One must ask children and birds how

 cherries and strawberries taste. 

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

I've become alarmed.
Im into my 8th day of experiencing a nasty cold.
What's  seriously alarming now is that I cant smell.
I hung sprigs of eucalyptus in my shower.  Its a favorite scent of mine. Warm steams heighten its fragrance.
I cant smell a thing.

I have a new candle that I burn in my window when I write.
I cant smell a thing.

I test the contents of the salad bar with my nose every morning...to check for freshness.
I cant smell a thing.

Anna changed Ben's dirty diaper just inches from me.
I cant smell a thing.

I brew the first pots of coffee in the morning before we open the doors.
I cant smell a thing.

But let me be clear. Not smelling my world isnt half as bad as ...NOT BEING ABLE TO TASTE MY WORLD!!!

Is the best pizza in town still the best pizza?
Is Pepsi still the best drink ever devised?
Does cheesecake delight my taste buds as it should?

NO THEY DON'T!!!

I cant taste any of it.
This is disturbing, to say the least. Why eat at all if you cant enjoy all the flavors and combinations?!
I squooze a lime on my pizza this evening, and I couldnt identify it.
Im quite freaked out about this recent development.
Will my taste buds recover?  (Can you hear how hard Im trying to suppress my panic!!!?)

My Builder has become a drug pusher...it quite annoying.  I know he's just trying to help, but I fear that there's nothing in his little medicine basket that can help this.
I pray that this is just a temporary misfortune,  and that I'm experiencing yet another lesson in gratitude and patience with the absence of these finer senses.
May the gods of good health smile on me once again.  For I dont need yet one more reason to blame Logan, Utah for disaster.

p.s- Even though I've been trying hard lately to loose some weight that working at the Grill has added to my waste-line...this is NOT the method I choose!!

p.s.s.- I have noticed, and you may have as well, that my tagging system for my posts on the right has seen an increase in the number of posts written under the heading, "Here's Me Complaining" I apologize. I truly am trying to not always be whining.

p.s.s.s.- I am positive that My dear Builder will be alarmed with this post.  He just spent precious money on a lovely dinner for me, that I faked enjoying.  Im sorry my love.  Just know that half the pleasure of the night was just being out on the town with you.

Peace

Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous

system. At any moment the tension inside you was

liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.

from: 1984

by: George Orwell

Florence Nightingale had a pet owl. She found it in 1850 on the Parthenon, where it had fallen out of its nest. She named it Athena and carried it away in her pocket, “where I regret to say he ate a live Athenian grasshopper, but failed to make any impression on two small tortoises which I was also bringing to England.”

At home, Athena became Nightingale’s “constant & sociable companion.” He slept in her pocket and nested in a bookcase, “where he made his presence known by uttering a peculiar cry, some 150 times, like a prayer.”

That cry would come to haunt her. The owl died during her preparations for the Crimea, but he visited her dreams as late as 1855, when she was in Constantinople: “Athena came along the cliff quite to my feet, rose upon her tiptoes, bowed several times, made her long melancholy cry, and fled away.”

“Poor little beastie,” she said. “It was odd how much I loved you.”

bubulcitate
v. to cry like a cowboy

(That’s from Henry Cockeram’s English Dictionary of 1623, so it doesn’t refer to a cowboy of the American West. What it does refer to is unclear. Cockeram said he included “even the mocke-words which are ridiculously used in our language,” but this word appears never to have been published outside of his dictionary, so we don’t know what a “cowboy” is or why he might cry. Make up your own meaning.)



image-via flickr

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Im48 ads that would never be allowed today » Article » OWNI.eu, Digital Journalism

Im haunted by humans.

from: The Book Thief

by: Markus Zusac

l Journalism

Frogs Eat Butterflies. Snakes Eat Frogs. Hogs Eat Snakes. Men Eat Hogs

I Spyder

Hey there, bullet-hole:

Eight radiating cracks,

Throwing more shadow

Than mere shock waves.

For hours unmoving, yet,

A formidable presence.

How dreamest thou, huntsman,

High on my wall?

red by yellow kill a fellow.

red by black, poison lack.

baby bat taking its last breaths on the trail. I moved it

aside to a place of privacy to meet its demise.

I wonder what caused its death?

what bone is this!? any guesses?

This autumn brought out the tarantulas!

Where do they go in the winter?

Can you imagine-

'hearing' with your ribs- good vibrations baby!

bearing 6-12 live wiggly babies at a time

not being able to move when your cold- wait!! that is me!!

having no eyelids

having 'pits' on the front of your nose that are heat seekers- so prey seems to glow in the dark

shedding your skin from the lips back-"look mom no wrinkles"

smelling with your tongue

Some people only think about the creepy things that might be out there sharing the desert with us as we hike and gather coral dust between our toes. Sometimes it ruins their hiking experience. Sometimes they miss the red rock and the tiny white wildflowers and the blue skies with white fluffy clouds. They spend too much time worrying about the possibility of sinister beings lurking behind the sagebrush. Imagination and ignorance are powerful deterrents to finding complete peace and contentment while hiking. In my perfect world I would have the capability to convince guests that should we happen to stumble upon a critter they would never mean any harm. They need to understand that not even the menacing rattler will go out of his way to prey upon us!! I honestly cant think of anything out there in the desert worthy of my fear...except for an empty water bottle when its 110, or not being able to hike at all!

Happy Trails Everyone!!

Remember...in the winter...the desert is eerily still and quiet!!

What do you think of Mr W?

To be plain with you, friend,
you dont carry in your
countenance a letter of recommendation.
from: Barnaby Rudge
by: Charles Dickens

Look what I spied on my hike yesterday!!!

