Day 11: Nature

Yesterday the temperature was below normal, so we were enjoying gorgeous low 70's in the morning and low 80's later in the day. Absolutely amazing for this time of year! So my parents, two very good friends of ours, and myself took advantage of this beautiful weather. We went for a hike in one of the local state parks right in the middle of the city. We always have a good time during our hikes; we always joke and laugh, while never giving up an opportunity to appreciate the beauty around us. Hiking an intense incline while laughing is quite the workout! Also I was having fun with my camera settings. I have grown quite fond of the "pop art" setting! It really helps bring out the muted color of the desert, especially this time of year. In fact, there are a few duplicate photos one with the regular setting and one with the "pop art" to show the contrast. The desert is soooooo dry right now. I still find it extremely beautiful, but just a little muted right now.

Saguaro, Palo Verde, and our beautiful blue skies!

Barrel Cactus surviving in harsh conditions!

You can see the city in the background and all the smoke in the air from all the wildfires in our state.

We had a wonderful hike! Everyone was good and had their handy dandy hiking sticks. I love geology, it was one of my favorite classes through school. Our hikes always inspire me to bone up on my geology skills.

This is the same photo as above, just with the "drawing" setting on my camera. It's a quick way to do a pencil sketch!

Beautiful with the regular setting

Enhanced with the "pop art" setting

Saguaro framed with an Ocotillo

And with the "pop art" filter... Much better!

Silly looking Barrel Cactus - they are VERY thirsty...

"The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have." - Norman Vincent Peale

We have a late bloomer...

"Serenity is not Freedom from the Storm - it is Peace Amidst the Storm." unknown 

Bird making a nest... lots of wildlife out, just wasn't able to catch anyone else in a photo.

Some Lichen on the rocks... they are still blooming as well

"Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions." - Gerald Jampolsky

Day 6: Animals

These photos are from my birthday several years ago spent at the local Wildlife Zoo with my family and friends. I remember this birthday being one of my favorites. It was a beautiful day in December and all the wildlife was out being active and enjoying the beautiful day.

Monkeys are my favorite to sit and watch for hours. However, I wasn't able to capture any great photos of the monkeys that day.

I noticed when I share my story, I hardly ever mention the piece that I played the Matyr role for a long time. I thrived on the attention and pity from others. This role caused me to not take responsibility for my actions and to be affected by anything and everything that occurred around me! Those pity parties were abundant both by myself as well in the presence of anyone that would sit still long enough for me to share my sorrows and complaining of how rough my life was. I'm grateful those friends and family stuck by my side as I walked that part of my journey! Looking back it appears I enjoyed bathing in my own pain. That might have worked to help me survive then, but it's not worth the price today. Life is to beautiful and I don't want to miss a single wonderful opportunity that may become available to me through my spiritual growth.

"... the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances."  Martha Washington

Yellow Snow?

Life is racing on by! Life's been busy with me, so as it tosses me around I work hard to enjoy each moment! So my blogging fingers have not had a lot of air time.

The pollen has been taking over the city! My eyes are blood shot and scratchy, I'm sneezing every 5 seconds and blowing my nose constantly. Gotta love allergies! As we joke here in the desert, it's snowing Palo Verde tree EVERYWHERE!

I mentioned last week I was struggling with an upcoming event that would test my ability to be gentle with myself and someone else's struggle to let go. I will say that project went as smoothly as it could have gone. Not as fast I would have preferred it to happen, but it's not in my time. My first sponsor would tell me, "Don't push the river." **sigh** I'm being reminded of that a lot lately, I must be trying to divert the river again. I believe this project will continue to move froward, I can just only hope in time to help me with another situation that I currently have going on. It's all about timing. It's also about having open communication! I was able to be honest with this person about my frustrations and the obstacles I feel I keep running into. This person agreed, that we need to buckle down and move forward with the project.

