Actually, the warm temperature has created trouble of its own for us. All the melting snow is slowly puddling up on our property, and Tom spent the day digging a drainage trench and carrying buckets of water out of our crawl space. Fortunately, DNC facilities let me borrow a sump pump so that we’re not going to have to do that in shifts throughout the night! Tomorrow’s forecast for warm rain over all that snow uphill of us still has us biting our nails, but it’s going to be ever so much better with that pump!

In a certain twist of irony, as we battle too much water in the crawlspace, we’re also dealing with no water in the tap. The county guys have been here for a couple of days and with all the snow and melting they can’t even find the source of the leak, much less work on repairing it. The water has been out for about a week now, and the county has decided to save money by not having their crews work through the weekend.

We’ll be fine, of course. It’s like camping, with the bonus of heat and electricity, but after the big storm, lots of us are ready for a return to normal, and of course the renters that had planned to stay this weekend weren’t very excited about the lack of water. We found them a place to stay in El Portal, at Yosemite View Lodge, so they’ll be fine, but we’re sad to see them go.

It’s not that I can’t start to figure out now, how someone would start to put an image like that together, but coming up with the ideas, planning the shot out, taking different images and figuring out how to put them together. Truly cool.

And while you’re there, check out some cool wildlife pics. I’m not sure some of them aren’t also examples of very clever Photoshop-ery, but they are neat anway.

Here’s an idea.

Yosemite Association has taken charge of free art classes held in the Park. Classes are given by a wide variety of artists, so each week the lessons, style, and media are fresh and new . I’ve attended one or two before, and have gotten some great tips.

This week, (May 20 – 23) the classes are being taught by Pam Pederson – Travel Sketching Pen/Watercolor – which is absolutely perfect for the kind of ‘artwork’ that I like to do. There is something truly magnificent about finished paintings, but I like the fast and loose feeling of sketching without having to go back and painstakingly, well, work. I am sure that I will have to promise my husband not to buy things – I already have reams of paper and art supplies galore, but I’m hoping that this will give me incentive to dig those things out and rub off a bit of the rust.

In addition to the big things (Easter, Earth Day etc.) There were a bunch of interesting things going on to distinguish the month (as if the beginning of wildflower season wasn’t distinction enough around here). I don’t know if they are interesting enough to actually get me to participate – which is probably why it took me so long to mention them – but definitely interesting enough to get my head going around a bit. Helping out with the Yosemite Sentinel brings a lot of these random events to the surface, and is one of the most rewarding things about working on it.

April is Poetry Month!

I usually think of poetry readings as one of those ‘city things’ that I used to do when I live in Berkeley, but the public libraries in Wawona and Mariposa are doing special poetry events this month in celebration including compiling a local 2009 anthology of poems. Personally, I’ve been treating myself by reading the poem of the day published on The Writer’s Almanac.

Everyone! Please submit your original poetry, art, photography, songs, and
stories for display at the Mariposa County Library during the month of
April. All entries will be included in our 2009 anthology. All participants
will receive a copy of our book! Entries should be suitable for all ages.

WAWONA BASSETT MEMORIAL LIBRARY: As T. S. Eliot stated, Is April indeed the
“cruelest month”? Find out for sure Weds. 4/15 from 6 – 7p.m. at your
library. T.S. Eliot and the month of April will be our subject. Then,
Sat. 4/25 from 1-2 p.m. we will dig Kenneth Patchen and the SF Beats. All
are welcome to join our verbal feast, or poetry potluck, and bring some
verse to share.

MAIRPOSA: Cowboy Poetry: Come celebrate the 8th Annual Cowboy Poetry Week
at the Mariposa Library on Thursday, April 23 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. Cowboy
Poet Wendy Brown-Barry will be performing and giving suggestions on how to
write your own Cowboy Poetry.

April is Script Frenzy Month

Script Frenzy is a writing challenge, similar to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), to complete 100 pages of a script, be it screenplays, regular stage plays, or graphic novels, in a month. Specifically, the month of April.

