him every Friday and it seems he changes every week. His facial expressions are just so - sooooooo - enjoyable!