There is something about having a REAL WINDOW SILL for a cat to settle in for the day, that makes this Thing, so much more cat-like. Although he was still a total pain the first night and was banished for a few hours in the night (his plaintive cries did touch my heart..) he eventually actually curled up next to me and we slept. Not really what you would call a long night (I did too much straining and stretching packing and the car ride whacked out my hips so I was up and down. I even spent a while watching what I figure in the morning to be reflections from the OTHER window of the road out east. I thought it must be campers but they were spookily nearby. Ha. I think this may explain the haunting across the road... reflections.
Before the sun actually came up (maybe about 5) a yellow orange glow fills the cloudless sky in the east. Startling colors. Not soft gentle pinks one is used to... but not enough to rouse me. THAT happened a little over an hour later when the sun BLAZED in on my eyelids. Once up and over the sill of the window, it was a perfect alarm. I adjusted the center panel in the blinds to block the earliest rays and found myself brewing a pot of Mr. Coffee to load into my travel mug and see if I could play alone on the Painted Desert Inn patio and start loading the blog.
In the morning I realized the wifi was a phantom to chase, not a real thing available to me near home. The PDI has a transmitter that only temps, not rewards wifi seakers. But the walk across the Park Road was worth it. Long before the the tourists and rangers showed, it was a chilly but not cold start of a day. I found some amorous birds enjoying the shortening shadows with me as I slowed down again to sip my coffee and enjoy the view. Every morning and evening, it is going to be different. I am sure the possibilities will overwhelm me. I am going to try to just WATCH.
The actual environs around my place are pretty nifty.
Aside from the greeting I got from a The landscape is full of blooming yucca. I remember Mom valuing the pods for crafts etc.
I also thought there was a scattering of actual litter. White flowers individually stood boldly against the dusty, scruffy landscape.
I wandered on the hill above the casita and got lots of little things...
There were little jewels of rocks and shrubs. I picked up two stray bits of petrified rock to admire in the cottage during my stay.I saw a huge footprint of a wild beast.. fearing Coyotes or worse, I realize in a dog friendly park, Just good old Rover leaves his traces...
I met a Tarantula Wasp, and the little lizard (who I hope is not the one later in this tale..)
Late morning I went to the visitor center and scouted the wifi and laundry and loaded yesterday's blog. Kip was going to be at PVI all afternoon and I said I would bring the spare car magnet for visitors... Then I went off to see the museum in the ACTUAL Petrified part of the forest.
I had chatted with a cute woman from England who said her whole reason for being here was a discovery of Route 66.
My first painting will definitely be him, as he perched atop the silver vent on the restrooms, the 1/4 moon faint behind him in the bright day....
I met four lovely poodles on their way home from a club meeting in St. Louis. They may be the second in my series.
A LONG eye-burning windswept trip through the park, found me exhausted but I managed to roll into the parking lot before the PDI shut and I walked the sign over to Kip. I met my fellow artist, attempting to capture the vista across the street! I am too daunted for that!
When I came back, the cat was looking intently at something....
It was a mortally wounded lizard who did not seem too excited to leave or to stay.
After brushing him out the side door, I felt pretty sad.
I had found a tiny broken egg this morning on the patio from the nest directly above my door and a petrified smaller lizard body.
It is all natural, but it all made me sad.
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