I love the beach. Any beach. All beaches. While in Oregon, my sister and I had a day to go to the beach, so we went to 2 beaches and one lighthouse.
We had the address of some old friends from Visalia and decided to surprise them. This is the road that led to their place, but alas, they weren’t home. We poked a business card in the door and headed to the beach.
Tomorrow: the lighthouse
As you probably have surmised, I live in the sticks and don’t get out much. City things are not a regular part of my life. So, when I get to a city, I get busy. This trip to Oregon was full of purpose: a haircut, a new battery in my laptop, a box of clothing to a consignment store. This was all peripheral to visiting family (Hi Mom!) However, I had another purpose.
Fernando has received a terminal diagnosis. He’ll probably keep going for another several years, but the needed parts are no longer available except as “after market” which, rather than fitting, will need to be welded. This isn’t ideal. After 24 years in my life, it is time to let go for a better vehicle. (sob)
Is this a better vehicle?
Maybe after a new battery and a big wash job.
I think car washes are scary! But good results. . .
Never had an automatic. Never had a four-door. Never had a 6-cylinder. Never had a car that wasn’t green or blue. Never had a car manufactured in this century (talking about cars of my choice for my use, not the old family wagon or our good ’03 Toyota Tacoma).
Can’t say that anymore. But I’ve only owned Honda Accords, so that part is familiar.
Now I just have to stop slamming my left foot into the brake (because it is NOT a clutch) before starting the car and remember to put it in Park before trying to remove the key.
Who wants to hear about Oregon?? Not as many of my tens of readers as want to hear about Mineral King.
While I was on the road, Trail Guy was in Mineral King. (Are you surprised? Then you might be new here. . . welcome!) You may recognize these photos as coming from his camera, because it usually has a dark spot in the sky.
First, he saw a Western Tanager, a yearly sighting. Blurry, so I’ve made this photo small.
Then he went to White Chief.
This is Crystal Creek from across the valley.
This juniper is everybody’s favorite tree.
Here is White Chief, sometimes described as a canyon, sometimes as a valley, sometimes as a dry lake.
The flat top peak is White Chief Peak.
Trail Guy calls this “Walden Pond”. It is NOT White Chief Lake. That’s up a steep steep steep slope below White Chief Peak.
Back in the valley (the Mineral King Valley), this rock outcropping continues to impersonate a mountain ridge which we call Empire. From this angle, it appears to be the top, but it isn’t.
Trail Guy also went to Timber Gap. This is the classic view from the trail. White Chief Peak is visible, identifiable by its squared off top.
Five-spot on the left, phlox on the right.
Shooting star. Jeffrey Shooting Star. Don’t forget about Jeffrey, whoever he was.
When he got home to Three Rivers, he found this brand new, recently born set of twins, right in our yard.
Great. Now we’ll never get rid of these voracious landscape-destroying creatures.
Walking in the mornings in Oregon was just ideal. So many interesting houses, so much to see, so many great looking yards and growies! It felt like March or April at home.
Yea, kitties!
A favorite yard.
Another favorite house.
The lavender! With yellow roses!
This color combination always grabs my attention.
Yeah, yeah, I will tell you the reason (besides visiting family) for this trip. Stay tuned.
This is the fourth summer in a row that I have gone to Oregon. This state is pertinear perfect in the summer. The folks here complain when it gets into the 90s, but to a Central Californian, this is mellow summer weather.
There were so many paintable scenes, but never a place to even pull over to take photos. Some day perhaps I’ll not be in a hurry and take side roads and legions of pictures.
I was a passenger much of the time and shot a few scenes through the car windows. Not awesome photos, but paintable. However, I probably don’t have a customer base for these subjects.
There was much hanging around.
What is in this rose bush? Yikes, how will we retrieve it?
I learned a bit about Legos. Holy guacamole, the Lego company does brilliant marketing and has endless ideas about creating new products. When I was a kid, Legos were simply little blocks that hooked together.
The lack of sales tax tempted me beyond reason to stock up on a few items, and gas is sure more reasonable in this state.
Later, I’ll show you why I came to Oregon (besides visiting family.)
I’ve been gone. These pictures were taken two weeks ago. The snow was still plentiful on Farewell Gap, and the water was high.
Someone left his boots in the parking lot. They were gone the next day. Glad they were retrieved.
The light was very beautiful.
I saw the tiniest wildflowers and it was a reminder to keep a dime in my pocket to photograph these little ones so that you can understand the size (also in case I do a second edition of Mineral King Wildflowers.)
The wildflowers were decent along the Nature Trail, if you kept your eyes open, always a good policy when walking a trail (or a city sidewalk, or a rural road, or your hallway or. . .) These are both violets. (I just work here.)
This is a different sort of currant, but I forget the name.
Forget me nots are the most wonderful blue, a color that is hard to find in domestic flowers.
