Summers ending

Last week I headed to the mountains to suck in the cool crisp air and to cleanse my brain of all that matters not.  This is an end of summer brain rejuvenation that I take every year to Bear Lake.  It's my last hurrah to grab my camera, Charlie the dog, and enjoy the last moments of my summer.  Summer has come to an end.

I've been heading to the lake for eons.   Bear Lake in northern Utah, is what Lake Powell is to southern Utah.  Convenient and fun places to go to exercise your prowess on wave runners, water skies, wake surfing, paddle boating........the list can go on and on.

This was a good week to clear the mind of all things that didn't matter and to concentrate and build on what does matter.  The previous week my human host spent a great deal of time thinking about life in general.  How in a blink of an eye, it can be taken away from you, or turned upside down.   I'm pretty sure she's learning to not sweat the small stuff anymore.  She's learning to wake up each morning and be grateful that the eyes still open and they see it's the dawn of a new day.  Opening the eyes is the easy part....it's rolling out of bed and listening to all the bones snap to attention as she tries to work out all the kinks, that is the hard part.........spending a week in a trailer, on a bed that is hard as a rock, really does wonders for making you a physical wreck..........I think she needs another vacation to recoup.

Being up at the lake, the weekends bring the crowds, but during the week, the beach is ours for the most part.  I love the early mornings.  My human host rises before the dawn, grabs the camera, a hot cup of coffee and heads to the beach with Charlie the Dog in tow.  It's quiet and peaceful.  Seeing the sun peek over the mountains first thing in the morning is something that I never get tired of looking at.  The air is crisp that time of the morning, but as soon as the sun starts to rise, the air immediately shakes off the night time chills and warms up.  You immediately feel the difference in temperature.

Since Charlie the Dog is my designated alarm, I'd head to the beach and hopefully catch some amazing sunrises.  I did snap some beautiful sunrises, except for one.  And, of course, that was the prettiest.  I opened the trailer door, and looked out to the most amazing red cloud filled sky.  Over the mountains as the sun started to make it's way up, the sky was bright orange with colors graduating upwards into reds, then fading to pinks...........By the time we hit the beach it was gone.  Not a trace of color in the sky..........I wasn't meant to get that sunrise I guess.  Damn!!!........You snooze, you lose......and I did..........Damn, damn.........

I had 8 sunrises, but missed only one..............

I love the sound of the rain hitting the roof of our 4-star accommodation, a trailer.   The rain for the most part held off until evening and during the night while we slept.  I'd wake up to it hitting the roof at a steady pace.  I'd lay there thinking what we left uncovered and would I wake up to a soggy mess.  I guess I didn't care, as the sound and steady rhythm of the rain lulled me right back to sleep.  

Sunsets on the lake can be pretty amazing, too.  One night the boys and I headed over to the east side of the lake.  The east shores of the lake are pretty rocky.  Not much of a beach area for people to enjoy. The sunset this night was not an amazing one, but the lighting just before a sunset is. 

The best part of this whole lake experience is watching two of my boys snap away pictures and build memories of this trip for themselves.  They are pretty amazing photographers in their own right.  They have developed that third eye that sees beauty in everything, too.   This inner child, I'll settle for just being a picture taker.  

For some one who has traveled to this area year after year for many years, I still find places that I have never been to.  Back roads and dirt roads.  You can be in a place where you hear cars and trucks traveling down the road, and in a matter of minutes, be some where you can hear yourself think.  It's so quiet that you hear the wings of insects fluttering by.  It's eerie, but calming also.  I found a somewhat crooked road with power poles lining the side of it.  The wind was a steady breeze and as it passed through the insulators on the power pole, a whistling sound could be heard.  For a brief moment, none of us could figure out where it was coming from until..........as I have said......look up or you will miss what's going on around you.  Duh!!!  I looked up and then could tell that the music we could hear from nature, was actually coming from the power poles.

