Sharing the Sunshine

I went to a different part of the country last weekend, hoping to experience some "real" winter weather. I did get a little taste of some cold air and some snow, but mainly experienced blue, cloudless skies and 40 degree temperatures! I guess the Sunshine follows me wherever I go. It did rain a little bit on our trip back home, but not enough to be real bother.
It was a beautiful trip, despite being sick with a cold for most of it and driving 3 days to spend one day in our destination. I find myself missing it now and I want to go back when I'm feeling better to get an accurate idea of what it was really like there! We may travel to a different State in the same region in the next couple of months.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our journey. Our pictures aren't the greatest this time, due to laziness and time constraints.
View from our room the first night.

Arizona
80 mph in Utah!
Heading East on I-80
We have snow in Wyo!
Use that wind!
The University
Prexy's PastureDino!
A nice street next to the University.
Overview of Laramie. The two tallest buildings are the Residence Halls and are the tallest in the state.
Greenbelt area next to the river. There are 5 miles of bike trails.

Almost a whole dollar cheaper than at home. Note the name of the gas station.
Our home for two nights.
Took a short side trip off the Interstate.


Now there's some snow (and a train)
Sinclair refinery.
Rawlins
Rock Springs
More interstate driving

Green River. The origin of the Powell Expedition.

Railroad roundhouse in Evanston

View outside of our room the last night in Utah.
Almost back home.

What is going on today

There is a lot going on today and I will share a little bit about it for everybody. For me, I wanted to take pictures to remember what the weather was like today. In a couple of days it will be quite different. For those who know me, I wanted to share some of my preparations. For those of you reading from other parts of the continent that I don't know, there's a beach picture just for you (since I'm pretty certain that is why you are reading my blog!)

FOR ME
My mountain with the tiniest bit of snow left from the last storm.
Me and some of the first wildflowers of the year.
Blooming lupines and dormant willows. (and not so dormant willows)
The salt marsh. I think it's confused as to whether it is winter or spring!

Such a pretty day

FOR YOU
Jackets waiting to be worn.

Some of our food stash.
Pasta salad that I threw together this morning.
The purchase from the local hardware store I made this morning that will probably be my last. So sad, their lease was up and the greedy landlord raised the rent to an impossible amount. They will be greatly missed in our little community. I don't know what we will do without them. I looked for these ice packs at 3 other stores before I finally found them there.


FOR THEM
The beach! The air is very still today so the water was very flat. Kind of a blah looking.


Time to get back to "work". I will post again in a few days.

Been reading

Lately with all the rain we've been having I've been feeling like curling up with a book(in between my walks). I've been trying to finish Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury for months now. I read it as a pre-teen and I loved it. I thought it was the best book ever. I tried reading it again, now as an adult after I finished reading Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. I thought that when I finished reading both books I'd write a little blog essay contrasting the two different views of life in an American small town. However I just can't seem to get involved in the childhood memoirs of Bradbury this time. In the past week I have purchased and read two other books.
One is Multiple Blessings about the Gosselins and their family of twins and sextuplets. Being a big fan of their TV show Jon and Kate + 8, I couldn't put the book down and really enjoyed learning the "backstory" of being pregnant with sextuplets and the experience of bringing them home. After I finished the book, I wanted more! It is something I'm really intrigued with, but I would not want to experience myself. I won't get started on the octuplets that were recently born because I really don't know where I stand on that yet.

I read all afternoon yesterday and it was wonderful. Usually I feel guilty reading during the day and will read late into the night instead. This doesn't make any sense because then I will sleep in late the next day and waste that daylight anyway! This was my view yesterday while reading the book Flower Children, by Maxine Swann. It's actually a book of new fiction that I'm enjoying. Most new fiction disappoints me. I read a review of this book in a magazine two years ago and I've been looking for it ever since. I finally found it last Friday.

It's been nice to read for recreation again, (instead of for school). It's like an old friend. It is one way I've found of "escaping" that leaves me feeling better, instead of worse.

