A Summer Place in Winter

Today I am in route to Florida, unable to post, so here is something that happened on Saturday. Mineral King is a summer place, but occasionally we visit in winter. (I probably won’t be able to post tomorrow either, so we’ll just have to bravely soldier on for a bit.)

The flowers were fantabulous along the lower portion of the road, but we didn’t stop for photos except at the bridge. It takes a long time to pull the Trackster up the road with the Botmobile, and it takes a long time to putt-putt up the road in the Trackster, so we did not lollygag.

The Trackster ride is rough, loud and smelly. But, it beats a snowmobile, particularly when you have to go up and over downed trees or across dry pavement. (You know the ride is rough when it makes the Botmobile feel luxurious by contrast.)

Our friends were already up the hill, and it was great fun to surprise them. Trail Guy and I did a bit of token cross-country skiing. Mostly we were just in awe of the vast winterness of the place.

Cute little snow buggy called a Trackster, made by Cushman. The goal is to drive as far up as possible and unload in a place that can accommodate a turn-around.
I didn’t photograph any of the trees we had to crawl over. It was nerve-wracking, and several times I just bailed out of the Trackster and climbed over on foot.
First view of Sawtooth
First view of our friends
They dug steps down to their cabin door.
The classic view
This is our cabin from the front.
Timber Gap in the background
You can see how deep the snow is on the bridge.
I love this view at the top of Endurance Grade. This was looking backward as we headed back down.
On the way down, we stopped for the most brilliant redbud we have ever seen. It is just below the most dangerous curve on the road, AKA Steven’s corner, because our friend Steven drove over the edge there as a teenager. His worst injury was poison oak!

More Heart Rock Walk

Should that be “Rock Wock” or “Ralk Walk”? Isn’t English weird?

This is the first one I ever noticed. It is the only pink one and appears to be a broken heart.
When the sun is finally up, oh wow.
But the sun makes the hills in sunshine look weird and washed out. This is another beautiful decorative gate (remember yesterday’s? Probably the same mason.) We seem to live in a gated community.
Doesn’t this make you wish you got up in the dark to go walking in Three Rivers?

Heart Rock Walk

My walking partner and I walk several roads in our neighborhood, often so early in the a.m. that we need flashlights. (We’ve learned the traffic patterns, cross the highway carefully and listen for cars–thank you for your concern.) A few years ago we began noticing heart rocks in the asphalt on one particular road. On Sunday, I took my camera and we found 10 heart rocks! Today I’ll show you five, along with a little bit of scenery (yep, trespassing again.) The rock photos were taken after the scenery ones, on the way back home when the light was better. They are all about an inch high in real life.

The blurry photo caused me to keep this one small for you. We debated on whether or not it qualified.
This is early in the morning, so the light is not very conducive to great photography. But oh my, what a beautiful fence and entry gate!
At least with the poor light, you won’t know where I was trespassing and turn me in!
Look at this fence!

Tomorrow I’ll show you the rest of the heart rocks and the rest of the walk in better light.

Watching Paint Dry

When I show paintings in progress on my blog, they don’t cause people to comment. Comments are fun for a blogger, show that people are reading and care enough to say something, and provide a way for a bit of interaction. When I talk about places I walk or hike and show photos, the comments come in more often.

Funny how that works – it is more enjoyable for my readers to see where I walk and what I see than to watch paint dry.

So, today there will be a little bit of drying paint, and a little bit of scenery.

2 in progress
3 drying

Since switching to Spectrum, there is no longer a telephone in the painting workshop (or in my studio, but that is a very long, annoying and boring tale). So maybe it is time to erase the phone #s on the chalkboard. But this is long and boring and annoying, and I’ve promised you other photos.

The top of Blossom Peak as seen from a friend’s driveway. I want to go there but don’t know a good route. Besides, I have waited a bit too long. The grasses are tall so they hide the footing, and the snakes might be out. Next January, perhaps?

The 2 left points of Blossom. It has 3 parts as you can see in the next photo.
Like the power lines? Phone lines? Whatevs, the point is to see the 3 points.
Looking upstream on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River.
Looking downstream from the same bridge.
Just loving the green with the fiddlenecks and popcorn flowers.

