Angeline and William's Excellent Adventure

365 Project - Week 20

2011-05-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

Three Springs Farm, Oaks, Oklahoma

365 Project - Week 19

2011-05-28T10:20:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 18

2011-05-09T10:03:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 17

2011-05-01T10:31:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 16

2011-04-25T18:41:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 15

2011-04-18T20:47:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 14

2011-04-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

Film (Fuji 400). Minimal editing in iPhoto.

365 Project - Week 13

2011-04-05T17:20:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 12

2011-03-31T12:25:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 11

2011-03-21T17:58:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 10

2011-03-14T10:17:00.001-07:00

365 Project - Week 9

2011-03-09T15:14:00.001-08:00

365 Project - Week 8

2011-03-05T17:57:00.001-08:00

Why is this so late? Well, to start out with, we had almost 2 feet of snow here...and then I had a major iPhoto crash which did not destroy my photographs but did erase all of the editing, cropping, and sorting I had done since, oh, 2004. But the original photographs are intact. I should be getting Lightroom soon and I'm planning to go through everything pretty ruthlessly and only keep the really good ones, and then run them through Lightroom. Kind of like what a professional would do, right?

Sean-Nós Northwest 2011

2011-02-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is from the after-party at the Sean-Nos Northwest festival last weekend in Olympia, WA. William and I are on the left-hand side of the video, behind the guitar player. Unfortunately we couldn't get a video from our point of view, which was almost exactly level with the dancers' feet...

Dancers: Alicia Guinn, Emma O'Sullivan, and Melia Tichenor

Musicians: Mikey Beglan, Nancy Conescu, Greg Hill and Deb Collins, and us.

Recent musical appearances

2011-02-23T14:50:00.001-08:00

(Photo by Jodie Buller)

On January 8th we dressed up like Irish musicians (basically, what we look like all the time) and performed at our favorite grocery store ever, the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, on top of their freezer case which we get to by climbing a ladder. It's totally worth the process of getting up there when we see people pointing to us and wondering if we jumped over from the balcony section of the cafe, or maybe swung in on a rope. We always have fun playing there: it's a relaxed atmosphere and people really appreciate the music.

And, on February 12th, we dressed up like classical musicians and performed at the Anacortes' Library Love At The Library fundraiser; we traded off playing solo guitar and piano and played two pieces together. Originally we thought that this would be a background music gig, but a fair number of people actually sat and listened to us and said complimentary things when we were done. Great chocolate and wine, too!!

365 Project - Week 7

2011-02-21T20:14:00.001-08:00

365 Project - Week 6

2011-02-14T16:19:00.001-08:00

365 Project - Week 5

2011-02-08T20:41:00.001-08:00

I have to say that I'm really enjoying this project. Technically, I'm not taking one photo each day, but there is one photo PER day and just that is enough to make me take my camera with me more often. I am required to look at my surroundings more closely, and I sometimes feel like I'm being very stealthy and getting away with something exciting. I also feel that there's SO MUCH all around us; not that a camera is required to appreciate that but it's great to suddenly see something out of the corner of my eye and decide to save it, and share it.

365 Project - Week 4

2011-01-31T21:53:00.001-08:00

365 Project - Week 3

2011-01-26T21:36:00.001-08:00

365 Project - Week 2

2011-01-18T11:47:00.001-08:00

Out the window this morning

2011-01-09T12:52:00.001-08:00

365 Project

2011-01-08T21:21:00.001-08:00

Taking one photograph every day for a year: January 1-8

Paperwhites

Timbre

Metal and Glass

Lines and Spaces

Winter Garden

Brick

Concentric

Seattle

Meeting the meat?

2011-01-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

I just read an article about an ultra-sustainable meat source: roadkill. This is not a new idea, of course, but the point is made that if you've just hit a deer and you choose to leave it on the side of the road, it's a waste. So you might as well drag it home and cook it...???

I've been vegetarian for 5 years, this month - except for my once-a-year birthday steak from Natural Farms in Tulsa. Since we're moving back there, I've been thinking about eating more meat (more, like once every 2 or 3 months, MAYBE), as long as it's grass-fed and sustainably raised. What this article made me think about was the possibility of eating meat that a friend of my father's, who is an avid hunter, has killed. I don't like the idea of hunting, and I absolutely don't want to do it myself. But if someone's going to do it, and there's leftovers (one caribou creates an awful lot of leftovers!), maybe I should think of it as a sustainably raised food source?

Not sure about the roadkill, but I've never hit a deer or anything edible that I know of, so I don't have to make that decision yet.

(This probably belongs over on In Her Field, but it ended up here. C'est la vie)

Wishful thinking

2010-12-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

A recent article in the Seattle Times focused on the home and lifestyle of two people that I don't know personally but have a lot of musical friends in common with. It made me think about all the ideas we had for our little Mt. Vernon house (824 sq. ft., the home in the article is 880) and how I want to have a cozy small home that nonetheless has room for parties, sessions, and guests. And how I want that home to have a beautiful, functional garden that evolves gracefully over the years, even though both William and I are (slowly) working on having income that doesn't require us to be in one place all of the time. How I want to be able to whip up charming little touches for that house and garden, although my crowning DIY garden achievement to date is a wobbly fence made out of poultry netting, broomsticks, and wire and my idea of interior decorating is lining up my rock collection on the windowsills.

So - will there someday be a magical transformation in my 'home-making' (gah!) abilities? Or should I just be content with what I have and not try to be someone different?

Whistle Lake, Anacortes, WA

2010-12-11T18:50:00.001-08:00

These are really not my best, but...here they are anyway. Next time I go for a hike in the rain with a camera I'm bringing an umbrella and a tripod.

Fiddle musings

2010-12-06T17:15:00.001-08:00

I just had a lesson with the amazing Irish fiddler James Kelly. I consider myself a reasonable fiddler - not the greatest, but not the worst either. I have good tone, I know a few hundred tunes, I can get through a set of tunes without getting lost, and I can play for several hours without being stiff or in pain the next day. William and I lead sessions regularly and have been doing so for several years; to be able to lead a session, you have to have your act together and we are pretty good at that.

But, I don't have the kind of detail I need, and this lesson proved it. We spent the majority of the time working on my playing at a very small level: slowing down rolls and triplets, changing bow strokes to let the rhythm come through, softening my bow arm so I'm relaxing into the ornaments instead of tightening up in anticipation of them. At the very end, we got into actually playing a tune so that I could start applying some of what we had been talking about. I am not going to completely change how I play but I am going to be doing more exercises than tune playing for a while. I want to be in control of my playing and be able to make it come out the way I hear it in my head, and that's going to take a lot of thinking, a lot of listening, and a lot of work.

Auditions and visitations

2010-12-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday William and I went out to 'audition' to play for an upcoming event. They want background music for a couple of hours and while generally I wouldn't be inclined to go out of my way to prove that I can play the piano, it was actually nice to get a chance to try their instrument out and get a feel for the space.

