The past week's sky

 

The weatherman predicts four to seven inches of snow in the Valley tomorrow.

 

 

 

With three to four feet in the passes.

We have to go to the Cancer Center, but otherwise? I think we will stay home.

 

The past week's skies is the theme for the headbangers this week. Christine, Lew, Mac, and Tom will have other skies. Their links are in my sidebar.

 



Getting Ready for Christmas

Advent Wreath?  check

Lights?  check

Tree? check

Wishlist?  check

Cards? check

Giving Tree? check

Christmas Pageant?  oh, dear!

First practice for this year's Christmas Pageant is Friday afternoon. We will see how many shepherds and angels there will be this year.

I combined two pictures from last year to make the header.

See how the other headbanger members are getting ready for Christmas--their links are on my sidebar.

White

This is Mt. Stewart, white covered with snow--the peak seen through a peek in the white fog as we traveled to Seattle at New Year's.  How white can you get? We had a dusting of white yesterday. What am I saying? We had delayed school openings and school closures around the Northwest because of it. Love the snow.

The cropped and sharpened image is my white header.

Wonder what the others will have posted. Do you suppose we might find more snow by following the links to their blogs in my sidebar?

We will celebrate Thanksgiving here quietly as we did not travel to Arizona this year and our son has been without power since last week's windstorm. Not sure if they are powered up yet. They may barbecue their turkey.

FUN FUN FUN

We have all manner of having fun, as fun fun fun is the theme for our header challenge this week.

We've always had fun in the snow--though last winter there was not enough in our neck of the woods for snowshoeing, and our energy levels were not allowing much in that way of things.

The midway at the fair provides a lot of fun, here one sort of ferris wheel...

 ...but for big fun try the London Eye.

 Fiddling with your pictures is a lot of fun. I did not tell him what I was doing when I told him exactly where to stand.

 But it took several tries for my hubby or daughter to get my Chihuly hairdo just right.

 A long car ride leads to these cousins having fun at the rest area.

 I've chosen these kids having fun at Vacation Bible School for my header. The image fits just right with minimal editing.

Our header challenge happens every Wednesday--or thereabouts. Check out the others through their links on my sidebar near the top.

Then and Now

My post has three then pictures from two different kinds of then, all related to my now picture, which is not now now but recent now.

Here is the now.

 

 

...taken this summer on one of our few camping trips. It was a wet one. We travel comfortably with our Little Guy Trailer. We are snug and dry in the "bedroom" and love to cook outdoors either under the trailer's hatch  or at the campsite firepit.

 

 

Now some thens about "trailer" travel and camping.

 

Conestoga wagons at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

 

Inside the wagon at Emigrant Springs State Park (Oregon).



Far less comfortable I am sure. But it got them there.

 

And a "then" from our camping days before the Little Guy:

We did really have a tent, but sometimes crowding into the tent with several brothers, sisters, and/or cousins leaves one relishing the fresh air.

 

Headbangers!

 

Join us each Wednesday. We would love to have another challenger or two.

The current headbangers are linked in my sidebar.

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.