Morning Light and More

 
I am sorry to tell you that I was too lazy to get out of bed fast enough to bring you a picture of the beautiful golden fog this morning. But there was lots of lovely silver light on the way to Hesperia.

These are wet asparagus plants.





And light shining behind spruce trees.



The event at Hesperia went well for me. I guess other people didn't sell much at all, but I did fine for a small event.

The booth next door had a great marketing manager. His name is Zeke, and he did a fine job of bringing people into their booth.



And then, I got to do a favorite thing coming home. I'm sure you can guess what it was. Yup... I just followed back roads. I stopped at a few places so I could check that the info on my Get Off The Couch web site is up to date. One of the stops was Walkinshaw Wetland. It's such an open, desolate kind of place! But that is one reason the sandhill cranes like it.



After that, I really did wander. I got on a bunch of seasonal and Forest Service roads that aren't even on maps. Ended up at Whiskey Creek. If you are local, you know what the roads are like out there. Well, I sort of know my way around that corner of the county, but I goofed up one turn and ended up going almost in a circle! But who cares? I had fun.

I think this is Ruby Creek.



And, I introduced Leona to mud. Yes, the car's name is Leona. She changes color in different lights like a chameLEON, I was going to name her Leon, but then I realized she was a girl, so Leona it is. She is fine with mud. I would tell you what road this is, but it isn't on the maps! (Well, it might be on the National Forest map, but I haven't looked.)



Supposed to rain tomorrow, but that is good. I have a lot of things I can catch up on inside.

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Field, Pond, More Purchases

 
I took my little 3-mile walk today. The sun was shining, and that was a good enough reason to get out and exercise.

The light made the fields a creamy golden color



The bypass pond is frozen and still, but the shadows almost look like waves.



Apparently, so many things happened in 2018 that I pretty much forgot a bunch of the year happened. Here are three more purchases that were really good.

First up is the messenger bag I bought as a retirement/birthday gift for myself. The only picture you've seen of it was the advertisement, not the bag as I actually received it. Well, it has been perfect! I had to mend one little thing that wasn't right when it arrived, but that was easily dealt with, and I've been really happy with it. Its main fault is the lack of a good place to put pens and pencils, but I found a leather pencil case (really a small clutch purse, but it's perfect) at a store that was going out of business, and bought that too.



The other two neat purchases are fabric. The first is for the next pair of pajamas pants. Loretta was with me and we got enough so she will get some too.



This next picture isn't going to look like much, but I am really happy about it. After the saga of the ruined pants on my fall hike, I started thinking about fabric for the next pair that don't come off a thrift shop rack. I got to thinking about my favorite hiking pants of all time, and they were a cotton/nylon blend fabric. This has some of the better properties of pants for hiking because of the nylon, and doesn't give me a rash. Since I have to order most any fabric I get any more, I went looking, and found this great woodsy color. So, probably in the spring there will be more sewing!



In other news: Wow. I accomplished a lot today. Errands all over the place, laundry, one more trip to the grocery store because apparently everyone was making split pea soup last week. But today I found some. Miscellaneous stuff. Maybe early bed, since I didn't sleep well last night.

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Sunrise, Sunset, Sun In Between

 
With no apologies, I bring you more sun and sky pictures. We had sun all day today. It's been a while. Sunrise:



I figured the sun would slip back under the clouds, but instead it burned them off! November 2018 had 9% of possible sunshine (only November 1992 was lower at 5%). I couldn't find a number for October, but I was out hiking a lot of it and sunny it was not. December has been very gray. We all will come down with SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder.

But today, we had blue sky all day!



I walked to the library, and the sun was making magic with a plain old parking lot edge.


And it even stayed around to provide a gorgeous sunset.



I'm not usually bothered too much by the gray skies, but it's starting to get to me, and we aren't even to January yet! So, today, I'll celebrate the sun.

In other news: I spent the entire day getting the Books Leaving Footprints web site up to date. It had been a long time since I'd worked on it. That's not so good. Now, I'm sorting copies of my Get Off the Couch column. Haven't kept those records up well either.

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Light!

 
We had sun! For about 7 minutes this morning before it slipped under the clouds and left us with a gray and rainy day.



But those seven minutes were wonderful. When the sun blazes through a slit in the clouds it usually lights up objects to the west, and today was one of those days. I liked the stripes across the driveway leading to a pine.



