Transitions

Yesterday was a beautiful day, sunny and fairly warm.  A good outside working day, I borrowed my neighbor's tiller and smoothed out the areas where we are going to place the raised beds., something I've wanted to do for a while. Now to reposition some of the loose soil and then set the beds, fill them with good garden soil and plant away!
This morning the wind is howling despite clear skies - must be something coming our way. We're not very optimistic about any water from the skies - rain, I believe they call it - but the wind makes it's music and is pleasant to hear.

Here's a few photos from our walk on the dikes at Timpie Springs..

Once again a Redtailed hawk started our day with us..

Lots of trains around the valley, this one headed east

Another view of the "Point of the Mountain"

Stuff

60+ degrees yesterday with a strong southerly wind all day. Reminds us of last year at May when we moved out here and there were winds most of the time.
Quiet day here tho', some work around the yard digging out story weeds and grasses and watering the trees. Ran up to HD to get some birdseed for the platform feeder to see if the yellow-headed blackbirds will be back!

Winds and clouds.

Exploring Tooele history

We journeyed to Mercur today to see what we would see. Turns out the road is gated off a ways up as there is an operating precious metals mine there - so we turned around and explored the Mercur cemetery. What an eye-opener!
We're so used to headstones telling us a story that not having them was a bit disconcerting. Just piles of rock - and in some cases a wooden fence - surrounded the graves. But the common thread with other graveyards were the items that visitors had left behind - whether they knew the buried person or not. Always fascinating.
The graveyard is up on a hill and is marked by a plaque on the road by a slight turnoff. A short walk through a gully and up the hill brings you into the cemetery - or cemetary as was shown on the sign.
Here's a few photos from the trip..

Here we are!

Stones alone mark many of the gravesites.

A very beautiful place to be buried - or to visit.

The human touch is here in the next three:

Amongst death there is life - sometimes you have to look for it.

The vein of quartz stirs thoughts of precious metals discoveries!

Walking the dikes

Murph and I walked the dikes at Timpie Springs WMA this morning, ostensibly to check out if any Peregrine Falcons were using the nest yet, was really just a good excuse to get out and see what was happening and take a long walk. Not much happening as far as birds - the normal quota of Canadien Geese - along with some Coots and a variety of ducks that I classify as UFD (unidentified flying duck). But the views were soothing and the sun was warm and no one else was there - perfect!
Here's a few shots from the trip...

We headed north on the dike and looked back at where we had started from. I am fascinated by the beauty and mystery of the mountain.

Sometimes the beauty just takes your breath away - like this feather and grasses and bubbles mix.

Another way to present the geese.

UFD's.

Another moment of beauty...

Looking at Antelope Island from the west side;

Springtime in the land!

Murph and I took a great hike today in the Stansbury mountains just to the west of us. Wonderful clouds, great landscape views and dynamic colors on the rocks - a good hike up and then down and got us both feeling good. So good that Murph lay down in the snow for awhile to cool off (or something).
It is an exciting albeit a bit bewildering time to be alive - 59 degrees today with forecast of up in the 60's by the end of the week.  And this is February? Watering the coniferous trees at home to assist them in this dry spell.

Here's a few views from the day..

First the rocks - great light, great colors and great shapes:

Looking east toward Tooele - Grantsville reservoir in view.

Sunlight on sage in snow.

Big sky today - looking east to the Oquirrhs

Light playing on the foothills

GSL dreamworld.

Meal Planning

Diana is a wonderful and creative cook and when people are coming over for dinner she gets very serious about her meal research!  A glass of wine, several cookbooks and access to the internet will keep her going for quite a while!

Dog Cat Bird

A wonderfully sunny day here today before the clouds came in from the north. The nice weather makes working outside very nice so I've begun work on the various projects around - completing flower boxes for the shed, trenching for drip water lines to trees, etc.  Next week shows temps in the 50's so may have to bring out the shorts!

Some photos from the day:

Murphy often carries a toy with him and this time it was the dragon from Ding Darling that got to come with us to Home Depot!

Somewhat hard to make out because his color matches the shed so well, Fuzzy checked out the interior today.

Had to have a bird, right? Well, I headed off to HD realizing that I had left my camera at home and I see this beauty just down Erda Way.  So a quick u-turn and get camera and come back, make another u-turn to approach the best way and here he is!  Another reminder to always carry my camera with me :-)..