ALL IN A DAY'S DRIVE

There are a few different ways to get from St. George to Moab, Utah, and on Friday the 20th we selected 3 scenic byways and connected them.

What a variety of topography and weather!

These pics are a pot pourri of what we experienced in our 10-hour drive.

 I have drooled over the snow-on-red-rock photos I have seen in magazines.

This day we had snow, and we had red rocks, BUT

we also had low clouds - too thick for the photographer's dream effect:

 It was snowing while I took these pics.

 During my whining about the low clouds ruining my photo ops of the astounding red rocks with snow, this little guy flitted by, as if to say, "You want color? Just watch me!"

Close-up of the "fabric" of some stone:

The following few pics show a plain grey landscape.  These formations looked like the sand heaps the road crews use for icy roads. No, they are hard as....well...rock; and close examination shows they have the texture of elephant skin:

It was as if we spent the day in an immense stock pot, and each of the geological formations were parts of a yummy stew.  So different!  Such variety - chock full of goodness and surprises.

At a shoulder driver-switch stop, this meadowlark performed so loudly we thought he had landed on top of the car.  No trees for him anywhere - he alighted as the final spice to our stew:

GARDEN AT DUSK

Last evening I treated myself to another wander in Barb's garden.  To be able to do that morning and night - well, one could be stress-free, always!

I am enamored by, not only the color of agapanthas, but the budding process.

Occasionally a white agapantha dares to sneak out amongst the field of blue:

 This was one of my last shots in the waning light:

 Setting sun made for shadows in the folds of rose petals:

 Not much light left in the day to accentuate this refraction on a gladiola:

 Even thistles are lovely in the right light:

 Ahhh.... agapantha in the dusky light looks like it has been dipped in indigo:

 And this one, at pool's edge, looks quite Egyptian:

 Roses a-fire in the last light:

 ...and putting on a comforter when the light is gone:

TIPTOE THROUGH THE GARDEN

Sunshine in the morning!  Sunshine all day!  That's what makes these beauties glow; it is D's sister Barb who makes these beauties grow.

A stroll through parts of her garden warmed my heart this morning.

This is an Iceland poppy - a cup of morning cheer:

 And glad-faced peonies, so bright it hurts the eyes:

 It is always hard for me to believe orchids grown outside!  This refraction was clear, but

the orchid too close to define it as such:

 These drops do not come from dew in this southern clime, but from the early-morning sprinkler system.

These droplettes are skewered  by miniscule fuzz on a poppy stem:

 A frosty-white Iceland poppy:

 And another poppy with cast-aside bud hood:

 I call this "dew-dew" because one droplette is resting atop another water drop:

 Agapanthas are periwinkle blue!  Here, a water drop has a refraction, but it is of a petal so slender that it appears the drop is outlined in blue:

 Trio of crinkly Iceland poppies looks almost to be singing into the morning:

 The center of an Iceland poppy in all its intricasies:

PEAKS AND PEEKS

Because of the extra long winter/spring, there is more snow on the California mountains than usual at this time of year.

Mt. Shasta was glorious from the road on this blue-sky day:

We took a short hike above the Castle Crags State Park in the

Siskiyous:

The rewards:  a view of Castle Crags along the way:

And from the top:

Turn around at the top, and - Ta-Dah! - Mt. Shasta:

Looking absolutely straight up into the blue, blue sky, here is a

spring-green canopy bringing to life gnarly, ages-old trunks:

Back at the bottom, my favorite flower, lilacs, straddling an old split-rail fence:

(I straddled it too, to get a sniff, and well... I admit, a sprig for the car)

Deep in the dark parts of the trail - fresh-faced dogwood illuminate the shadows:

BREWING

There is nothing to recommend these pics as credible photos.

What they represent, however, is quite incredible weather, which displayed

itself as quickly-moody as a two-year-old.

I had just gotten home from bright blue-sky weather in southern Utah, and I was hopeful that

our local weather had turned to a pleasant spring while I was gone.

Not.

A few evening ago, an eeriness set into the atmosphere; skies churned, mixing black and navy blue and violet - having an all-out tantrum. 

These trees in our yard, which had not yet even turned a tiny bit green, became illumanted as if from within.  There was certainly not any visible sun to do the job:

These are the forming leaves of a big red-leaf maple.  Here, the young leaves are less than palm-sized, where they will become the largest of all maple leaves.

NO sun, just an "electric" atmosphere made the leaves look like red-lit bulbs:

It was definitely the kind of mood when someone notes, "There has got to be a rainbow out there somewhere!"

And there it was, right in my normal view:

A double one tried to appear:

 Like the last chord on an organ, the "swell pedal" was pushed, and the whole spectrum

blasted forth before suddenly disappearing: