My Easter Story (A Mini-Post)

I was going to go to church (which one was to be determined) for Easter Sunday, but I was feeling a bit anti-social, so I decided to do what always makes me feel closer to my Creator - head outdoors. 

I put on the local Christian music station, KLOVE, and headed out to Stonelakes National Wildlife Refuge feeling very thankful for my personal, strong relationship with my Savior and looking forward to what I might find on this beautiful Easter morning. 

This isn't going to be a typical Easter story.  It's going to be a Jeanette Easter story, which means that some will find it offensive and some will find some quirky charm to it.  Sorry but not sorry if you're the former. 

I walked along in the cloudy, misty morning, along the paths of the NWR thinking of what Jesus' sacrifice means to me and for me.  I was accompanied by what seemed to be hundreds of birds - mostly red-winged blackbirds - and a few humans also walked along the path.  

I was by myself when I saw a Killdeer who apparently had a broken wing.  My first thought was "Oh! It's my Easter egg hunt!" because Killdeer mama's who are leading you away from a nest pretend to have a broken wing.

I let her lead me away but went behind a tree and took a photo of the eggs in the nest before she walked back over to sit on them. 

I walked out of the area thinking of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs by MxPx, a pop-punk band out of Washington.  One of my favorite songs of theirs is "You Make Me, Me" and some of the lyrics say:

"These days so few seem to have faith,
in the Son of Man and in His Grace.
I feel Your breath upon my face,
as You replace my broken wing."

As I continued to walk back towards my car, I was thinking of Jesus and my own personal faith and what Easter means to me, when I rounded a corner on the path and there was the Easter Bunny!

I literally said out loud as I raised my camera "Hi Easter Bunny!" and was quite surprised when the bunny not only did not run away, it started hopping towards me as if to say Hi! back!

I thank my Heavenly Father for all of my wonderful adventures, but especially when he throws some special thoughts and jokes my way!  

I got in my car and drove towards the Cosumnes River Preserve and as I was driving down Franklin Blvd, I suddenly started seeing the Cross in every telephone pole that went by.  I was moved to stop and take a photo because I just kept getting all of these reminders that today was Easter and my Redeemer lives!

As I got turned around to walk back to my car, I had a feeling that I was being watched over and not just by my Heavenly Father!  I turned and there was a little lamb in the farmer's field across the street who had run away from the protection of his mother to have a look at me.

The picture is a little blurry because I was honestly so moved.  This little lamb stared at me for a minute as I stared back and then he let out a little baaahh and kicked up his heels and ran back to his mother.  

I just said a little prayer of thanks for the reminder that the Lamb of God had taken the sin from the world on that first Easter day.  With that, I got back in my car and headed to I-5, but I was moved, once again to stop.  As I turned the corner onto Hood-Franklin Road, the first thing that caught my eye was a cross on top of a grave.  

And a bible verse was brought to mind in Isaiah, 25:8 (which I'll be honest, I had to look up when I got home) which says:

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces."

"I know that my Redeemer lives.  
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives! He lives who once was dead!
He lives, my ever living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love!
He lives to plead for me above!
He lives, my hungry soul to feed,
He lives to bless in time of need."  ~~ Words by SamuelMedley

I'm very quiet about my faith.  And I was moved to post this because I believe that being Christian means being kind and loving your fellow man.  Trying to be the best person I can be, especially to my fellow humans and this world we have been given.

This is a very scary time and I am dismayed to see how religion is being used by all sides to breed hate and distrust.  I know I am a daughter of God and my duty is to please Him and live by His teachings and example as best I can.  

You won't often hear me preach, but I just felt like I was given signs while I was out contemplating Easter and this world and my role in it so I needed to post whatever came together while remembering my Easter morning.  

I'll leave you with one thing which I truly believe:

God is Love

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Flower? I Hardly Know Her! - Goodbye Desert, For Now.

