10 October 2016 - Utah Gold

Autumn in Utah is all about the gold. The most prolific trees are aspen, cottonwood and poplars which have leaves that turn into glorious shades of yellow and gold. Yes, we have reds and oranges to punctuate the golden glow, but nothing like the blazing hardwood trees you would see back east. 

In addition to the trees turning our world to molten gold, in late September the rabbitbrush starts blooming. Its flowers are also a deep yellow that herald the coming of fall. 

So here is a quick color tour of the golden raiment beautifully modeled by the mountains on some of my recent travels.

 

It isn't only the changing color of the leaves that sets my heart to fluttering. I love how the grasses and fields transform from green to many different hues from pale straw to rich oranges.  

So much beauty! My advice? Get out there and look!

7 October 2016 - I love my neighbors!

I live in a great neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. I find it so interesting how kids who grew up here years ago are moving back or never left. 

I am living in the house where I grew up and still have some of the same neighbors. Becky, who grew up across the street from me, lives in her own house next door to her parents' home. Both her parents have passed, but her daughter's family now lives in the family home. Down the street, Leah still lives in her original home and she is now a great-grandmother. Her kids, my sibs and I, and Becky were all friends from elementary school on up. At the bottom of the street are Monty and Ruth, whose children also ran with our pack. Their son lives next door to them. Kitty-corner from me on both sides are the homes of two sisters. They make me think how wonderful it would be to that close to family. Newcomers are on either side of me. They have blended in seamlessly and it is almost like I have known them for a long time. Every one of them are wonderful, welcoming and very interesting people. But it is also intriguing to see how some families stay close together. 

In today's world people tend to live fairly insular lives. Many mothers become car moms--busy taking kids to music, dance, soccer, swimming...you name it. Even though this is the same in my neighborhood, there is a fairly solid group of nine neighbors that you can count on if you need help. In the last year and a half these families have come together for ice cream socials, meet-the-neighbors potlucks, and tonight Stephanie and David hosted yet another potluck for this group. 

I'm here to tell you how much fun it was. 17 adults and 11 kids showed up. The food was incredible, conversation was lively and the group was great fun. The kids swirled in, out and around. It was happy, loud and boisterous with a bit of mayhem. 

There are seventeen kids connected with these families and they spend a lot of time running up and down the street between houses. It is fun to watch how well they all get along together. 

There is a girls' posse-- here are five of the seven that were part of the group tonight.

The boys rarely stand still long enough for photos. And the entire group--boys and girls--run like crazy in odd games I've never heard of. It is exhausting to watch, but reminds me of how all the kids ran together when I was young. Our yards had no fences, and we used them all. We played endless games of kick soccer, sardines at dusk, and continuing episodes of Robin Hood, where Gordie, the oldest, always got to be the Sheriff of Nottingham. We would wrap small stones in tin foil, our silver, to hide from the Sheriff. 

My neighborhood kids don't play Robin Hood. They play Quidditch with hula hoops set up for the balls, and they run around on broomsticks. Different generation, different heroes. Where we had the original skateboards that used metal roller skate wheels, these kids have motorized scooters. Oh yeah, I'm jealous! 

I am enjoying being part of all of this. In the summer when the windows are open I get to hear most of kids practicing an instrument and they are good enough that is worth stopping to listen. 

In addition, quite a few of girls in the posse like to bake. I am the recipient of cookies, big pieces of cake, beautifully decorated cupcakes--all on a hit and run basis. My doorbell rings. I answer to find no one there, but on the doormat is a plate of goodies. Sometimes I hear giggles from a hiding place. It is kind of a reverse trick-or-treat, except home made treats beat store candy any day!

I have wonderful neighbors and I'm grateful to be part of this wildly varied group. 

2 October 2016 - Dragonflies and other intriguing insects

I have seen some gorgeous dragonflies this summer. What's even better is that in the fall, they like to sit up on top of dead branches where you can get nice views of them. 

I love all the different colors and wing patterns.

