We are staying in The Gorge Hotel built in 1921 where my grandparents once stayed,
with the wildflowers blooming,
driving up to find the views,
my grandfather painted in his Columbia Gorge paintings.
This observant robin didn’t let me distract him,
from his worm,
and this friendly elk licked our car windows!
Cheers to you from the gorgeous Gorge~
Who do you think you are?
Can’t you see we’re busy?
You are not a member of our clicque!
We have a hard enough time getting along with each other.
You are just toooo much!
We just want to rest in peace,
but you human, are not getting the message…..
and you are NOT invited for dinner.
Besides we are much more handsome than humans.
Cheers to you from the handsome haughty herd of Cannon Beach Oregon~
in Oregon stretches for seemingly endless misty miles.
Haystack Rock on the beach is famous both for it’s unique grandeur,
and for the variety of wildlife it harbors,
including a nesting colony of tufted puffins,
unless of course these guys decide to nest on the top of the rock and scare all the puffins away!
Harlequin ducks seem unfazed by the eagles and swim happily all around Haystack.
Many birds can be found in nearby estuaries and ponds, including tree swallows,
scaups,
and ring necked ducks.
Bundles of baby beach bunnies sleep on our ocean front patio,
using our presence to keep the eagles away.
Apparently in the 1980’s domesticated rabbits were released into the wild and bred like bunnies!
Cheers to you from Canon Beach~
/)/)
( . .)
( づ♡
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I am reading John Muir’s, “My First Summer in the Sierras,” published in 1911.
Note the horse hoof tracks in the sand, these are the wild mustangs of Mono Lake:
https://cindyknoke.com/tag/mono-lake-wild-horse-photography
Muir’s diary is replete with his illustrations.
As I walked where he walked, I was struck,
by how he views nature as a sacrament.
He finds not just solace here,
but spiritual joy.
Of Mono Lake, he wrote, “I never beheld a place where beauty was written in plainer characters or where the tender fostering hand of the Great Gardener was more directly visible.”
He went all over the world,
but his name and imprint are all over California forests and trails, and the university I attended.
He called Mono Lake “a marvel,” and knew the brine shrimp were the only permanent residents of “the ancient lake.”
He wrote this in 1869 and he couldn’t be more correct today. He traveled on foot in The Sierras with pencil and paper. I wonder how he knew all this?
Thousands of migrating birds rely on the lake’s brine shrimp for sustenance as they migrate every year.
Los Angeles continues to siphon water from the lake and the lake continues to dry and shrink.
My Scottish immigrant grandmother who arrived in the US in the early 1900’s never read John Muir, but she loved Scotland, and so did he.
Cheers to you from The Scotsman of The Sierras~
See: https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/my_first_summer_in_the_sierra/
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Mono Lake in California,
is a pristine,
paradise,
in winter.
There is no one here,
but the lake,
the tufas,
and you!
Tufas are delicate limestone structures formed over thousands of years,
by the interaction of fresh and alkaline water.
Cheers to you from Mono Lake in the winter~
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California isn’t all ocean,
sun and surf.
It is also mountains,
snow and ski.
Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes California averages 400 inches of snow each year.
We have been coming here to ski annually for almost 55 years.
Another storm is arriving this weekend!
Gearing up.
You can see Mono Lake in the distance where we are going tomorrow.
Cheers to you from Mammoth Lakes in February~
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Jacques Cousteau referred to The Sea of Cortez as the world’s aquarium,
which it clearly is,
empty, stunning, and full of wildlife.
The region is also,
home to a huge variety of birds,
including the formidable Harris Hawk,
comical,
peli- cans,
curious grackles,
and stunning,
frigate birds.
Cheers to you from all the birdies in The Sea of Cortez~