Can you guess what it is?
Do you wonder why it is that I knew what it was right away?
(Sometimes I do. I have bizarre stuff locked away in my mind.)

This happens to be a the track of a Sidewinder;
Also known as a horned rattlesnake or properly known as crotalus cerastes.

This tract is evidence of another venomous snake that graces the red rocks and sandy washes of our region.

Wanna know more?

Did you know that when a snake produces their young its called a litter?

How about this visual...sidewinders give birth to live young ones!!!!

Tricky juvenile sidewinders use their tails to attract lizards for their lunch.

The adults loose their taste for lizards and but prefer the more delectable rodents of the desert. (ummm....yummy)

Are you wondering if there is any GOOD news about a snake??

How about knowing that the venom from these snakes isnt as "toxic" as that of other rattlers...whew....that is good news.....NOT!!
I say....give ALL rattlers a very with girth!!!
Tread lightly while gathering coral dust between your toes!!!

talk about beady little eyes!!!!!
Down right CREEPY!!!

Symbiotic Relations In the Desert

There is no more lovely, friendly and
charming relationship, communion or
company than a good marriage.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now that Im finally back to hiking in complete comfort,with my beloved Keens snugly strapped to my feet....(oh how I missed them while they lay on the mud room floor in Salt Lake for a week!!)I am once again completely enjoying plowing through our red sandy washes.
When my piggies are happy, Im free to enjoy the scenery again. Instead of worrying so much about all the sand that can and does accumulate in regular hiking shoes, I can kick the sand free with one quick wiggle and move on to answering some of the more fascinating questions that fellow hikers ask.
One common inquiry we hear, "What's that green stuff on the rocks?" And before I even look in the direction they are pointing, I know exactly what they are referring to.


What they are seeing is our beautiful crustose or fruticose lichens which grow so well in this area. Not only do these lichen come in a wide variety of greens, but lichen can also be oranges and yellows and tans.
I've learned that a lichen is not a single plant or life form, but a union between a fungus and an algae, or an occasional bacteria. The fungus aspect of the 'plant' give it its shape and helps it reproduce. And at the risk of getting a little technical, the fungus doesnt have chlorophyll, so it cant 'eat,' so the algae feeds
it through photosynthesis. (I remember that word from high school!!) The fungus finds and stores water and food for the algae. The algae processes sunlight for the both of them. The two inhabit a tiny world made better because they have each other!! Together these two can survive almost anything. It survives and thrives in the HOT, dry, and barren places that no other life might be found. The pretty lichen we have around here grow on hot rocks of all places. And while they reside on a rock they work hard at breaking down their home, and gradually turn the into....sand!! The sand I gather between my toes!! Of course this doesnt happen overnight. It takes eons of time for even a little soil to form around a lichen. And when the timing is right and the circumstance are perfect, maybe a small flower will grow there in that shared speck of soil.

Doesnt the desert look just a little bit different to you now? I know I appreciate this beautiful little organism so much more than before!!
And arent you inspired to make your little bitty corner of the world a little more comforting and inviting for the good life!!??
thanks Sojourns for this fun information!!

And at some immeasurably remote time beyond
human caring the whole uneasy region might
sink again beneath the sea and begin the cycle all
over again by the slow deposition of new marls,
shales, limestones, sandstones, deltaic conglomerates,
perhaps with a fossil poet pressed and silicified between
the leaves of rocks.
from: Heart of the Desert Wild
quote by: Wallace Stegner

I talk all the time about the pre-historic nature of our desert region when I hike with our guests. I talk in numbers that can hardly be fathomed; like 350 million years ago our beautiful red rock was formed by oceanic pressure. I talk of volcanic action that took place 10 thousand years ago!! We have the most amazing dinosaur tracts that grace the ground, practically in my own front yard!! Zion Canyon was carved by water thousands and thousands of years ago...
And then....

Every once in a while we stumble across these bizarre creatures swimming in a stagnant pool of water that was captured in the rock from a recent rain storm. These creatures look like a Hollywood special effects job!!! Steven Spielberg would be proud!!!

These little guys are called Tadpole shrimps, or can also be known as Triops, dinosaur shrimps or shield shrimps. They're not really dinosaurs, but they have been on earth for about 300 million years.Wrap your brain around this if you can: When these crustaceans first appeared on earth, there were no birds, no dinosaurs, and definitely no humans or other mammals. They are the oldest surviving group of animals.

They live in temporary pools of water on every continent except Antarctica. They grow very quickly, and can reach adulthood in a week. Triops only live for a short time; a record-breaking female only lived to be 100 days. When their pools dry up,adult tadpole shrimp die. Their eggs, however, stop developing for a period of time. When they are in water again, they come to life, and new Triops are hatched. This is because of a state known as diapause, where eggs can lie dormant for up to twenty years before hatching again. The word "Triops" can be broken down into two shorter ones, "Tri" meaning three and "Ops" similar to optics, eyes. They also have up to 72 pairs of legs making it 144 total. The triops eyes are on its stomach and they swim upside down to get food and are in constant motion. The word triops comes from the Greek word, three eyes, because the triops have three eyes. Two of the eyes are compound eyes and the other eye is normal. Triops live on all continents except Antactica.

Once again Im just confirming that our desert here is a remarkable place to live and breath and to accumulate coral dust between ones toes!!!

(Thanks so much Carrie, for the photo and the info!)

DID YOU KNOW......

Levan, Utah, is "navel" spelled backwards--so named because it is in the middle of Utah!!
Go figure

Where Do They Come Up With Ideas Like This!?

Artist: Ron Mueck

enjoy!