Then, we went down to Seattle to visit a friend's mother who's in rehab after falling and breaking her hip about 3 weeks ago. She's doing well and will hopefully be home before Christmas, and we had a pleasant visit discussing traveling and mutual friends. We went up to Capitol Hill for dinner and to walk around a bit...if we ever get to be the kind of people who maintain houses in two locations, I'd vote for an apartment there. It's probably nothing but car horns and sirens and people stumbling home in the wee hours of the morning, but there are bookstores and art stores and clothing stores and restaurants, and the people-watching opportunities can't be beat. I lived in that general area for a few months in 1997-98 - and, there's a whole 'nother post for the future right there: What Might Have Happened If I'd Stayed In Seattle. Ah well.

Slightly obsessed

2010-12-02T21:34:00.000-08:00

I did something today that I swore I'd never do: I got up at 6 am to go to a regular swim practice (the special early morning ones that I've been to before don't count; we get coffee and muffins after those). I did this because I was promised that we would work on my breaststroke. We did in fact work on it, and now I have a mantra that goes like, "head down-elbows up-back straight-bottom down-knees in-feet out". Easy!

I just read an article on Early Vertical Forearm.

I have to restrain myself from telling people that my 100 IM time yesterday was two seconds faster than my time from the meet two weeks ago.

I am tentatively planning to be in the pool Saturday morning at 7 am.

Why not?

2010-12-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

It's December, and look, I'm posting! I think I'll try to keep it up for a bit, maybe just on weekdays. I'm writing quite a bit as it is and it will be nice to look back in a year or so.

So, moving. This year has been unbelievably frustrating in so many ways, and unbelievably rewarding in others. We really wanted to settle in the Pacific Northwest and it just is not happening; work opportunities are not coming together the way we hoped they would and we are living off our savings right now. But! From another point of view, we just had a year to do practically anything we wanted to. I wanted to play chamber music, work on my photography, and join a swim team, so I did. William wanted to perform classical guitar recitals, work on electronic music, and do a bunch of writing, so he did. How can we possibly call this year a waste?

I'm looking forward to Tulsa. I swore up and down that I'd never go back after I graduated from high school...it's been 20 years, so that certainly counts as a nice long break. But, after my friend Leeanna died in July (it's still hard to type that, or even think about it for very long), I started thinking about family and friends, and suddenly I really wanted to be closer to the people I grew up with. My former piano teacher has offered to help with networking and referrals, so finding work should be much easier. My dad is the former president of the farmer's market and he's still very involved with what they're doing, and there's a wonderful organic-local-sustainable scene in the area. I have several good friends there who have known me for a long, long time - and they still like me for some reason. My intuition is telling me that this is a good thing and I am not going to fight it.

Announcement #2

2010-11-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the first day of a shiny new blog about women in farming: interviews, book reviews, and thoughts on political/social issues. It's over here: http://inherfield.com

Announcement #1

2010-11-29T10:36:00.001-08:00

We're moving to Tulsa in the spring - probably April.

Is November over yet?

2010-11-28T17:25:00.000-08:00

I didn't officially sign up for National Blog Posting Month, but I wanted to try it anyway. Having tried it, I am a) glad it's almost over and b) wishing I had set aside an hour a day or so to write instead of hastily posting cat pictures as filler. I don't feel compelled to write about feelings much but boy, have I been having them, and I think it would have been good practice to attempt to articulate some of them. Terrifying? Yes.

I have two announcements to make - one for tomorrow and one for the day after. Then I can have some more feelings, and decide what to do about them.

Doing much better today...

2010-11-27T15:09:00.001-08:00

...things are looking up :)

Alice is here!

2010-11-26T10:22:00.001-08:00

It might take her a couple of days to settle in, though.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T10:48:00.001-08:00

Everyone is welcome to stop by...

Supplies

2010-11-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we get a kitty cat! Our friend Julie in California took charge of Alice the cat when we moved last year, and she is driving up today and tomorrow in a display of exemplary door-to-door service. Today, we went out and bought:

- litter box and scoop

- litter

- food and water dishes

- food

- measuring cup for food

- basket/cat bed

- blankets for the basket

- broom and dustpan

Catnip is en route from Tulsa, and Alice is not really into toys but we have some string on hand just in case. Can't wait to see her again!

Snow, yesterday

2010-11-23T13:46:00.001-08:00

Spiderweb!

We got about 1.5 inches, total.

I SWIMMED!!

2010-11-22T11:05:00.001-08:00

Yes, that's me on the starting block; closest to the camera in the red and black suit. I was one of the slowest people there but a) my times were very good, better than anyone expected and b) hardly any other 35-39 year old women participated so I got 1st or 2nd place in my solo events. One relay went well and the other one...well, I (and the other relay members, by association) got disqualified for a minor technical mistake. Still, our team had the most points at the end of the meet. Hooray for us!

Since I know you're as fascinated by my times as I am, here they are:

50 M Breaststroke: 57.47

50 M Freestyle: 44.60

50 M Backstroke: 58.72

100 M IM: 2.06.55

200 Women's Medley Relay (I did backstroke): 3:04:40

Interlude

2010-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

The trumpeter swans are coming back to the area; we can hear them flying over every once in a while. They sound like this.

I'm swimming today! Results later...

Performance #2

2010-11-20T11:31:00.001-08:00

Well, last night went beautifully, except for a small page-turning mishap. I still would have preferred a piano but for what it was, it was pretty darn good. Tonight we are playing at a piano store in Bellevue, WA, which apparently has a selection of excellent pianos; there's a chance that I might be able to choose which one I play on :)

Coming home last night was fairly tedious, it started snowing while we were playing and the roads were messy and slow for about 45 miles...then it was raining and everything was fine. I'm actually good at driving in snow, but it's not something I get to do very often. I hear it's going to be an unusually cold and snowy winter up here, though.

Performance #1

2010-11-19T10:35:00.001-08:00

My piano trio is playing tonight, at a small venue in Blaine, WA - as far north as you can get around here without being in Canada. Preparations for this concert were going along as usual until last week, when the cellist nonchalantly informed me that there was no piano at the hall. I'm...not happy about this, but it's really not the end of the world. I'll be bringing my keyboard and I've rented a PA system for the day instead of using our little practice amp. We'll see how it goes.

Misspellings that annoy me

2010-11-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

Mostly gleaned from various comments on the Internets:

poured over/pored over - "I spent hours pouring over my textbook". Pouring what, exactly?

boarder/border - "We need to secure the boarder now!!" What did he do, and why did you rent out the room to him in the first place?

baited breath/bated breath - "I'm waiting with baited breath for a response". All I can think of is somebody sitting around with a mouth full of minnows.

viola/voila - "You just add this, and VIOLA! Nothing to it". If it's that easy to make violas, why isn't everyone doing it? And why are some of them so darn expensive?

balling/bawling - (This one is really unfortunate. I'll let you make up your own sentence).

Again, not much to say...

2010-11-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

...therefore posting a bit about someone else. Michele Campbell is a woman that I have known, somewhat peripherally, for about 15 years. She was a friend of two college friends of mine and for a while I only heard short updates about where she was and what she was doing. I now know that those years were mostly confused and unhappy for her, but it always sounded like she was on the verge of an amazing adventure: she ran off with {name withheld}! she's going to start an herb farm! she's going to Paris! Now, she's much happier and still doing amazing things. Not only does she teach French and write beautifully, last summer she wrote and performed a sellout one-woman show at the Minneapolis Fringe Festival. YOU GO.

