Historic District

My brother kept telling us about Bodie, California, a ghost town east of the Sierras. But I don't think he ever visited it. When we got the opportunity to go with friends Jules and Martha to see it, we jumped at it.

While going through the Bodie pictures to choose some good ones for the blogpost, though, I happened upon the picture I used on my header from the historic Longmire district of Mt. Rainier National Park. The historic headquarters building is reflected in the windows of a historic bus which took passengers to Paradise.

Back to Bodie, though. It was fun to wander through the derelict buildings and those that are restored as the state park. I don't have much time here before we have to leave the wifi, so I am just going to give the pictorial tour of the site, starting with the description of the history.

Other headbangers are linked near the top of my sidebar. PAy them a visit.

Trees

Well, I have found out that my office computer does not like to blog. And with still not having set up a new internet at home, I have had to bring my laptop to the office. Let us hope that it will cooperate.

We have a new headbanger theme of "Trees" presented to us by Christine. I had originally thought the theme was "Tree"--which does not seem like it would be much of a difference, but as I have a number of favorite photos depicting ONE tree, I was looking specifically for those and not images with a number of trees.

We will miss this tree this year as we will not be taking our usual Thanksgiving trip to Arizona.

That is not my favorite tree anyway.

My favorite tree photos--both tree and trees--come from travels far and wide and some time ago. The first is this picture of the Taiga Forest of Siberia--well, a bit of it close to Academgorodok in Krasnoyarsk--the University District, so to speak. The picture was taken quite near the apartment of our hosts while we were visiting our son and future (and now actual) daughter-in-law there. We had planned the trip for their wedding, but because of some bureaucratic details the timing of the ceremony had to be changed. We would not have been able to attend and our tickets were non-refundable, so there we were ahead of time. Quite a trip. The birch forest was right out the door of the building as I recall. A large version of this photo hangs above my desk at home.

That was in 1998. A year later we did our first Alaska cruise and while visiting Tracy Arm spotted this lone tree in the fog high above the cliffs. This remains one of my favorite tree pictures.

 

In 2000 I visited India as part of a month long mission. On one of our touristy excursions, we visited this garden at ----well, maybe the name of the park will return to me. I posed under Buddha's tree and saw my first elephant.

 

Isn't he cute? We saw some elephants in the distance when we visited the National Park and Tiger Preserve whose name is also eluding me. And I was "blessed" by a temple elephant in Chennai.

 

 

This coconut nursery was a source of income for the boys' home where we volunteered. These baby trees would grow to be very tall.



 

 

Here at home, this display near the visitor center at Ohanepecosh (Mt. Rainier National Park) gives us a clue as to the age of the surrounding trees.

 Around seven hundred years.

 

They grow very tall. I always like to look up at the tops of the trees.

 

 



By far my favorite tree picture--well, it has to compete--is one from our hike along Hadrian's Wall when we visited the UK. Looking down you see the well that stands by the tree. I don't know that this very tree stood there when Emperor Hadrian had the fortified wall constructed to keep  those barbaric Scots (my husband's people) out of the Empire, but I am sure that there were others.

 

See what the other headbanger challengers have come up with from links in my sidebar, and let me know if you would like to join us. We are looking for a few good headbangers--errr, that is to say bloggers who would like to join our weekly madness.

 

 

 





Selfie

Obviously I have lost it.  Today's theme is TODAY and I am totally unprepared because I worked so very hardly on the theme I thought it was which was next week's theme of SELFIE. I am not in position to change. So there you have it. Today I posted a selfie and that is the way it is.

This is my favorite selfie. (I don't take pictures of myself. I don't have the knack, I don't take a good picture in the best of times, and I am embarrassed.)

 

See--we are both there in the reflection in the wet sand. (TODAY I am wishing for another trip to the beach!)

 

Does a picture taken by someone else with my camera count? Here I am the other evening with Bishop Tyson when I received an award.

I told you I take a terrible picture. (Well, it isn't TODAY, but TODAY I am trying to figure out where to hang the plaque!)

 

Yesterday (as opposed to TODAY!) afternoon we went for a drive. It was an adventure into the Horse Heaven Hills and onto primitive roads with no warning signs and narrow sharp hairpin turns to get back down to the valley. I made a stop to take a selfie, with the valley as my backdrop. At least there is something worth a picture.

 

The weirdest thing was, at that point we met TRAFFIC.

 

Our headbanger theme this week is NOT selfies. I've done my best. You can find the others in the links on my sidebar.

What is that?

What is that?

Looks like a strange alien landscape but viewed through a frame of pine branches. It is a bit of the lakebed at Rimrock Lake after the water has been drawn down for irrigation. I believe I took this one in January, when there was a bit of snow covering.

 

Faces?

The erosion of these rock faces at Capitol Reef National Park look like monster faces. The one on the right a bit like a chimpanzee.

Close and sharp?