I haven’t even read that many screenplays, so it’s hard for me to imagine just exactly how this would go, but after discovering the rewards of the 40 day blog challenge that I set for myself over Lent this year, it’s easy for me to imagine how rewarding participating in this type of challenge could be. Mostly, though, it got me to think some more about NaNoWriMo – a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Tom and I randomly came across Chris Baty’s book, No Plot? No Problem! while wandering happily through the book store a few years ago, and it has been kicking quietly in the back of my mind ever since.

I doubt there is any question that writing obsessively for a month would change my perspective on, and relationship to writing, but there are so many other things that I could happily obsess over for a month, that I’m finding it hard to commit.

Other Goings Ons

Wranger’s Reunion
In addition to being the Earth Day Celebration in Yosemite (a subject that deserves its own space), this last weekend was the annual Yosemite Wrangler’s Reunion. Wranglers (guides and packers) from NPS, DNC or Curry Company gathered together to hang out and swap stories in Mariposa last Sunday, as they have been (and this is the amazing part) since 1951.

El Portal Spring Fling
Not sure if I want to make a whole day of it, but I bet this one is fun… maybe combine it with another visit to Hite Cove to look for Fairy Lanterns.

April 25th 2009 8am-Midnight. Events throughout the day include Lion’s Club pancake breakfast 7-10am, Spring Run-Off 8am, registration at 7am, town photo 9:30am, flea market/arts and crafts all day an amazing variety of food vendors serving lunch, dinner and late night snacks, and YEA and their famous beverage service. Music Starts at 4pm ($15-20 Sliding Scale after 5pm). Performers include Dogon Lights (with members of Hamsa Lila featuring Yacuba Diarra from Burkina Faso and Tmomo from Giunea), Something Different (Live Rock/Electronica), Hometown Zeroes (Hometown Heroes), Rob I (Breaks and Dubstep), The Akoustic 2 (Country/Comedy), and the Local Music Showcase. Please NO OUTSIDE BEVERAGES. Volunteers are needed. Free admission available to volunteers.

Annual Day Care Benefit Center
May 9th is yet another El Portal party, from 5:30 until late, this time benefiting the local Day Care Center. This is, I’m told, the Day Care Center’s main fund-raising event for the year. Raffle prizes include an iPod, dinner for two at The Ahwahnee and a painting by local artist, Penny Otwell.

MSO and the Return of Lewis Wong

The April 25th and 26th concerts of the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra will
feature New York virtuoso violinist Lewis Wong in two pieces: Bach’s
A-Minor Violin Concerto and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ haunting “The Lark
Ascending.” The orchestra will also perform other works including Antonin
Dvorák’s Symphony #9 in e minor “From the New World.” The concert will be
presented twice: on Saturday, April 25th at 7:00 PM in the Fiester
Auditorium of Mariposa County High School and Sunday, April 26th at 1:00 PM
in an historic presentation in the Great Lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel in
Yosemite National Park.

MSO Founding Music Director and Conductor Les Marsden will open the
concerts with a brief new piece he’s composed for the occasion: his
orchestral Fanfare: “Range of Light.” The work is an impressionist musical
thumbnail of the Sierra, using the name John Muir coined to describe the
mountain range. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in A-Minor for Violin and
Strings with Basso Continuo will feature Lewis Wong. The concerto dates
from the period of 1717 – 1723 and is both striking and familiar, with a
song-like middle movement and a final ‘gigue’ movement that demonstrates
Bach’s mastery of dance music. Wong will return to solo in a piece
appropriate to the Ahwahnee’s pastoral setting: Ralph Vaughan Williams’
1914/1920 “The Lark Ascending” for Violin and Orchestra. One of the most
atmospherically evocative pieces ever written, the sheer pastoral quiet
beauty of this music – as well as its use of very gentle British folk-like
music – combine in a piece that leaves a deep impact on the listener. The
MSO alone will then play Jan Sibelius’ moody, inspiring and ultimately
triumphant tone-poem “Finlandia.” The concert will close with one of the
true landmarks of music: Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony #9 in e minor “From the
New World.” Its second movement’s haunting Largo was later turned into the
song “Goin’ Home” but this symphony is best known for giving birth to what
is known as the “American” sound.

