A Walk in Three Rivers (or Forgive Us our Trespasses)

Trail Guy and I go for walks from our house in Three Rivers. I’d say its just what old people do, but we’ve been doing this for 20 years, and we still go steep places that may or may not be considered trespassing.

Here is how things looked yesterday afternoon.

The decorations on the Dinely Bridge might be considered a Peculiar Sight, but we are used to them and look for them.
The star gets placed and lit by Southern Calif. Edison each December. It might be considered a Peculiar Sight to a newcomer. (I consider the dark spots in the sky to be a peculiar and annoying sight; it might be time for a new camera.)
Some retired guys wear short pants almost all year around. At least this retired guy has nice legs. . .
Sycamores along the river below have more color this year than in a long time.
Edison is releasing water instead of sending it down to the power plant. I don’t know why.
The clean air is such a relief after the rains, which we are so very grateful for.

Then we walked home, and our mulberry tree was just lit up with yellow. This is a fruitless mulberry, the type that gets hacked back to knobs by most folks. Not us – we need the shade and love the yellow (never mind what it has done to the grass beneath or is doing the ferns by the front porch).

Tucker and Scout were happy we returned. We have to sneak off so they don’t notice and follow us.

Scout is always ready for action (which is why she is slightly blurry in this photo.)
Yellow eyes, yellow leaves, 2 black cats.

P.S. Today’s Anne Lang Emporium featured oil painting 

Navel, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60

Six Things I Learned in November

It used to be pretty here in the fall.

November felt rough and busy, and I wondered if I learned anything. Some of these things may have been acquired in October, a more educationally productive month. Perhaps the continued filthy air has muddled my thoughts. It certainly messes with my attitude. Sigh.

But let not your heart be troubled; learning continues. . .

  1. Barkthins – these are scary good dark chocolate treats that come in 6 flavors. Supposed to be 9 servings per bag. Fall down laughing. Barkthins available on Amazon
  2. Tomatoes – Some plants just don’t make fruit in the heat. We planted 4 tomato plants in the spring and harvested about 6 tomatoes during the summer. The bugs and birds got the other 6. Then, when the heat subsided, the tomato plants went nutso. They now contain about 3-4 dozen tomatoes and are taking up twice the space. Guess I’ll have to learn what to do with green tomatoes next month, because we will have to pick them before it freezes. Wish I could remember the variety so I don’t do this again next year.
  3. New words: Chatoyant and druzy are 2 words (adjectives) that I learned from my friend Elizabeth, who makes jewelry using beautiful stones. “Chatoyancy” refers to an undulating luminescence, and druzy refers to a stone that is covered by crystals. (I don’t feel equipped to use these words in sentences yet, but I like the sound.) Cruft: a noun that means a. Anything old or of inferior quality; b. Redundant, old or improperly written code, especially that which accumulates over time; clutter.
  4. Hand-lettering is a real thing. I volunteered to do some verses on signs for a church event, and holy guacamole, I could not believe how slow and difficult it was to do a good job. This is more about design and drawing than about typography. Turns out that these were practice for the Perfect Gift Boutique! (Need any signs hand-written? Ask me, but please give me more than 2 days to do 17 signs.)
  5. Family weddings are the best thing ever. I already knew this, but it was reinforced when we had one in November. Here is my favorite candid photo, not of the bride, but oh so beautiful.
  6. Clean Happens is the name of an all purpose cleaner that comes in a spray bottle made by Better Life. I like to keep things very simple, and try to only use 2 cleaning products: ammonia and bleach. Trouble is, those 2 can’t be mixed, so I have to really pay attention. Clean Happens is supposed to do the trick of both those other things. I don’t know what it is made of. I don’t know how well it works yet. November is too busy for messing around with mops and rags – shows to put on, weddings to attend, signs to letter, paintings to complete. Clean Happens is available on Amazon

If you order these 2 products on Amazon by using these links, I will receive a few pennies. That’s called “affiliate marketing”, something I learned about and told you about back in June’s Things I Learned post.

P.S. Today’s oil painting at Anne Lang’s Emporium (YOU’D BETTER DROP WHATEVER PLANS YOU HAVE FOR LUNCH TODAY AND GO HAVE A TURKEY MELT!! – last chance ever)

Timber Gap with Lupine, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×8″, $100