In the mist of my crammed packed Saturday, I took a little road trip with my parents over to the east side of the valley for an author book signing. My Mom bought me a cookbook wrote by Ree Drummond. I honestly didn't know who this gal was until my Mom handed me the book. Now I love this gal! How I didn't end up with this lifestyle, only my H.P. knows. Apparently my H.P. has other plans for me. Anyhow, this pioneer woman has a great story that she shared through her words and photos, which she weaves in and out of her cookbook! She was in town for a book signing. The link above is her old cookbook, which is the one I had signed. She just came out with a second new cookbook. Apparently we had NO CLUE she was so popular, so we arrived right on time, which resulted in receiving the letter "W" in the "line" to get our book signed. Oh well, we were not on a tight schedule, so it gave the three of us time to hang out and spend sometime together. After over an hour or so they called letter "F", we all looked at each other and quickly got up to head outside for a break and to grab an early supper. We apparently had plenty of time!

It all started with Ree's blog, that turned into several books and a television show! Her popularity has grown quickly, I believe only in the last five years! I'm happy for her and her family. What a great journey! You can read more about her on The Pioneer Woman.

The event was at a local high school grounds that had plenty of wildlife hanging around! Naturally, I had to pull out my little camera and capture some of these creatures. Would you expect anything else from me? The picture above is of a little Shorebird that was wading in the irrigation water. As I've mentioned I love reflection photos! However, this little guy would not stand still very long, so this was my one shot to capture him standing in the water. There was also a black grackle taking a bath at the same time.

We also had a sweet "him and her" Mallard duck couple that walked out to our car with us! They were expecting bread crumbs or something they way they were acting. It brought back memories from when I was a kid. We had ducks for many years!
When we got back, the auditorium was less than half empty! Yeah! They called the rest of the alphabet to get in line. So we did. We were there probably a total of four hours, much longer than we had anticipated, but it was worth it to meet Ree, her husband "The Marlboro Man", two boys, and her sister. Here are some photos of me and the MM & Ree. They are down to earth ranch folks that I wouldn't mind living next door too. That would mean I'm living on my own ranch in the middle of now where with my own horses, dogs, cows, and my own Cowboy that wears chaps! H would need to learn to wear a cowboy hat, chaps, and ride a horse. (Sorry that made me laugh out loud a little with that visual).

Ladd Drummond & me

Me & Ree Drummond

The rest of the weekend was spent meeting some of H's new friends and going to another Pamper Chef party. I'm not sure if it's good or bad when the consultant is going through her demonstration and I can check off in my head, "I have that piece, and that one, oh and that one too, yup got it..." You get the idea! They do have a new french fry cutter that I did order. H makes french fries quite often; however, someone had a great idea to use it for veggies, such as cucumbers! I will TRY to eat the veggie fries instead.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Appointments with Fear

I had the day off yesterday and was running a hundred miles an hour from the moment I woke up to late into the evening. Normally, I try to incorporate some time to relax on my days off, but it was a packed full day. I struggled a lot with Fear yesterday. It was tagging along next to me like a lost puppy all week, and yesterday I willingly engaged with it.

After my morning doctor appointment, I slide quickly down the slippery slope of fear and was drudging around the bottom of the cavern in the sticky cement like mud. Not getting far fast and burying myself deeper into a frenzy! I'm very grateful I had a planned lunch with a dear friend right after my appointment. I cried briefly and then we began to laugh. Good food, wonderful company, and the healing affect of laughter helped me pull myself out of that muck, and back on the path where I could clear my head. Fear really does stand for false experiences appearing real. **deep breath in and out** There were moments I had to keep it simple to take a moment to just remember to breath.

Another friend of mine recently shared a discovery she found, although that day started out rough. I did not have to allow it to ruin my entire day! It was still early and lots of daylight left to turn around my attitude and outlook on the day. So I lifted my chin and put a smile on my face after lunch and was able to continue with my day.

Baby had a follow up appointment with the vet to explain more about where she is at with her allergies. I really do like our vet, but he is only there during the week, when I work. So I usually interact with the weekend vets. Who are fine. But NEVER put me at ease like our vet does. I just need to remember that next time I decide to take the dog in, I just have to either do it first thing in the morning or take a day off from work. He gave me some economically things to try to help manage her situation, that won't break the bank. I'm very grateful for his kindness and understanding of our situation. Baby will be ok and is always happy to see the kind and loving staff there, as she is treated like a queen.  

Between the inner struggles with fear all morning, I decided to pull off on the side of the road and take some photos of the beautiful skies we had yesterday afternoon. We have been in the high 60's and low 70's with clear sunny skies. However, a little storm briefly rolled through town. I really enjoy this kind of weather.