I Love Windy Days

"Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by."
Christina Rossetti

I've known this phrase from a poem for many years but never knew who wrote it. I looked it up just now, so I could site the author and then got distracted reading other poems written my Christina Rossetti. That's not the point of my blog tonight though, so I'll save that for another time!

I have always loved the wind. I love how it sharpens one's senses and makes you feel alive. I love how tired it makes you feel (in a good way) when you are out in it. Today, I especially loved how it clears out all the people and makes the outdoors blissfully empty. My husband does not share my love of the wind. He finds it annoying and bothersome. He doesn't like how it blows things around when he's trying to do something and how it stirs things up and makes his nose run. Just a difference in our personalities that makes life interesting!

I took my usual long walk today, in much solitude and blustery conditions. To quote my grandma it was so beautiful, "it almost hurts!" I never understood that sentiment when I was a child or teenager, but now I really get it. It's when something is so beautiful or profound that you can't look at it enough, you can't appreciate it enough and you can't accurately describe it's beauty. The water was a surreal aqua color with white caps all the way to the islands. The rains we've had lately have made any open area thick with green grasses. Certain species of wildflowers are already starting to grow too. The sky was clear blue with great puffy clouds blowing across it. The wind blowing as I walked made me glad for my thick hooded sweatshirt. It was a great day to be outside.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

On Saturday it rained pretty much all day and I could only go outside for a very short walk. For some reason I had the urge to bake some white bread. I haven't made homemade yeast bread in probably 20 years and I was a little unsure of how it would go. I must have done it since then, because it didn't seem difficult at all and turned out good. I remember being quite young when I first tackled yeast bread and it seemed to take me all day. This time it only took me a few hours and I went back and forth on the computer while the dough was rising and then baking!

I brought one of the loaves to my Sunday School class of 8 year olds along with some butter. We ate it at the end of class. The four of us practically ate the entire loaf, and I only had one slice! One boy had never tasted homemade bread before and he couldn't stop eating it. Another boy ate two slices and then asked if he could share a slice with his Mom. What a sweetie, although it may have been a ploy to get her to make some at home too!

Whenever I have made bread I always picture in my mind a photo taken of my mother soon after she and my father were married. She had just baked some white bread and she is proudly posed with her creation, ready to make the first slice. Whenever I would see that picture when I was a child it would impress on me that making something from scratch, like bread was an accomplishment to be proud of. It's something that truly blesses one's family.

Today with recent food scares, rising prices and cheaper ingredients being placed in processed foods; it is a great comfort to have the skills necessary to make many food items at home. I enjoy not having to rely on large food companies to make all of my meals for me and to be able to make the best use of simple ingredients.
I was relieved when I sliced the first loaf and it looked like bread!
Next week, onto to whole wheat bread.

Treasures of the Day

It's been raining where I live, off and on for the past few days. Being an avid walker, I've been sneaking in little walks here and there while I can. Late afternoon on Friday I figured it was safe to walk a bit and not get too wet. I brought my camera with me just in case I saw something interesting. It rained more than I expected, but not too hard. I had to be careful to keep my camera dry, but it was hard to keep it under wraps with such beautiful sights to capture all around me!Rain in the mountains that reached me in minutes.
The salt marsh under clouds.
Raindrops falling on the surface of the flooded salt marsh. Notice the underwater sprinklers, guess those won't be needed for awhile!
I was surprised by a beautiful rainbow while walking on a city street. I wished to be in a more open area, but you take what you can get. The rainbow was trying to be a double rainbow, but it didn't quite make it. So gorgeous.
More of the arc of the rainbow.
Sun bursting through the clouds. One of my favorite ways to see the sun.
Sun kissed mountains, shrouded in fog.
Reflection of the sun on the water and wet sand just before it sets.
The willows at the edge of the salt marsh, looking very much like winter.
The early evening moon, peeking through the trees.
I'm so grateful for all these many treasures, right at my feet!