REACHED HOME SAFELY.

We left Lake Minden north of Sacramento yesterday and arrived in Murphys at about 1:30. I walked the lake the night before without my camera and missed some great shots of two big catfish surfacing, mouths open, holding above water long enough for a photo. Dang. I should always carry my camera, I know that. So, I told Jim, we had to walk the lake again before we left in the early morning-with camera. Reflections on a “glass” surface.


Clear and beautiful.


The fish were feeding, and jumping and biting, but just try to get a photo.


A fish would surface, grab an insect and be under before you could snap the photo. I have multiple pictures of gray shadows in the water.


It is a pretty place, and peaceful here. Jim gets exhausted driving with one eye impaired. He has to concentrate so hard that we move very slowly. So, it was a lovely last night on the road.


I got home to my usual pounds of mail and then made the mistake of looking at the news.  What mediocrity we call news. Everyone is incriminating Obama because he saluted the flag with a cup of coffee in his hand. There are life and death issues to deal with and the news focuses on a cup of coffee?


Did the “newspapers” ever make a fuss about Bush saluting with his dog?  What crap passes for news. I used to give Jim a bad time about getting rid of his news feeds. I don’t any more. It is mostly garbage and good luck trying to tell the truth from the lies. Lies have become standard and accepted. Money to both parties is like a river, while very little work gets done by the people we elect TO SERVE US. What shame that we have entrusted our fate to legislators that  govern from where their largest donations come from. Corporate interests.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW.

Isn’t this a pretty package? One of my favorite baby pictures, Sherry Lynn Littlefield, first born child of my “adopted” daughter, Karen Littlefield.

It is a marvelous feeling to look back on a year and find good things among the inevitable sorrows.I can say with certainty that good health is a giant totem.

It brings me great joy when grandchildren have learned that life is what you put into it. They are the frosting to match the silver in my hair.

Friends are gold without which life would be tarnished. I can truthfully say my cup runneth over as I salute 2014.

SWAMP WALK.

I know yesterday was Valentines Day, but it doesn’t seem to resonate when you are parked next to a swamp.

On the 13th, we did some cleaning, and packing stuff away. Our bedroom windows were hung with beads from Mardi Gras 2010, New Orleans. Some of them had become faded and the curtains needed washing.


So, we said our last goodbye to Mardi Gras by taking most of the old beads to the park laundry  for anyone to take if they like. That is a common practice in parks we live in. The new beads aren’t as colorful as those we had, but, we had way too many, anyway.


Jim worked on a leak in the Bronco’s sun window and we got ready to leave. Late in the afternoon, we went for  swamp walk. The late sun makes creative shadows on the swamp weeds.

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It is so beautiful in this swamp with reflections in the water.


Everywhere you aim is beauty. You can’t take a bad picture here.


Of course, lurking under all this beauty, are alligators. We talked to a woman who saw four of them.  Her family is camped right next to the swamp.


I was quite content to spot turtles balancing on a half sunken log. These were a long distance away.

Look at the size of his powerful hind feet.


An uncrossable bridge if you don’t want wet shoes. We went around to the other side where it was just as wet.


A tree with knobby growths covering it caught my eye.

Probably not healthy for the tree, but certainly interesting.

These small metal boats are used by the rangers. We saw a fisherman on the river using this type of boat for fishing, as well. He said he likes to fish, but only uses barb less hooks and releases everything he catches.


More turtles. A bit closer to the camera.Stretching to catch those last rays.

It’s cold, and we’ve had more cold and foggy days than sunny ones.


Jim spotted something moving in the water. We watched this turtle munching weeds just popping up and down in the water.


I spotted a snake. He is so fat I thought at first it was a piece of rubber someone had thrown in the swamp. But the lens proved it to be a big black snake.


I didn’t have my glasses on, but I showed the picture to the local fisherman we talked to, and he said it is a water moccasin. A very poisonous snake.


I know I’m going overboard here on the turtles but they are so darned cute. A little turtle confab on a log. The one has green moss growing on his shell. Sitting in the sun with their reflections in the water. Nice.