The local Air Force Ladies & Gentlemen were flying!

Then I realized there was a hawk hunting in front of me!



It was breath taking to watch him maneuver in the air!

It was nice to take a breathier, find some balance, and enjoy the miracles that were happening around me. After dropping Baby off at home, I only had a moment to gather my things and head off to my meeting last night. It was a good meeting, as always. My favorite part was going out afterwards for coffee and great conversation with wonderful friends.

As the weather started to fade and the sun was setting, here is the result! Beautiful!

"That the birds of worry and care fly above your head, this you cannot change. But that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent." Chinese proverb

Road Trip Adventure

I've mentioned that I love a good adventure! My home state has so many wonderful things to do and see, that I've not even scratch the surface experience all those wonderful places and things. Yesterday a dear friend and I embark on a road trip to the southern part of our state to explore a "live" limestone cave that was discovered in 1974! What a fascinating story this cave has endured! This was my first underground tour of this unique mineral and formation landscape. It was beyond breathtaking! Due to the tens of thousands of years it takes to grow the various stalactites (icicle like formations) and stalagmites (formations reaching up from the ground) and how fragile these nature made creations are, there are only guided tours available. The state purchased the land in 1988 and made it a state park, which was the ultimate goal of the two discoverers and the owners of the land in their mission to protect and provide stewardship to the land.

We had a nice drive down, in fact we arrived earlier than we expected! The volunteer offered us to take an earlier tour, which we agreed too. The whole experience was a little bit of information overload, as I'm still trying to process all of it today. There were a lot of "rules" before we entered this sacred place. Being pretty much a rule follower, I was trying to remember all of it! Yikes! I did not want to be responsible for ruining this beautiful world! Ha! It was explained that they work really hard to study how to keep this living wet cave healthy. I will trust they are doing the best they can in keeping this magical world preserved, while still providing the opportunity for the world to experience a fraction of it's existence. The fact that these formations were created over hundreds and thousands of years each with a single drop of water. Miraculous! I certainly have a deep respect for what our Mother Earth can create. I will be back to absorb more of these miracles. 

I had many "favorite" parts of the tour underground, but the one that keeps coming to mind is when we were down near the mud flats at the bottom of the cave. The tour guide told us to all be quiet and listen to the heart beat of the cave. As the special lighting, that was installed, shone as a back light against many of the soda straw stalactites, it demonstrated the liveliness of the cave, the water. As everyone held their breath, you could hear the drip, drip, drip echo throughout the cave. Wow, that was powerful! I could of easily stood there for hours listening, feeling, and breathing in the powerful energy of this beautiful cave. However, the tour was on a schedule and we were hustled off to the next portion of the cave to quickly. I felt it was all a little rushed, but was still worth the experience. A little disclaimer here; I'm grateful they have created a paved path (for ease of visitors and to help protect the cave from our existence) and the lighting through out the cave that they turn on as we enter the different sections. I am not a fan of the complete dark or small spaces. So this was a wonderful way for me to experience this world that I would not of normally ventured. I'm so grateful for the chance to walk a similar path the two original discoverers walked without having to pull myself through a small space with my fingers and toes! No thank you!

One of the "rules" was no cameras. WHAT!? My camera is my third arm! So since I can't share visually what I saw, they do have a video on the website of the experience and some history. The video is nothing like the real experience, but it will give you an idea.

After our tour we had a picnic lunch in the park. It was very peaceful. My friend and I had a wonderful conversation, as we always do. Always sparking new ideas neither of us had even considered! One discover we had of ourselves was that we compliment each other in our strengths and weaknesses. She has an uncanning willpower to exercise daily and eat extremely healthy! Having the unwavering discipline for the physical/external of her body. However, she honestly admitted to being a little lazy with her emotional/internal care. I immediately felt, Oh my goodness! I'm the complete opposite! I believe this is one of the reasons we have always been drawn to each other, we are both very in tune and have an awareness of ourselves, but in such different capacities! I always a learn a lot when I spend time with this dear friend. It also always feels very laid back with no pressure when we spend time together.

After we left the park, we stopped off at a used book store to pursue. We both found a couple of treasures that we just couldn't live without. Then we concluded our day at a Tamale place that was voted one of the city's best! After having dinner there, I would have to agree completely with that vote. Yum!