Oh no!  This is my last excursion in a wonderful weekend full of wonderful adventures!  Don't dispair, click on the links below to see the glorious Salton Sea and Mojave desert sights!

1)  The Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge and the too-cute Burrowing Owls and Desert Cottontail Rabbits that live in the area.

2)  The hot yet cool Mud Volcanoes and still more adorable Owls and Birds.

3)  The wacky and yet inspiring artistry of Salvation Mountain and Slab City.

4)  Death and Beauty at the Bombay Beach Ruins.

5) Get your kicks on Route 66 and in the gorgeous Mojave Desert!

6) See the gorgeous flowers, lizards, and beetle (yes, singular) that I found as I #TrackedTheBloom.

The time had come to head for home, but I knew there was one more stop that I had to make.  

The day before, when I was beelining to Barstow from the Salton Sea due to an almost blinding migraine, I had crossed a lot of beautiful desert; each area had a very distinct look to it.  I confess that I would not have guessed that prior to this trip.  The desert is as varied as any other terrain based on altitude and location and there were several areas that I knew I was going to revisit some time in the not too distant future.  Read:  After Summer.  lol

But one area that I COULD revisit on this trip was just up Barstow Road.  As I said, I had driven through this area on my way to the hotel the day before.  As I blazed down the road, the passing foliage had a distinctly blue-purple sheen as it flashed by.  I mistakenly (not knowing anything about deserts) assumed that the area around Amboy Crater would have the same profusion of beautiful color, but it did not.  

I did find some flowers of this color there, but not in the same number as I had seen up Barstow Road.  So there I headed. I found a good spot to pull off the road, directly across from the off-road vehicle recreation area across the street and hiked up the hill.  The purple-blue Fiddlenecks were all around and under nearly every Yucca that I saw.

These flowers are simply brilliant.  I mean, I dare you to look at the closeup below and disagree!

If you still disagree, you've got a cold, COLD heart.  Or maybe no heart at all!  :-)

To illustrate how different the desert can be just down the road, the desert surrounding Barstow Road is filled with Yucca plants where there were none or very few off of my path down Route 66 the day before.

And, this being Spring, they were all filled with flowers of one stage of bloom or another.

And like I mentioned before, they had the beautiful Fiddlenecks growing all around them. 

And as I walked around, I saw several types of cacti.  None of the ones I saw up here were blooming like the brilliant, fuschia-flowered Beavertail cactus that I saw near the Crater. But Cactus are always so cool-looking that I had to snap some shots when I could.   

Needles and blooms!

And I also found some stunning purple flowers that were also spiky like a cactus!  I have no idea what these are.  But...

I absolutely...

Love them.

And then, when I was walking back to my car, I saw it.  The perfect rock.  lol  As you may know, my very artistic sister-in-law paints rocks as part of the Grays Harbor Rocks campaign.  So when I saw this rock, I knew it was meant for me to take it make a Barstow Rocks rock.  lol 

On that note, I got into my car and headed back down Barstow Road towards Route 66 for the last time this weekend. 

But, closer to Barstow the purple flowers give way to Yellow Cups, so I had to stop and take a couple more photos.  Including this red bug (beetle?) that I found walking on a nearby plant.  

Is it a ladybug of some type?

Yellow Cups 

Then, I remembered that I wanted to check out one more thing before I left.  The Harvey House museum and train depot. But as it was really getting late, I contented myself with just a few photos from the outside of this magnificent structure that was rebuilt in 1911. 

Truly I didn't even get most of its best angles. 

  

And then I headed back and got on Highway 58 where it joins Route 66. 

Just a few more photos!  This one was taken while I was stopped in a long line of traffic that is stop and go where Highway 14 crosses 58 with a four-way stop.  Please!  Someone build a damn interchange, or at least a light!

And the rest are up near the Tehachapi Pass which is filled with windmills and power lines. 

And Joshua Trees.  I pulled off the highway to take some photos and video of the mesmerizing windmills and was startled to find a bucket in the desert.  I didn't look inside...I was afraid. 