I drank coffee, took pictures, walked Charlie the Dog, read, watched chick flicks and listened to the rain beat down on the roof of the trailer.  Beach time was limited.  Mother Nature was determined to spread moisture across the lake and beach.

During morning walks with Charlie the dog on the beach, I found the tiniest shells, old homes of some kind of water critter.  I add them to my plastic bag of found objects so when its raining hard outside, it gives me something to spread out on a table and take pictures of them.  The are so tiny.  What lived inside of these shells?  

To give me some scale, the shell sits on a dime. A tiny, beautiful shell. 

Not to be left out, the rest of the shell family joins the little one........

It rained, the wind blew, the power went out, and it was a bit nippy at night.  But, when the clouds parted a full moon or something close to it rose in the east and made it all that much more spectacular and wonderful to be where I was at........my slice of heaven......Bear Lake, Utah........A place where you can hear yourself think out loud.............

On my last morning, I raised my coffee mug, said a silent prayer.  I'm grateful for the time I had at this lake.  I'm grateful for the time I get to spend with my boys.  Hopefully, next year, my baby boy will be able to join us again.  It's been tough these last few years as he's been in Arizona, going to school.  He graduates in 2 weeks.  This has been a long road for him.  But, he's where he wants to be, and is doing what he has always wanted to do.  I'm a proud mamma.  

Until next time, goodbye Bear Lake...................Charlie the dog, my family, and friends who joined us this year, we'll be back.  

It's back to the real world......eat, sleep, work, repeat..........

twitter@CotySimon

Instagram - Howunique310

In a blink of an eye

I'm writing this prior to my brain vacation......I have a "blog" all ready to go, complete with pictures, but in lieu of recent events,  I don't feel it's the time to post it.

This past year, I have met some pretty amazing people on Twitter.  People that I never would have gotten to know if I had not taken a chance.  I've decided that life is one huge chance.  Not  a risk, but a chance that you are given.  What you do with that chance is up to you.

All in one day, a death happened, and someone I know learned they have cancer.  There is no lessor of the two evils.  They are both bad.  Never met either one of these people, but I feel as if they have been part of my life forever.  All thanks to Twitter................

In just one day, two bads happened.  The death of a wonderful, and very young lady who America got attached to when she appeared on several reality shows.  The shows are long over with, but her name continued to appear from time to time.  She was never far from a lot of peoples thoughts. She was someones daughter, a best friend..... She took her own life.......................we are mourning for a life lost way to soon.  Her presence here on Earth is complete and an angel she has become.  Rest in peace #GiaAllemand.

I posted this photo on Instagram the morning of her death.  The official announcement of her death  hadn't been made yet, and I had not been told the other bad news.  As I sat in my easy chair outside waiting for Charlie the Dog to finish her business, I noticed this one, lonely flower.  It seemed to be begging to have it's picture taken.  There is nothing special about it.  It's just a flower.  A pretty flower, a happy flower.  I didn't feel like being happy at that moment.  I snapped the picture, looked at that lonely little flower and came to the conclusion, that even if you feel as if you are the only one, a lonely one, you are not alone......you are never alone...............

"Each time I step outside and head to the back yard, the flowers greet me with such beauty it can be overwhelming.  The colors magnificent, the scents they give fill my senses.  There is a reason to stop and smell the flowers.  Enjoy the NOW...make it memorable....because....you just blinked your eyes, and that moment is now gone...."

Someone I have never met personally, let me know she has cancer, breast cancer.  As I write this, she's not sure what kind, and what stage the cancer is in.  She'll find that out in a few days. The next week or so will be information overload.  Possible surgery, recovery, a treatment plan.....a lot to take in and process.  My heart aches for her.  This is a time when I wish I was close by, where I could run, give her a hug, and hold her tight.  Tell her that it's going to be okay.  It's going to be alright.  Everyone that knows this lady, I'm sure feels the same way.  No one deserves to have cancer inflicted upon them.  Especially her.  I feel a strong bond with her and because of that, I know she will fight with everything she's got and then some......no backing down.

