Falling

Lucky Us. 

Nature's show seems never to run out of new, and fascinating ways to charm us. Over time I've come to realize that year by year, season after season, there are constantly new variations entertaining us...even though it's really not 'for us' ... It's still our good fortune to witness this.

a place to sit and enjoy.

mossy stumps

wooly bears

Golden Leaves on the trail.

This New Place

and 

Finding our new normal 

We've moved and we have new neighbors.

They come by to say hello all the time.

This is part of the new back yard.

Our Kitty seems to like it here.

It's a little worrisome though with coyotes coming around at night

and singing in the yard. Kitty has to stay in at night!

We see wild creatures a lot. This one was beside the trail on a little hike we took.

We've been enjoying local foods and now the apples and ripe.

I've made lots of pie and applesauce.

Washington apples are famous for a reason.

There are lots of birds here too.

Blue Jays come to see what's going on every day, and Barred Owls sing in the

woods behind us at night.

We've seen Blue Heron and watched eagles and hawks. 

Humming Birds visit and so do all kinds of 

yard birds.  

Our parrots like to go out in a little cage to see who is around.

Bob has a new interest in Mushrooms.

He's learning all about which ones are Yummy, and a lot of other ones that aren't so 

good for people.

There's a lot to learn.

So far we do love it here.  There's so much to see and do, 

so much to learn,

and so much beauty around us.

Peace in the Valley

We are here now and things are beautiful in our valley 

String's sister and her husband hung a wonderful welcoming banner on our front porch.  It was so cute and sweet for them to do.  Another neighbor brought banana muffins down the hill from her house to welcome us also. They made us feel great.

The move wasn't easy and we left lots of things behind us in California, but we are doing well.  We did have a little trouble getting things hooked up and running.  We were without a phone or internet for a time, but we lived through it.  Right now it's finally feeling like I'm on a vacation. We didn't get a break after school got out, just get packing and get rid of things...rush, rush.  

My son and friends of ours helped us so much.  We were so lucky to have their assistance.  Moving was a huge job.  Now we just have to finish settling in and it's been kind of fun finding this or that for the place.

We're happy to be finally in our little hide-away.  We walked by the river and we have ordered our shed and wood  stove.  It's feeling very homey here already.  I've been very relaxed.  Wow...The deck is my new favorite place. At least for right now :)

Another Grave Undertaking

(Anchors represent Hope.)



Graveyards are always so fascinating...here's one I
checked out last Spring,
I don't plan to be buried in one, but I have to
admit a certain interest in the "Gardens of Stone".

This particular one isn't far from "Old Sacramento"
and while you're checking out the historic
places around there, this might be a nice addition
to your visit.

The Old Graveyard in Sacramento

One of the mausoleums--there are lots...
one more lovely than the next.

There are beautiful, historic resting places to see
 everywhere you look.

A little friend who was posing



We spent a good part of the day just taking in
the sights.  This place has a nice feeling to it.
Sometimes you're back in Victorian times and in other
Parts of the park it feels like it could be the thirties.

********
Gardening is a specialty of theirs
and you can see that from all the
work that's been done.

No Hands

There's lots of walking involved when you come here,
but there are nice areas and lots of benches
if you need a temporary resting place.

********

She seems so reflective. And this is
most surely a good quiet place
for thinking.

"Darling Nettie"

I loved the bark on these trees.

********

This place is known for its
roses, but we didn't see too many
of those.
Lots of other blooms and greenery
though.

I think theses two people wanted to be close forever.

I wanted to read all the stones to see who was there
and where they'd come from.

The hand on this stone made it very special.
One of those little things that
captures your interest, and seems
locked in a time warp.

 

Wonderful statues
Some were very elevated.




"One everlasting whisper, day and night
repeated so:

Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges,
Something lost behind the Ranges,
Lost and waiting for you. Go!


Rudyard Kipling
The Explorer

Upcycle Your Life: making for Maker Faire

Upcycle Your Life: making for Maker Faire: Can you hear that?   I bet if you listen closely you'll hear the tinkering sound of this year's Maker Faire Makers and Crafters!  The ...

Fish Are Jumpin'

We're trying to take some of our free time to see some of the things around the area that we often ignore.

 String was hearing that "Salmon Season" was about to start and he hadn't been to his old fishing spot in a few years, but he was thinking about doing a little fishing this year. He decided we should just go check it out on a day he didn't intend to fish so we could see if things were good. Off we went to the Oroville Dam on the Feather River... it was opening day.

Unfortunately String's favorite area (near the riffles) is no longer open to fishing. Apparently there is no fishing between the hatchery and the After bay. It's all posted. The places along the after bay, where people used to stand shoulder to shoulder, are totally off limits now.

(It did used to look so dangerous when they did that.) 

But just beyond that there were the fishermen, braving the first day of the season to catch those wonderful salmon.

 I was a tad disappointed that this one little place, where you could just set up a nice fishing spot (and didn't have to crawl down the bank) was included in the places where you couldn't fish. I've seen lots of women enjoy that little spot and thought that maybe this year I'd get to be lucky and spend a day there.

Not happening.

After we looked at all those areas we were familiar with I asked String if he'd ever seen the fish ladders and he said we never did make it up there.  So off we went to the hatchery to check that out.  I didn't mention that while the rest of the country was burning up in the 100 plus temperature range, we had beautiful low 80 (or so) degrees and lovely breezy weather.

We weren't sure there would be anything going on there, but we had time, and we were just poking around anyway. We were glad we did--it was fun to check it out.

String at the Hatchery

The two bridges above the hatchery

The Dam

Empty 

walk ways to the ladders

view from the bank

We found some nice places to just sit and look.

Salmon jumping on the Feather River

We even got to see a few salmon jumping there.

We had a great time :)