AMBLE THROUGH ANTIQUITY

When a Dear GrD says, "Grandma, I want to hang with you with our cameras!" do I hesitate? 

No! We were off, having decided to go to the innards of old Seattle.

Behind windows like this, it is obvious that what was once important no longer takes place here,  but the facades are fascinating:

A very old facade frames a lovely relic:

This is a part of town through which people hurry, but we took our time to hunt and peek: 

I love old building-side fossils:

Got Powdered Sugar?

Gr.D with yummy pastry tell-tale face:

Most alleys looked a little scary, but we couldn't resist going down this "designer alleyway":

Although a menu is posted here, there was no entrance. Tempting advertising might lure one to find the front of the building.  Someone loves the workplace, to care this much for a narrow, dark alley in this way:

Fire escapes almost romanticize old buildings:

Many of my photos of this outing lend themselves to the sepia effect, because of the era:

NOW YOU SEE THEM / SOON YOU WON'T

We love the iris in our garden!  We watch hopefully for the first spears of green, then the buds, and then we salute the fully-furled flags.

A short spell of sunny weather made all these steps happen with record speed.

And then it rained.  Furiously.

Water is the enemy to iris in full bloom.
Quicker than they blossomed, they will virtually melt under the weight of raindrops.
They are more fragile than they appear.

This year's "crop" has grown so tall; this variety reaching up chest-high among branches of a dogwood tree:

Such a pretty combination they make!  But the iris will be gone by the time 

baby dogwood blossoms will mature:

MIRACLE GROW!

I was doing errands in a neighboring town and - WHA' ? - could have gotten in an accident for looking at this row of trees.

I drove back and forth, in and out of side streets and business parking lots, looking for the parallel drive on which to park and take photos.  I only had my purse P&S, but it was worth the time:

It looks otherwise, but these photos are straight from the camera.

No filter or enhancement processes were used.

Such a happy little grove:

There was an informative sign which told me that the blue is an environmentally-safe and temporary color.  The "art" was created to bring attention to worldwide de-forestation.

Well, it got my attention, for sure.

This looks a little Monet-esque:

BANNERS UNFURLED!

Saluting Target! As P and I walked into the super store that is supposed to look like every other one of its kind, this over-head "shade" immediately caught our attention.

We stopped in our tracks and got our pocket cameras out:

Geometry and vivid colors are door-stoppers:

Back at home, this was the most brilliant rainbow I have ever seen, taken from my front porch.

Nature always does it best.

IN A PARKING LOT

Just feet from the hood of the waiting car I was rushing to was this wild and antiquated still life:

And I delayed a moment more:

VACANT LOT

I have umpteen photos of dandelions.  More than I need, and certainly better ones than what follows here.  But, I have a certain compulsion to "pick" them every year, as a grown-up, with my camera, reliving little-girl-hood when we ran barefooted in fields of them and made wishes and "liked" butter.

Photo buddy P and I stopped at a vacant lot to capture some, even though we each had only our pocket cameras:

Sparklers!

Hangin' in there:

DIMINISHING DANDIES

Determined to "catch" some dandelions before they are gone completely, I traipsed into the pasture across the street.

Almost as soon as I got there, a squall came up and I (and the dandelions) were caught in it. 

I was going to pitch out this photo.  The wind was too strong to capture anything with my macro lens.

Then I thought how the individual spores looked like feathers, blurred by the breeze:

COUSIN CAPERS #2 - APRIL 2012

There are 4 of us "girl" cousins (all around 70!) who couldn't wait to repeat the good-fortune trip we had a year ago.  And we did it!  I just got back from another almost-2-weeks of hiking, playing, and rambling in the Southern Utah magnificence.  

Our first outing to a high valley was a bit uncomfortable with a cold wind and moody storm clouds:

 But we were undaunted, and carried on:

After our first outing, the weather was warm and picture-perfect for each of our hikes and rambles:

We had all sorts of terrain and ground covers and elevations on our hikes:

And every ramble presented unique, varied, and astounding vistas:

One hike, to a place called "Three Ponds" was ever-upward and minus an official trail:

We chose to go there after that first stormy day in hopes that there might actually be three pools of water.

We were 50 % lucky.  Yes, each pool had standing water (which would definitely not be there at the end of the hot day), but the waterfall cascades between each pool were dried up.

This is the lowest pool:

We climbed to the highest one also:

There was minimal water left in a mud puddle, but it offered up this fine 

reflection for me:

One of my favorite times of the days was first thing some mornings when

I went on a 4-mile solo walk up Snow Canyon.

I couldn't believe that I was always alone in such a vast place; just me and the dawn-greeting birds:

( These photos were taken with my pocket camera).

Perhaps there were other creatures too, but I only saw their 

trails.  Actually, I was very glad not to have seen a snake:

One of our hikes, Petrified Sand Dunes was great fun, scrambling ever upward.

But once on top, we realized the best way down would be to rappel.

We were not prepared to do this, and so used the only "equipment" we had: our backsides!

This perspective does not show how very steep it was: