Pitted Cherries Fresh Off the Tree

Cherries are an on and off again fruit. Some years there are hardly any and some years there are bushels. I love cherry pies and ice cream but picking the cherries off your own tree and then pitting them is a tedious job. I like to pick grapefruit because the box or bag fills up really quickly. I have only picked a few cherries in my life but I have picked a LOT of grapefruit. 

Flowers for Summer

From Wikipedia: Clematis:

Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners, beginning with Clematis × jackmanii, a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin. Most species are known as clematis in English, while some are also known as traveller's joy, a name invented for the sole British native, C. vitalba, by the herbalist John Gerard; virgin's bower for C. terniflora, C. virginiana, and C. viticella; old man's beard, applied to several with prominent seedheads; leather flower for those with fleshy petals; or vase vine for the North American Clematis viorna.

I am unable to tell exactly what species this is but the flowers are very pretty now that we are in the Summer of 2020 and having to stay home more than was ever imagined. 

A Day of Fire and Clouds

There are two huge fires in the Utah Valley today. One on the west side of Utah Lake and one at Point of the Mountain in the north end of the valley. About two hours before sunset, the sky was so dark that it looked like night. My wife went outside for a while and came in with ash in her hair and on her blouse. We are nowhere near the fire but some people are being evacuated. 26 June 2020. 

Mouth of Rock Canyon in Late Spring

It was an exceptionally clear day for a walk along the Shoreline Trail and I took this opportunity to take this very nice photo of the mouth of Rock Canyon on the east side of Provo, Utah. The grass that grew during the Spring is just starting to turn golden brown. The detail in the rocks that is usually muted by the dust and pollution of the air stand out in stark relief. This is a very rare photo. 

Walking up the Shoreline Trail

The Bonneville Shoreline Trail follows the actual shore of huge Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric lake. Here is an explanation from Wikipedia: Lake Bonneville:

Shorelines of Lake Bonneville are visible above Salt Lake City along the western front of the Wasatch Mountains and on other mountains throughout the Bonneville basin. These shorelines appear as shelves or benches that protrude from the mountainside above the valley floor, are visible on the ground from long distances and on satellite images, and have both depositional and erosional segments along their lengths. Three shorelines of Lake Bonneville that can be traced throughout the basin, have been given names: Stansbury, Bonneville, and Provo.

This segment of the trail starts at the mouth of Rock Canyon in Provo, Utah travels north and south for a total of about 305 miles.  We usually walk the segments just a few miles north and south from Rock Canyon. 

Grow Boxes

I was first introduced into grow-box gardening back in the 1980s, through the books of Jacob Mittlieder. Hre is a citation to his first book that caught my interest. 

Mittleider, Jacob R. 1975. More food from your garden. Santa Barbara, Calif: Woodbridge Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=nVAjAQAAMAA

During this time I lived in Mesa, Arizona and had a large backyard and so I used the backyard to grow a yearly garden and put the idea of grow boxes on the back burner. Now I am back with a growing interest in grow boxes. Some of my children have improved on my original gardens. The image above is one of those gardens. I began my "writing career" writing a newsletter about gardening and I am thinking of going back to my original interest. 

Sagebrush, an icon of the West

There are more than forty different species of plants like the one above in the genus of Artemisia and all of them are called "sagebrush." In addition, many of the sagebrush species have subspecies. One of the most common here in Utah is Artemisia tridentata. The challenge with identifying any particular species or subspecies is that there is some disagreement over the classification. Many of the species called sagebrush are in different plant families. This particular plant has been identified as of the subfamily Asteroideae and a member of the Sunflowers, Daisies, Asters, and allies in the Asteraceae Family. I guess I will still keep calling it sagebrush unless I am told otherwise by competent authority. 

A Mountain Path

"Great things are done when men and mountains meet. This is not done by jostling on the street.” — William Blake

I remember my first real experience with a mountain. When I was about eight years old we were driving in Springerville Volcanic Field in Arizona and stopped by one of the small extinct volcanoes called "Cinder Knoll." My father let me out of the car and I raced up the hill until I reached the top. It was early afternoon and I could see for miles and miles. There were some clouds blowing in from the south and my father was getting afraid of lightning and he came running up the hill yelling for me to get down. I should have been afraid of lightning, but I finally saw him coming up the hill and ran down. From that moment on, I loved mountains. I don't run up the hills so much anymore, but I still love the mountains. 

A Beautiful Clear Day in Utah Valley

This image shows most of Provo City with Utah Lake and the Lake Mountains is the background. In the far distance, you can also see the East Tintic Mountains The prominent white building on the left of the center of the image is the Provo, Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The photo was taken from above the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. The area in the foreground is the bed of the Rock Canyon Creek. Our home would be just off the image to the left. 