Time trials

2010-11-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

My times from our swim workout this morning (5:30-7:30 am, I am insane):

-50 Free: 45.1

-50 Back: 56.1

-100 Free: 1.41.6

-200 Free: 3:35:9

-100 IM: 1.56.1

Better than I was hoping for, and just about good enough to qualify me for YMCA State if I was an 8 year old. Swim meet is on Sunday...it's in a meter pool so my times will be longer but still, since it's my first meet those will be my PERSONAL BEST times and that's pretty cool :)

Random stuff

2010-11-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

Here's what's happening today in each of the places I have previously resided:

Tulsa, OK: one school is on lockdown.

Decatur, IL: somebody built a deer stand.

Traverse City, MI: hunting season begins today.

Rockford, IL: someone's donating money to the Parks District.

Seattle, WA: homeless camp is being moved.

San Jose, CA: people want to know who feels most at home here.

Cupertino, CA: new hybrid buses.

And, Mount Vernon, WA: fifth graders spend a day at college.

Broth

2010-11-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

William made some vegetable broth this morning; he's done this for the past three Sundays so that there's fresh broth for soups all week. He got about a gallon of broth out of it, and here's what he put in:

-carrots

-celery stalks

-celery root

-chioggia beet

-chanterelle mushrooms

-onion

-leek

-garlic

-ginger

-parsnip

-rutabaga

-turnip

-cabbage

-zucchini

-and a cup of the broth from last week.

The house smells AMAZING.

What we look like

2010-11-13T19:30:00.001-08:00

William and I are both working on Large Intimidating Writing/Blogging/Business projects right now; all shall be revealed somewhere around December 1st. Anyway, these are the sort of projects which call for head-shot photographs that we can put on our sites to show that we are Serious Upstanding Members of the Internet. So, today we both got haircuts, and we both took each other's picture when we got home.

Better

2010-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough week, but today things are looking up a bit. Right now I am appreciating:

- William practicing electric guitar; it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of hanging around someone who knows how to noodle melodiously on one of those. Very different from listening to the classical stuff (which I also like, don't get me wrong).

- My piano trio, they came over today and we played some good music in a relaxed manner.

- Vegan cookbooks, especially most of these. Everything we've made out of these has been amazing.

And so, the weekend arrives.

In which I find myself with nothing to say...

2010-11-11T19:27:00.001-08:00

...so I'll talk about someone else for a while.

Margaret Sloan is a fantastic painter, a splendid musician, and an excellent writer, and part of her day job involves beekeeping. She is consistently thoughtful and insightful and has a lovely blog over here. It's friends like Margaret that make me miss living in California.

Doldrums

2010-11-10T17:03:00.001-08:00

It's just past 5 pm, and it's already dusk - it would be dark if it was cloudy, but we had a (rare) sunny November day today. I lived in Seattle for 2 years in 1996-98, and I don't remember ever having a problem with the winter darkness, but now it does seem to be getting to me. Vitamin D helps, as does an infinitely patient husband :)

Also, who the heck invented the wood stove? I understand that metal conducts heat, but half the point of a fire is LOOKING AT IT. We have a stove insert in our fireplace; it heats the house fairly well but there's really not much to be said for curling up in front of a piece of hot black metal with a book.

Protea Piano Trio

2010-11-09T14:36:00.001-08:00

I set this up and took the photograph, and I'm very pleased with it :)

William took these during our warm-up on the day of the October concert at the museum. Jeanette Wickell, violin, Ray Kamada, cello, and Angeline LeLeux, piano.

Swimming

2010-11-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Among all the music and art (or attempts thereof), I've also been working on my swimming. I'm planning to participate in a swim meet - my first one ever! - in a couple of weeks and have been working on sorting out the finer points of my strokes. I'll be doing 100 (meters) freestyle, 50 backstroke, 50 breaststroke, and 100 IM (25 each of butterfly, back, breast, and free). I'm not the slowest on my team but I'm close to it...being a competitive sort, it's been tough to stop thinking about who's faster and just focus on getting my own times under control.

Getting ready for the meet has taught me something: swimming requires concentration. I've been swimming laps off and on ever since college, whenever there was a pool and some motivation, but it's always been a way of simultaneously getting some exercise and letting my brain relax. Now, especially when I'm keeping pace with others, it's alarmingly noticeable when I let my mind drift, because suddenly I've fallen behind and need to power along for a few strokes to catch up. Seems like an obvious thing, but concentration and focus have always been reserved for musical and academic pursuits, and it's a completely different feeling to have to tell my body - instead of my mind - to stop daydreaming and get on with it.

Exhibit

2010-11-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for this year was to have some photographs on display, in public. This seemed like such an overwhelming achievement that I didn't even really think about how I was going to do it. Well...the violinist in my trio, Jeanette, is the curator of a small gallery in Bellingham, the Center for Expressive Arts. She changes the art there monthly, and so, simply by asking, I have two photographs on display there during the month of November. I had them printed by American Frame and found frames with matting at Goodwill, so the total cost for each photo was about $12.00. We went up on Friday night for the 'opening' (such as it was, it was part of the downtown Art Walk so a few people did stop by but it wasn't really a huge event). And I saw people I didn't know looking at my little photographs, and pointing them out to their friends. What a splendid and bizarre feeling that is! I remember being at arts camp in junior high as an orchestra student, and telling one of the art students that it must be so nice to have the work done and hanging on the wall at the end instead of having to play in a concert and hoping there were no disasters. She said that she always wanted to change something when she saw her art hanging there, so it really wasn't completely stress-free. Now I know what she meant...

Musically speaking

2010-11-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

So, there you have what's been going on photographically around here (and in Montana; we spent a week in Whitefish with William's parents about a month ago). And now for some musical updates:

-William played a solo guitar recital in September at a local library, it was magnificent. He's scheduling a small Northwest tour for February and, even as I type this, is meeting up with another guitarist in town in the hopes of putting together some guitar duo performances. His thoughts can be found over here on his guitar blog and his recordings can be found on his website.

-I've been playing with a violinist and a cellist as the Protea Piano Trio - we started rehearsing in May and performed our first concert at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham in mid-October. We have two more performances scheduled for mid-November as well. It's difficult music but not impossible, and it is SO MUCH FUN to not be a solo pianist right now. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the social aspects of Irish music vs. the isolation of classical, and I just might have found the best of both worlds in chamber music. We sound like this.

-And, we are playing Irish music every Sunday night in Bellingham and thinking about recording a CD. More on that later, probably...

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

2010-11-05T12:41:00.001-07:00

Abstracts, shore of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park

2010-11-04T13:48:00.001-07:00

I've been interested in abstracts for a while, but haven't really gone out of my way to make them happen. These were taken when I was having trouble getting the (standard, boring) lake shots metered properly and just started looking for something else instead.

Boulder River Wilderness, October 2010

2010-11-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

Glacier National Park, October 2010

2010-11-02T13:45:00.001-07:00

Fragrance Lake/Larrabee State Park, September 2010

2010-11-01T14:08:00.001-07:00

Deception Pass State Park, August 2010

2010-10-30T15:25:00.001-07:00

Bleak

2010-07-19T20:01:00.001-07:00

My very oldest friend - we grew up across the street from each other - died suddenly last Thursday and her funeral was today, in Houston, TX. The last-minute flights were unbelievably expensive and so I wasn't able to join her family there. On the advice of my parents, who are very intelligent and thoughtful people, I spent the afternoon on a beach. It was a grey chilly day and there were only a few hikers out, but the sun started to break through eventually.