This beauty is a Damselfly, not a dragonfly. 


It is indeed an eat and be eaten world.

Praying mantis usually show up in the fall. This year is no exception. I can only hope she lays an egg case in my yard.

This interesting guy is a Hydrophilidae, a diving beetle also known as a water scavenger beetle. I found it in my little wading pond one morning. He is just under three inches long. 

The red-belted bumblebee is one of my favorites. They are very calm and don't mind being stroked with a gentle finger. 

I have a large number of Green Metallic Sweat Bees in my yard. Seriously good looking bee. 

This was a first for me. It is a giant Ichneumonidae wasp. They paralyze spiders, dig a hole in the ground, put the spider in and lay an egg on it. Instant food for the larva. The wasp in this photo is over two inches long.  Her ovipositor is over three inches long. It is long enough that is goes out of the photo in the upper left.

This has been a banner year for Monarch butterflies. It is fun to see them flourishing after the decline in their numbers for the last decade. 

I've been learning a lot about butterflies this year. It is good to have field guides. This is a Pale Swallowtail. 

This is in the Fritillary butterfly family. 

 During one of my birding trips I found a huge mud puddle that was covered with butterflies, from tiny skippers and several of these Black Admirals...

to the big yellow Swallowtails. ..

and a mass of White Sulfur Butterflies. 

Often called a hummingbird moth, this is really a White-lined Sphinx. It is one of the main reasons I let thistle grow in my yard. 

Now you've had a quick trip through some of my favorite insects that I've seen over the last couple months.  Hope you have been out there admiring the six-footed wonders in your own yard. 

22 September 2016 - First Day of Fall

I do not like rushing into seasons. I like to relish the one I'm in. You won't hear me saying things like "I can't wait until winter when we can ski again." Or "Gee, why can't Spring get here."  You can imagine how I feel when I get advertisements for Christmas decorations in September. Can't delete or throw those away fast enough. 

I have a friend who has started a blog about being positive -- simplypositivewithdena.blogspot.com . I was so in sync with her when she wrote this:

I have a small request:   Put down your Pumpkin Spice Latte and slowly step away.  We still have ten more days of summer and I don’t know about you, but I’d like to savor it.

I realize we are in the midst of back-to-school craziness and the stores are offensively displaying Halloween decor, but it is not time to swap sandals for sweaters.  Why are we in such a rush to move forward?  Don’t get me wrong, Autumn is my favorite time of year.  I love all things pumpkin, cider mills, the colors of the changing leaves and the smell in the air – but I don’t love it until September 22nd.  I know I preach the “stop and smell the roses” routine but seriously people….stop…and smell the roses…because they will soon be gone.

But today is the Fall Equinox and while we can still enjoy an Indian Summer, we can also start moving toward a fall state of mind.  To that end, I started my celebration early this morning. In my opinion, there is nothing as good as roadside fruit and vegetable stands. My local stand has hands-down the best peaches I have ever tasted. I needed more, but also found this. It screamed fall at me. Even though I still have roses blooming in the garden, the world is turning toward fall, so this lovely pumpkin came home with me. 

Fall is a very bittersweet time for me. My sister's birthday is in a couple of days. She didn't just love the fall, she gloried in it. Every year I would get a phone call on the day that the air turned and you could smell the crispness. She loved gourds, acorns, pine cones and the changing colors of the leaves. She even found beauty in the crinkly brown leaves. She especially loved the small sugar pumpkins and they would herald a baking spree. In her world, pumpkin came out of a shell, not a can and you really could taste the difference. 

While I will enjoy fall in my own way, I often find myself looking at it through her eyes as well. This one's for you, Robin. 

21 September 2016 - Last Day of Summer

It is so hard to believe that today is the last day of summer and tomorrow is the fall equinox. I'm not sure where this summer went--it seemed to whiz by in a blur of birding and restoring equipment in my shop. And if I wasn't occupied with one of those pursuits, I was watering everything in sight because we have not had any rain since May.  It has also been one of the hottest if not the hottest summer on record. All this to say I am almost looking toward fall. Almost. It is hard to let go of summer, no matter what kind of summer it is. 

