spring in the desert window

Every spring, if we are lucky, for about two days at least one of the cacti in our kitchen window gives us a beautiful, delicate blossom.

It's like a visit to the desert after a rain.

If we aren't watchful the plants aim their blossoms to the sun so slyly we miss the bloom altogether.

We also have to be watchful if the cacti plants are too close to the window. The stems of the flowers grow quickly, like 3 inches in a day. If there isn't room, the blossoms smash themselves against the window, a pale pink smoosh.

Luckily, we found this blossom in bud, moved the plant out from the window and caught in with the camera before it faded and wilted away.

Isn't it pretty?

Kitchen help

By popular request, here's a photo of the project Lee and I have been working on for the past couple of months. Years ago I promised Mom I would sand off her kitchen cupboards and refinish them.

I think once I even promised to do it as a Mother's Day present or something. But I never did it. Then one day we were in the kitchen playing Hand & Foot with Mom and Dad. I just decided that we would take a few cupboard doors home that day and start the job.

We did that, and when they were done we took more. Soon the top cupboards were done. Then we did the bottom ones. Lee sanded off the old finish after removing the 50s copper knobs. His next step was to apply a thin 3-inch strip of poplar on top of the birch wood. He brought the doors to me, and I painted on three coats of clear finish.

Once the drawers went through this process, and wooden handles were added and finished on the bottom cabinets and drawers, our job was done. Dad cleverly added some wall-to-wall carpeting in the drawers as liners, and they put back all their stuff.

The sad part was how easy it was, really, to get this kitchen job done. We should have done it years ago.

Glass class

So I've been taking a stained glass class from a very talented artist. She's also a very patient with students, otherwise she would have kicked me out the first night.

This is a class where I learned to use a sharp instrument to cut glass, a whirring grinding wheel to smooth the edges, a hot soldering iron that made lead and nickel melt whereever I let it drip and pliers, lots of different one.

And, I walked back and forth to the sessions with a bag of glass over my arm, only once slipping and falling on a thin sheet of ice, probably the only one left in town. The glass and I survived with no cracks or breaks.

This is a costly habit/hobby/art which I'm not likely to pursue rabidly. But it might be fun to use up the glass, solder, tungsten frame and sticky foil I bought,

Anyway, here's the sunrise I made.

Another adventure

Sometimes a person just gets lucky. Saturday was such a day for me. The self-assigned adventure involved covering a cross-country ski race at one of the more beautiful spots in the winter, Harriman State Park.

So, beauty combined with skiing combined with the drama of weather and sunshine to make another perfect adventure. Winter may be long and hard, so when the opportunity for adventure is presented, it's best to take it. Otherwise, the days inside can get suffocating.

A grand trip

A skiing we went, with me being the one to cry, "Wait for me!"

The grandkids Em and Cord, the daughter and the grandma headed east out of Driggs toward the Tetons, skis and other gear packed.

We got to the trailhead in mid morning and found a place to park.

Em and Cord take ski lessons and showed it. What troopers. They started a bit slow, but once under way and especially after some trail mix treats, they literally kicked it into gear. The daughter found her stride after a quick wax job on her skis. She, too, has been practicing.

As luck had it, the trail groomer was right ahead of us, making perfect tracks for us to follow.

We skiied past the Boy Scout camp nearly to the campground before time ran out and we had to turn around. It was nearly a race to get back to the start.

The weather warmed up and we were hot enough to steam up the car windows on the way home. Teton Canyon is beautiful any time of the year, but last sunny, clear Saturday, it was the most perfect spot on earth. Thanks Sally.

Cabin fever

No, we don't live in a cabin. And no, we're not sick.
But my-oh-my did we have a desparate need to get out of the place.
It's the sunshine that does it.
When the winds are howling and the skies gray, the choice is always to stay in the den. That's why they call it that, right? The den.
After a great snowshoeing trip yesterday in the sunshine, it was just too difficult to stay indoors today.
So we took a picnic lunch to our destination - Palisades Reservoir - and headed out, through field after endless field of bright, white snow.
Tracks occasionally broke up the whiteness, tracks of snowmobilers and of animals.
Swan Valley is famous for its winter deer herds and we saw lots of their tracks and a few of the actual animals.
The other plentiful sighting was of fishermen. Ririe Reservoir had about 100 with their tents and augers. They were set up all along the South Fork of the Snake. Palisades has a few and there could have been more, but we didn't drive too far along the shore.
Home now, we're both a little snow blind for looking out at the sparkling crystals on all sides for 150 miles, but it's better than that disease it cured.

Another round of winter

Another round of winter hit this weekend, giving us a nice few inches of snow and covering up all the ice and dirty winter look. I headed out along the greenway this afternoon in a snowstorm with my trustee snowshoes strapped on.

I've found the snowshoes offer a mobility option that skis can't. Even on warm days when skis would stick those shoes work fine.

It wasn't sticky warm today, though, with the temperature in the mid 20s. I ran into a couple of California people on snowshoes. They had thankfully and luckily made tracks so I could see some definition. The light was very flat. As visitors often do, the couple were praising the greenway and the recreation choices it allows. They visit both summer and winter, they said. And they like to use the walk.

The past few times I've snowshoed the train it's been just me and the swans, eagles and mystery tracks. So it was nice to see someone else enjoying it, even though it was snowing and rather miserable weather.