I want nothing but the best for this gal.  I want good things to happen to her, not bad.  She's going to kick cancers ass and beat it.  I know it.  There is definite power in prayer, good thoughts, and having a confident attitude.  But all of that doesn't take away the hell she is going through right now.  The not knowing.  I wish I could grab it, bottle it up, and throw it away for her......I can't do that.

The pictures I take and I share are for everyone to see and enjoy.  I've said I am not a photographer.  Just a picture taker.  I am sharing now, my dear twitter friend,  these flowers for you,  the one whose life deserves every beautiful, blooming blossom around.  They are also for you, and you, and you.......all the good people, my friends, everyone out there that has had bad things happen in their life.   You deserve the color, the fragrance, and beauty flowers can give you.  It's not much, but it's what I have to give to you and share.

This sucks.........writing about bad news.  It doesn't put out good vibes at all.  I'm going to be feeling guilty sitting on a beach and having the sun warm my face........I'm going to be feeling guilty that I am enjoying a simple pleasure in life for me when others are not.

My thoughts, prayers and all the good vibrations I can muster up, are being sent to my friend.  I am thinking about you.  I am praying for you.  I believe in medicine, excellent doctors and the power of faith.   I am not a deeply religious person, but I do believe in a higher power.  I sometimes wonder why people are tested while on this Earth of ours.  I know things happen for a reason, but why give someone cancer or take a life.........explain that one to me.  Just don't tell me that it's to make you stronger............that is horse shit..........

My twitter friends are a close knit group.  We come from all over the country and world.  We're all different ages.  We care  about what happens to each other.  Being diagnosed with cancer, and it doesn't matter what kind, that 6 letter word can bring a person to their knees with fear.

Hug someone today.  Open up your arms and wrap them around someone.  Squeeze them and let them feel the power, the strength, and the warmth you have in your arms.  We always need a hug......we always can use a hug.........the best place to be.........is inside the arms of a hug.........

If you like reading my blogs, share it, please.  If I can make someone smile and they feel the warmth of my hug around them, then I'm doing something right..............

twitter@CotySimon
Instagram - Howunique310

I see, you see, we all see.......

I am a free spirit.  I have a soul that flies freely.  I roam the grounds of such beauty that I cannot get enough of it at times.  It makes me happy to be able to share what I see.  There are people out there that will never be able to see the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, the Tetons, the turqouise blue of my favorite lake, Bear Lake (Utah), or the snow capped mountains of the Wasatch Range here in Salt Lake City.  That makes me sad.  What I can do for them, is share what I see and hopefully make them feel as if they are right there, looking, seeing what I am focusing on with a camera lens, or my own eyes.

We all see things differently.  I was made very aware of that recently.  It all had to do with a picture.  I saw something, I guess that I wanted to see so badly, that my mind wouldn't let go of that image.  Someone else, in a different part of the country, viewed the exact same picture, and saw a totally different scene.  Still don't know what the image really is.  We'll never find out.  All we have of that picture is what our brain processed and is allowing us to keep. I'm keeping in my secret compartment , the imagine I want it to be.  I'm sure she's doing the exact same thing.

I may see the images I take as something beautiful where you may focus on them and wonder why I took such a ridiculous shot.  We see things differently and process them through our brains differently.  What's beautiful to me, may be ugly to you.

I have spent a great deal of time in Wyoming lately and took enough pictures to fill several books.  But with the invention of digital cameras, I can and I do, delete 99% of the pictures I take.  I may take 100 shots and only use 2.  Love digital technology. Sometimes I can take 100 pictures and not delete any of them.  This happened to me while in Flaming Gorge and the surrounding town of Manilla, Utah.  I took a grundle of pictures and I don't want to part with any of them.  But, I have to or I will become a hoarder.....a hoarder of pictures.

The town sits on the border of Wyoming/Utah.  You drive down the road, blink your eyes, and you're in Wyoming or vice versa if coming from the opposite direction.  This is a sleepy town for the most part.  Full of farms, cattle, wild life and people who make it their permement home or use the space for a vacation home. And, it's good a stones throw from a gorge known as Flaming Gorge.  It's beautiful.

