Off Like a Herd of Turtles

We are off to continue our northern migration.  Had a wonderful visit at Ananda Village with long time friends of all ages and locations during the weekend's festivities.

I was asked, last minute to help out with photography of the main event, the Groundbreaking ceremony.

Veranda of Crystal Hermitage with Palanquin of Swami Kriyananda

For first time in 20+ years, Sraddha just enjoyed the events without having things to do to help out.  We both had many visits with our friends and family.

I even played golf yesterday in the rain. First time for that.  Hadn't played in two years due to shoulder issues and had best round of the day with 3 pars and only one bogey.  Woo Hoo.  Makes me want to do it again. (sucker is born every minute they say).

We got our haircut by our favorite cutters,  we got our teeth cleaned and inspected with good news.  Even made appointment for next May when we return from our USA circumnavigation.

We will head out later this morning east over Yuba Pass on Hwy 49 to the east side of Sierra Mountains then north on 395.  Likely as anything we will camp in Likely.  Heh heh.  Then up into eastern Oregon for memorial Day weekend to see some new acquaintances who are volunteering at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

We expect to land in Ananda Laurelwood the first week of June where we need to register our RV and Jeep, sell the Subaru, and spend some time with our friends there.

Saddle up!

This week at Ananda Village, our previous home

We visited the meditation retreat early in week with the new directors, our good friends Durga and Vidura. They are cleaning up the place making it look great.
This was original place where


Here’s a 165-year old but still fitting comment on public officials who are so sure they’re right that they’ll drive over a cliff rather than compromise:
“Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt – are not these the great qualities with which dullness takes the lead in the world?” William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: a Novel without a Hero (1848).
It's been a whirl wind week visiting friends and completing work.



I finished up on the clinic board and set a date for completion at the IT department.
Below is the little statue given to me by the clinic

We are off Saturday. We will return but no definite date.

It's Ccccccooooolllldddd out there

He said, snugly enscounced near the wood stove inside his little cabin in the woods.  Actually, I caught a little chest cold while in Scottsdale with my family (and the 2 year old petri dish, Zana) and then fell off my bicycle so am all bruised up.  And those are my lame excuses.  Pretty lame as am I.

2013 does begin with promise though.  I bought a printer to actually try printing some photos. Will see.  Mostly for fun around here. Just arrived and am still setting it up.

We have been laying low,  working on projects such as re-arranging office, planning our spring trips, and watching the football playoffs.


My life long team, the Seahawks were compelling until they tripped up yesterday in Atlanta
so now I am on the Niner's bandwagon.  Shamelessly on the bandwagon.

Am contemplating a blog design change for this year so you may see something new here.

If you get this far, check out my model railroad blog for another perspective.

Well, back to the fire.

Mr & Mrs Bufflehead visit the Duck Pond at Ananda Village

Spent some time Friday and Saturday photographing our little buddies the Buffleheads.  They are about 6 inches long and are constantly diving into the depths of the pond seeking out food on the bottom. From the road you only see this white speck,  So I got out the big lens combo and when I zoom in with my big lens at 700mm the crop it down you get some good pix. 

 Thought you might enjoy. (click on pix to enlarge then right arrow to scroll through, then escape to back out of photos if you want).  Have fun. I did.

Enjoying a quiet moment before the Goose invasion

searching for next dive spot

Raise up to dive

Dive  this whole motion in less than a second

Just came up from dive

Got an itch?  scratch it

Home for New Year.

Happy New Year All

As we did last year, we put our RV, CharLi in covered storage in Tempe, AZ last Friday and drove home.  Takes a day and a half of easy boring driving and we were ready to get back to the barn.  So it was west of I-10 to 210 to I-5 and north on I-5 to I-80 at Sack of Tomatoes then east and north east.  Stopping for the usual shopping and filling up the larder for home and we arrived by 3 PM Saturday December 29.

Happy New Year Morning in our back yard

So here we are in this beautiful cold, frosty forest again, we call home.  Both of us under the weather a little from exposure to a 2 year old petri dish we love and adore named Zana who is my great niece, and thankful the first few days are relaxed. The typical mid winter dry spell is upon us, with sunny skies warming the temps up to a balmy 48-50 during the day.  Wood fire in fireplace burning non-stop this time of year.

Backyard frost

So we settle into a "routine" if there is such a thing.  I am back at the office weekdays and Sraddha working on various projects around house and community.  Arizona still vivid in some ways, dreamlike in others.  And CharLi awaits re-awakening in Arizona for our our return in March.