This special concert will be presented twice: Saturday evening, April 25th
at 7:00 in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School – tickets:
the Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc. (209) 966-3155 (Monday – Friday,
9/AM-5/PM) at 5009 Fifth Street (adjacent to The Pizza Factory.) The
MSO’s always-affordable prices: $6 for adults and $4 for students; tickets
are also available at the Mariposa County Visitors Center at the north end
of town across from the Miners Inn; call the Visitors Center at (209)
966-7081 for hours.

Sunday afternoon, April 26th the concert will be repeated at 1:00 in the
Great Lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. PLEASE NOTE:
Suggested donations only, but seating will be limited and is only available
first-come, first-served. Marsden notes, “I extend my appreciation to the
National Park Service management and Delaware North Companies Parks and
Resorts at Yosemite Inc. as well as Ahwahnee Hotel Manager Chance Jorgensen
and staff. The Ahwahnee has graciously offered to donate a portion of the
price of concertgoers’ Sunday brunch at the Ahwahnee to the MSO. A voucher
the diners will present to the wait staff will be available at the MCACI
offices; for more information call (209) 966-3155.

The musical depiction of nature – in nature. The sound of America – in
the most beautiful location in America. Your Mariposa Symphony Orchestra
and the birth of American music. (L. Marsden – 4/6/09)

Art

The evening begins with artwork – there are two exhibit openings tonight. William Neill’s Classic Yosemite Photography Exhibit Opening begins at the Ansel Adams Gallery from 4:00 – 5:30, and Yosemite Renaissance has a juried exhibit opening at the Yosemite Museum Gallery from 5:30 to 7:30, which contains photography and paintings of Yosemite and the Sierra.

Retirement Party

OK – this is a personal thing, and people retire from all different kinds of places. We’ve already bid farewell to a beloved Park Supe this year, and this celebration is for Jerry and Judy, who have been in the park, just about forever. Jerry started working here in 1964, as the kid who pushed the giant bonfire off of Glacier Point for the Firefall, and retires this year as the Director of Hotels. I’m looking forward to the program this evening to hear all the stories that people have to tell about them.

Lu’au

Huh? In Yosemite? That’s right. There is a full-on Lu’au with professional Maori, Hawaiian and Tahitian dancers at Curry Village on Saturday (Feb. 28) and the not so professional but very cute kids from Yosemite’s El Portal and Valley schools, and a Polynesian Buffet for only $15 ($7.50 for kids). Proceeds go to benefit the Yosemite Valley and El Portal schools (yes, there is a school right in Yosemite Valley).

Heritage Holidays

I’m not sure there is a short description for this event. Heritage Holidays starts on Sunday and celebrates the Art Deco era with music, dancing, fabulous vintage fashion from the 20s and 30s, historical programs, a scrumptious Gala Dinner on Monday night and, of course, a Grand Ball with top hats and tails that tops the 3-day event off on Tuesday evening. This year is particularly special, because there will be a reunion of WWII Veterans who stayed at The Ahwahnee during their convalescence when it was temporarily transformed into a hospital.

The Regular Stuff

And as if that wasn’t enough to fill the weekend, there’s the ‘regular’ stuff too.

Skate skiing is probably awesome along the Glacier Point Road this weekend. With the fresh snow lately, I’ve been doing more powder hunting and less skating, and it’s time to balance things out a little, not that taking a few turns at Badger doesn’t sound good too.

Plus, we’ve been hearing reports of AMAZING poppies blooming along Hwy 140 where the Telegraph Fire burned this summer from Michael Frye, and Steve Bumgardner.

And that doesn’t even count reading one of the many books that are waiting for me on the bookshelf, writing, drawing, playing the piano… and today is my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!