It's quiet up there.  Very quiet.  Especially at night, where the only sounds that break the silence are the pesky crickets that never quit rubbing their legs together making their own music of the night.  There are no street lamps to shine down and show you the way, well there are a few, but not many.  There are no traffic signals.  Just a two way stop at a cross road.  You can sit on your porch, people drive by and will wave "Hello".  It's a friendly town.  It offers peace, quiet, tranquility, and enough dirt roads and dirt trails to find special places to look out over the valley or the Gorge itself.

I found a place this time out that put me so high up I felt I could touch the sky and grab the clouds, hold them in my hands, and then smother my face in them.  Big clumps of white cotton candy........

Mother Nature paints on a beautiful canvas that changes constantly.  You have to be quick.  You cannot blink or close your eyes for any length of time.  You will miss the wonders of what she paints.

You can be in dusty, barren land, then into farms and valleys of rolling green grass.  This place has it all.  You can perch yourself high upon a mountain top, or venture through it and come across mountain air thick with pine scent and lakes full of fish to catch, and ample room to roam, hike, walk, or just sit in an easy chair and suck it all in.

Spirit Lake

I headed home with a camera full of shots and a brain full of memories.  But I had room to store one more....................

You can go from green fields of hay, cows and sheep grazing lazily, to fields of sage brush, green mineral based mountains, and clouds wanting to gather and become a storm, all in a blink of an eye, or a curve in the road.  These are the badlands of Wyoming.  The colors change constantly with the sun.  It can be beautiful one minute, and ugly the next.  It's windy, barren, and not a friendly place.  It is home to wildlife galore.  If you're lucky to not hit a deer or elk, you can see them occasionally grazing or running in herds in the distance.

Come this Sunday, I'm packing up all the grungy clothes I own and leaving the makeup behind.  I'm filling up several coolers with food and heading out to heaven, my heaven........I'm headed to where my head gets a cleaning and brain cells that have been drained get recharged.  Bear Lake is calling to me.  The lake of beautiful turquoise water that its called the Caribbean of the West.  Too bad the water isn't as warm!  Charlie the dog, her brothers, my sons, my best friend and her family will all convene and gather at our favorite camping spot.  We've talked my next door neighbor into renting a trailer or motorhome and joining us.  This will be a true test for them to see if they want to become part of our trailer trash commune!!! My hubby thinks he's the only smart one.  He stays home, all clean and tidy while we all play in the sand, rinse off in the water, and go to bed smelling like campfire.

A reminder to shut off the brain

It's all worth it for me.........I never get tired of the beautiful sunrises I see......................

I'll gather my thoughts, reflect on what I have seen and have done, and make notes of what I want to do.......I'm headed to the beach to soak up the rays, frolic in the water with my water noodles, and eat food cooked over an open fire....................and then enjoy Smore's over the burning embers.  I'll suck in the fresh mountain air, watch the stars come out at night, and maybe catch a falling star or two.

I'm learning to live in the moment........

SEE INTO LIFE,

DON'T JUST LOOK AT IT.

Anne Baxter

twitter@CotySimon

Instagram - Howunique310

Where us dears play!!

I work with some pretty amazing ladies.  All ages from all walks of life.   We are all different.  We are young and older.......We are what we are.  A diverse group of ladies, who can still kick ass with the best of them.........

I work hard at what I do.  I sweat, get dirty, and I'm so physically exhausted when I get home, I can hardly move.  But I get up the next morning and do it all over again.  It's a job for many of them.  For me, it keeps me moving, keeps my mind going, and I am surrounded by wonderful ladies that are fun to work with.  Not many people can say they love their job.  I can...........I don't have to work.  I work because I'm not ready to stay at home and collect dust.