That was just a regular Three Rivers walk on a popular road for walkers. A friend who lives below Blossom Peak had neck surgery and has to walk a certain distance each day in a flat place. She got tired of circling her house, so I brought her to a flat place near my house to get in her steps. The pace was much slower than my regular morning walks, the light was much brighter, and it made everything look even prettier than normal.

There. Aren’t you glad you made it through the paint drying session?

More Spring Walking

I looked through the rest of my photos from our afternoon of trespassing in Lemon Cove and came up with more pictures and more thoughts for you.

The pinkish flowers are Owl’s Clover, another wildflower that we don’t have in Mineral King.
These guys thought we might be coming to feed them.
There were lots of fiddlenecks (the yellow flower) in addition to the brodaeia.
Sawtooth barely shows on the far right of the row of white peaks.
Here is an unknown pale yellow flower. It has feathery leaves that don’t show in this picture. I don’t have to know the name because I am not working on a wildflower book anymore.
This is looking toward Terminum Dam and Kaweah Lake. The bright patches of orange on the distant hills are poppies, and from across the lake, they appear as if someone spray painted florescent orange on the hills. Also showing in the distance is Castle Rocks, the granite formations visible from the top of Moro Rock.
This is the Kaweah River in Lemon Cove. I wondered if I was looking at the very same molecules of water that I walked past earlier that a.m. in Three Rivers.
What is this magnificent shrub of red flowers?? I’m so curious, even if I am not writing another book on wildflowers. I’ve never seen this before!
We wanted to see the field of bush lupine, but most have been replaced by lemon trees. I don’t know what the trees are in the background that haven’t yet leafed out.
Hiking Buddy took this photo of me while I was taking photos for you. I just wanted you to appreciate the efforts I go to in order to provide pictures for you all to enjoy! (Thank you, Hiking Buddy!)

Next week I will get back to work and show you some completed oil paintings.

Spring Walking

It is so beautiful and green out! Trail Guy and I went for a walk in Lemon Cove with our Mineral King hiking buddies. Have a look at Sunday’s stroll.

Looking down on the town where we used to live. Our old house doesn’t show, but I refuse to look at it anyway since the 2 huge maples in the front yard got removed.
That is McKay’s Point on the west side of Wutchumna Hill, where the Kaweah River splits off into the St. Johns River.
Lots of these flowers, a brodiaea called Blue Dick. We don’t have them in Mineral King – they are in the flatlands and the foothills.
Aw shucks, look at those hiking buddies together. I need a name for Trail Guy’s hiking buddy. How about The Farmer?
There’s Sawtooth – the white peak farthest to the right.
The bumps off in the distance are Venice Hills. I lived across the road from the north side of this landmark until the end of 6th grade but I never climbed up and checked out the wildflowers.

I didn’t specify exactly where this walk was because it isn’t open to the public. We were trespassing with permission.

Tomorrow I’ll show you a few more photos from the walk, because almost all I am doing with work these days is mailing out Mineral King Wildflower books.

Spring Walk in Three Rivers

About a week ago on a chilly afternoon with brilliant sunshine and puffy white clouds, Trail Guy and I went for a walk. Nothing much to say – just enjoy spring in Three Rivers with me.

New Idea for Drawing Lessons

In the month of March, I am teaching a beginning drawing class to six people, two hours per week at Arts Visalia, a very fine non-profit gallery in downtown Visalia. (This is the county seat, the town we usually mean in Three Rivers when we say we have to go “down the hill”.)

The six folks were all new to me, although we have found a few connections, as one does in a place like Tulare County. We worked through my regular beginning exercises on the first evening, and they were terrific. Easy to work with, understood and followed directions, asked good questions that helped me clarify my instructions, and they all did very well.

I suggested that they bring photos they might like to draw from for the second lesson. That night, I woke up with such a good idea that it could only have been inspired by God.

It is based on the idea that there is an order of difficulty in drawing. Here it is from easiest to yikes:

  1. Other people’s drawings
  2. Black and white photos
  3. Color photos
  4. Real life

I went through my zillions of photos and chose a stack that will give a beginner a reasonable chance at success. Then I chose one to try out – could I draw this quickly? Could I scan it successfully and make a printable tool for my new students?

