Zinnias~Today's Flowers~062813

These are a few of the zinnias in my front wildflower garden.  I ordered 1/4 pound (well, actually it was MORE than that...) of a desert wildflower mix and I'm delighted with how well the seeds have grown.  I DO supplement them with "horse manure tea", since I have an unending supply of horse manure (I have 5 horses).  The zinnias immediately responded to the first dose of the tea and I do believe they doubled in size almost overnight!  :-)  I enjoy my garden and the birds, butterflies, and other critters who come to it.  And, my white cat loves to take his afternoon nap in the middle of it! Today's Flowers for June 28, 2013.  To visit Today's Flowers, please go to:   http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Lily~Light and Dark Contrasts for My Town Shoot Out~062613

The lillies are blooming up at the horse ranch where I board my herd and I really liked this one last Tuesday when I stopped by during their weekly lesson.  I like its bright yellow contrasting with the dark background, which is really the grass behind it.  My Town Shoot Out for July 26, 2013.  It's supposed to be 111 here today in the desert...ugh...summer is HERE!  To visit My Town Shoot Out, please go to:   http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/

Hummingbirds at the ranch

I was talking to the ranch owner on Tuesday, when I my trainer was working with the horses.  She comes once a week and works each horse. Anyway, before she arrived, the ranch owner and I were standing on her porch where she has three hummingbird feeders.  I counted a couple dozen hummers flying around.  She told me these were the babies and they stay all summer.  It was quite noisy standing there with the little guys buzzing around!  And, they weren't very cooperative, either, so these are the only photos I got of them!  Maybe next week...???  I also took a photo of their wagon, looking out over the flowers.

Sprinklers~Water World Wednesday~062613

I always get excited when I see sprinklers going, especially here in the desert.  I drove past this huge agricultural field up in Anza yesterday and stopped to take these photos.  To me, there's just something relaxing about watching them...  I did have to take these through a fence, so that's what you see in the foreground.  Water World Wednesday for June 26, 2013.  To visit WWW, please go to:   http://www.kissess4u.com/2013/06/water-word-wednesday.html

HOME at last!!!

So, after an overnight stay in Ridgecrest, we made it home yesterday, before noon.  It wasn't that hot in the desert.  It was overcast and 97 degrees.  And, last night was down to 74 degrees, so we opened up every window in the house and allowed it to air out.  My wildflowers out front survived, thanks to daily visits from my family members, but the dogs sure let us know how much they missed us!  Whoo, whoo, howl, howl!  And my indoor black cat, Abby, wouldn't come out for over 2 hours...she was so mad at us!  She finally had to give us her opinion and it wasn't a nice one.  She was upset!  But, it's good to settle in back at home.  I'll be going up for a horse lesson tomorrow morning and then I have an iPad class on Thursday.  Seems like there is always something to do, right?  Here are a few pics of my garden.  I can't wait to see what birds and butterflies arrive today.  Oh, and our gecko family was out on the kitchen screen again last night!

Bald eagle spotted

Hubby and I decided to drive to Convict Lake.  He offered to buy me lunch, so off we went.  On the way, he announced, "Stop the car!  There's a bald eagle overhead!"  and yup, sure enough, there was!  It was making lazy circles in the sky right above us.  I was so excited I nearly dropped my camera.  I clicked away until I was sure I'd got at least one decent photo of the magnificent bird.  Lunch?  Nah...we got there 40 minutes early and there were mosquitoes everywhere, so we ate at a New York deli in Mammoth.

Jet trails over the Sierra Nevada~SkyWatch Friday~062013

Upon leaving Bodie a couple days ago, we saw a lot of jet trails in the sky.  When we finally drove up to the Virginia Lakes, I stopped to admire these.  SkyWatch Friday for June 20, 2013.  To visit SWF, please go to:   http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Sierra fence~Friday Fences~062013

Just one of the Sierra Nevada fences we've seen on our trip.  It's going to be hard to go home...sigh... Friday Fences for June 20, 2013.  To visit Friday's Fences, please go to:   http://lifeaccordingtojanandjer.blogspot.com/

Another shot of how windy it was at Bodie yesterday

Yes, look at that flying hair!

Sheep, sheep, and more sheep!

Yesterday while driving into Bodie, we saw three separate herds of sheep along the way.  In two of them, there was a donkey in the middle of the herd.  I'm wondering if the donkeys were there to alert the sheepherders of coyotes?  Does anybody know?  There were several herding dogs also, and several sheepherders.

***UPDATE*** I found from a couple of friends that donkeys are used as herd lookouts.  Apparently they will go after and KILL coyotes!  They also alert the sheep herders to intruders and will chase away unwanted varmits.  No wonder these herds each had a herd donkey.  Also, llamas are used as lookouts.  Interesting, eh?  Donkeys and llamas don't require special food, either, and can eat whatever the sheep are eating, therefore keeping their costs of maintenance down.

How windy was it at Bodie yesterday?

It was THIS WINDY!

