Solo Adventures

I refuse to talk about how early I got up.
Last night was a novel and hysterical experience!  I had neighbors who broke the cardinal rule of WEAR YOUR KEYS around your neck. Dark sky photogs who wanted to photograph our partly cloudy blackness.  I can only say, that as the daughter of a boy scout, some of my being prepared was not used as intended....  Once inside and all put back together as it should be, I gave them the proper warnings and actually got to bed early... drapes pulled more than usual.

So today I braved the early park.
It was only 7, and although gates were closed on one side, they were open and I headed to Puerco to try to photograph the swifts.  I curse loudly here, as this cannot be done.  I will say I surrender and move on.

My boy the raven was there to say hi as I came into view of my destination.

I retraced the steps that Hallie has pointed me on yesterday and, all by myself, I walked the cliffs and petroglyphs (BE SURE TO ASK IF YOU TRY IT) going exactly to the spot I was told to not go beyond.

I did a lot more looking down than usual.  This hoof mark repeatedly kicked up something to the left.  I wondered if it was moving slowly and dragging one foot, as in an injury, or running quickly, although it was only on one side... I will see if I can find a biologist!

Also, there was a very large print that definitely had pads and claws.  Did not photograph well.  Did not look like they were at the same time either... ah the mysteries and stories in the mud! (In hindsight, I have realized that lots of my large mystery print PROBABLY are cattle... duh)




I want to show this.  My favorite petroglyph panel.  What is wonderful is that the very deep carving on the left is completely black.  It has grown a full, new desert varnish in the time it took to make the others on the right.  That circle is also split in half with pecks that indicate to me either half moon, or day and night split.  It fascinates me.

So I came home rather energetic!

looking down the hall, my boots beckoned.

About my boots.  I am nothing remotely like a cowboy, but I hang around with them a lot, so I needed boots.  I don't remember if my boyfriend found these or I dug them up, but they are my "welly" boots.  In England the boots are made for mucking about.  Good boots (and I could never afford GOOD ones) are pretty beautiful here and when facing muck, rapidly cease to be lovely.... so these are 100% Naugahyde!  A nearly extinct beast, formerly widely used for leather furnishings in the 70's and 80's.  I have no fear of ruining them and, although there are more poisonous snakes in the Phoenix area than here, if I will be wandering among nasty shrubs, I want a tall shoe.... so the boots...


I am going to either do some more birds (insert cursing) or perhaps a few botanical pieces...but I just got the urge to look down again, so I set off up my hillside behind the casita.

The seed was planted yesterday about tiny flowers. As I looked they seemed tinier and tinier.  These are my two tiniest candidates with boot toe for scale:

Then I did see a tiny cactus!



I had a piece of agate that I had found up the hill and went hunting for it again.  It is obviously not naturally occurring as this whole area was modeled and remodeled since the 20's but the litter on the hill is so wonderful.

As a former Archaeology Society member, my heart stopped seeing the white and black in my gaze!!!!  I regret to confirm it is NOT pottery.  A natural patina of some sort on a very conglomerate rock, but I can dream...

However this was an obvious piece to ponder. I did turn it over and it plainly bone, but I didn't pick it up.  The little round edges seem to be mineral.  I wonder if it is bone or stone.  Just wondering is enough for right now.


Then I came across a failed art project!  A highly polished piece of a beautiful cabochon of agate.  Sorry it did not make the silver setting it was bound for.

And then this eye-popping yellow agate!  Never have I seen anything like the colors in this!


I gathered a few strays up and will continue to photograph and enjoy before I toss them back for the next treasure hunter climbing up behind the casita.


(AND... now that I have come to the PDVC I hear the long awaited ICE CREAM at the Painted Desert Inn is doing sampling today!! Dang! I wish their wifi worked!!)

Productive Doesn't Look Productive

Last night, sitting with my computer on my lap, updating posts jumped on the PD wifi I was so excited - did so much!
But when I looked through my photos... I was working, not snapping.  No photos today of the Petrified Forest Museum, or gift shop.  I felt very much at home down south.  Aside from the hour round trip, and high gas prices in here, the drive would be the main order of business every day!

So, morning....
NOW he is my hairdresser!  Last night I took a nice bath (the heater only warms exactly half of that seductively big tub...waaa) and I guess the cat belives that clawing my hair will get me up faster.  Grrrrr.  Again, as dawn turns the sky red, he is letting me know it is time to rise and shine.  Like Tom, in Glass Menagerie, I am not thrilled.  But it was fine.
I did see a jack, but the photo was horrible and he left.... so here is one of our morning bunnies instead:



Officially the sun rose at 5:30 and my great plans of getting to the RFM early and setting up for 8 when they opened WOULD have been OK, but Steve, the guy on duty, got their plenty early and left the doors open.  So in came the tourists.  And if you know me, I don't shut up...
First exciting meet was the Lees...two Korean women, one of whom was an artist.  I LOVE MEETING PEOPLE!  I had just set up and they were great to talk to.  I am going to have to have that clip board tied around my neck! I keep forgetting to take the pictures!
I next met a wonderful woman from Utah that took my PET card and seriously wanted my contact info... (fingers crossed).