Deception Pass State Park, Whidbey Island, WA

Great life?!

2010-07-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Our new town has just launched a marketing campaign to promote living here, the tagline is Mount Vernon - get a great life. I don't know if we have a *great* life, but it's not too bad, all things considered. One of the main attractions for us is that all of the following places are within reasonable walking distance: co-op grocery/deli, 2 coffee shops, 2 used bookstores, 3 pubs, one brewpub, 2 Italian restaurants, 2 Thai restaurants, one Mexican restaurant, the YMCA, the library, the post office, and the hospital. I can't imagine many other places where we could be this close to so many useful locations.

What do you like about where you live?

More flowers

2010-06-08T13:21:00.001-07:00

William's photos

2010-06-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hi all, here's a note from William for the first time in a long time.

I've decided to make some of my photos from the trip available on Imagekind. For the time being I have just put up some of my favorites. I have a larger gallery available here for viewing and if there are any there that you would like to see available on Imagekind, please let me know.

A Moment In Time

2010-05-02T10:26:00.001-07:00

The New York Times is sponsoring a gallery of photographs that were all taken at 15:00 GMT on May 2nd (so, 8 am here on the west coast). This is my submission.

More information here...

Mount Baker Orchid Society Show

2010-04-29T21:07:00.001-07:00

These are from about two months ago. I've clearly been neglecting the blog, so I thought I'd start with some pretty flowers and then ease into the next chapter in our excellent adventure. Enjoy!

Spring! Part 2 - the pink edition

2010-02-18T09:58:00.001-08:00

Spring!

2010-02-06T19:38:00.001-08:00

Piano!

2010-02-05T14:27:00.001-08:00

As promised long ago, here are a few photos of my beloved new piano. It's a 4 ft. 6 in. baby grand, built in 1927 by Howard (a division of Baldwin), and it eventually ended up in a Mt. Vernon church until they upgraded a few years ago and the piano went to a friend of a friend. He got it new strings, cleaned and refinished the outside, and fixed whatever needed fixing on the inside. It's still got a few issues but it has a lovely tone and the kind of warmth that is difficult to find in a modern factory-made instrument.

William and I gave a 'mini-recital' for a few people last Friday; he played guitar (Mertz), I played piano (Bach), and we both played the Vivaldi Lute Sonata in A. It was as low-key as one could possibly get and I still got nervous and twitchy...I can't say that I played my best, but I think I did very well under the circumstances and everyone was complimentary. We're hoping to do this about once a month and invite more people in the future.

Rain on the maple tree

2010-01-30T20:12:00.001-08:00

Sean-Nós Northwest

2010-01-30T19:43:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, we packed ourselves up and went down to Olympia for the 3rd annual Sean-Nós Northwest festival. Sean-nós translates as 'old style', and it refers to Irish singing and dancing traditions that have been handed down for generations. It's my understanding that this style came from the peasantry and that the other old style of music - the formal bardic and harping traditions - have been almost entirely lost. At the moment, sean-nós (especially the dancing) is extremely popular in both Ireland and America. I speculate that this is somewhat of a backlash against Riverdance...

Anyway, the festival was lovely. There was a concert Friday night, which we missed, and classes all day Saturday, which I attended. I went to three singing classes (2 on Irish songs, one on English), a singing session, and a dance class. Then there was the afterparty - I think we played tunes for about 3 1/2 hours?

And now, an explanation of the videos below. There's an older video and a newer video for both dancing and singing; in both cases, the older one is from a recognized master of the form. The second dance video was taken at the Friday night concert at the festival this year. The second singing video features two people (the program host and the singer) that we met in Monaghan during our trip to Ireland in Dec. 2008. The first song has a bit of lilting at the beginning and is about a young man knocking at his lover's window as she (initially) refuses to let him in. The second song is "The Red-Haired Man's Wife" and covers the universal theme of unrequited love. Enjoy!

More information, as always, on Wikipedia.

Sean-Nós Dancing and Singing

2010-01-30T18:32:00.000-08:00

Settling in

2010-01-17T19:39:00.001-08:00

This photo was supposed to go in the last post, and I don't want to delete it, so I'll just leave it here even though it doesn't have anything to do with what I want to write about.

We've been in our house for about 2 weeks now and have everything we need for basic day-to-day living, although some of it's borrowed from other people and will be returned when we retrieve our stuff from California and/or find something better. Currently we're planning to go get our stuff in April. William is doing some software contract work and I'm about to start working at the local YMCA teaching swimming - something I haven't done for about 10 years and that I'm looking forward to getting back to. Still looking for students, we've done a lot of networking in the music community here and hopefully that will pay off soon. We're both practicing as much as we can, cooking nearly every day, and getting to know our new home a little better. And, oddly enough, we're both starting to think that it would be nice to go camping soon, or maybe start planning another trip to Ireland...

Clayton Beach, Larrabee State Park

2010-01-17T19:33:00.001-08:00

Home

2010-01-07T21:24:00.001-08:00

Our little house: 824 square feet

Living room as you enter. The piano is just to the right of the window in the center of the photo.

Looking back towards the front door.

Kitchen! It's big...

William's office/guitar room.

Bedroom.

Tiny bathroom. It's much more colorful now...

Year's end; new beginnings

2009-12-30T15:12:00.001-08:00

So, it's the end of the year and we've been in Mt. Vernon for nearly a month. Here's what we've accomplished:

- We'll be moving into our own house (directly across the street from where we've been staying!) on Saturday, Jan. 2nd. We're renting but the landlady is thinking of selling it soon, and it's in our price range, so we may be homeowners in a few months.

- I found a lovely Howard 4' 6" baby grand piano for sale, rebuilt by a friend of a friend, that is a bit quirky but has a lot of warmth and character to its sound. Also, it's a lovely instrument. I'll post some photos when we get it moved in.

- We've been to sessions every Sunday and Monday night since we got here, except once when the weather was bad. The 3 other Irish musicians in Mt. Vernon are very serious and are really pushing us to remember all the tunes we know and to learn new ones. The Bellingham session is pretty average but the Everett session has a number of dedicated players and we're enjoying meeting the wider circle of musicians.

- Of all things, we managed to move to a place that has a truly stupendous assortment of...thrift stores. Since we got rid of so many things before we left California we knew that we would have to restock and refurnish, and we'll be able to get everything we need for a LOT less than we planned on.

- The Skagit Valley Food Co-op (do click on the link, it's an amazing place) is within walking distance of our house, and so is the YMCA, downtown, the farmer's market (in season) and the post office.

We are so very, very fortunate in so many ways. 2009 was our dream come true and the adventure of a lifetime and we came through it safely and happily. It seems like we can't and shouldn't ask for anything more than that, and yet here it is; the path opening up before us to make a new life in a new place. May 2010 be kind to you as well.

Happy New Year!!!

