Pondering the Moment...

"That pleasure which is at once the most pure, 

the most elevating and the most intense,

is derived, I maintain,

from the contemplation of the beautiful."

Edgar Allen Poe

Absorbing the beauty of the moment...

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Be Still...

" Health, contentment and trust

Are your greatest possessions,

And freedom your greatest joy.

Look within.

Be Still.

the Buddha

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Our Little Corner of the World...

If you've checked out my blog in the last week, you've probably noticed

that I've had a recent fascination with hoarfrost...

The top photo is of a tree in Lee Vining, CA...covered with thick 

hoarfrost...

The second photo is a tree in our backyard, covered with fresh snow...

There's actually quite a difference...

The hoarfrost seems to be larger, more defined crystals...

the snow, much smaller, more powdery crystals....

"Hoarfrost:  a deposit of ice crystals on objects exposed to the free air...

It is formed by direct condensation of water vapour to ice at temperatures below

freezing and occurs when air is brought to its frost point by cooling..."

hoarfrost. (n.d.) © Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc..  Retrieved January 28, 2013,

from Dictionary.com

website:  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hoarfrost

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Still Chasing the Hoar Frost!!!

"Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves, 

O flakes of snow,

For which, through naked trees

the winds A-mourning go?"

John Bannister Tabb

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Be Still and Hear the Music...

"There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, 

but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it."

Minnie Aumonier

Sunday Stills challenge...the letter F

F...as in Frost!!!

The Saga of June Lake

June Mountain is about 15 minutes north of Mammoth Lakes on 395.

The ski resort of June Lake is actually owned by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area (MMSA).

This ski season,  Mammoth Mountain closed the ski resort in June Lake for various reasons...

according to "sources", June Lake ski resort had been losing money ever since it 

was purchased by MMSA...the resort needed major repairs and is not self sustaining.  

After the economy downturn and last year's poor snow season, MMSA 

had very little choice regarding June.

Of course this has stirred quite the controversy in Mono County, especially 

in Mammoth and June Lakes...

According to a June Lake resident, the US Forestry has given MMSA 

3 choices for next year....

- re-open

- sell        

- let the ski resort go back to nature

Anyone in the market for a ski resort???

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A Delicate Vision...

"The questions worth asking, in other words, come not from other people

but from nature, and are for the most part delicate things

easily drowned out by the noise of everyday life."

Robert B. Laughlin

On Wednesday I drove to Lee Vining and Mono Lake in search of hoar frost...

the frost that occurs in freezing temperatures with fog...

delicate and lacy...

easily disturbed by the merest human touch...

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What Kind of Critter is This???

Anyone know what kind of critter left this track???

Update!  I checked with TheChief to see if he knew the critter...but no he didn't know...

so I emailed our local Wildlife Specialist, Steve Searles, the Bear Whisperer!!!

Rather than a bear, or a yeti, or....

he suggested that it looked to him like a Rabbit!!!

Whew!!!  I guess I wasn't in any danger after all!!!

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B is for Brrrrrrrr....

"Why are you crying" shivered the otter.  

"Because I am cold!"shouted the gnome.

"Then why are you shouting?" chattered the otter.

"Because," yelled the gnome, "when I shout it gets part of the cold

from the inside out!"

Stephen Cosgrove, Gnome from Nome

Solid fog over the Mono Lakes Basin...

lots of snow...

and lots of frost...

Brrrrrrr.....

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Our Little Corner of the World...

WELCOME!!!

To our little corner of the world!!!

These bears welcome you to Gull Lake...

a fishing destination in the June Lakes Loop...

But I hate to tell you...fishing season's a ways off...

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A Nose Full of Snow...

Is there anything more satisfying than a nose full of snow???

Perhaps...chewing on a pine cone...

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Snow, snow, snow!!!!

"Advice is like snow -

the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, 

and the deeper it sinks into the mind."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Sunday Stills

A Gothic Afternoon...or...Happy Birthday Edgar Allen Poe!!!

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door-
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this and nothing more."
Edgar Allen Poe

I know...you're probably saying the same thing I said to myself...

"You really ought to have saved this for Halloween!"

Oh well...I just couldn't resist...

What I didn't realize when I posted this...
it was Edgar Allen Poe's actual birthday on the 19th!!!
(thanks Petrea!!!)

Happy Birthday Edgar!!!

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Silver Linings...

"Clouds may come, but clouds must go, and they all have a silver lining.

For behind each cloud you know, the sun, or moon, is shining."

Unknown

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Look Who I Met on the Side of the Road...

"Coyotes move within a landscape of attentiveness.  

I have seen their eyes in the creosote bushes and among mesquite trees.  

They have watched me.  And all the times that I saw no eyes, 

that I kept walking and never knew, there were still coyotes.

When I have seen them trot away, when I have stepped from the floorboard of my truck, 

leaned on the door, and watched them as they watched me over their shoulders,

I have been aware for that moment of how much more there is.

Of how I have only seen only an instant of a broad and rich life."

Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

They look so different up here in the cold and snow...

not as skinny as the ones down south...

fortunately...this guy was on the side of the road in June Lake...

I have an aversion to them anywhere near our house and kitties!!!

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A is for An Alternative Paradigm...

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Marcel Proust

A new paradigm of a previous post...

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Our Little Corner of the World...

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up,

snow is exhilarating;

there is really no such thing as bad weather, 

only different kinds of good weather."

John Ruskin

Today we've begun a heat wave...

we hit 32 degrees Fahrenheit!!!

I think I would generally agree with Ruskin about the snow being exhilarating...

but this past week was just too darned cold!!!

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Did you see a Pink Elephant this weekend???

"Look out!  Look out!

Pink elephants on parade

Here they come!

Hippety hoppety

They're here and there

Pink elephants ev'rywhere

Look out!  Look out!...

Dumbo

No...I really wasn't seeing pink elephants this weekend...

This shot was one of my contenders for "Little Things" in yesterday's
Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Yes...I actually have real glass stir sticks with pink elephants on them...

Where'd I get them?  One of the little things I've picked up

in one of the many antique stores I've foraged around!

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Joining Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

It's Scavenger Hunt Sunday!!!

This is my first attempt posting for this meme...
I've been following it vicariously through some of the blogs
that I follow, and it's intrigued me!!!
The object is to take photos that represent the words in each
week's list...

I must admit, I raided my archives for two of them...
the backside was the first weekend in December....
and the reflection was from fall, 2 years ago...

1.  Outside...

Just how cold was it last Thursday???

Yep...it was v-e-r-r-r-y cold!!!

But not as cold as today!!!

Yep!   It's darned cold up here in sunny California!!!

2.  Backside...

This little backside turned one on November 30!!!

3.  Little Things...

One of four sweet little salt shakers I inherited from my 

wonderful mom-in-law...

4.  A Cup of...

We think this set originally came from my mom-in-law's mother...

Royal Rudolstadt...from Prussia!!!

5.  Reflect

This is a reflection in a stream emanating from Silver Lake, in the June Lake Loop.

This has been a challenging meme to participate in!!!
And I loved it!!!



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