Ansel Adams, Eat Your Heart Out - Wednesday 2/18/2009

They say Ansel Adams sat for hours in remote places to get his amazing photographs.



I'm really not saying that I'm anywhere near as good as he was, but I am lucky to have great subject matter right outside my house.

Whitney Portal Hike - Saturday 9/20/2008 (Part 2)

We ventured up to Whitney Portal, the place where fearless mortals begin their climb to the top of the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S., Mount Whitney. So cool that WPA workers built this trail for us in the 1930s. What a great thing the WPA was.


Hydra enters the breach. The big rocks make me feel like a little kid!


Hydra overcomes his usual shyness and busts loose with some melodrama.


Falls at Whitney Portal.



Here we go, about to drop about 5000 feet in 13 miles. This is the road that is going to put the Tahoe in the hospital.


A view of the Alabama Hills from Whitney Portal Road.

Just a Couple More - Saturday 9/13/2008

This is it for today, I promise! I just loved these flowers, which came up of their own accord next to the Sanchez Produce Stand on Sierra Highway.

I had a great chat with the daughter of the family who runs it.



Hydra pulled over so I could take this shot of the nearly full moon rising over the Sierra Pelona range. This is right across Acton Valley from where we live. We were on our way to a hoot! Singing!

Into the Woods! - Friday 7/11/2008

GuitarDaddy and MandolinMama (friends from Songmakers) invited us up to their cabin in the Idyllwild area for the weekend. Isn't it adorable?

We had a nice 2 1/2 hour or so drive up here. The road up is much more gracefully curving than the way up to Big Bear & Lake Arrowhead.

Ours is the window in the peak.



Love the sheet music on the stand in the living room.


The way up to our quarters illustrates that this cabin is knotty pine heaven. Being surrounded by so much wood is truly relaxing.



But we need to go back down and join in the conversation. It's going to be good!


And there will be cake. I made this vanilla almond cake to take with us. Brought dinner of Tuscan sausage soup, salad, Asiago cheese bread and dessert to start the weekend off with.

It was good that our hosts had told us they wouldn't stress if we were delayed. We were about 45 minutes late. We didn't stress either. I seem to finally be learning that my stressing out about being late will only make the situation worse.

We're probably going to do more long weekend trips this year rather than a week or two of vacation at a stretch. I love that we have plans for the next few months!

Long Way to Pasadena - Friday 5/16/2008

Lots of stuff blooming along Angeles Forest Highway this season. It's a quiet way to get from Acton to La Canada-Flintridge.

I love these yucca stalks.


A tunnel. I also love mountain tunnels.

We were going to meet up with our dear friends who stood up with us at our wedding. They're in town to celebrate the marriage of their son. We held him before he was 24-hours old. Now he's 27.

We couldn't be more pleased that he's settling in Southern California. The last time his parents were out here before he moved here, the boys were in jams and we carried them around Disneyland when they got tired.

Cool Thing: A little history of Angeles Forest Highway.

My Home Away from My Home-Away-from-Home - Thursday 11/29/2007

Welcome to Panera, Palmdale. I came here for the reasonable soup and salad lunch, and their computer-friendliness, and this is where I got the day's writing done.

I spent too much time goofing around at home in the morning and I had to get on my Three Categories of Accomplishments for my 3rd layoff day. (Remember, we're laid off one day a week for the time being.)

House Accomplishment: gathered up two big bags of clothes, shoes, bags and toys and a box of housewares and delivered them to Goodwill; brought firewood in; did 2 loads of laundry.

Exercise: 20 minutes Pilates DVD. It was going to be 30 minutes, but I began to hurt inside near where my gallbladder used to be. The doctor said I wouldn't tear anything apart but I would know when to stop and that moment hit around 20 minutes of abdominal work. This DVD is a lot harder now than it was pre-surgery.

Writing: worked for about an hour and 15 minutes on the novel.



It was beautiful when I arrived at my home-not-away-from-home. I stood on the park bench in the back yard to take this picture.

Angeles Forest Highway - Sunday 11/4/2007

I feel a little sad that we didn't have time for more adventures during this visit, but I was completely out of commission most of the first week of Mom's visit. It was her last full day here. We took a drive up Aliso Canyon Road to Angeles Forest Highway. I think it's about 5 miles from our house to the edge of the Angeles National Forest.

This was taken from near a ranger station.



Brilliant colors, even in low light.



Hidden Springs Cafe was our unintended destination, about 20 miles from the house. We stopped in for a can of root beer to share. There were two women and a man at the horseshoe-shaped counter inside, talking about what movies were shot in the area, I think. Outside, a couple of bats flew by!



The cafe's covered patio is right against the rock face of the mountain. We also drove down into Monte Cristo Campground, but it and all access into the Angeles National Forest are closed due to extreme fire danger. You can drive through, but you can't hike or picnic.



On the way home, we were treated to some lovely views of the Acton area.



Below here a few miles, on the outskirts of Acton, we encountered two deer right in the middle of the road! So slender and delicate... We stopped and I flashed my lights till they left Aliso Canyon Road and took off over a ridge. Not sure if the ranger who came up behind us saw them or not. Those were the first deer I've seen in the area.



Heading for Acton Market for a few supplies, we were treated to a really spectacular light show. Nice ending to the day.