The clouds were just amazing.  It actually rained a bit on my drive home!  I went from 95 and sunny to 75 and raining in just a couple hours. 

If you don't believe me that these are freaking mesmerizing, just check out the brief (like 5 seconds long!) video below.  You can also hear how windy it was so be sure to have your sound on low.

And then it started to rain, and I started to get a little tired, so I put the pedal to the medal and breezed on home. Pun intended!

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Track the Bloom! Superbloom 2017

Time for me to #TrackTheBloom!  That is the superbloom that is happening this year in the various Southern California deserts!  I didn't make it to my primo destination of Anza Borrega State Park, but had many, MANY adventures on my first day and the beginning of my second.  Click on the links below to catch up!

1)  The Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge and the too-cute Burrowing Owls and Desert Cottontail Rabbits that live in the area.

2)  The hot yet cool Mud Volcanoes and still more adorable Owls and Birds.

3)  The wacky and yet inspiring artistry of Salvation Mountain and Slab City.

4)  Death and Beauty at the Bombay Beach Ruins.

5) Get your kicks on Route 66 and in the gorgeous Mojave Desert!

In this post, I'll share some of my best photos of the flora and fauna I found in the Mojave Preserve off of historic Route 66.  I was there on March 19, 2017, so there could be different flowers blooming now.  

Fremont's Pincushion (white) and a yellow-centered Desert Dandelion (they also have red centers and can be seen in my previous post). 

And in this picture too!

Another of Fremont's Pincushion

Desert Chicory

Desert Sunflower

Not to be confused with the Desert Marigold! (Or did I confuse them?  I'm not sure really.  lol)

The Desert Marigold has more layers than the Desert Sunflower (as far as I can tell).

The next purple ones confuse me.  They're called Red Maids if I'm not mistaken.  But they're not RED!.  lol  And I think the white flowers with them are Popcorn Flower.

This is Slender Popcorn Flower

And here we have regular Popcorn Flower with beautiful purple Desert Sand Verbena.

Desert Sand Verbena

Desert Sand Verbena with Desert Evening Primrose, or Browneyed Primrose.

'Browneyes' closer up

These kind of blend into the desert floor, so I had to do the Sin City affect on them to make them stand out.  Fitting since Sin City is Las Vegas, just a ways down the road from here.

Desert Purple Mat

Yellow Cups.  They look similar to desert Poppies, but they have little red dots inside and are more yellow than orange.

I thought this was Desert Sage, but now I'm not sure.  I'll try to find out and update.

Beautiful desert landscape with White Fiddlenecks and possibly Desert Sage.

Another that I couldn't find a definitive name for.  May be a poppy, but again, seems too yellow.  

Desert Lupine

Gorgeous Beavertail cactus in flower!

I was lucky enough to see a very cool Desert Spider Beetle running along!

And then I saw three lizards!!  Woot woot!  Two I would call medium sized and the third was smaller.  I'm going to try to find out what species they are and update. 

The funny thing was I was photographing the dude on the right when I saw a quick flash of movement on the left.  I lowered my camera and then saw the second lizard on the left!  He had just ran up!

I didn't get the clearest pic of him. :-(

 Here you can see him further down.  lol  He was gone pretty quickly too.  Just running around in the desert.  I know how you feel buddy!

To finish up, just a couple wider views.  This one I thought was cool as there are about 7 different varieties of flowers in the photo.

And this is a lovely view of Amboy Crater, where I saw the beetle and lizards!  I need to go back and hike the entire trail since I didn't have time on this trip.  

So amazing and fun!  I'm so happy that I got to see so many gorgeous desert flowers and the lizards and beetle too!  Can't wait to go back!  My next stop (after checking out of my hotel) was going to be a Yucca filled area up Barstow Road that I had driven through the day before.

Until then!  TTFN!  

xoxo

Nikon D3300