Mineral King, I won’t forget you. I’ll be back soon!
I have some new friends, acquaintances really, because we haven’t met in real life, but we are learning to know each other. They are bloggers like me, but with much bigger audiences, so I feel honored that they show up here from time to time. They don’t know about Mineral King so here is a little introductory information.
Mineral King is an area of Sequoia National Park, accessible by a gnarly dead-end road. It is the most beautiful part of Sequoia and only open seasonally—Memorial Day through the end of October, weather depending. There is a community of private cabins, and I am fortunate enough to have married in 39 years ago.
Cabin communities are a real treasure, with their own unique culture. Because I have lived most of my life at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, I have had the privilege of spending time in four different cabin communities in the mountains. My business is called Cabin Art because when I started, I lived in a cabin and I drew people’s cabins. I have published two books of of pencil drawings on two different cabin communities—one sold out a long time ago and the other still available.
Because Mineral King is such a beloved place, I write about it frequently during cabin season. I try to incorporate some art**, because this blog is supposed to be about my business. Frankly speaking, people are more interested in cabin life, the trails, wildflowers, the road, and Mineral King in general than in my art.
*I won’t be writing about Mineral King every Friday at the beginning of this summer because I have a handful of situations that will prevent me from going quite as often as normal.
**Yes, this time a lot of art. I came here to earn a living.
P.S. I’ve included links to the first four “chapters” (posts) that I wrote about cabin life back in 2023. If you want more, you can follow the prompts at the bottom of each “chapter” (in quotes because it is more like a picture book than a chapter book) that will lead you to the next posts. There are twenty-two.
In the lengthy month of May (why does 31 days feel so much longer than 30?) I spent time finding interesting things to ponder on the interwebs along with painting, planting native plants at my church, drawing a map, and getting used to the two-home rhythms of summer. I also took in the last wildflowers of spring in my neighborhood of Three Rivers.
1. Have you heard of the Scottish term “hurkle durkle”? It is explained here in this blog post on Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist. (Hi, Elisabeth!) It’s a verb that means to lie in bed in the morning until you feel like getting up.
2. My internet friend Elisabeth posted a list of the Five Best Beaches in Nova Scotia. Holy guacamole, good thing it is far away or the entire world would want to live there. Her photos! The beaches! (Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet…)
3. A friend offered use of his car when he learned of Fernando’s terminal diagnosis. LOOK AT THIS BABY!! (I know it’s not a Honda Accord.) I declined, because Fernando is still running just fine for the shortish distances in my life. What a generous and fabulous friend. . . who gets to have people like this in their lives??
4. Doing hard things and all the varieties of ways to incorporate this into everyday life, along with the reasons for doing these—great food for thought from the blog This Evergreen Home. It follows the same line of thinking as the book The Comfort Crisis, which I bought and read a year or two ago (and promptly gave away or lost). Still not interested in jumping into cold water or taking cold showers.
5. While we are talking about websites, there is an enormous quantity of wisdom on This Evergreen Life. Great fodder for introspection and conversation. . . shhhh, I need to think. Here is an example: “[Minimalism] insists that the cheapest item is the one you never purchase, the most efficient storage system is deletion, and the best bargain is time reclaimed when you no longer have to manage mountains of things.”
6. A dear friend has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (Who was Parkinson? Poor guy. . .) Her Movement Specialist Neurologist (that’s a medical specialty?) told her, “exercise is your medicine.” People with PD who exercise daily for 30 minutes at 80% of their maximum heart rate have significantly fewer symptoms and thus need less pharmaceuticals.
7. Ever heard of “money dials”? Ramit Sethi is a money guy who has coined this term. He lists the 10 most common “money dials” to help you find where you are most likely to spend any extra money; when you figure it out, you can turn the dial all the way up. (Why??)
8. I had a one-year follow-up appointment in Santa Barbara for this dadgum peripheral neuropathy. After some thought, I realized that the doc would confirm that yes, I still have it (well, duh, that is why my feet are still numb, I can’t comfortably wear any shoes except Crocs, and they really start hurting if I walk farther than 4 miles), and she’d remind me that there is no cure but to watch the prediabetes, which she says can cause neuropathy (to which my local doc says baloney). I emailed the SB doc to see if an appointment was necessary, she confirmed my line of thinking. and I cancelled the appointment. (SHE REPLIED TO THE MESSAGE!!) The learning there is to THINK and ASK.
9. One final realization came to me in May: people begin a physical decline in their 60s. Look at the list of things happening to my friends in first decade of the esses: cancer, diabetes, prediabetes, prolapsed body parts, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, early onset Alzheimer’s, bad knees, ruined shoulders, DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis, and yes, peripheral neuropathy. On top of that, we all have friends in their 70s, 80s, and 90s who need help but often won’t admit it. The ones that do admit it make it easier on those around them and have an easier time themselves.
