Dogwood trees have a particular niche of its own in the passing of seasons. In the spring, their large white blossoms (actually sepals) decorate the forests and mark the arrival of spring. Photographers of all levels focus their lenses on them – against a backdrop of dark red cedar bark, the deep grey blue of the Merced River or back-lit against the brilliance of the sky. They are stand-alone beautiful, and I love them for that, but I also love them because they’re now associated with people and memories that are fun to revisit as well.
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Yosemite Nature Notes – Ski Yosemite
I always love Yosemite Nature Notes when they come out. The footage is beautiful and the stories are often informative. But this episode is particularly special to me… I was invited to be in it! I feel like I have more to say about how much I love Yosemite’s winter season… but so much of … Read more
Traveling and Lessons
The alarm went off this morning at 4:00 am after a later night than I had intended. I’m beat. I’ve spent the better part of the day traveling across the country, and hoo-boy is this one-post-per-day challenge turning out to live up to its name. Here’s something short that I’ve been thinking about for some time. I’ve … Read more
Enjoying the Rain
It started raining today before dawn and rained steadily throughout the day. I’d made plans with one of the coolest people around to catch up over lunch, and wondered how that was going to go. On a sunny day, we’d head out to the river, or someplace like that, but with the weather, I worried … Read more
Weathering the Storm
Even old-timers in Yosemite hadn’t seen so much snow in 30 years. The storms started the weekend of March 19, and kept going through 11-15 feet. That’s right. Feet. Of. Snow. Roads closed as trees and rocks fell across the road, and plows failed to keep up with the snow. Power lines were also hit, … Read more
Stories of Yosemite People
I had the good fortune, a few months ago, of running into Lynne Joiner, an Emmy-award winning journalist and author who was visiting Yosemite and had the kernel of an idea to write a story about the people living and working in Yosemite after stumbling across one or two employees with an interesting history. She … Read more
Elderberry Treasure
The great thing about books, real live paper and ink books, is that in addition to sitting on your shelves collecting dust, sometimes they call out to you, to just take a quick peak inside, for old times sake, or to jog your memory a little bit. When you listen to them, sometimes there’s a … Read more
My Baby Bird
It was the strangest thing, and has been quietly haunting me ever since it happened. We were on our way out the door to surprise a friend on his birthday, saying goodbye to a guest who had spent the night and was now on his way to Colorado, by bicycle. Tom had taken the first … Read more
Our Yosemite Rental House and etc.
The Yosemite House The steady churning of projects surrounding our new Yosemite vacation rental increased to a frenzy starting late May into early April. We have a nice stream of renters from VRBO who are planning to stay in our downstairs apartment starting on June 1, and the pressure to have everything in order by … Read more
New Resolutions for May
I know, everyone else starts this game in January, but now it’s May, which is really a time of beginning things, and I can’t even remember if I made New Year resolutions, much less what they might be, so I’m starting again with a couple of goals for myself.