Larrabee State Park

2009-12-30T14:36:00.001-08:00

Christmas Day: frost in the garden

2009-12-29T16:38:00.001-08:00

End of the line

2009-12-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

Well, we're here. Here, in this case, being Mt. Vernon, WA, population 30,000 or so, annual rainfall about 30 inches. All the way up I-5 we were wondering how well we would cope with the misty grey winter of the Northwest...but when we got here, it was bright, sunny, and COLD (high of 32 and low of 15, today). Ah well, we'll get around to the rain sooner or later.

We stayed around on Tuesday the 1st for two reasons: dinner at Pizzetta 211 with our friend Steve Baughman, and a last chance to go to the session at the Plough and Stars, which was a lovely way to round out our stay in the Bay Area. That night, we stayed at a friend's place in Tiburon, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and in the morning we headed north...marveling at how chilly it was...little did we know what we were in for. We had a lovely day for driving and were actually able to see all of Mt. Shasta for the first time in a few years. In fact, it would have been a perfect day to drive a U-haul with all of our stuff in it, if we had chosen to do that. I'm not yet certain that we made the right decision about the stuff but we are still convinced that moving once (i.e., when we get a house) is better than moving twice (into another storage unit and then into a house). After we got over the Siskiyous, near sunset, a thick fog came up and turned the highway into a mysterious place of floating lights and half-visible vehicles. To cope with this, we stopped at A&W for some fried cheese curds - we generally don't do fast food but those things are addictive. We made it to Cottage Grove a few minutes before our friends Kelle and Kev got home from work and, after a brief introduction to the wonders of their pellet stoves, headed out to the Axe and Fiddle for dinner and pints. Kelle and Kev's job is moving to Las Vegas without them this week and they, like us, are looking for ways to do what they love (art, in this case) and get paid for it. Kelle's art website is here - it's worth looking at.

Thursday, after meeting the chickens and seeing the new greenhouse, we set off for Portland. Again, it was a lovely day and Mt. Hood was clearly visible - very exciting for me, since I've never actually seen it due to clouds. We stopped in Newberg at the Newberg Music Center to see our friend G.D., the owner, and spent a pleasant hour or so discussing music with him. Got to Portland in mid-afternoon, got most of our stuff into Anton and Katie's house, made a quick stop at Powell's, and set off for a session via dinner at a little taqueria called Cha-Cha-Cha. During the session (held, believe it or not, at a place called It's A Beautiful Pizza), the football teams of two rival Oregon universities were duking it out and our lovely music was frequently interrupted with cheering and clapping that, sadly, had nothing to do with us.

Friday was our day off from driving and we mostly took it easy. Anton and William worked on some duo guitar pieces (p.s., Anton's about to release his first CD, it's really good), William and I went to lunch at our favorite Ethiopian place, Mudai, and the three of us ventured out to Next Adventure to check out their 'bargain basement' of used outdoor gear. I think we're going to go back there sometime in the spring and stock up on backpacking equipment. That night, we ventured out to dinner at Tsunami Thai (have I mentioned it's been pretty darn cold?) and decided to go back to the house before going to yet another session. We almost didn't go back out but we decided to forge ahead and ended up at the Alberta Street Pub for a really rockin' session...got home about 1, I think...

Saturday was THE LAST DAY OF THE ROAD TRIP. We went out early to hear Anton's friend Eric Skye play at Haven Coffee - the music was fabulous and the eggnog latte reminded me that there are actually good things about winter. We got everything back in the car and made plans to meet up soon, since we're so close to Portland now! Lunch happened at the Fishbowl in Olympia, WA and we got the added bonus of being able to meet up with not one but two people we know in the area at the same time. And then we drove north, past still more mountains (we could see St. Helens, Rainier, and Baker) and rivers and gigantic evergreens. Dinner at the Skagit River Brewery rounded things off very nicely...especially since we're really going to have to cut back on eating out for a while...!

We're staying at a friend's house in Mt. Vernon, doing lots of cooking and networking and emailing and figuring out what to do next. There are great sessions here; we already know most of the Irish musicians in the area because of Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp and it's wonderful to see everyone again. It's also nice to be making plans to stay in one place instead of getting ready to take off again in a few days, but at the same time it's hard not to wonder what the next adventure will be.

Niles Canyon Railyard

2009-12-08T14:14:00.001-08:00

My friend Michael Duffy took me over to the Niles Canyon railyard in the East Bay a few weeks ago. The place is full of old train cars and engines in various states of decay, with a few volunteers around working on bits and pieces here and there. It was a great place to take photos...

Back "home"

2009-11-28T11:56:00.001-08:00

(started Saturday 11/28)

We've been back in the Bay Area for nearly 3 1/2 weeks now, minus a quick side trip to Willits (more on that later). We stayed in San Francisco for a couple of nights and in Cupertino for almost 2 weeks, and right now we're house- and cat-sitting for friends in San Carlos who are on vacation. WE HAVE THE HOUSE TO OURSELVES...it's so weird. We visited our friends who own Wild Hog Winery and our friends who make really good coffee. We went to two of the restaurants we used to go to several times a week - Kokila's Kitchen and Freedom Burrito - and they remembered us!

Unlike the rest of the trip, both of us know where we're going and how to get there when we get in the car. We don't have to look up vegetarian restaurants online or ask the people we're staying with if there's anything good in the area. We can walk into sessions easily, without wondering what the level of musicianship is or if anyone will talk to us. Most importantly, we have bunches and bunches of friends to see, to the point where today (Saturday) actually feels like a weekend because we only have plans for dinner instead of for most of the day. Our time here has been a blur of lunches, dinners, and coffees. We've retrieved guitars that were left with various people, listened to a couple of my former piano and fiddle students play, and visited the guitar class that William used to go to. A friend organized a small session for us in San Francisco, other friends hosted and joined us for William's birthday dinners (3 of them!), and another friend invited us over for Thanksgiving with just her and her daughter. We even spent a Friday night playing Rock Band - you only find out who your real friends are after you've belted out Queen and Talking Heads songs at them.

So...now what?

(continued on Monday evening, 11/30)

Today we spent hours in our storage unit, looking through boxes for books and clothes and whatnot that we wanted to ship or take with us. We mailed 4 boxes to General Delivery in Mt. Vernon and hopefully we will pick them up next Monday. We got two folding bicycles into the car - William's Brompton and my Dahon - as well as a suitcase and an extra guitar and some flutes. We are relatively optimistic that we made the correct decisions because we don't plan to come back here to get everything else until spring at the earliest...

Last night we went to the Irish music session at O'Flaherty's and got to see a few musicians that we hadn't seen yet. (Today I found out that all the famous people were at the Plough and Stars in San Francisco last night - sigh). We had Irish coffees and exchanged the usual sort of barbed banter that passes for humor among Irish musicians. There were compliments given and suggestions made and it almost felt like we had never left at all. But, on Wednesday, we will cram everything back in the car and head north, stopping for a night or two in Eugene and in Portland, OR and arriving in Mt. Vernon on Saturday.

I plan to keep this blog going - it is, after all, attached to our band website - and will be chronicling our search for normal things like a house, jobs, and really good coffee as well as anything musical that we get up to in the future. We do have another blog that should be maintained fairly regularly from now on; it's at http://wgdmcu.blogspot.com/ and is all about food and gardening. I have a post up there about the gardening workshop in Willits, with more on that to follow soon, and there's also a post about my recent adventure harvesting honey in our friend Charlotte's backyard in Cupertino.