Thorns on a cactus on one of our Arizona hikes.

 

Twins?

 What's this now? What is this cutie from the pet blessing last year here in Grandview, Washington, doing on a billboard in Arizona?

 

But what is this?

 

Something she has on that tablet certainly has all the brothers and sister enthralled!

 

 

Headbangers are busy today with the them of "What is that?" I think this may be a little different take on the theme, but when I was looking back for a mystery picture I found this and thought it perfect for the day.

 

Did the others in our header challenge find an off the wall take on the theme? or did they find some mysterious object or critter to snap? Their links are near the top of my sidebar.



Tell a Story

I proposed the theme of "Tell a Story" some time ago with something totally different in mind than what I have here to share. Perhaps the other Headbangers will post pictures that tell a story within themselves as I had intended. But when looking last night for some story worthy photos, I suddenly remembered these which were taken more than ten years ago when I was called upon at the last minute to provide an entertainment program for the Summer Reading Program at our local library. (More than ten years? I just realized that the teenager in the background is the same age as my youngest daughter, 37. So this had to be about twenty years ago.)

I appeared a couple of days later as Ms. Frizzle, the star of the Magic School Bus series of children's books. Ms. Frizzle is a creative school teacher who takes her students on amazing field trips in her magic school bus. Trips such as under the sea to study the fishes or through the blood vessels to study the body. There are dozens of these stories.

For each lesson, Ms. Frizzle dresses appropriately, with an outfit covered with things that might be seen on that particular trip; and in the last scene of each book she has changed to a dress that predicts the next destination in the series.

In this first image, which I will adapt for my header, I am wearing fish clothing. the skirt, the hat and the necklace  feature fish prints. (I wonder what happened to those. I could use those fish fabrics for a quilt.) I am holding the Magic School Bus story where the class goes under the sea. I can't see the exact title but I can see the bus in its dive.

 I apparently had a quick change ready, as here I am entertaining the kids with my invisible dog and am dressed in a skirt and apron with pets on them. (Do you see Rover's collar at the end of the leash?)

My husband, Ranney, is a great one for telling stories. His Dad used to say "Don't get him started!" Of course, his Dad was also a great storyteller, too, and had plenty of experiences in his ninety two years to build them on. Here is Ranney telling his favorite spooky story to the grandkids at our campfire during "Cousin Camp" this summer.

What stories have the headbangers told this week? Take a look at their blogs which are linked in my sidebar near the top.

It's not for nothing that it's called the Evergreen State.

Lew set the theme for today's headbangers as "Fall Colors". No wonder as it is the first day of fall and I am sure that the trees are starting to put on a show in his neck of the woods.

We went out looking for some fall color over the weekend. Well, when we went out to our favorite mountain hangouts I remembered the theme and said to my honey--I can get some fall color shots for my blog.

As I say, it is not for nothing that we are called the Evergreen State, for much of what we saw was as this view down the Eastside Road (Highway 123)..

 

Spots of color were pretty awesome. It is still early for the fullness of fall's display, but you can see the start of the turning.

Fall colors in New England and the Eastern Seaboard are very dynamic as there is an abundance of hardwood forests. Here where much is evergreen we love the spots of birch, alder, and maple dotted through the green.

I declare, though, that the true colors of fall are the blue, green and silver of the Seattle Seahawks.

 

Go Hawks!

I am sure that our headbanger friends have seen some gorgeous signs of fall in their areas, with or without a football team. You will find their links in my sidebar near the top.

50

The headbangers theme this week is Fifty. We are coming up in two years on our fiftieth anniversary. Our friends Angelica and Martin celebrated half that this past week with a renewal of vows and reception.

Martin beams at his bride of twenty-five years.

The mariachis played for two hours at the reception. I want mariachis for my fiftieth.

For a full fifty, though, we took our last cruise to Alaska during the state's fiftieth anniversary.
Here is a view of our ship. I will use it for my header.

 

This bear was pretty blasé about the celebration.

Away - Day

Not really sure what Mac had in mind when he suggested the theme "Away - Day". Of course he is away--for much more than a day.

 

These folks are getting ready for an away day.

We were on an away day when we saw these horses on an away day.

Sometimes we see a ball game when we are on an away day.

Many times our away days involve either a National Park

 or Family.

Then there are the ones that involve both.

 

For my header I decided that the ultimate away day is being had by those here.

When I took the picture of the plane flying parallel to us we were on an ultimate away day--days--when we traveled to Scotland to hike and to Lincolnshire to visit Mac.

Other header challengers are linked in my sidebar. Would you like to join us?

Latest Pictures

While these are not the latest pictures I have taken, they are some recent ones from this spring and are available to me at the moment when I am not connected to my external hard drive.

Baby Bears

Almost gotta be better than kittens, right? They were at Bearizona when we visited that park near Grand Canyon in March.

Other headbangers linked in my sidebar.