I mostly work around the state, but occasionally, the ladies and I are called to pack up our wagons, and make a trail to another state to help out.  This past week we headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  A place I am  familiar with and love to go to.  Give me a cowboy with boots, chaps, and a hat, and call me happy....you get that picture when you venture outside a bit more from the tourist area of Jackson Hole though, but where we were working, a fair amount of those dusty fellas ventured in.

During the day we worked hard, but after that..........we played even harder.............it was fun playing tour guide.   It is a big touristy area as it's one of the most beautiful places in Wyoming.  The Grand Tetons are a hop, skip, and a jump from Jackson.  I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to head over there.  They would have been in awe of the beauty and grandeur of these mountains.  They still are a jaw dropper for me.  Downtown Jackson Hole is alive with shops, eateries, and the Million Dollar Bar/Cowboy Bar. I can't go to Jackson without moseying in and sittin' my hind end on a nice saddle at the bar. I just can't have too much to drink...I'm not a pretty site falling off the saddle.

I can sit a spell on a saddle at the bar and count all the silver dollars embedded in it.  I look around and marvel at the beautiful wood that is used throughout the place from the floors to the banisters...........gorgeous doesn't seem to be the perfect word to describe it.  Being the nature lover I am, looking at beautiful wood falls into that category.  Put a cowboy on a fence railing, chewing on a hay straw, lookin' mighty fine with dusty boots and his cowboy hat tilted just right to shield out the sun.......hmmmmmmmm......put him on a bucking bronco...........and you have the cake topper at the Cowboy bar...........

I'm a picture taker.  Not a photographer.  I don't set up shots like photographers do.  I aim and shoot.  If I see something that catches my eye, I take a picture of it.    Sometimes I just have to wing it or better yet, use part of a wing to make a shot................even if it's not from a bird that makes it's natural habitat in the area.  This little feather sought freedom and escaped from it's feather duster home.   I rescued it from the floor from where it fell and gave it a home in my trusty red solo cup of found objects.

When you have wide open spaces, and where the deer and the antelope roam, you have a lot of these.......

Jackson Square in the heart of Jackson Hole, has arches on all 4 corners that are made of these hood ornaments that are shed by deer, antelope and elk.  There might be a moose horn or two also.  I don't take the usual tourist shots.  I do the different.  The unusual...........All I know for sure, is there are a lot of antlers. It's a tourist draw.  I love watching people.  Watching how they pose in front of the arch way.  There was one gentleman who seemed to be following us and was determined to be in every shot  I took and the shots the ladies took.  We'd move from one corner to another, stand in front of the arch way so someone could take a picture and before it could be snapped, the guy was there, in site, in camera frame.  If this dude had been, tall, dark, handsome, or a big, hard ridin' cowboy, I'd have no problem with him sharing frame space.   The picture eventually was taken after we decided that we could cut and crop the guy out of it, or photoshop a horses head on to him!.

The mountain air, the scent of pine trees, wild life, rivers....it knocks my socks off each time I head there.  Even though I was working, I took time to enjoy my surroundings.  Pictures help remind me of what it was, what I saw, and what I can come back to.  I'll be back to Jackson.

I did head back to Wyoming this past weekend to another favorite spot of mine..Flaming Gorge.  I ventured off and away from the areas that most people gather at.  I sought higher ground this time around.  I found this.............

and this...........

The sky was alive with color all around me.  It helped to be in a place that offers a vast range of open land and so high up that I felt I could reach up and touch the sky and the clouds.  Mother Nature painted me a picture that I will never forget.

I have more pictures, some of which I posted on Instagram.  Next weeks blog or whenever I choose to put it out, I'm going to add more of what I found in Flaming Gorge.  For some reason, my eyes were meant to gaze upon that desolate territory and marvel at what Mother Nature had to offer me.  I have never been so in awe of what I saw.  I've been to this place a hundred times, but I still see something different.

Follow me and see what I see.  Hold on to your memories.  Pictures can bring smiles and laughter to those who have forgotten how.  Enjoy the moments in your life.

twitter@CotySimon
Instagram@Howunique310