If you've been reading along during our journey, please consider commenting on this post or sending us an email at castlerockmusic@gmail.com - we would love to hear from you!

Death Valley (part 2)

2009-11-28T11:49:00.001-08:00

Sunset and moonrise at Furnace Creek.

Natural Bridge Canyon.

Golden Canyon.

Mosaic Canyon.

Death Valley (part 1)

2009-11-28T11:34:00.001-08:00

Artist's Palette, near sunset.

Twenty Mule Team Canyon.

Zabriskie Point.

Badwater.

Joshua Tree National Park

2009-11-25T21:37:00.001-08:00

Joshua trees next to our campsite at sunset.

Yucca.

Joshua tree trunks.

Near Skull Rock.

Of trees, rocks, and canyons

2009-11-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, October 29, we returned to California after 4 months and 18 days of traveling through 34 other states and one Canadian province. It felt like the trip was over - we could no longer rely on our license plates to show other drivers that we weren't from around here, for one thing. At the California border, everyone has to stop to answer a few questions and show that they aren't importing dangerous fruit, and we had a difficult time answering the perfectly normal question, "Where did you come from?". Of course the trip isn't over; for one thing, all of our stuff is still in storage and we have no idea how long it's going to stay there. And, we don't have a house of our own yet. But returning to California was definitely a turning point.

We got to Joshua Tree National Park - after driving through Wonder Valley - around 3 or so and got everything set up, including the spiffy new queen-sized air mattress that fit perfectly in our tent. While we were setting up, the people next to us arrived and excitedly asked, "Are you here for the Phish concert?" Being the news-avoiding types that we are, we had absolutely no idea that this was happening and we were afraid that the campground would be completely full that night, but it wasn't too crowded and people were generally quiet. It was a little colder than we had expected that night - probably high 30s - but we were much warmer and more comfortable than at the Grand Canyon.

On Friday, William was still feeling a bit under the weather but we both wanted to go hiking, so we started out on the High View trail (the closest one to the campground). Joshua Tree is unusual among the parks we visited in that it's fairly close to civilization, especially at the west end of the park where we were. So, we went up, appreciating the mountains and desert around us, and arrived at the top to see a panoramic view of...the nearby towns and a nice layer of smog in the air. However, it was still worth the walk. That afternoon, after a fabulous lunch at The Natural Sister's Cafe, we went over to the visitor's center and then down to the Skull Rock trail, which has boulders as well as desert plants and looks like it should be in a completely different park. That was an excellent hike, although the discovery that the actual Skull Rock is right next to the road and we could have simply driven right up to it like everyone else did put a mild damper on things. We drove back to the campground the long way (which still only took us through about 5 % of the park) and stopped in Twentynine Palms for some firewood for the evening. That night there were many more people in the campground and we agreed that it was time to use our earplugs so we could actually get some sleep, which proved to be a very wise decision. When Phish started up - mind you, they were playing in Indio, about 20 miles away - we could hear every note and consequently didn't feel like we missed out on the concert at all...

Saturday, we got up early and got packed up and ready to leave fairly quickly. We gave in to the temptation of breakfast at Natural Sister's again, probably because they had vegetarian biscuits and gravy which is one of William's favorites. Our route to Death Valley took us back out through Wonder Valley and through the Mojave National Preserve (I just learned that we narrowly missed the town of Zzyzx) which is now yet another destination for a future trip. We got into Death Valley at around 2 or so but it was another 30 minutes before we got to Furnace Creek and our campground. We checked in...and found that the campsite we had reserved (based entirely on the map with no pictures or descriptions) was a narrow strip of gravel in full sun between two enormous RVs. So, we went back to the ranger at the entrance station and managed to negotiate a site in the walk-in area. We had our very own tree which more than made up for having to carry all of our stuff back and forth from the car, and we set up the tent directly underneath it so we had shade nearly all day. November in Death Valley means that the daytime temperatures only go up to 90 - so yes, it could have been worse, but we were pretty happy with our location. We went over to the visitor's center and the Furnace Creek Ranch, and decided to go over to Artist's Drive since we only had a couple hours before sunset. And, that night, we walked around looking at all the Halloween lights and decorations hanging on the RVs and then read for a while before going to bed - because, finally, it was warm!

Sunday, inevitably, I woke up feeling awful. William was still not at 100% either so we stumbled through making our oatmeal and coffee and tried to figure out what we were going to do. We settled on doing things that required more driving than walking and went over to Twenty Mule Team Canyon and Zabriskie Point in the morning. Of course, since we had our cameras, we ended up doing quite a bit of walking but I think that not doing an actual hike was a good idea. We had lunch and a bit of a nap at the campground, and then went down to Badwater in the afternoon. After that, we wandered around Furnace Creek for a bit, and, after using the free wi-fi to sneak in a bit of Internet, we noticed the booths set up for the Death Valley '49ers. Apparently, every year a large group of (mostly) elderly folks show up in early November to commemorate the pioneer spirit of the Americans who first traveled through Death Valley and gave it its name. And the best way to honor these brave adventurers is...to hang out in your RV when you are not attending the horseshoe tournament or the costumed pet parade. I don't understand people.

We both felt a bit better on Monday, and to celebrate we set off at the unprecedented hour of 8 am to check out Natural Bridge Canyon and Golden Canyon. We got slightly confused at the end of Golden Canyon and ended up not taking the correct fork, thereby missing the final rock formation, but it was still an interesting hike. Lunch was a picnic at Stovepipe Wells: we had a table by the general store all to ourselves except for the ravens who sat on the fence and glared at us the whole time we were eating. Then, we spent an hour or so in Mosaic Canyon, which was the most interesting and least populated hike we did and provided us with the information that the dominant type of rock there is Noonday dolomite - isn't that a great term? After the hike we went back to Stovepipe Wells and spent $4.00 each for our first shower in 4 days. Expensive...but unlimited hot water under those circumstances is priceless. That night, we tried the 49er Cafe at Furnace Creek Ranch - it was also expensive, but good. They had vegetarian options, beer from the Indian Wells Brewery, and date milkshakes for dessert; after several nights of basic propane-stove cooking, it was a feast.

Tuesday morning (Nov. 3rd), we packed up and prepared to return to civilization and the familiar territory of the Bay Area. Long-buried thoughts involving things like résumés and moving vans were starting to float through our heads...

The very kind people who have let us stay with them, part 3

2009-11-17T12:13:00.001-08:00

John Priestley (and his lovely wife Mary Lee), Richmond, VA.

Richard and Sheila Winett, and Jeter, Blacksburg, VA.

Fiona Solkowski and Doug Becker, Indianapolis, IN.

Samir Mehta, University City (St. Louis), MO.

Pat Japenga and Sam Broyles, and the Dude, Jamestown, CO.

Nicolas Prade, Michael Duffy, Miriam Kaplan, and Michael Jones, who shared the condo with us in Pagosa Springs, CO.

Brad, Jen, and Rhiannon Boute, Mesa, AZ.

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

2009-11-16T11:25:00.001-08:00

Organ pipe cactus

Old man cactus.

This one reminds me of a kaleidoscope

Teddy bear cholla.

Cacti usually bloom in spring, this was a nice surprise.

Aloe dorotheae, from Tanzania.

Lithops, also called living stones.