Spiritual Renewal week over. Now OFF to Oregon

Wonderful week of renewing and deepening our inner life here at village while the sun shined and the smoke from fires occasionally drove us indoors.  However outdoor amphitheater is wonderful in summer.  about 400+ people here for week of inspirational talks, mediations, evening entertainment with concerts and plays.

Now off to Oregon to visit and volunteer at the new Ananda Laurelwood campus west of Portland for a few days, then head over to Coast for a leisurely trip back home.  Stay tuned for some photos.  Here are a few from past couple days.

The lotus blossom on Lotus Lake in front of the Amphitheater

Chanting before class

The Choir tuning us in for Swami's last talk

Listening to Swami in Amphitheater

Blessing Swami at end

Swami Kriyananda, the Founder of Ananda Village listening to choir

a moment of humor

Speaking to us all

Satya, who has lived at Ananda since 1967.

Annular Eclipse of 2012

Yesterday we all convened up on the ridge west side of Ananda Village to watch the annular eclipse.  I had researched this a couple weeks ago and more the night before after one of my colleagues at work sent me a link on this eclipse.  Annular eclipse's happen when the moon covers the sun but not 100% which would be a total eclipse.  Last annular eclipse happened in USA in 1998 and next total eclipse in USA is 2017 so this was really special to be able to see this from our home ground.

Barb (my photo buddy) and I talked earlier in week and made plans.  In researching this, I found that a strong neutral density filter (3.0 or 10x) would give the best for around the sun.  What I didn't realize was it would basically black out everything.  I shot about 100 photos at various exposures all of which were too underexposed so didn't get anything except the silhouette, which was cool in itself but my goal had been also to capture the outline of the oak tree in front of where we were positioned.  Oh well.  Another learning experience however I won't get another chance for a long time.

Anyway, it was still a really neat experience to hang out with a lot of people and let them look through the big lens at the live eclipse.  People brought welders glasses to see also and reflectors to watch.  It was really fun and the light was pretty amazing.  

Waiting to photograph the eclipse on ridge at Village
(Thunderclouds over Donner Pass in background)

Partial about 30%

Getting darker

Maximum eclipse from here (about 97%)

Watching eclipse by reflection

Waning Eclipse

Making hand faces while watching reflection of eclipse

Crystal Hermitage Chapel in the morning

I went over this morning to capture this particular angle of the Crystal Hermitage chapel at the recommendation of Mandala who runs the Shrine museum there.  Early morning sun gave the best light.  Made HDR photos from 3 exposure sequences. Click on each photo to enlarge.  Which one do you prefer?  please comment

Hermitage Chapel 1

Hermitage Chapel 2

Hermitage Chapel 3

Hermitage Chapel 4

Hermitage Chapel 5

Tulips at Crystal Hermitage

We made it back in time for full tulip bloom.  Every April, the Crystal Hermitage gardens at Ananda Village opens it gates to the public for several weeks of garden viewing.  The upper gardens are open during week and both upper and back gardens open on first 2-3 weekends.  Sudden late spring storms delayed the flowers opening then the weather turned warm into the 80's which made this weekend the best viewing of all.  Over 400+ visitors here just today Saturday.

We spent the morning as volunteers greeting people and I cooked in kitchen serving up scones and quiche with coffee and ice tea.  This is such a wonderful way to connect with the greater community.

View of upper gardens from hermitage front porch

Ornamental Cherry tree in back garden

Another view of upper garden from front porch of Hermitage

Looking down from upper garden at Hermitage and Yuba River canyon

Home Sweet Home

After 2 months of traveling we are home!

Stayed last night in a KOA west of Lodi near the delta.  So this morning we drove around the delta area looking at various potential campgrounds for future use.  We were aghast that the nearby Brannon Island State Recreational Area is scheduled for closure July 1.   We hope it doesn't happen.

We found one possible RV park with a quiet vibration and one little gem in a county park.  We also discovered that the Hwy 12 exit on I-5 has a great place to refuel, add propane, dump waste and then head out.  It is only less than 3 hours drive (in RV) from home so we figure it will work for future trips.

We arrived home about 5 PM and were greeted with a tree limb across our garage roof.  Seems last weeks storm had its way with the tree but it appears that no damage occurred.  We will get a head start on next winters firewood.

Madrone tree fell on our garage roof.  Whew! Seems it hasn't damaged anything.

One of the big decisions we have to make is where to park Charli when we are home.  Last fall, we parked it down at the end of our road next to the Gaia house, thinking it could be developed into a good  parking space for other RV visitors to the Expanding Light retreat and Ananda Village.  