And it hit the twin mulberries as so often happens. This picture is very like one from a year ago.



And, I've started another watercolor pencil attempt. I'm doing these on regular drawing paper because I don't have any watercolor paper. So they end up wrinkly and it takes a while for it to dry before I can add the next layer. Here's where this one is so far. Remember, I don't know much about what I'm doing... I'm just fooling around yet.


In other news: I spent most of the day trying to get the page numbers and headers in Dead Mule Swamp Mistletoe to work right. Finally got that done, and am working on my next newsletter. Be sure to give me your email if you aren't on the list and want to be.

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Stark

 
I keep trying to get pictures of stark winter trees caught in lights. Finally got one that really pleases me tonight. A tiny bit of snow on the branches enhanced the effect.



Follow the link below for a much more poetic description of a similar setting.

Today was super busy, and I'm not quite done. Re-wrote a chapter and then wrote one more. Laundry. Bookwork. Got ready for writers' group and then attended. Still have to go through the feedback comments.

That is all, and that is enough.

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Morning Light

 
I liked the earliest stripes of light before the sun actually came up.



You can see how the stripe persisted behind the apple tree on the right, but as the sun rose that bank of clouds lit up.



In a couple more minutes I realized it was going to be one of those sunrises that lights up everything to the west with interesting colors. First it turned the aspen trees pink.


This was the whole scene out back. Yet another mood of my backyard.



Just before the effect faded, it made the two mulberry trees glow. This is the same effect that turned them all pink a few years ago (link at bottom- that picture is stunning). However, this time, it made them all orange.



Back to work in a couple of hours. I'm really tired tonight, so I hope things keep moving. If I can't think about it, it's not too bad.

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Light After the Storm

 
It rained most of the day yesterday, cooling things down nicely.

After I had done my blog post, as the sun was nearing the horizon, the far row of trees beyond my backyard was catching the light.



Every time I start to think there aren't going to be any new moods of my backyard, I have another delightful surprise like this one.

Some of the wind turbines (5 miles away) stand out in contrast to the dark sky.



The sunset wasn't spectacular, but there were a lot of interesting clouds. I was watching them as I drove to work. I'll bet if I'd been on the beach with a view unimpeded by wires and signs and trees, there were some interesting pictures to be had.

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My Trailer- Redo Day 2- More Destruction

 
Did I say any fool can take things apart? I may have been mistaken.

Today I tackled removing the air conditioner. After disconnecting a few more wires, I easily slipped it out of its housing, and then pulled off the vent ducts. (this picture taken after the fact.. after dark, in fact!)



Then there were four bolts that went through the trailer floor. That took some scootching (is that a word) under the trailer, and figuring a way to jury rig a screwdriver and vicegrips above to keep the bolt from turning in the hole (I'm working alone, you know). After I got them out I thought I could just pull that unit away from the wall and carry it out.

Nope.

It won't budge at all. It's been firmly fiberglassed right to the side of the trailer. This shows the edge of the hole behind the air conditioner with the ventilation cover removed. This could be a challenge. I don't even know how to start dealing with that except to cut out an even bigger hole in the side of the trailer (and I don't like that solution). Will be looking at youtube videos tonight!



So, I turned my attentions to getting the water tank out from below the left side (right side of the picture) of the seating/bed. The previous owner may not have made a plan that I like, but he sure didn't do shoddy work. In fact, he really overbuilt things for use in a flexible trailer. What a job to remove that bench top! And that seating will be re-usable, so I don't want to destroy it. I did have to break the paneling on the back wall to get it down but that was just cheap stuff I don't want. No big deal except for the slivers I got when it broke.



I did get that side completely out. Lots of wires to sort out and eventually fasten somewhere instead of just running them loose behind paneling. I'll have to cut the wires to the trailer lights to get the air conditioner housing out anyway since they are run through the legs. Not an issue- they could be joined better anyway, but I'll wait till it's necessary to cut them.



Those few things took almost two hours if you can believe it. I screwed the ventilation cover back on and temporarily plugged the vent holes to keep critters out. Clean up and close up finished my allotted time. With no garage or any inside place to work I have to close up the trailer each day.



Now, I need a place in the house to store all the cushions and other goodies the trailer has accumulated since I bought it. I stowed them under the dining room table, but they may not be able to live there for 4 months or so. Then again, why not?

Took a walk at dusk. Love the light on this tree.

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