Tuesday, 31 October 2006
Today we did a trail that had lots of up (whew!), and plenty of loose rocks to boot—literally. All this required us flatlanders to expend lots of energy to move up, and do so safely (we want NO turned ankles!), so naptime will begin early this evening!
Monday, 30 October 2006
When subjected to an overnight rain, this desert country, like the temperate forests that are more familiar to me, develops a lovely morning fog, which is highly aesthetic with the more convoluted topography.
Sunday, 29 October 2006
Today’s headline activity: a visit to Mogollón Ghost Town. By UP standards, however, it wasn’t really a ghost town—eight or nine people live there year-round, and several businesses persist, although maybe not year-round.
As Mogollon, it was a booming mining town for several decades, longer than Seney, I think. We found the drive in (from the west) jaw-dropping, just spectacular. After our visit, we went around through Glenwood, and up to the Catwalk, another artifact of mining activities (pipeline up the creek). The overcast sky made photo-taking difficult, and the elevation has kept us from running around much. We do more plodding!
It’s raining now, rather unexpectedly for us, and the rain felt cold on our faces as we, with overabundant determination, took a planned dip in the hot tub, cutting it short due to the inclement circumstances. (Yesterday, we stayed in almost an hour, much of it with the jets and lights off to better see the sky.)
Saturday, 28 October 2006
One more travel day, this time via planes not a Honda, and I’m out in NM, where the fading sunlight illuminates terrain like this. I’d write more, but I’m off to the hot tub to look at the moon!
Best news of the day: the Botanist is sprung from the hoosegow and sounds pretty darned good over the phone!
Friday, 27 October 2006
It is not unusual for a real object to be flanked by its shadow and perhaps also its reflection. Mostly, we can be clear which of the three is the “real thing,” but, then, the shadow and the reflection are both real, too, although they’re more ephemeral than iron.
This moose is among my earliest memories. We kids liked to put the antlers, a separate piece, on backwards (facing forward), but this bothered Mom and she’d have Dad glue them in at the proper orientation, but after some effort, we kids would separate the two pieces again, and the cycle would begin anew.
BTW: Please do not confuse the iron moose with the Iron Horse, a huge sculpture near the Oconee River south of Athens.
Thursday, 26 October 2006
One of the Botanist’s zinnias before the frost hit.
Today, we arose early in a less-than mediocre motel room somewhere in Ohio, to get back on I-75 and continue to work our way southward, reaching home (HOME!) before 3 pm. Thanks to JPB for getting our mail and checking on the house. John’s new assignment: get the downstairs furnace working (poor guy).
…and HB to KJ.
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Best laid plans and all that…. So, now, after a bit of a reversal (GI bleeds are nasty!), the Botanist seems to be on the road to recovery, and jcb and I are turning over the baton (and car keys) to the G-man, leaving Michigan after dark.
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
You can see that the light frost knocked the peppers back, but they’ve yet to be finished off. The red bells are so very sweet, and a boost to our nightly salad!
Rain today and we’re all feeling rather oppressed by the grey, and missing the sun. On balance, though, healing continues.
Access to all three necessities for posting—energy, laptop, and wifi—remains spotty, but we’re working on it!
Monday, 16 October 2006
Yesterday morning we awoke to naturally grayed-out vegetation, not quite a hard frost, but cold enough to coax the plants into a solid turn toward winter torpor. Nevertheless, the cold wasn’t intense enough or of sufficient duration to put the kibosh on the raspberries.
Meanwhile, indoors, the slow process of healing and recovery continues, aided by a fresh pot of white bean soup!
Sunday, 15 October 2006
Lovely weather today, just gorgeous, so we negotiated an outing into the yard for over an hour. The Botanist walked three-quarters of the way around the house, checking out this and that along the way. If I didn’t have so many chores IN the house, I’d sure be busy putting things to right outside!