When we went to Arches National Park, Alice and I were very keen to see Landscape Arch, an impressive 306 foot long slender span of rock. It's located at the end of the 15 mile road that cuts through the heart of Arches National Park. We had covered only about 8 miles of the 15 mile road when it began raining, and more importantly, a lot of lightning strikes, compeling us to leave the park.  We decided to get up very early the next morning (so as not to throw off our ambitious driving schedule) and finish seeing the rest of Arches National Park. I'm so glad we decided to finish seeing the park.  We were rewarded with some very dramatic early morning lighting for some of our shots. Finally we made it to the end of the 15 mile road and then realized we'd have to also make a 1 mile hike (and 1 mile back again) in order to see Landscape Arch, but since it was still pretty early in the morning we were not too tired to make the hike. So off we went to see the spectacular arch.

I think at first sight Alice was a little disappointed in the less than spectacular arch. . . after all, you couldn't even see daylight through it. She even voiced sentiments to the affect that the whole thing might be just an optical illusion.

We got closer and closer, and still no daylight was to be seen through the arch.

I think the above picture was when Alice began to believe it really WAS an arch. You can just barely see a slight sliver of light near the top of the arch.

But as we got ever closer that sliver got larger and larger, till at last we were standing down hill from it and we got pictures of plenty of sky showing through the arch.

In 1991 a 60 ft long piece weighing 180 tons finally gave in to gravity and fell to the ground leaving the arch even more delicate than it had been before. Up until that time the hiking trail took tourists up the hill and UNDER the arch, but that portion has been closed ever since.

This shot is taken from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I called my son from the rim to tell him how very awesome the Grand Canyon was.  I also told him I thought it was about 2 miles from the north rim to the south rim and he added that he thought the canyon was at least 1000 feet deep.  Later that day I found out the truth; it's 12 miles from the north to the south rim and the canyon is 1 mile deep . . not 1000 feet.  Big difference. BIG CANYON.  It actually takes a few minutes for your mind to grasp the immensity of the canyon when you first see it.

This is not the Grand Canyon, and not even a National Park . . . just a scenic pull out somewhere on highway 70 in Utah, but I think it's my favorite photo of the whole week's vacation.  It's called Castle Valley.  It looks like a scene straight out of a cowboy movie.  We had a very long drive ahead of us that day, but stayed at this spot for a good 15 minutes.  For me it's the quintessential western scene.

Here is the first picture from my recent trip with my sister Alice. This was taken near Sedona, AZ. I thought the scenery was absolutely amazing.  At first we started stopping the car and getting out each time we saw a photo op, which was about every 50 yards. We figured it would take us forever at that rate so we finally settled on me just slowing the car down while Alice would take pictures. I only took pictures at Scenic Pullovers and I still managed to take over 1200 pics.

Alice and I have had a ball driving all around Arizona and Utah and taking bunches and bunches of pictures. I had set a goal for myself of taking more pictures on this trip than I did on my trip to Greece, but alas that proved to be an illusive goal. You see, it is absolutely impossible to stop each time there is a photo op, because most of both states are solid photo ops.  We got out of the car as much as possible, but many many of the photos taken were taken by Alice from the passenger seat. I on the other hand was driving and it's hard to take the time to compose a good shot and to focus the camera whilst driving . . . not to mention how unsafe that would be, so bottom line . . . Alice has hundreds more shots than I have.  But she has promised to burn me a CD of all her shots and I will do the same for her.  Tomorrow we fly home.

Alice and I are on our annual "Sister Trip".  This year we are seeing the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, The Painted Dessert and Monument Valley.  The only one of those we haven't seen yet is Monument Valley . . . we do that tomorrow.  These places are simply awesome!  It's like God is showing off.  I'll have pics to share once we get home.  So far I've taken 986 pics.

 We're well into the daylily blooming season and I thought it might be nice to show y'all some of the brand new bloomers in my yard. These are all ones that have bloomed for the very first time this year for me. Most of them I planted last fall, but some were actually planted the year before but just didn't bloom last year, and a few of them were actually planted this spring. I didn't expect any of those to bloom this year, but several of them did.

Here's thumbnails of those new bloomers.

Last year I decided I was getting so many daylilies in my yard that it would be a great help to me to actually LABEL them, so I purchased some nifty copper labels and proceeded to make a label for each daylily I'd planted. Problem is, I have two that I cannot identify. I have pictures of them below and would appreciate it if anyone can correctly identify them.

 I would have said that this one was Custard Candy, but I never ordered a Custard Candy . . . and besides, Custard Candy is 24" tall with 4.5" blooms and the one in my yard is 27" tall with 5.5" blooms.  It bloomed for the first time this year on June 5th. Until I find out it's real name, I'm temporarily calling it "Custard Candy Look Alike".

 This one I'm temporarily calling "Mysterious Beauty" . . . because it's a mystery to me what it really is and because it's really beautiful. It stands 27" tall and has 6" blooms and bloomed for the first time this year on June 3rd.

I'm really hoping someone out there will recognize one or both of them and let me know what they are. . . besides pretty. Thanks for your help.  

I have a family of Robbins in the tree in my back yard. The tree is still fairly young and therefore small enough that I can walk right up to the first fork in the tree and there they are. Momma Robbin has been very indulgent of me checking in on her kids every once in a while. Tonight I decided to take a short movie and share it with you all.

.

FINALLY I have peonies blooming in my yard. I planted 6 different peony bushes two years ago when I was just starting this yard and finally this year I have peonies blooming that are like what I remember as a child. Last year I had one tiny peony bloom, but they are much larger this year. Now we'll patiently wait for the other 5 bushes to produce some blooms. I have been told that it sometimes takes peonies 3 years to produce blooms, hence the need for patience.

 And while I'm also waiting for the lilies to start blooming, I'm happy with the flowers that are blooming right now in my garden: Love in the mist, a small red peony, little purple flowers that I don't know the name of and gaura.


 I also have a few gaillardia this year, and home run roses, daisies and pink and white columbine.