I think there’s nothing more serene than looking out at water, especially a still Alaska lake with reflections of the shore. This is NOT my daughter’s cabin, but I am now thinking I need to take my camera out in their boat and take a similar photo.
As we walked on the path through the trees, the sun started peeking through the clouds, creating spots of sunlight among the aspens on this overcast day. We are hoping for good weather next week when we make the trek up to Flagstaff once more on our quest for fall color.
We will be in Alaska for the next two weeks! I am scheduling a few posts of some photos from previous Alaska trips to publish while I’m gone. We’ll be seeing our Alaska family for the first time in a year and a half; their youngest, Henry is now 10 1/2 and Miles is a teenager- 13 1/2! AND we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary!
Here is where we’ll be celebrating- Homer, Alaska!
Last night we went out to grab a quick salad before settling down to rewatch one of our favorite Brit TV series- Scott and Bailey (we just can’t seem to get enough of these fascinating characters!). After dinner, the sky put on an amazing display for us, complete with God-beams highlighting Granite Mountain! I managed to capture several shots with my iPhone through the windshield as we drove towards home.
After we had been home for a bit, we heard the pitter patter of gentle rain, which had been predicted for earlier in the day. We ran outside and watched, and, unfortunately, the rain stopped after about ten minutes. The drought here is getting scary- our lakes are drying up and there are wildfires burning. In fact, it is likely that the some of the clouds and haze behind the mountains in this photo are actually smoke.
It was almost sunset in the desert, but the sun was still fiery hot. This was taken after dinner outside the house where we stayed in Oro Valley, Arizona for my birthday.
It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
Rainer Maria Rilke
I’ve been busier than usual and recovering from my second Covid shot (not complaining!), and just realized that Spring is on its way. I have quite a few winter scenes yet to post, so expect more snow scenes over the coming week or so. Today’s photo was taken at Granite Basin Lake at the end of December.
THEN:
The photo below was taken a couple weeks ago when we drove around town chasing photo ops on the third snow day of the year. As you can see, it was just a light dusting, but it still created a pretty scene. As we turned to to drive over to Granite Basin Lake, I spotted this perfect little tree ahead, and I shouted “Stop the car- NOW!”. Since no one was out and about that morning, we were able to stop, and I got this shot.
NOW:
Yesterday was our Covid shot appointment. An announcement was made that the clinic in Prescott Valley would be delayed by 2 hours due to heavy snow, which meant that our 2:30 appointment would be at 4:30 and it would mean coming back through the storm in the dark. Appointments would be postponed until the next week if we didn’t show up. What to do, what to do? Then a friend contacted me that they were accepting people in BEFORE their scheduled time (lots of people weren’t able to get there at all), so, long story short, we got there and got our shots! BUT coming home, the storm worsened and we weren’t able to get all the way up the hill to our driveway- so our car is parked down the street where it will likely remain all week. We have 1-2 feet of snow on our driveway and our yard has drifts of 3-4 feet. And snow will continue all week!
Wet hair, wet clothes, but happy and vaccinated!
View out the front door this morning…
Our winter is coming in dibs and dabs this year. This was taken at Granite Basin Lake after our end of the year mini-snowstorm.
We had a light snow Monday night- our third of the season. We got tired of waiting for a proper snowstorm for picture taking, so yesterday morning we headed out to see what the rest of town looked like. We eventually headed up to Granite Basin Lake and saw gorgeous scenes of snow-capped trees along the snowy road. The frozen lake surrounded by bare rock formations made a beautiful scene- and, best of all, no one was there!
As I write this, we are having snow flurries and very welcome rain- but when I took this photo on Friday the sun was shining. We walked along the trail by Watson Lake and admired the yellow, orange, and still green leaves- knowing that many of those leaves would be off the trees over the next few days. Autumn is my favorite season, and this autumn I’m holding onto the hope of better days ahead with a less volatile political climate, a more united country and an end in sight to the pandemic. Sunnier days ahead!
Since moving to Prescott, we have developed a tradition of going out after dinner to watch the sunset- either from our driveway or getting in the car and driving to a good vantage point. We have become cloud-watchers and predictors of when there will be an especially good sunset display. Last night I thought there was a 50/50 chance of a great one, but I wasn’t convinced that there was enough sky visible- it was overcast in our area of town. But Lonnie had been out and about and pointed out blue sky to the south, so we headed out to find a good view of the Thumb Butte. As we drove in that direction, it was obvious that we had a magnificent sky with great clouds. The photo below was taken before sunset, when a golden glow was just beginning on the Thumb.
Isn’t this a happy scene? This photo pretty much just took itself.
We drove over to Granite Basin Lake a tiny lake at the base of Granite Mountain here in Prescott and walked around for awhile, enjoying the scenery and taking a few photos. We spotted some dragonflies and dozens of butterflies, but only one single bird, a hummingbird. We are talking about going over again and bringing our lunch.
The light was beautiful as we took a drive by the lakes last evening. We stopped for a few quick iPhone shots of Willow Lake, and then headed home for some banana bread I had baked earlier. Our last instacart order had provided us with 5 bunches of bananas instead of 5 single bananas (I’m not complaining- we’re ALL frazzled…), and yesterday was the day they were ripe enough for baking and freezing. We now have an abundant supply of frozen bananas for smoothies, pancakes, and baking!
Walking around in the Alabama Hills was fascinating not only for the memories of cowboy movies shot in these locations- but for the frequent views of Mt. Whitney just above the rock formations. This is a place I would like to visit again.
melinda anderson photography 