However, as we further investigated the costs, it seems that we might be better off saving some of this cost by parking Charli next to our garage.  If we widen the side about 3-4 feet with a retaining wall, we could have enough room to extend the slides when needed.  Everything would be nearby.

But could it work?  We needed proof of concept.  Can we back Charli down the hill and past the corner of the garage. Last October we could not have done this due to inexperience but we have been on the road for 3 of the past 5 months and Sraddha has developed a real good sense if directing me as I drive.  I had scoped it out in March when back for work and it seemed it would work.

 We trimmed some tree branches sticking out into the driveway and gave it a go.  After about 20 minutes of back and forth and additional tree limb trimming, we did it.  With room to open the bedroom slide.  So now, we will seriously explore widening the area.  

Stay tuned.

Proof of concept - We shoehorned in Charli next to Garage!

Late Afternoon at Ananda Village

Wednesday afternoon at Ananda Village.  Just returned from errands in town,  pick up some dinner groceries, prescriptions, and get a haircut.  The new 100-400mm lens came today which has been recommended by some birding freinds.  I hope this will be a useful lens for birds.  The light is low and a bit dark.

Chuckles and Chuckles, the Yogoata Diary Runner Ducks

As I drive by the Yogoata dairy, I spot the Runner Ducks.  What an odd pair running around the grass.

Junko

Looking for some smaller birds I spot a little junko picking up seeds on the ground near an oak tree

Driving home, I noticed the dozens of Daffodils lining the driveway.

Daffodil

Nice photographic afternoon.  Will see how the lens does.

New iPad and Snow

What up with this, oh,  it is still winter technically

Still in village for a couple more days attending to business, enjoying the cold weather and planning for later in spring.  The snow last weekend was really fun and I just hibernated most of weekend.  Wasn't sure I could get out of driveway Monday morning but the sun came out just long enough to thaw out the the road but I had to spend half hour scraping off the snow and ice from the car before I could see to drive.

Sraddha remained down in Texas gulf coast birding and drove down to the Texican border near MacAllen for a couple days of birding with one of her mentors. Saw some new birds and had a great time.  The winds were quite high but she had closed the slide-outs so everything was fine when she returned.

2 new iPads

Other highlight of the weekend was the arrival of the new iPad.  My friend, Barbara got one also.

We had fun opening them at the same time, setting them up and facetiming.  What a bunch of geek fun.  And the screen is everything Apple claimed it is.

Taking Pictures of taking pictures

We took pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.  Pretty cool.



Oh, yes,  who gets the old iPad?  Well, don't tell anyone but it is all set up for Sraddha and I think she will enjoy it.

Friday will come soon.  So will the next blog post.

Winter not yet gone?

Small Waterfall near Yuba River

As ye followers of this blog know, I am back home for a few days whilst Sraddha enjoys the warm moist sometimes sunny climes of the gulf coast. Well here in Ananda village it is c.c.c.ccccccold!!  yes. Winter is still here.

I am always in awe of Mother Nature, aka Divine Mother, when the weather shifts.  Earlier last week it was mild enough.  Still wear a coat but not too bad.  some sun, etc.  I was hearing the drums of a storm coming in when I received photos from freinds in Seattle and Portland showing me snow on the Oregon coast and in south Puget Sound, but didn't put it together here since it had been such a mild winter.  Woah!!

Misty Yuba Friday morning

Think it dumped at least 4-5 inches of rain then Sunday we got about 5 inches of snow.  Yes it is technically not spring as that is 3 days away but really?  Talked with Sraddha and it is mid 70's and mild in texas at moment.  I am keeping fire burning here to stay warm and hibernating.  DSL working so have internet.

Here are some photos from under the bridge

Yuba River Friday evening.  Heavy Rain (iphone)

 So Saturday morning I drove back down to Yuba River Canyon to see how the river flow was comparing to previous night.  It was down a bit.

Yuba River Saturday Morning.  Sun coming out for a while

Some friends here at village were moving into their newly built home and were concerned the storm would interfere.  The rain gods blessed them with dry weather and about 15 of fellow village residents  spent 3 hours moving them from their temp home to their permanent home.

The next morning, Sunday I awoke to this.  Good day to remain home and get to know new iPad.

Out our back yard this morning

it snowed a bit more as expected then sun came out then more snow.  Since it is springtime (well almost) and the snow doesn't last, I decided it wasn't worth shoveling out the walkway and driveway.  If snow still persists Monday, I can always walk to work! the exercise would do me good!