Well. That was fun.
For those new to my blog, Mineral King is an area of Sequoia National Park where I spend copious amounts of time in the summer. Next Friday I will provide a more in depth explanation.
Today’s post is a long one. You’ve been warned. . .
The road is under construction, so it is a mess, and there is a schedule to follow. This is what we saw at the bottom of the road.
We stopped by Silver City to deliver paintings and cards.
I’m given quite a bit of leeway in placing the pieces and actually took my own nails, easels, and hammer.
Shortly after arriving at the cabin, we headed back to a friend’s cabin with an enormous tree blocking her driveway. The men didn’t have big enough chainsaws but eliminated some parts to create a path around, carried some of her gear up to the cabin for her, and supplied a hand-truck so she could get things back down to her car later. “Did you see Tracy’s tree?” was a question we heard many times over our stay.
She had some good flowers in her driveway.
Hiking Buddy and I hoofed it back up the road to our cabins.
I had a nice afternoon of watching the daffodils and untangling yarn from a sweater that fit me wrong.
Our after-dinner walk was beautiful, but my camera is fairly inadequate for this sort of lighting.
However, it is perfectly fine for this sort.
The next day was busy for the men as they assisted cabin neighbors in various opening tasks. However, I had time to continue watching daffodils bloom.
Hiking Buddy and I ventured up to Spring Creek to see if the bridge had been installed yet. Nope.
When the men were available, we took a walk together.
Some of the cottonwoods had quite a few broken branches, and one was swinging precariously. The guys tried to dislodge the widow-maker, but it survived (and so did the guys—no widows were made.)
Crystal Creek is running well, very wide and shallow (sort of like Facebook).
There was more time in the afternoon for unraveling that sweater and watching the daffodils.
More walks (I am unsure about hiking with my peripheral neuropathy this year. . . more will be revealed, but for now, walks are fine with me.)
These are the tiniest blue lips I’ve ever seen! All I had so that you can appreciate the size is this chapstick (okay, Carmex, but who knows what that is?) in my pocket.
It was chilly in the evenings so we gathered with friends around this ring of fire. (Someone besides me was wearing Crocs—mine show at the bottom).
Look at the daffodils just 3 days later. Yellow wildflowers are a little bit boring to me, but daffodils are neither wild nor boring.
It wasn’t a hot weekend, and the drive down was quite beautiful. Almost all the wildflowers were yellow, and I wasn’t bored. Bush poppy, flannel bush, blazing star, monkey flowers—all yellow. The bush poppies are prolific and abundant. I didn’t photograph the areas where they cover the hillside, because it isn’t prudent to stop the Botmobile on steep slopes or blind corners or when the road is just one lane or if someone is on our six and there is no turnout.
The lupine are hanging on too.
Thus we conclude our very long post about Mineral King. Next week I will show some Mineral King art (because this is my business blog and I came here to earn a living—any questions?) and explain for my new far-away friends a little bit about this place we locals love so dearly.
In the mornings I meet my friend and her cat so we can power up a steep road in the neighborhood.
Some mornings there are turkeys yelling in the middle of the road.
None of this keeps me too busy to paint. I just wanted you to see these pictures.
There is a large project at my church right now. It has been occupying a lot of space in my mind, figuring out what to do and how to do it.
This needs plants, many many many plants. How many? I don’t know.
Fortunately, I know someone who knows. Melanie Keeley has a native plant nursery in Three Rivers and she is a genius expert botanist. (Her nursery is Alta Vista—call or email for an appointment.)
First I had to make gopher baskets. It wasn’t easy, but I had help. We only bled a little bit.
Six or seven friends met Melanie at church one morning. She chose and brought 35 plants, placed them, and instructed us in the planting requirements. Some didn’t need gopher baskets, and some that did needed a hole snipped in the center of the bottom. Weird. Maybe gophers don’t bite tap roots.
After we finished planting and hand watering, we returned in the afternoon to cover it all with mulch. There wasn’t enough, but whatever got spread was an improvement.
Then two guys set up a watering system. Seeing them (lower right side of the landscaped area) in this poorly photoshopped shot gives you an idea of the scale of the project.
In addition to working on the planting project, I repainted a cabin sign.
Then I started on a design for embroidered caps for my friend to sell at her store, Stem & Stone in Three Rivers. (The link is a Facebook page, so I can’t open it, but maybe you can.)
There are two versions here because the embroiderer charges by the stitch count, and we don’t know what the different prices might turn out to be, so we want options.
After she approved these two arrangements, I used colored pencils and Photoshop to turn these into useful designs. (The one on the left isn’t showing completely here.)
She’s not in a big rush. That’s good, because I need to design a ranch map and get some paintings finished.
I love the variety in my job and life!