Bodie trip

So yesterday we had lunch at the Silver Lake Cafe.  There's also a general store there so that the fishing folks can get supplies and groceries.  The cafe has great food and all the locals go there to eat, so if you are ever in Silver Lake, be sure you stop in for breakfast or lunch.  They do close at 2:00 p.m., however.  Then, on up to Lee Vining for a visit at the rug store.  Hubby had purchased a pullover which was missized, so he wanted to return it.  Then, on to Bodie.  Bodie is an old, abandoned mining town and it is 13 miles off Highway 395.  The last 4 miles are a VERY ROUGH and dusty dirt road.  And, it was very windy yesterday, making the dust all that much worse.  And, the state of California has raised the park's fees.  It is now $7.00 per person and their guide book is another $2.00, so we got in for $16.00 yesterday.  We arrived at 3:00 p.m. and were done by 4:15.  There were thunderheads developing overhead, but the afternoon turned into a gray day, with almost too many clouds.  For once, the park wasn't overflowing with crowds and for the first time, we were able to photograph the buildings without people in the way!   :-)  I'm glad we visited Bodie again (it is a California state park).

Took a ride yesterday morning

I went out for another ride yesterday morning while hubby was taking yet ANOTHER nap.  Seems he is pretty tired and mentally exhausted from his work and this Sierra trip is just what he needed.  Plus, the cooler air up here makes it easy to take a nap.  I took two little ones myself yesterday!  Anyway, I drove past Silver Lake.  There was some kind of event going on in the boat rental parking lot and it was roped off.  There were booths set up so maybe it was some kind of fishing exhibition?  I did see this dad out fishing with his two young children.  I LOVE how the little guy is taking a nice nap on dad's back!

I took a drive yesterday...

I took a drive about 5:00 p.m. yesterday while hubby was taking a nap.  I'd had a short one earlier and wanted to get out and see Silver Lake in the late afternoon.  After all, one can't sleep through a Sierra vacation, right?  So, off I went, just me and the XTerra...I pulled into the now nearly empty parking lot at one of the favorite fishing spots at the north end of Silver Lake.  There was only one car in the lot and two fishermen were out on the lake in little, round floating tubs.  I even spotted a small island in the lake.  I'd never seen that island before, but I had seen photos of it, so I was delighted to find it.  Here are some photos from my afternoon excursion.  Oh, we'd driven down to Bishop in the morning to buy a couple of throw blankets.  Our cabin has two rocker/recliner chairs that tilt up and back and we like to take "power naps" in them.  We also bought a pot to boil spaghetti in and some items at KMart, Vons, and Smart & Final.  Hubby made spaghetti for dinner last night and we had a salad with it...yummy!  Why does everything taste so much better in the mountains? Maybe it's because we are hungrier?  We've gone from an elevation of 200 feet above sea level to over 7,000 feet at the cabin here in the Sierras. We also drove up Bishop Canyon, but Bishop itself was 90 degrees, so after a lunch of sandwiches from Schatz' Bakery in Bishop, we headed back to the cabin.  Out of the 9 cabins in our little neck of the woods, we were the only occupied one...that is, until a raccoon bounded up the steps and checked out the leftover birdseed on the porch!  All photos are at Silver Lake.  The June Lake loop is a side road off Highway 395 which goes into the little mountain town of June Lake, CA.  There are four lakes there:  June Lake, Gull Lake, Silver Lake, and Grant Lake.  These lakes feed into the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water Department and provide water for the citizens of Los Angeles, as do the lakes in Bishop Canyon.  The June Lake lakes are all stocked with fish in May and they provide fishing all season for fishermen (and women) from all over.  In fact, one of the other cabins had a whole family out fishing.  I saw their waders hanging off the porch railing to dry.  Hubby and I don't fish...we just take photographs of the fishermen!  I'll have to do that...maybe today.

Sierra sunset

I didn't take this photo~~hubby did.  He has a Zeiss lens on his Canon and his photos are, well, gosh darn!  They are just better than mine!  And, his camera is twice as expensive as mine!  Oh, well.  As we were returning home from Mono Lake, I noticed the sunlight coming through the Sierras and I asked him to lean out the window and take a couple of photos.  So, here they are!  (...sigh...I just can't do this with my lens...)

Mono Lake

Every time we come up to the Sierras, we have to visit Mono Lake.  It's such an amazing place!  Did you know that it is saltier than the ocean?  Yup...the Salton Sea, too, is saltier than the ocean.  There are lots of gulls out at Mono Lake and one time a whole flock of them was in the parking lot.  It was like something out of "The Birds".  However, yesterday was so windy that we didn't see many gulls.  We arrived at Mono Lake about 5:00 p.m. after a run to Lee Vining.  DON'T EVER buy gasoline there!  It was $4.99 a gallon!  We've been there on previous visits where it has been over $5.00 a gallon.  So, thinking ahead, we ran down to Mammoth Lakes and filled up at "only" $4.45 a gallon (it's $3.89 at home).

It was very windy out at the lake.  Late afternoon is always a good time to get out and take photos and I like how the colors turn brown and yellow.  We'd noticed some thunderheads building up as we were buying gas, so we both headed back to the cabin, dumped off our groceries, and headed out to Lee Vining and then Mono Lake.  It's always dusty out there and you have to drive a gravel road to get to the lake, so be prepared for a dirty car!  Awww...but it's worth it!  If you are ever in this area, go to the SOUTH tufa exit, which is also Highway 120.  This is where most of the tufa is, not the NORTH tufa exit, which actually has very little. The tufa is actually limestone that has accumulated over the years. There's also an excellent visitor center for Mono Lake and it has many exhibits.  We didn't stop there yesterday, but might do that today.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!   :-)