Learned in October

  1. These are dogwood “berries” (don’t know if that’s the real word for this). A friend showed me that her domestic dogwood tree made berries, but this is the first time I’ve seen them in the wild.
  2. This same friend introduced me to this: “Cottage gas stations” a style of gas station built in the late 1920s and ’30s. What?! The idea was to have them blend architecturally with residential areas, and some went so far as to have decorative non-functioning chimneys! Many have been remodeled as coffee shops, retail stores, hair salons, markets, offices, and all sorts of businesses, while others have fallen into disrepair. Here are a few links to some of these photogenic structures:  History of Cottage Gas Stations, Historic Filling Stations, Gas cottages Phillips 66
  3. The topic of cabins and what makes a cabin is much deeper and more thought-provoking than I ever imagined. A cabin might be simple, but discussing it is not. Who knew??
  4. I learned the hard way that buying a template is no guarantee of correctness. Even when you buy a calendar template from a printer and add your own artwork to the template, YOU NEED TO PROOFREAD THEIR TEMPLATE. If you ordered a calendar from me, you will be receiving a replacement one in the mail soon. If you bought it in person, get in touch with me for the replacement. (I don’t know when they will be arriving, but I will replace every one that I am able to find the buyers, all 65 calendars if possible. . .Oy Vey. . .)
  5. Each summer I think I will learn the names of trees in Mineral King. Then I get so into the wildflowers that I don’t pay attention to the trees. This fall I learned Western White Pine, AKA Silver Pine. We found one between Crystal Creek and Soda Springs, and then I was able to find it in a simple “Tree Finder” book. I’ve never seen this before, and don’t know if I’d recognize it in another context.
    Western White Pine cones
    The needles are similar to foxtail and lodgepole
    the branching pattern is distinctly unfamiliar.

    The sign doesn’t identify the tree but in this photo you can see the bark pattern.
  6. Did you know that in the publishing world, it gets busy in the fall? Many people want to get their books printed by Christmas. It is slower in January and February. This is helpful information to me as I work on Wildflowers of Mineral King. No one needs this book in December; no one needs this book until May. Hence, I am slowing down the process of completing the book. (This will give me more time to proofread it. . . sigh.) 
  7. Magnifying glasses, just like a kid’s magnifying glass, can start fires or melt plastic.

    Well, oops. I’ll be more careful about where I lay my glasses in the future.

Closing the Cabin in Mineral King

We usually choose a weekend in the middle of October to close our cabin for the season. The date is not weather based, but instead it is based on what fits our schedule, that of our neighbors, and how badly we just want to put away our duffle bags for the year and STAY HOME.

The weekend of Oct. 12-14 was our last weekend up the hill for the year. The road isn’t closed yet, and there may even still be water in the campgrounds. Silver City’s last day is October 27. The autumn colors were still present during our final stay, and the air was clear and nippy in the shade.

 

P.S. Remember the Harvest Festival tomorrow at the Lemon Cove Womans Club from 10-4!

Eight Things I Learned in September

It has been over a year that I have posted these monthly lists, and one of the things I’ve learned is that I learn 6-8 notable things every month. (I didn’t add this fact to September’s list because it felt so obvious.)

  1. Ladyfinger grapes are a new variety of seedless grape. I don’t know where to buy them, but I sure enjoyed them at a potluck!

    Lady finger grapes, a new variety.
  2. My last name is associated with jaundice in Ukraine; they call it Botkin’s Disease. Jana Jaundice does sort of flow, but I will choose to stick with Botkin.
  3. The wildflower Indian pink, which blooms in the foothills in the spring, is red, not pink. This has bothered me for many years (Yes, I know, get a life already). In September, I learned that it is so named because the edge appears as if it was trimmed with pinking shears!
  4. Duckduckgo is a search engine that doesn’t save history, chase you around the internet, and clutter your life with ads. I’ve used it most of September; this is how my home page looks now. Back in the last century when I chose the G for my home page, it was because of its clean white simplicity. This will do quite nicely instead. I’m very happy to not have ads chasing me onto every web site.
  5. Clean air is essential for people with lung diseases even with oxygen 24/7. My friend who is waiting for lungs is markedly improved in her strength, endurance, and overall health after 6 weeks in a place of clean air.

    On the Cayucos pier.
  6. The Elfin Forest in Los Osos is a  San Luis Obispo County park. It has pygmie oaks, because of the salt air and poor soil. It all looked like shrubs to me; seeing it satisfied my curiosity about the place.

    The Elfin Forest, Los Osos, San Luis Obispo County
  7. Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal is the most instructive book I’ve ever read about aging and terminal illness. If you have people in your life who are aging and are wondering about assisted living options for them, or people who are facing a terminal illness, this book will help you figure things out with your loved one’s best interests in mind. It is outstanding, teaching through stories and the author’s personal experiences. I learned way more than you want to read in a blog list.
  8. The plant that I and everyone I know calls “Ice Plant” at the beach is actually called “Sea Fig”. “Sea Fig”? Who makes up these names? I found it in several of the wildflower books that I’m using to gather names for the upcoming Wildflowers of Mineral King: Common Names.

And now, may we PLEASE be finished with summer’s heat??

Random Round-up Including Mineral King History

Today is a round-up of several topics, including Mineral King.

The 2019 calendars are selling steadily – $15 includes sales tax, and I am willing to eat the mailing costs, yum yum. (The Three Rivers Post Office is actually a pleasure to visit.) Yes, that is Sawtooth Peak on the cover, one of the most prominent landscape features in Mineral King. (“Features”, as if it is landscaped? Good grief.)

Ever try to type on a laptop with two purring teenage cats on your lap at the same time? Tucker kept a paw and his chin on the keyboard area, while Scout kept climbing around and slobbering a little. Not a very productive time, but it is a pleasure to have kitties around (except for the slobber part).