Challenging myself is one thing, and I sort of proved I could DO art (I have horrible blank canvas terrors if I am not backed up with pieces getting ready or finished on the easel for other people.  I have NO idea which of the millions of ideas in my head will capture the fancy of others and keep a roof over my head.)
Were the cholla not so mind numbing, I had a great day.  Painting is so automatic and Steve was a good guy who was really lonesome having lost his 3 pound chihuahua only 6 months ago.  He had great tales to tell about his brother and the agate magnate!  How ingenuity and seeing the bigger picture parlayed him into definitely one of the richest men in Holbrook if not THE.  I loved the story of how he watched a guy gutting some old buildings and after the workers left found pounds of old Wells Fargo stored ledgers and checks!  After a few donations for history, old cancelled checks were going for at least $20 a shot and he had a DUMPSTER full.  I would loved to have a few ledger pages for toned backgrounds.
One mans trash...(again, no photo, but HE will be a colorful character in the series...)

The wind picked up good at about noon. I really wanted everything in the car, so I didn't risk it blowing away... but I totally forgot about the wifi.... what wifi!  It was on and it worked.  Stayed after loading the car, as I didn't want artwork sailing down the road, to catch up... not much I really needed to know.
Came home and made lunch from the bran flakes left by a previous AiR (thank you)  and my milk from the store and set to work trying to get  finished of this painting. Listened to NPR, until my eyes got blurry, then drove over with camera about 5 to see the cloud shadows.  MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE A PLEDGE NO MORE PD PIX.  I am daunted and it is not helping.

But I took the computer and drove over to sit in the parking lot for a little while to post the sunset in the blog.
Came home and, having taken out the contact lens and going sans correction, worked some more on it.  Pretty much grass and grass and grass...much like fur I guess
DID see a really fleeting rainbow!  Pale but spectacular.

With tomorrow's wake up call, I tried an early to bed.  ha.
I learned that the cat is obsessed with the moon or changes in the clouds.  He has tried to climb into the window overhead a few times, so I closed the curtains.  Now he is chasing moths.
BUT before we turned the lights out, I will say I have something that can be put away for a while with some satisfaction:

We Got A Tour.

I paced my self, after the sunrise and remembered to eat my protein bar... and only the protein bar... might have to get some real breakfast in me.....and did NOT end up having a lot of time before we all met at the lab to see the bones and stones and artifacts in the collection.
I do believe it may deserve it's own post, as it was a very informative tour and I am pretty sure I took away some of my own fallacies from all the info I was presented.   Matt Smith... yet another alias like mine.... was the master of the Collections:

HE LOVES HIS WORK!

In the main lab we saw a lot of relocating Paleo-Lab items. On my trip through last year I got to see how the 3D printer and scientists work together to make models, and say, you have one shoulder.... digitally you can flip it and create a model that mirrors it, so your jigsaw puzzle has better pieces. More in the longer post..... Down dark corridors we found skins of animals from within the park bounds (A SPOTTED SKUNK NO LESS)  and pottery that is historical, such as was once on display at the museum and even artifacts from CCC workers. 

Every type of visitor is represented.  He even took us to his LAB-O-RA-TORY.

Amazing machines for counting microscopic petrified scales and all on a budges of about $1000 a year.  PLEASE FOLKS, we depend on the kindness of strangers, so get yourself involved with the National Park Service associations and donate whenever, wherever you can.  The work is done by a handful of professionals, who have been mostly trained through on the job experience.  Something that books and classrooms cannot teach. Careful use of volunteers and the amazing personal involvement of the people who intimately know these creatures  from ancient times is what sets this sort of research apart.  The Dept. of the Interior is in charge of things and they MUST protect one of the largest collections (total) in the world.

I loved that he didn't even start the talk by dumbing it down!  My bits of Latin and good old public school education had me following RIGHT along.  Some of the actual names got jumbled in my head, but I have only remembered (not cheating by looking at tags) about 5 staff... I don't do names.

When I left, I realized the dust and eyefry from taking more photos yesterday PM helped me get the old sinus headache back.  I am feeling ancient.   After a couple of hours I think, in the courtyard by the offices where the wifi is thin but there, I had updated the blog from yesterday and did my little mail etc.  Heading home I thought a short nap... (WHICH I REALLY DID NAP!) and I might take the paints and pencils across the road, quietly, at long shadows, to see the Painted Desert vistas.

Jim's (the other AiR) easel was still up in the observation area, even though he was off for the day.  I AM NOT A LANDSCAPE painter, although painting outside is fine with me, so I took to a trail to see what I might sketch.  Had a great chat with a couple of visitors and decided the rocks were lumpy to sit on the but the view was worth it... on the way back up I realized I WILL NOT be hiking.  Some longer flat walks, ok, but now I KNOW I am not fit enough.  Went back, got the camera, raced back, took it out, snapped 2 shots and promptly ran out of battery.  AAARRRGGGHHH.

So Thing and I (and the headache) decided to eat out.  

I had spaghetti on the patio and he joined me in his travel apartment to watch the sun finish its day.

NICE!  NICE!

(I hear it hit 100 back home.   NICE!!!!)