Grandma's dishes

We all have memories tucked away in the private places of our minds.   Some memories are good, some are disturbing, but a few give us such a special warm feeling that we like to keep them handy so we can call on them when we need to escape where we are.  Grandma's dishes bring back many warm childhood memories for me.  I have a vivid recollection of walking into her kitchen and being eye level with her butter dish full of homemade, hand churned butter sitting on her table.  It would be a very odd sight today, and I wonder if our grandkids will have fond memories of the cardboard box of supermarket butter that we have sitting in our refrigerator.  It just doesn’t seem the same. 

Why do we go?

And so the planning begins.  You try to anticipate everything that you might encounter, what you’ll need to survive, what food you will eat and where you will find water, what you will need to save your life if your worst fears should come true.  Of course you can’t predict every possibility, but the last thing you want to become is a feature story on “I Shouldn’t be Alive”…so you try.

When you step out of the truck and pull on your pack it’s with a sense of excitement, anticipation, and trepidation all at the same time.  Deep down inside you know it will all be fine…you just know that it will... but…you don’t really know. 

So why go?  Why take the chance?  Why push into the wilderness with only what you can carry on your back?  Why step out of your comfort zone into a harsh hostile place where the elements and the wild beasts have the upper hand?  You could get a nice motel room and sit by the pool sipping margaritas all afternoon.
 
I could say we go for the adventure, the challenge, and the beauty and that's certainly all true, but it goes much deeper than that.  We go because when we come out, that margarita by the pool tastes so much better than it would have if we hadn’t gone. We go because when we get back the simple niceties that we often take for granted seem so much nicer than ever before. We go because when you are out there, just the two of us, miles from any civilization, it builds a special trust like nothing else can.

April Gifts

The Native Americans considered this to be a sacred place.  It's known as the Garden of the Gods, and it's not difficult to understand why it received such a name. 

If you look closely between the Yuccas you can still see the remnants of our latest gift from the heavens, an April snow shower.  It’s not much, but any moisture right now is a blessing.  A local fire official recently said that the conditions in our area have not been this dry since 1912.  We certainly need more gifts to fall.

Remarkable Moods

There are mornings filled with dull dreary light so filtered and flat that all the excitement is missing…there are mornings with cloudless cobalt skies bright with warm sunshine…there are mornings when the freezing wind and blowing snow veil all its allure but yet spark a deep sense of adventure…there are mornings so fogged with rain that it does not make an appearance at all, and then…there are mornings like this.  It is a mood that does not emerge very often; a subtle combination of light and cloud that creates a mysterious almost seductive attraction.  It is a fleeting moment that if you wait a split second too long you will miss.  Each morning is a discovery; you never know what mood you will find.  It’s just one of the small things that makes life such a pleasure

Daydreaming

When you see the birds begin gathering twigs, the neighbors watering their lawns, and the Daffodils blooming …you know its Spring.  I begin daydreaming of freshly caught Walleye filets sizzling in salted butter, the sound of tom turkeys gobbling through the woods, and Rainbow Trout rising to the Blue Wing Olives.  Soon, very soon, I’ll be out there...among them all.

Puzzled by the mix

Many, not all, but many homo sapiens believe in a supreme being in some form, yet it also seems that we have very little tolerance for the ideology of others.  For ions mankind's spiritual beliefs have caused swords to clash and gun powder to burn.  I have always been puzzled by the mix. Religious principals and bullets just don’t seem to go together in my way of thinking.

Happy April Fool's Day

I remember when I was a kid how disappointed I was when I first opened a can of "Pork and Beans".  I fully expected to find some pork mixed with the beans, not just a miniscule piece of  fat.  I guess we all get fooled from time to time.  I wonder what was going through this little gals mind as she tried to take her breakfast from this piece of twine.  As is common in life...things are not always what they appear to be.  Have a happy April Fool's Day.