The Land of Big Trees

Welcome to Mineral King, Sequoia National Park...

... where a 23-mile hike down a seldom-used trail brings you to at least a half dozen excellent swimming holes...

... where secretive bears leave their marks in the mud...

... where damp earth makes for green meadows...

... where men tried to conquer the mountain...

... and the mountain in turn made them a little loopy.

 

It's a land of waterfalls...

... wild onions...

... and alpine lakes.

It's a place where yours truly just might try to work next summer.

Painting by Feeling

A call-out to my first and only official watercolor teacher to date, Marilyn Postema! I had a few different skies done up in my watercolor journal, and while I was listening to the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy I decided I ought to put some more paint on them. The result was not anything to do with where I am or what I've been seeing lately. Instead, my studious brush pressed out images of my home in Big Bend - the mountains, the plants, the river.

 In this one, I sort of modeled the mountains outside my back window (featured in the header on my blog), threw in a sotol plant (you can see my attempts at figuring out how to sawtooth the leaves above... I gave up), and then tried to do something akin to the river. In trying to capture the pale chocolate milk of the Rio Grande, I pretty much failed, but the dark flow that I ended up with was kind of interesting in its own right.

This one I am still working on, but I was very pleased with how the background turned out: the Sierra del Carmen, rosy as ever, and absolutely lovely. I also put some light clouds in there. The sky... I'm thinking I might have to break down and buy another blue, because I just can't get that brilliant sky-blue with my ultramarine... I talked to a painter in town and he recommended cobalt... we'll see. He also had a marvelous technique in that his nature scenes had little people in them. This really drew you into the landscape and connected you with what you were seeing - I think I'm going to have to try this in the future. As for what's going to go in the mid- and foreground of this painting? I'm not exactly sure yet. I was thinking some desert hills, terraced how they are in Big Bend, but aside from that I'm not quite sure. Perhaps I'll have to put a little hiker in there somewhere!

I went to church at Bridgeport Christian Fellowship today - it was a nice little church. It's refreshing to make it to town and attend a service every now and then; I think I'll try and get out to one in Mammoth Lakes if I go down there to test-ride bikes in a couple weeks. Of course, next weekend I'll be on vacation! Work keeps rolling right along. My latest yarn shipment is in, but I couldn't pick it up because the window's not open on Sundays, so I'll have to go into town again tomorrow or Tuesday. Maybe I'll get a bike ride in while I'm at it. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm sure after my vacation I'll have some pictures to post and some adventurous stories to tell.

Until next time!

As requested...

I've gotten multiple requests to post pictures of my knitted tank top, so I thought I would finally fulfill those today, now that I've got a fun female housemate who was more than willing to help me take a few photos this morning. :)

Betty moved in just this past week. She is going to be volunteering here for the rest of the month, so she was allowed to use the extra room we had in our house. She is a friend of a sister of a good friend (Joanne Allen) and easily falls into that same caliber of person. She is fun, friendly, easy-going, accommodating, and we have quite a bit in common to boot! She's only been here for about 4 days, and already it feels like she's always been. It'll be sad to see her go at the end of the month, I think.

I feel like I've been neglecting to post pictures lately, so here's another great shot - the near-perfect panorama that I had stitched together from the top of Beauty Peak when I and my hiking buddy went up there on Burning of Bodie day. You can see the two dry lake beds down below towards the middle of the shot. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for an exposed hike like that.

My plans for the next couple weekends are slim to nil. In fact, I'm attempting to not leave Bodie, for the most part - to save up my gas and my money for my upcoming vacation. A noble effort, to be sure. Betty wants to go up to Grover next weekend, so maybe we'll spend a day at that, but we might take her car, too, so that may keep me true to my intention yet. This past week I went into town or stayed up late far too often - and paid for it by having to take my "wellness formula" supplements two times before bed so as not to wake up sick the next morning. I'm looking forward to a couple weekends of sleeping, lounging, reading, working on crafty projects, swimming, hiking, and generally moseying around my little domain here at Bodie. Today, I'm about to finish book number 7 for my summer reading log (Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey), and I'll be starting book number 8. Sometime this week my latest yarn shipment is supposed to arrive and then I'll begin work on my own created pattern for a tunic tank top. A semi-local bike shop is supposed to give me a call when their Santa Cruz Juliana bikes come in so I can go down there and take a look at them in person. (Depending on how things go, I may or may not just purchase from them...) At least the guy on the phone sounded nice - goodness knows I wouldn't buy a Specialized from that shop in Carson City because I didn't like the way the guy talked to me. Anyhow, that'll either happen next weekend or the weekend after my vacation. We'll see.

Until next time!