The Great Death Valley: Farewell to 2013

This year's winter trip took us to the Mojave Desert, a land barren and rich in the same view.  

Perhaps you can get a sense of this powerful desert through its bold sky and intense geography.

If you can get beyond the crowds, it is truly rewarding in a very unexpected way.  

Having visited the park three years ago with my brother, I knew what we were in for and was excited to share it.  This time I was taken aback by the crowds, but we worked hard to get to farther, quieter places where we could feel the land and its beauty more personally.  I am glad we always take that extra effort to seek out the paths less traveled.  It left us yearning for more.

Just outside of the park, we spontaneously stopped in at the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.  We planned to spend a quick thirty minutes and ended up staying all day.  Our only regret: No bighorn sheep sightings.  Another excuse to make the pilgrimage another day.  

2013 Christmas Card

If you're like me and can't afford to spend $75 for 35 cards at Tinyprints, this is how you create something similar for half the price and almost twice the cards.

Resources:
~PicMonkey - free picture editor
~Google Drive - free with Google or Gmail account
~Costco - yearly membership fee

1.  Upload a picture to PicMonkey and play around with the tools until you get the desired effect.  I wanted something a little vintage, a little weathered.  You then save the newly altered photo to a folder on your computer.  Easy enough.

2.  Open up your Google Drive and create a "Presentation."  This allows you to easily paste a photo as a background and add text on top of the photo.  Google has hundreds of font options to choose from, so I felt I had a more personalized experience, given that I could manipulate the size, style, and color of text in any number of ways, which you cannot do when you choose a card already designed.

3. Save this one slide presentation as a .pdf in a file on your computer.

4.  Go to the Costco Photo website and choose the Holiday Card option which allows you to upload your own photo.  I got 50 cards for $35 with rounded corners for free (this is an add-on on other websites) and our return address printed on the envelope - for free.  (Also an add-on on other websites.)

And this is how you create your own Christmas card for half the price.  

Operation Pepper Rescue

Tonight the temperatures will actually reach freezing and are expected to hang there every night for the next week.  Last year when this happened in late January, it was catastrophic for our little backyard pepper garden.

This year we cut off as many peppers as we could in a late night, last ditch effort at salvaging our innocent crop.  Here's what we ended up with.

Guess I'll be making a lot more pepper jam this weekend!!!!!!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive layouts and designs so you can make your book just the way you want.

Montezuma's Well

A day trip north in early Arizona September does not result in changing leaves,

as it would elsewhere to harken the coming of fall. 

No.  

The Sonoran has a special fourth season all its own;

its secrets privy only to those who seek them.

In search of making peace with the present,

we inevitably head into the past and find ourselves today at Montezuma's Well.

Dark skies loom and beckon but sadly, 

this time,

do not fulfill.

Don't fret!

The creosote and cliff rose are blooming!

Tonto Natural Bridge

On Thursday,

Brian and I took a drive up to Tonto Natural Bridge,

a State Park that neither of us have ever visited. 

Because it was a weekday,

the visitors were few and far between,

just the way we like it. 

The hike to the bridge and under and out is about a mile. 

It was steep and at times slippery,

but in no way difficult. 

We picnicked on the landscaped grounds,

marveled at the desert greenery,

and even went swimming in the cool, muddy water. 

Could the world ever feel so lush and my worries so far? 

A perfect Arizona September day.