The View From My Cubicle

On the days that I work the morning shift at the entrance station, it can be pretty slow in the early hours of the day. On those days, I like to watch the flowers grow.


These little asters are in reality, only about four inches tall. But, they can seem like towering plants, depending on your perspective.




Yes, I was practically lying on the ground, in my spiffy uniform, hat and all, trying to get a good shot of them. And while most of them are pathetically out of focus, I still like the feel of the photos enough to share them.




I can only imagine that this is the what a bug or a ground squirrel would see on their little journey through that patch of weeds.




And while there is no picture of him, one of those little ground squirrels did come by, and peek his head in my door that day. I just wasn't fast enough to capture him. The view from my cubicle is great!

Spring In The Desert

We have been taking walks in the desert for the last few days in the afternoon. There are lots of flowers bloomin out there, but most of them are so tiny you have to have your eyes wide open to see them. That's my shoe in the first pic so I would have some reference to how tiny these flowers are. I have no idea what any of these are, just wanted to share their loveliness.




These yellow ones have "hairs" sticking out all over. Very fuzzy flowers.


These are my favorites. The orange can be seen quite a ways away. The leaves are large and sort of velvety.


I think this one may be lupine. Purple spikes sticking up from green foliage.


When you look out across the desert, you can't really see many flowers. It really does take looking closer to see them.


These white flowers were mixed in with some dead twigs.


I didn't have anything to put in this picture to show how little these flowers are. The whole plant was maybe two inches tall. And my camera doesn't photograph purple accurately so you really can't tell how pretty these are.


I had to get down on the ground to take this picture. These white one are one of my favorites. And so little tiny!


I think these were the smallest ones we saw. I put my water bottle on the ground next to them just to show how low to the ground the plant was.


The showy desert poppy! There are lots of these blooming right now.


The beauty has been out here a long time.

Wildflower Paradise

I love wildflowers. I go on driving trips just to see them and take pictures of them. I had no idea that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon would be a wildflower paradise, but they are everywhere up here. If you drive slower than the speed limit you will be able to see tons of them. Whenever I drive anywhere it makes me think of easter, with all the pastel colors on the roadsides and in the meadows. Here are just a few of them:

Asters

Daisies

Thistle

Don't know what this one is called but it is pretty.


A pastel meadow with aspens in the background.

Mums In Maryland

Another week, another day off, and Jim and I were driving through the countryside again looking for scenic wonderment. I am here to tell you we found it, just a few miles down the road in Maryland. Before we came up here to work, we never knew Pennsylvania and Maryland could be so beautiful. Everywhere you go around here your eyes are rewarded with beautiful sights, and today was no exception.
The first place we went was to a little restaurant on Hwy 16 in Fairfield, Pennsylvania called Our Place Cafe. They have not been open long. Today was the second time we ate there, but we both had the same thing that we had the last time. Jim got a cheesesteak sandwich and I got Crab Fries. Crab Fries are french fried potatoes with crab meat, bacon, and cheeses on top. They serve it with a yummy scrummy sauce that has Old Bay seasoning and horseradish in it. OMG! I am going to be making these at home sometime soon!

After we left there, we took the first left turn off of Hwy 16, just because we had never been down that road. It turned out to be a dead end road, but here is a picture I took along that road:After we got back to the main hwy, we took another left turn where there was a sign pointing to a roadside market. The market we found at the direction of that sign was fabulous. The farmer guy was out in the front watering a trailer loaded with fall mums for sale:Inside the market we found so many choices it was hard to choose, but we wound up buying eggplant, green beans, two ears of silver king corn, a tiny little cantaloupe that was about the size of a large softball, but it smelled soooo good.Back at home, I made eggplant parmesean, steamed green beans, and fresh corn on the cobb in the microwave. I cut up the little cantaloupe, and that was dinner.

Here is the recipe I used for the Eggplant Parm:

2 medium eggplants
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup corn flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
1/2 a 26 oz jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (I used Classico Sweet Tomato Basil)
1 1/2 cups shredded mixed italian cheese

Peel the eggplants and slice 3/4 inch thick. Salt generously and let set for about 20 minutes, then rinse well. Put the egg and milk into a bowl and mix well. Put the flours, salt and pepper into another bowl and mix well. Dip the eggplant slices into the egg mixture, then into the flour mixture, coating well. Fry in olive oil in a skillet until browned. Place the fried eggplant slices in a casserole dish in one layer. Pour the spaghetti sauce over, then sprinkle the cheese over. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

This is sooo good served with steamed green beans and corn on the cob. It is gluten free. If you are allergic to eggs, you can leave them out and just use the milk. Sorry, we were too hungry to take pictures of it before we ate it all up!

Some Photos of Granite Hill Campground

Now that spring is here, this place is getting really beautiful. The photo to the right is the spring house near the trout pond. They stock the trout pond for a trout tournament each year. We saw the fish truck here last week.





This is looking across the trout pond to the center of the campground. The leaves are not out yet on the trees, but it is still very pretty.







Here are some tulips blooming near the office. There are flowers everywhere.








These tuplips are beside the driveway coming into the park.

This is part of the barn. It pre-dates the Civil War and was used as a field hospital during the war. It is a very interesting design, called a "bank barn", introduced by German immigrants.

One More Hibiscus

I don't know what I will do with my time when the flowers wither for the season. Maybe the trees will turn to a beautiful hue here, and give me something else to photograph. In the meantime, this hibiscus continues to enchant me every time I pass by. This particular blossom is larger than a dinner plate. The front is gorgeous, but I tend to look at flowers from a different angle. Every line of it is so graceful, so elegant. And look at those little green spikes on the stem! Ok, next time I will show you the dock here at the campground.

What Did I Wish For?

While I was out riding around the campground looking for a pink rose I had seen earlier in the week, I found this lovely flower instead. It was supporting itself in the rosebush. If I had not been looking for the rose, I would have missed this little treasure.

The existence of this little flower reminds me of the lifestyle my husband and I have made for ourselves. We have chosen to support ourselves by working in the campgrounds we want to visit, having been drawn there by the beauty of the surrounding area. We get a chance to stay longer, as if putting down roots if just for a little while, and explore an area more closely than if we were only able to stay for a week or two.

While we are there, we have the time to search for the everyday, the places where the locals eat, the sights they go to see, and the things they do for fun. And if what we find while we are looking is not exactly what we were looking for, the we change what we are looking for. You never know what treasure you may find just because you look for something else.

When I went to the creek to check my crab pot this afternoon, I took my camera along for the ride. This pink hibiscus was blooming at one of the permanent campsites. I love the way these flowers look from the back, so elegant and graceful.

Flowers are my my favorite photography subject, but I also take a lot of pictures of clouds and bugs. When I came home for lunch today, there was a praying mantis on my front door. I took a few shots of it, but none of them were good enough to put in my "keepers" file. Maybe he will pose for me again tomorrow.