It was a wonderful day!

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

More Temecula Photos

I was able to post yesterday from my phone! I'm super excited I was able to download the app and have it work! It was a wonderful weekend full of beautiful memories. Another blessing I've received from Al-Anon is that even though I'm married to an Alcoholic, that doesn't mean I can't continue to live my life and enjoy a nice glass of wine with my girlfriends. There was a time in my recovery that I thought if I didn't drink any alcohol or have alcohol in the house, it would help my husband to stop drinking. That thought process for me was fuel for my illusion of control in a situation that I obviously didn't cause, can't cure, and absolutely can't control. The decisions I make for myself should not be made to influence someone around me. Therefore, I need to make decisions for myself and only myself.


Here are a few more photos that I pulled off of my camera. The properties of the different wineries are gorgeous! In addition, the horse properties and beautiful homes were worth just cruising around and admiring. We did see a local honey sign and stopped to check it out! I've been wanting to get some raw honey, as there are a lot of health benefits to eating it. My Dad has benefited from a lot of the health benefits. After we bought the honey, a bunch of hummingbirds flew up and started eating out of this gals hummingbird feeders! She said there are mornings they will have 60 plus hummingbirds at a time feeding! My camera is a little old so the zoom makes weird noises, but I was able to catch the gal talking about what kind of hummingbirds were feeding. I thought it was awesome! 

Anyhow, the ladies and I want to go back to Temecula during the spring when everything is green and blooming. 

Chief and his buddy were hanging out where we had lunch! They were adorable and VERY big :)

Grilled Chicken & fresh Cilantro pizza - We loved the couple that owned the small pizza stand. In fact we went back the second day for more!

Fall Garden

I spent Saturday morning planting our Fall garden. The weather was gorgeous until about 11 am. Then it quickly started to warm up to the triple digits. Fall??? Not quite yet. My weekends for the next month are packed full of activities, so this was my last weekend to spend a morning planting. Please say a little prayer that the temperatures drop just a little in our part of the world so my plants will survive.

As my garden buddies know, most of the time is spent prepping the soil. This is crucial for a healthy garden and provides a good base for the plants to pull energy from to grow. I have to remind myself of this that I have to continue working on the basics of my program as it continues to evolve each day. Due to space limitations and not having the best soil in our backyard, I plant my garden in pots. We transport dirt and horse manure from my parents place out in the country, the plants love it! This year due to the warm weather going strong into the fall, I decided to start a majority of my garden with potted plants that were already started. I've had success in the past planting like this; however, I've also not been so much success, so we shall see. Time will tell.

We have some new members to the garden family. Several new herbs; chocolate mint, cinnamon basil, and tarragon. I'm also trying sugar snap peas. I'm very excited to see what new recipes we can try! There are so many reasons I love my garden, it really brings serenity to all of my senses and balance to my chankras. As I walk past each plant, I take a deep breath to smell the dill, basil, and chocolate mint! I love to sit and watch the lizards and bees explore and work the garden by eating unwanted pests and pollinating the plants. Then I pinch one of the chocolate mints to taste, yum, it's like candy! I love the feel and smell of freshly turned dirt. Reminds me a lot of my childhood when my sister and I would play cars and dolls in the dirt. Joyful memories.

Happy Monday! I'm grateful that if things get a little bumpy this week, I can close my eyes and take a deep breath remembering the wonderful smells, sights, and feel of my garden. Today I will relish my serenity. I know that it is safe to enjoy it.

Garden Filled with Life

This past week I was out enjoying the beautiful morning while watering my garden. As I was intently inspecting each of my bell peppers, something moved! That is when I noticed there was a horned lizard of some type caught in the bird net I have over my bell pepper plant! We thankfully were able to save him from the netting. The lizard bit my husband several times as he worked on cutting the net off of him. Sharp teeth! I love that my husband and I both have a love and respect for animals. We would of loved to have the lizard stay in the backyard and eat bugs! However, two of dogs are expert lizard hunters and I'm afraid he wouldn't last long in our little habitat. So we decided to release him over near a golf course. He should have a full lifetime of eating bugs. It felt good working as a team that morning to save the horned lizard. 

I really enjoy the wildlife our garden is sharing with us! What do you think this guy is?