Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Saturday, September 23, 2023
🧡 September 🧡
Apples are nearly ripe, a few trees are tentatively coloring their leaves and I’m starting to make my fall cards. Stella always likes to “snoopervise” while I put up the autumn decorations.
Friday, July 7, 2023
Spring and a Bit of Summer
We had a wonderfully cool May and June. Rarely got above 70 degrees. Many days the Marine Layer was hugging the mountains and engulfing the valley.
I bought a new hydrangea called Mysterious. It’s a mystery to me how it has so many different colors. Just gorgeous.
Wild flower season is well underway. Wild Sweet Peas in the top photo, Seep Monkey Flower in the bottom photo.
My cherry trees are loaded this year. For some reason, the birds are leaving quite a few cherries for me!
The lake is looking particularly beautiful since it’s so full from all the snow last winter.
The forest is wonderfully green, too, although the July heat is turning the grasses to gold pretty quickly now.
Sylvia Squirrel getting a drink from the birdbath. How squirrels manage to drink while upside down is a mystery to me.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
The Blizzard of 2023
The month of March was brutal. It started snowing on February 23rd and didn’t stop until over 8 feet of snow had accumulated. Five feet of it fell in a 24 hour period. This photo is looking out from my studio window during a break in the middle of the storm. Thank God I could get out to it to paint, it saved my sanity. Nearly two weeks of not seeing another human being, no plows clearing the road, just snow, snow and more snow was stressful, to say the least.
The roof of our only grocery store in Crestline, Goodwin’s Market, collapsed due to the weight of the snow. They estimate it will take a year to rebuild. Only the outside walls remain.
Roofs all over the mountain collapsed. The last time we saw this much snow up here was the winter of 1982-83.
Thankfully, the roof on my 115 year old cottage held up just fine, and so did the roof of my studio, probably because the pitch of both is so steep. I did have to shovel off the roof of the cottage’s front porch though because it’s fairly flat.If I never see this much snow again it wouldn’t bother me a bit. Although, it’s really not the amount of snow that was so hard to deal with, it’s the fact that the County of San Bernardino was so slow in getting the roads plowed. People died up here because of the County’s negligence. (I thank whoever build my little cottage all those years ago for putting in a fireplace and a gas floor furnace).Trees and power lines came down and Edison couldn’t get in to fix anything because the roads weren’t cleared. People couldn’t get out to get medications and died. People ran out of food. People who lived in all electric houses, and so had no heat, froze to death. The County is trying to say that all of the deaths that happened up here during the blizzard are not storm related, but we all know that’s a lie. During the blizzard of 1982-83 the roads were, mostly, cleared within three days because the plows were out working night and day, and that’s the way it has always been up here. As soon as it started snowing, the plows were working. But not during this storm. I’m near town, one of the first places normally to be plowed, but my road wasn’t plowed for 10 days! Sadly, probably nothing will happen to the people who were responsible for the County’s poor response because that’s the way things seem to be nowadays.
Saturday, December 3, 2022
Happy December
The mice are making merry in Mouseford Falls, making snowmice, sledding, hiking, buying presents and drinking hot chocolate.
Friday, October 21, 2022
October
Malcolm says he’s ready to bypass Halloween and go straight to Thanksgiving. He wants turkey! Of course, he wants turkey every day. And lots of other things that are only appropriate for him in very small amounts.
Autumn is finally starting to get underway here in the San Bernardino mountains. It’s arrival is very late this year, I think because it’s been so unseasonably warm. This past summer was filled with brutal heat. I hate it, but I suppose that’s the norm now in this time of Climate Change.
I hope everyone is having a joyous autumn, it’s my favorite time of the year.
Saturday, August 6, 2022
Late Summer
There have been so many beautiful clouds around for the past two and a half weeks, but we’ve only had a few tiny drops of rain. Big Bear and Forest Falls received so much rain some roads were washed out!
I’m glad that some areas of the mountains I love so much got some much needed rain. I’m hoping that the western end of the mountains where I live will get a good downpour soon.
My hydrangeas did well this summer, although they have mostly lost all their color now and are just green.This has been the hottest summer I can remember, and I’ve lived in these mountains for most of my life. It’s lovely to be out on the lake though.
Charlie likes to climb trees to stay cool.
The petunias appreciate a sprinkle from the garden hose once a day. I didn’t buy many annuals this year to cut back on my water usage. I’ve even stopped throwing out the water from the animals’ bowls when I give them fresh twice a day, instead pouring the old water into a watering can and using it on the plants. It seems California is in a never-ending drought.
But, the ducks are happy. Lucky them, getting to paddle around in cool water all day!
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Late Spring
This has been a fairly dry spring and winter, too. But Lake Gregory is looking beautiful anyway!
My roses aren’t blooming yet, their buds are still forming. Roses from the grocery store are sufficing for now.
Down in Cleghorn Canyon, about 1,900 feet lower than where I live, the Bush Mallows are producing their delicate blooms.
Here, the pink and white dogwoods are blooming….