Palo verde: the trunk contains chlorophyll.

Close-up of the Boojum tree.

Back and forth

2009-11-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

We got to Phoenix at around 3 on Sunday (October 25th), reveling in the thought that we wouldn't need to sleep in all of our clothes again in the near future, and met up with my college friends Brad and Jen at their house in Mesa. We got caught up after nearly 9 years since the last time I was there, I allowed myself to be persuaded to play Candyland with Brad and Rhiannon, their 5-year-old daughter, and there was dinner for everyone and margaritas for most of us. It was really a nice way to be welcomed back into civilization and we spent a very pleasant evening getting through all our piled-up emails and showing William old photos from college.

On Monday, we ran around almost all morning doing errands and stocking up for our next round of camping. Driving around the Mesa area was...tedious. It reminded us of California (especially Los Angeles) since it seems to take forever to get anywhere and, generally, every intersection looked exactly like the last one. The drivers on the highway weren't terribly polite, either. We had lunch at Serrano's (which I highly recommend) and made a few feeble attempts that afternoon to organize all the stuff that needed washing and/or repacking after the last round of camping, but it didn't go very far. That night, we ventured out to play tunes with someone we had never met, and here's how we got there: Pat (who we stayed with in early October) in Jamestown, CO knows Sharon in Tucson, AZ who knows Sven who lives in Phoenix. We contacted Sven, he had planned to have a few people over that night but as it turned out we were the only ones who could make it. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time hanging out with him for a few hours.

On Tuesday...we made the decision to go back to Flagstaff for a couple of days. On the way out of Phoenix we stopped at the Desert Botanical Gardens, which caused me to spend several hours trying to figure out exactly how I would go about building a cactus garden in the Pacific Northwest. We got to Flagstaff around sunset and by the time we got to dinner (Flagstaff Brewing Company, of course - along with some fine beer, they have excellent black bean burgers) it was SNOWING. That was also the night that my computer's hard drive stopped working. Sigh...

Wednesday started with even more snow. And, William woke up with what was either an overly enthusiastic cold or a mild flu. I went out for a few hours: visited Starlight Books, which had a book on the photographer Imogen Cunningham, and tried out the coffee at Flagstaff Coffee Company, which features coffee from our old hangout Barefoot in Santa Clara, CA. I got lunch for both of us at Mountain Oasis and decided that I had had enough of the cold and snow for the day. We did both venture out that night for dinner at the appropriately named Little Thai Kitchen and then stopped by the outdoor store in the same shopping center, where we replaced our pecked-up water container and I finally got around to buying a hat like all the cool kids are wearing (it looks something like this - different colors though).

And, then it was Thursday. It stopped snowing, the sun came out, we found a queen-sized air mattress that fit the pump we had bought for the first mattress, and the weather forecast said that the lows in Joshua Tree National Park (the next stop) would only get down to the 40s. We set off into the Mojave desert for another 5 days of camping and realized that I-40 mostly parallels old Route 66 - yet another idea for a future road trip.

Grand Canyon

2009-11-14T13:46:00.001-08:00

The classic view...

...and a different perspective.

Looking up at the last few switchbacks at the top of the Kaibab Trail.

When the immensity of the canyon got to be too much, we started looking at smaller things - like this rock and lichen on the Hermit Trail.

Colorado River, near Pima Point.

Ups and downs

2009-11-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning (Oct. 22), we left Moab after breakfast and wi-fi at Eklecticafe and a stop at one of the many outdoor stores (sadly, I cannot remember which one but they have unlimited free water available to anyone who needs it, which is awesome). We bought two items: a twin-sized air mattress since William was having trouble with his hips from sleeping on the camping pad, and a 2.5 gallon collapsible water storage container. Remember these: they'll come up later. We also stopped at Moonflower Market for provisions for the next few days. On the way to the Grand Canyon we went through both Monument Valley and the Painted Desert - these are now on the list for more in-depth exploring on the next trip...

We got to the Grand Canyon about 4 or so and stopped at the first overlook along with everyone else. After Canyonlands, the crowds were a bit overwhelming, but we managed and got some nice views of the late afternoon sun over the canyon. We also stopped at the conveniently located bookstore and at the equally convenient small general store where we got some firewood and a few other things. We got set up and put dinner together and sat around the fire wondering if it was really going to be *that* cold at night. And - of course - it was. The temperature the first night got down to 23 degrees.

Now, here's where the aforementioned twin-sized air mattress comes in (you all saw this coming, right?). William was having hip problems but I wasn't; I was fine with one camping pad and if he had an air mattress, I could sleep on both pads and be even more comfortable. Also, the queen-sized mattress cost more and I wasn't absolutely certain that it would fit in our tent. So, I had (in more ways than one) made my own bed, and I was planning to lie in it...until about an hour after we went to bed and I couldn't sleep for shivering. It was COLD, and the sleeping bags and pads that were more than adequate at 40 degrees or so just didn't hold up at 23. Also, we have 2 bags that are zipped together and there are just more ways for the air to leak in that way. I may have actually been fine with one bag to myself, but that operation was far too complicated to attempt in the middle of the night. So I put on every layer of clothing possible (socks, woolen long underwear, jeans, shirt, sweater, jacket, and hat) and William and I curled up precariously on the just-barely-wide-enough mattress (it was fine until one of us wanted to turn over), and we survived the night. And the next night, and the next.

Friday morning, we lurched around until our legs started working again and then went for a walk over to the main plaza by the campground. There was the ubiquitous gift shop and a HUGE grocery store (also with gifts!) and deli, and a post office and bank too. We got a few things, again marveling at the difference between this canyon and the last one, and wandered over to the ranger station to get some ideas for our explorations. The ranger was very nice and suggested some hikes that were not going to be overly crowded. She also explained the enormous grocery store: there are 1200 houses for staff in that part of the park and it's simply too far to get to the next town on a regular basis. As we went in and out of the store over the next 2 days, we realized that the people there are in the bizarre position of living in a very small town where everyone knows everyone else but you hardly ever see the people you know because of all the tourists. It must be disorienting at times.

That afternoon, we took the shuttle bus (again, nothing like Canyonlands) over to Yaki Point and walked about 1.5 miles down the Kaibab Trail to Cedar Ridge. Lovely day, easy hike, lots of scenery etc. etc...until it was time to go back up. I thought I was in fairly good shape after the previous weeks but the return trip was awful and I had to stop and rest a lot more than I expected to. We saw a few people coming up from the bottom of the canyon with fully loaded backpacks from camping the night before and I really don't know how they managed it with the extra weight. After finally getting back to the top, we took the bus over to the visitor's center (again, there was a bookstore and gift shop) and pondered the names of all the different layers of rock in the canyon. That about exhausted our spirit of adventure for the day, and we headed back to the campsite planning on a hot dinner and a nice fire. And...remember the collapsible water container? The campground information leaflets mention that it is probably unwise to leave food out unless it's in a hard container because the ravens will do their best to steal it. We had put all the food away in the car but left the water container out - and the ravens, realizing that it held water, knocked it off the table and pecked a couple of holes in it to get a drink. So much for the nice new water jug. Not devastating, but supremely irritating all the same.

