Ravages of Time

As genealogists, we spend more time in cemeteries than the average person who does not work for a cemetery and of course, those who occupy the graves. It is sometimes hard to visit a cemetery because of the condition of the graves. Many older grave markers become so weathered that the original writing is either entirely gone or hard to read. But these markers are relatively new and look to be intentionally vandalized although it is possible that they were both installed incorrectly.

Flowers and Snow

With a lot of Spring snow, we are seeing some dramatic contrasts. This image illustrates the contrast between the snow on the mountains and the beautiful Spring flowers. We think the real first day of Spring was this day of sunshine. 

Smily Tomato Faces

Some of these tomatoes look happy but others seem to be missing their eyes or mouth. Sometimes I think it is important to think about the vegetables we are eating. How do they really feel? What kinds of disabilities do they have? Perhaps if we were more in tune with our food, we might be better nourished.

Memorial Day 2019

We made a day-before visit to the Salt Lake City Cemetery for Memorial Day and I was impressed with the Veterans section of the Cemetery. During the time we have lived in Utah, we have always taken the time to drive to Salt Lake City and visit our ancestors' gravesites and leave a few flowers on each grave. The Cemetery is high above the downtown area and has a view of the Salt Lake Valley except in the lowest and oldest parts. It was a lovely day with a breeze and cool temperatures. We remember our honored dead especially those who served in the military.

King of the String Beans

I very seldom use photo manipulation techniques to alter the content of my photos but sometimes I like to experiment with some of the different programs. This image of string beans was an interesting subject. The effect allows you to split the screen and then manipulate the split. Some of the other photos I tried this on were pretty scary. It is always a good idea to remember that photographs no longer are accurate reproductions of "reality" whatever that is. I haven't seen any "unretouched" or "Photoshoped" images for a long time.

Fallen Maple Seeds

Everywhere I look, I see so many designs and forms that I could be taking photos all day. The ground under a large maple tree was covered with green seeds that had fallen. I was wondering if the groundskeepers had intentionally sprayed something to make all these seeds fall prematurely or if there was some other cause. Every day there is something new to think about.

World's Hottest Peppers? Not these

Now that I am on the subject to chile peppers, I thought you all might want to know what makes them hot. Here is a short quote from the LiveScience.com article entitled, "Why Do Chili Peppers Taste Hot?"

The culprit of the burning feeling you get from jalapeno-loaded Mexican food: chemical compounds called capsaicinoids. The odorless, flavorless substances are hidden in the white flesh inside of peppers. And when you pop a pepper into your mouth, the chemical binds to receptors that respond to pain from heat in the mouth and throat.

Some people dislike even "spicy" food, while others, like me, can take up to the hottest levels of pepper, spice and hot peppers. Here is a video on the top ten hot peppers:

Top 10 World's Hottest Peppers in the WORLD! Is Ghost Pepper #1?

You will have to watch the video to see the current hottest pepper. 

Hot Peppers

When I was young, my father rented out part of our land to a Spanish speaking family. They planted the parcel in chile peppers. I remember that the chile had matured and was ready to harvest. I had never seen or eaten chile before and I was curious about the long green fruit. My father suggested that I pick one and try eating it. Hmm. I do remember that it only took a few seconds for me to realize what a hot pepper or chile really was. It took me years before I experienced my second encounter with hot peppers, this time in the form of tamales at a Mexican food restaurant. I decided I did not like hot peppery food. Later in life, I came to love hot peppers and grew several varieties that I would eat raw on salads. Apparently, hot, spicy food is an acquired taste.

Flowers of Spring

We have had an extraordinary amount of rain this Spring and extra snow on the mountains. Our flowers have benefitted from the increase and are fabulous. We have been planting iris over the past few years because the deer who live in our yard don't eat them. It would be nice to have a sunny day to show off the colors but we have almost constant cloud cover.

Spring Lilacs

With all the rain we have been experiencing here in Utah Valley, the flowers are abundant and gorgeous. We love the beautiful lilacs that are growing around the valley. This is an unusual variety of lilac bush. It is called Josee Reblooming Lilac or Syringa 'Josee'.

Spring Columbine

There are few things in this world that add joy to your heart like a beautiful flower. Welcome to spring along the Wasatch Front.

Our Hummingbird Feeder

We have had bird feeders for a number of years and this is one our favorites. Taking photos of hummingbirds is a challenge. I hope to get better photos over time. I am keeping a list of the hummingbirds and dates. Here is this one.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird male Archilochus colubris

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-throated_Hummingbird/overview

A Marble Slot Canyon

We keep finding new and unusual places to visit in Utah. Slot canyons are common but not easily accessible. You generally have to talk to the "locals" to find some of them. This one is actually in Nevada but accessible from Utah. There are quite a few of these short and accessible slot canyons sprinkled around the states of Arizona, Utah, and even into some of the adjoining states.