A friend wanted to ride her new Harley to Mineral King. She has good sense, and instead, chose to ride it to the Mineral King mural in Exeter.

Louise Jackson gave a talk at the Three Rivers library about why the Disney plan for a ski area in Mineral King failed and how it tied into the larger world. It didn’t fail for one reason but for a combination of reasons:

  1. Roy Disney, Walt’s brother, was the one who ran the business behind the scenes. He kept saying, “We are in the entertainment business, not the recreation business”. When Walt died at age 65 in 1966, some of the fire for the ski area died down. Walt was a skier; perhaps Roy wasn’t. . .
  2. The environmental movement was growing during that time; conservation and preservation became more important than development.
  3. The avalanches were a real problem, and when the big one happened in 1969 that took out cabins, killed a Disney guy and proved that managing the snow was potentially a huge problem, more of the wind went out of their sails.
  4. The road was too expensive to fix. The road was terrible. Still is. We don’t mind. 😎

The avalanche of 1969 crushed the store and rental cabins; Disney sent people in to burn all the rubble. The only little cabin that survived was the Honeymoon Cabin, also known as the Point Cabin.

Honeymoon Cabin #32, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×8″, $100 plus tax.

And finally, I have been working on a new book! Nope, I’ll tell you about it next week. . . see you on Monday!

 

Labor Day

Turning Leaf XVIII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $64 including California sales tax

Remember in the olden days when Labor Day was the first day of school? You’d get up in the dark, put on new clothes, wear shoes for the first time in months and say, “Mom, these shoes are too tight!” to which she’d respond, “They are fine. You just aren’t used to wearing shoes”.

Then you’d stand out in front of the house with your lunch box (mine was Mary Poppins, and although I didn’t see the movie, I did have the record) and a cat or dog for a photo.

Photos were a big deal in those days, taken to commemorate Events rather than for routine and systematic documentation of everyday life. None of us knew what to do with our faces or our hands or our bodies when a camera was looking at us. Today all kids can instinctively arrange their bodies into professional look poses and with their perfectly straightened teeth and the confidence of a supermodel, they all look naturally beautiful.

Now school starts in early August when it is still hot. I think everyone wears shorts to school now, which were forbidden in the olden days except for P.E., which was required from 7th grade on.

I am very old-fashioned. There are no drawing lessons in July or August, and we resume on the Tuesday after Labor Day. (I even wear shoes, real shoes, rather than Tevas or Crocs and if you want, I can pose awkwardly with my cats for a photo.)

Anyone want to take drawing lessons? I have a few openings. . .

Back to work, all y’all!

Eight Things I Learned in August

Fridays are for Mineral King, but today’s post is my end of the month list of things I learned. Here is a Mineral King photo for you as a consolation prize.

  1. A friend of mine is always on his phone, always always always. But he only uses it as a telephone. For note-taking, he uses a yellow legal pad, which he refers to as his “y-pad“. I’m stealing this term!
  2. In August I learned the real difficulties of lung disease by helping my friend who is waiting for new lungs. Become an organ donor!!
  3. A friend is moving to Furnace Creek, the settlement in Death Valley. She learned that in the summer, residents turn off their water heaters and use it for cold water; their cold water taps become their hot water sources.
  4. Tulare Co. ranked 150 out of 150 in adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher, quality of the public system, and racial and gender gaps in local education. The study, by WalletHub, was of major metropolitan areas. Tulare County is hardly a major metropolitan anything, but the study combined Visalia and Porterville, the 2 largest cities in the county. Well, bummer. (We’re fat and poor here too. Oh, we also have really bad air. Sounds inviting, no?)
  5. Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller is one of the most helpful books I’ve read in a long time, and I learned more than this post can contain. If you are a skeptic or know one who is seeking solid truths about Christianity, this book is a winner. It requires thought and took me a long time to get through, and now I need to reread it and take notes for more solid remembering.
  6. For years I’ve wanted to find something cold to drink that had no sugar, no fake sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol. This was just a vague wish for something more interesting than plain water or herbal tea. At a block party this summer, my good friend said, “Ooh, this is not very good!” so I picked up her can for a taste. Wow! carbonation, no sweetness whatsoever, and a hint of berry flavor. It was LeCroix, nothing but carbonation and a hint of flavor. Eureka!
  7. Keeping cats is almost impossible around here. (We’ve lost four in 2018.) Now there are two – Scout and Tucker. Bye-bye, Piper. I didn’t even get to know you.
  8. If you need to get rid of an old couch, you have 3 options: dump it on the side of the road, drop it off after hours behind a thrift store that won’t take it when they are open, or take it to the dump. We took the third option, and it hurt my heart. Trail Guy salvaged the good fabric from the backside (the front was wrecked by cats through the years). The couch served us well from 1984 onward, and was reupholstered once. The only thing that helps assuage my guilt is that we saved two antique pieces of furniture from the same fate.
    Scout, who will NEVER have access to our new/antique furniture.

    Tucker, who also will NEVER have access to our new/antique furniture.