Saturday morning, we took the bus in the opposite direction and went over to Hermit's Rest. We went down the Hermit Trail a ways (but not too far) and enjoyed it very much, especially since there weren't many people around. After we came back up, we stopped at the (you guessed it!) gift shop and then walked over to Pima Point to catch the bus back to the campground. We had some lunch and sat around reading for a while and then we took a shower ($2.00 for 8 minutes)...boy did it feel good. Another night, another fire, and (since it was the weekend) this time we had neighbors serenading us with cell phone conversations and what I think might have been Mexican mariachi opera music. Is there such a thing? Google says 'yes'!

Sunday, we packed up early and headed south, feeling like intrepid explorers who had courageously braved the elements and survived the cold. We'd like to go back to the Grand Canyon but I think next time we'll try the North Rim (it closed on Oct. 15th) and be even more intrepid. We got to Flagstaff in time for lunch (Black Bean Burrito Bar) and then continued heading south - and down about 3000 feet - to Mesa (a suburb of Phoenix) where we were going to be staying with my college friends Brad and Jen. When we got out of the car at 2:30 or so, it was about 80 degrees outside and I thankfully decided that I could live with that for a few days.

Canyonlands: Wednesday

2009-11-12T17:24:00.001-08:00

The piles of rocks are trail markers.

Canyonlands: Tuesday

2009-11-12T17:15:00.001-08:00

The bat who spent the day sleeping on a wall at the visitor's center.

After the rain.

Arches: Monday

2009-11-12T17:07:00.001-08:00

Canyonlands: Sunday

2009-11-11T20:42:00.001-08:00

Late afternoon cottonwoods.

Still on public land; before the park boundary.

Sunset.

The Needles formation.

After sunset: the rocks practically glow on their own.

Mesa Verde

2009-11-11T20:30:00.001-08:00

I believe that this is poison ivy...

Cliff dwellings at Spruce Tree House.

Stones for grinding grain or corn into flour.

The entire Spruce Tree House site.

Desert, dialogue

2009-11-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

(While we were at Pat and Sam's house in northern CO, Pat listened to our plans for Arches and Moab, UT and asked if we had ever read Desert Solitaire. We hadn't, so she kindly loaned us her copy. I am eternally grateful for this; it prepared us for both the development and the wildness of the area.)

On Sunday, October 18th, we left the cozy comforts of the Wyndham Pagosa and, for the first time on this trip, set out in the morning not knowing exactly where we were staying that night. I had tried to make reservations at the campground at Arches National Park but it was too late, so I did some research on the area and found potential campsites all over the place. We reassured ourselves that it was Sunday and most people would be gone, and tried not to think about one websites' helpful information that mid-October was one of the most popular times to visit. We had plans to visit Mesa Verde on the way up to the Moab area and we decided to go through with those even though it's a LONG way from the park entrance to where the cliff dwellings are. With only an hour or so, we opted for the Spruce Tree House site which is near the visitors' center. It's a fascinating place: of course there were people everywhere but that actually made it easier to imagine the prospect of living with maybe 80 next-door neighbors under the protective cliff overhang.

We left Mesa Verde at 2 or so and anticipated getting to Moab at 5-ish. However, we saw the south turnoff for Canyonlands National Park around 4 and decided to try there for a campsite: all the sites are first-come, first-served so we figured we had a fighting chance. The problem with that entrance to the park is that you have to drive about 20 miles through private land before you even get to the park boundary, and then there's another few miles to the ranger station...where you find out if you get a campsite or not. The suspense was building but the land we were driving through was so stunning that we just decided to stop worrying altogether. And - we got the last site of the day! The very nice ranger phoned in and determined that we could camp in the group campsite with 2 other couples that had just arrived since they (the rangers) were fairly sure that there were no groups coming. We found the site, got set up and ate dinner, and wandered out to take some photos of the sunset. That night, there was a talk about the history of the area and the people who had lived there before it was made into a park - cattle ranchers, uranium prospectors, and a woman who founded a spiritual community - all fascinating personalities, of course.

Monday morning, after getting up for the sunrise, we decided to go over to Moab and Arches, after moving all of our stuff to a regular campsite. It was about an hour drive to Moab - we stopped at Newspaper Rock on our way out of the park - and by the time we got there we were ready for lunch, so we stopped at the Moab Brewery which had good beer (even if it was 3.2%) and several vegetarian options. Arches is only a couple miles north of Moab and it is much more crowded than Canyonlands. We stopped at the Visitor's Center and decided that we had time to see Balanced Rock and the Windows along with a few stops here and there. Arches is completely different than Canyonlands; mostly, you drive along and almost everything you want to see is a short walk from the road. Sometimes you can even see whatever it is from the road. It's still a beautiful landscape with fascinating views in every direction, but we quickly decided we prefer remoteness to accessibility. On the way back to Canyonlands, we stopped and got provisions for the next couple days. There might have been gelato as well...

We knew that it was supposed to rain on Tuesday, but we didn't know when, so after breakfast we planned an expedition over to the visitor's center to see what the weather forecast was. Before we left, I realized that somehow my camera battery had run out so we took that along and I plugged it in next to the sink in the women's room. Then I hung around nervously watching people going in and out and checking it every few minutes. Fortunately, I also had an excellent view of the approaching thunderstorm which was really spectacular - I believe William has a few photos of the clouds rolling in. We made it back to camp just before it really started raining and spent a couple of hours huddled in the tent while the wind blew and it poured and lightninged and thundered directly over our heads. The tent, happily, only leaked a little bit and most of the water came in over our feet instead of our heads so that was easy to take care of. Afterwards, we ventured out and went over to Big Spring and Pothole Point for an hour or so of hiking - we overheard one man saying that this was the 5th time he'd been to Canyonlands and it had never rained on him before. So, in a way I think we were lucky. We got back to our campsite just in time for another rain shower: fortunately, our site included a very large rock outcropping that had a ledge hanging over part of it. So, we moved everything up on the rock, cooked dinner while watching the rain, and ate while the sun was coming out and setting...all while staying perfectly dry.

Wednesday, we packed up the car and headed over to Cave Spring for a last round of hiking. Again, I really do think we were lucky - I have some photos from this hike of patterns in the mud and sand and of potholes with water in them, and none of those would have happened without the rain the day before. We left about noon, stopped at the Needles Overlook which was so windy we couldn't stand to be outside the car for more than a few minutes, and got back to Moab around 3 where we had a hotel room (with a shower! there are no showers at Canyonlands...) for the night. Moab has not one but three excellent bookstores and a respectable, not-too-touristy downtown area, so we spent a while there before having dinner at - surprise! - Moab Brewery. That night, I downloaded all my photos and backed everything up on our external hard drive, and that is why I have photos for the next post instead of a very sad tale of how all that beautiful scenery is lost forever.

Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

2009-11-11T12:07:00.001-08:00

Train Going Around Curve...everyone who's ridden a train has a few of these shots.

Animas River (in Spanish, River of Souls, or Spirits)

Silverton.

Just before leaving to go back down the mountain.

Aztec Ruins National Monument

2009-11-11T11:34:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite photos: the clouds and lighting were just right that day.

Original stones and timbers from around 1100 AD

Another favorite - mostly because of the shadows.

The original kiva...

...and the modern-day kiva.

Treasure Falls

2009-11-11T11:14:00.001-08:00