Timpanogos in the Spring

We get the full experience of the seasons here on the side of the mountains. There is a lot of contrast between the individual seasons. We had a lot of snow this Winter and into the Spring so the mountain is still covered with a substantial amount of snow. But I am guessing that it will all melt in the next couple of weeks when the temperatures get above 80 degrees. Lovely time of year.

A Little Quail

We are becoming more and more involved with the birds in our neighborhood. We have five bird feeders and love to watch the variety of birds that come outside our window. This chubby little bird is a California Quail or Callipepla californica. I am used to seeing Gambel's Quail but this one is shorter and fatter. Here is a link about this bird: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Quail/overview

Spring Sunset on Timpanogos

When you live on the side of a mountain, you get regular bonuses. One of these is the spectacular views of the mountains, particularly Mount Timpanogos. The extra heavy snowfall this year means that we will have snow on the mountains later than usual. Down here in the valley the temperatures are in the 70s.

Water in the Dunes

Every so often, I see something extraordinarily different. We have visited the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Southern Utah many times in Summer, Winter, and Fall and have never seen water running out of the dunes. It was raining all around us and we expected to get rain but we never expected to see ponds and water running. By the way, you can see from the footprints that we were hardly the only ones visiting the dunes that day.

Path through Rock Canyon

You really can walk all the way up to the top of Rock Canyon to Rock Canyon Campground. Many people go up and back every day. But the distance of a hike in the Canyon is usually measured by the "bridge method." There are five bridges across the creek and you can tell people how far you walked by noting that you hiked to the first or second or whichever bridge. There is a guide to the Rock Canyon Trail.

Honeycomb Hills, Utah

I keep finding more interesting places in Utah and Arizona to visit. The new places seem inexhaustible and I keep adding them to my list. Some of these places, such as the Honeycomb Hills, were not on my list at all and it took some research to find them. This very strange place is in the great Western Desert of Utah (part of the Great Basin). The weird holes in the rocks are called tafoni and are caused by wind and water.

A U-Shaped Canyon

Rock Canyon is along the Wasatch Front on the east side of Provo, Utah. This view, looking west towards the valley, shows the classic glaciated u-shaped mouth of the canyon. There is just one thing about the canyon that contradicts this assessment. The canyon itself demonstrates the classic stream-cut steep cliffs belying its glaciated past. But the reality of the canyon is that it did indeed have glaciers. The canyon ends in two large glacial cirques.

Why it is called Rock Canyon, Provo, Utah

It is easy to see why this short canyon is called "Rock Canyon." It is a very popular climbing spot and on weekends and holidays, it is crowded with climbers on every climbable cliff. I did most of my early rock climbing in the canyons on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley to the north of Utah Valley. But it is too bad that we didn't know about Rock Canyon at the time. Little Cottonwood Canyon and Big Cottonwood Canyon were much closer. Of course, that was more than fifty years ago and I am sure that there were only a very few climbers in Rock Canyon back then.

Mouth of Rock Canyon, Provo, Utah

How would you like this in your back yard? This is almost literally in our back yard. We are beginning our weekly hikes up and down the canyon. There is almost no place you can live that has its very own canyon. By the way, the mouth of the canyon is owned by Provo City. Other parts of the watershed are owned by the state and Federal government. It is protected by the Rock Canyon Preservation Alliance.

Utah Valley from the mouth of Rock Canyon

We live a few minutes away from Rock Canyon on the east side of Utah Valley in Provo, Utah. On weekends when the weather is nice, there are hundreds of people hiking and walking up and down the canyon. It is still early enough in the year that the oak trees are just now getting their leaves. It was a beautiful day and this turned out to be a lovely view of Utah Valley.

Irrigation Ditch

When I was a teenager, this was a familiar sight. Many times, it was my job to irrigate our property. Most of the ditches I dealt with were just about in the same shape as the ones in this image. It seems to me that if I were really in charge of irrigating, I would have cleaned out the ditches, put in some proper gates and made the whole job easier.

Dead Cows

I have never understood cow and deer skulls as design elements in landscaping. I don't know much more than that to say about the practice. But I see them frequently. I suppose they are supposed to look "western" or "cowboy" or something like that.

BYU Bell Tower

Brigham Young University has an interesting academic schedule. Just as Spring arrives, the semester ends and they have graduation ceremonies. Actually, students can graduate at the end of any semester or term. Most of the students attend Fall and Winter Semesters with a few who also attend Spring and Summer Terms. Because we are missionaries in the BYU Family History Library, we are on the academic schedule. It is sort of like having your children in grade school, you know about the school schedule but you don't have to attend classes. This is the BYU Bell Tower. I see it every time I go to the Library.

Spring is Finally Here

As the last of the trees are finally getting their leaves, we are enjoying those trees that have lovely flowers. We also enjoy the blue sky but it has been raining and snowing on the mountains almost all month. The plants love the rain and so do we. I hope you are having a year of flowers.