I spent my last official day of summer on top of Bountiful Peak, elevation 9,300 feet, watching the raptors migrate south.  When you are high up on a peak, the birds are a lot closer. Great fun! Saw Bald and Golden Eagles. Red-tailed hawks: adults, juveniles and dark-morphs. Cooper's hawks and 
Sharp-shinned hawks.  Good birding but the views of the valley were pretty awesome too. 

Bountiful Peak is 24 miles up Farmington Canyon. It's a very narrow dirt road about one car wide with very steep drop-offs. It consists of gravel washboard competing with ruts, holes and lots of big rocks. One of the most interesting things about the canyon is that all the rock is gneiss which is about 2.8 billion years old. 

Even with the rocky scary roads, it was a gorgeous drive.  This is looking down on Farmington, Farmington Bay and the Great Salt Lake in the far background.

Below is the Farmington BayWaterfowl Management Area where I often go birding. What looks like a mountain range on the right is Antelope Island, except that the water is so low you could walk out to the island now. 

Here's a look at the vistas and views on the drive up to the peak.

Lots of fall colors for the last day of summer, but it was a glorious day. 

3 September 2016 - Goals and Milestones

It is so interesting how life can change your outlook. In my case it was working in sales and having a boss who was both driven and goal-oriented. I think I've mentioned that I never liked being told what to do, especially if I was already going to do it. So having to come up with sales plans and goals for each customer by month, by quarter, by year was, to put it mildly, not my thing. I have always been a positive person, with the attitude of why do I need a plan? I can get this done. 

But before I realized what had happened, the goal thing sneaked up on me. And I have discovered, to my chagrin, that like it or not, it is all about goals. (Oh no, say it isn’t so!) And it is amazing what and how much you can accomplish when you have goals. Goals, are one thing, but you also have to plan how to get there. 

So my boss ruined me--in a good way. You all know I am a crazy, obsessed birder. This year, among other things, my goal was to hit 400 life birds.  I found myself laughing  when I realized it was just like making sales goals. Here’s what I need, here’s what’s in the bag and how am I going to get the rest. I found myself tracking results on a monthly basis. Which also made me laugh. I would think to myself that I left the sales job but the lessons I learned from my boss stuck. Life is goals. And it is easier when you have a plan to make them.

So today on September 3rd, I hit my 400th life bird. And it is only September. I have four months of the year left. My boss would have given me 'The Look' and said, "Making your goal is your job. Coming in over your goal is expected! What are you going to do now?"  Well, I'm going to up my goal. 

And like any other plan, priorities can change and so do my goals.  Who are you and what have you done with Lauri pops into my head a lot. I  had spent my entire life flying by the seat of my pants. Spontaneity was my byword. I would never have believed I would turn into a goal-driven person. Amazing. And I can live as spontaneously as I want—I just get more done in the meantime.

Today's bird, number 400 was an American Golden Plover. This is the non-breeding plumage. Look him up to see how gorgeous he is when trying to impress the ladies. 

And since we are talking birds, number 398, found on August 20 was a Pectoral Sandpiper. Today, I finally got a decent photo of it as well. 

Yes, fall migration is underway and many shorebirds are moving south to Mexico or South America, which partly explains why number 400 is a plover. It is hard to stay home and get things done, when your head is saying, go find a sandpiper.

In addition to goals, one other thing I disliked about working in corporate America is the tendency for Sales VPs to use sports metaphors and analogies. Erg. But I now have a rather favorite quote, and while it isn't sports related, it is from a sports guy. 

“If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.” Lou Holtz

I have goals. Life goals. House goals. Yard goals. Travel goals. Bird goals. And I have a spreadsheet with steps. Who needs resolutions?  I have goals and a plan to get there. 

I feel the need to celebrate this milestone. In about ten minutes I will be lounging on the patio with a potent Blue Goose in hand!