Yeppers.

I always have new students do a tracing of the photo so they have a simple version for beginning a drawing. Tracing is a tool, not a “cheat”.

I like this! This means I have 11 more tracings, drawings and scans to do. Good thing I love to draw.

Learned in February

Did I learn anything in February of this year?

Maybe.

  • Spectrum is giving Huge & Rude a run for their money. We want to switch: landlines, television, internet. As with everything, it is easy-peasy when you talk to a salesman but muy complicated in reality. So far, we are still with Huge & Rude, and our phones have been out multiple times in 2019. Plus, the internet is too slow to send my wildflower book to the printer.
  • Books are never quick. Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names is supposed to be in hand for an April 27 signing. No matter how many times I proof or pass it to someone else to proof, another error gets found. And it got bid as a black and white book instead of a full color one – ouch.
  • Parkas aren’t waterproof – nylon, goretex, nope. 4 different ones within the past 32 years. Polyester might be waterproof. Probably not. My walking buddy and I have had lots of opportunities to test various parkas during February.
  • Seaglass is getting harder to find and the pieces are smaller. This decline in availability will continue. I learned this from reading The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass by Mary Beth Beuke.
  • In order to better publicize a book, authors should have a website (oh-oh, my books are hitch-hiking along with my art sites) with a media kit. It took almost an entire day to write all the little parts and pieces required for this, but now I have one on my other website, The Cabins of Wilsonia. This is all required in order to be considered to make a presentation to the Fresno County Friends of the Library about my book The Cabins of Wilsonia. Yeppers, I have a Media Kit page on that site, which will serve as a model for Mineral King Wildflowers.
  • I am a Questioner. This is how I learn. Here is a question: Who wants to go from Bakersfield to Merced, or the reverse direction? That’s what California’s infamous bullet train is now reduced to. I will probably ride it, if they allow 100 year olds on.
  • Did you know that corn will kill us? I got snagged into one of those click-bait websites with the line of “which vegetable do you need to stop eating immediately?” Then the dude talked forever about his various credentials before finally saying it was corn. Sure, Mr., thanks. I saved you the temptation of following that link and waiting to hear which vegetable will kill you. You’re welcome.


Now I need soothing, and perhaps you do too. In fact, let’s change gears entirely and I’ll show you a lovely late afternoon of feeding cattle from the back of a little ATV with the Captain.

They heard the machine and all headed right toward us.
Can’t remember (or tell from this photo) if this was The Bull. I was so enchanted by the golden late afternoon light that I forgot to be scared. Besides, don’t bulls have horns?
I know nothing except that cow poo is very slippery.
I’ve been warned many times to not trust Brahma Mama, and now that she has a calf, to be especially careful. Not sure what that means when standing around tossing flakes of hay toward her.
Look at these little beeves! (Is that the plural of beef?)
This blondie might not have any teeth, which is why she prefers eating the little bits that have fallen into the back of the machine. Her ears look soft, but she doesn’t want them touched.
My view from the so-called “safe” place inside the machine. I love this light.

And thus we conclude another February, a month that I find way too short here in Central California.

Early Spring in Three Rivers

February is my favorite month around here. It is the beginning of spring, with apologies to my readers in less temperate climates, who might be a little less enthusiastic about this month. Sometimes I take a break in the middle of the day to enjoy Three Rivers during this exciting weather period.

Upstream view of the middle fork of the Kaweah River from the Dinely Bridge.
Downstream view of same.
Before retirement, Trail Guy wore green pants with a gray shirt. Now, he wears the opposite.
A regular peculiar sight on the Dinely Bridge.
Primary colors in my yard, and some bright sunshine in the middle of a rainy day.
Back in the studio, listening to pouring rain on my metal roof.
The flowering quince outside the kitchen window attracts birds. More accurately, it is the bird feeder that attracts them.
Here is a different kind of bird. I am more interested in flower names than bird names.

Every year I ask this unanswerable question: Why can’t February have 31 days instead of August?