New Summer Squash

If you look closely, you will see the flower that has just finished blooming and the yellow stem that will turn into a delicious summer squash. When I was young, I cannot remember ever eating squash. I lived when food came from cans and was frozen. I learned to eat fresh food when I got married. We eat almost everything from scratch or fresh. Someday, I may even learn to cook. 

Kale growing in a grow box

My oldest daughter and her husband are the best home gardeners I have ever seen. This lovely kale is growing in a grow box, backyard garden. It is more beautiful than anything I have seen in a store. Because we live close, we get to enjoy the garden maintained by my daughter and her husband and children even though we live in a condo infested with deer that eat everything we could grow. All of my children and their spouses have become exceptionally proficient in many different areas and we have been blessed by their activities. 

Utah Valley from South to North: A 180-Degree Panorama

This is a 180-degree panorama of Utah Valley taken from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. You will have to click on the image to see the detail. The part of the trail and the south end of the valley is on the left and the north view of the trail with a view of the mountains is on the right. There aren't two trails, the panorama shows my view out across the Valley and what I would see turning to the left and right. I hope you enjoy, as we did, the beautiful clear day. 

The Shore of Utah Lake

I don't know what you expect as the shore of a lake but likely Utah Lake does not fit into your previous experience. This is part of the Provo River Delta, the historical channel the river took to empty into the lake. Presently, the Provo River is mostly channelized and empties some distance to the left of this area of the shoreline. There is a major project that is just beginning to realign the river and recreate the wetland area of the delta. Here is a link to the Provo River Delta Restoration Project. This photo was taken from the western end of the Provo River Trail that is called the Skipper Bay Dike Trail. There is talk about connecting the Skipper Bay Dike Trail to the Jordan River Trail at some time in the future. 

Trying to Stop the Deer

Living right next to the National Forest has its distinct advantages but there are always disadvantages. In this case, the chainlink fence is not enough, by itself, to stop deer. This fence is only about six feet high and deer can jump over it easily. The idea of the wood in the fence is to make the deer think more than twice about trying to jump. The wood provides an uneven and hard to judge surface. I have no idea if this works because it is not my fence, but it looks interesting nonetheless. We have a herd of about seven or eight deer that come to our yard area almost daily. They will eat an amazing variety of plants and so if we want flowers or other plants, we have to plant what the deer won't eat. 

Wasatch Mountain Hillside

This is a close-up shot of the Wasatch Front just uphill from our house in Provo, Utah. Here is a little bit more about the Wasatch Mountain Range from Wikipedia:

The Wasatch Range (/ˈwɑːsætʃ/ WAH-satch) is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about 160 miles (260 km) from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region. The northern extension of the Wasatch Range, the Bear River Mountains, extends just into Idaho, constituting all of the Wasatch Range in that state.

In the language of the native Ute people, Wasatch means "mountain pass" or "low pass over high range." According to William Bright, the mountains were named for a Shoshoni leader who was named with the Shoshoni term wasattsi, meaning "blue heron".

This image shows what the mountains look like when they are green. Most of the time, the green part is usually brown except for the trees.  

Provo Temple and Utah Valley

The Provo, Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located on a prominent hillside on the east side of the city. This photo was taken from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail high above the city on a beautiful sunny spring day. The big structure in the background is LaVelle Stadium on the Brigham Young University campus. Further in the background is the huge expanse of Utah Lake, one of the large freshwater lakes in the United States at 151 square miles. 

Along the Provo River

You could drive through Provo, Utah, and never know that it had a river running through the city. In fact, you could live here for quite a long time before realizing that there was a river running through the city. There are very few places where you can easily see the river unless you get out of your car and walk. This is due to a thick growth of trees along the river. Scenes like this one are only a few feet away from houses and roads with significant traffic. In fact, this image is only a few hundred yards from a large mobile home park. The entire river where it runs through the city is bordered by a paved walking and bike trail. For most of the trail, you are completely sheltered from the development on a short distance away. It is mostly an illusion but a very pleasant and beautiful one. 

Walking the Bonneville Shoreline Trail

The Bonneville Shoreline Trail will eventually stretch from the Idaho state line on the north to Nephi, Utah, approximately 280 miles. The stretch shown in the image above is on the east side of Provo, Utah just above the 5000-foot level. The Trail is named for Lake Bonneville, a huge pre-historic lake the filled the valleys of the Great Basin. See http://www.bonnevilleshorelinetrail.org/

Early morning in Utah Valley

We live just a few minute's walk from the Wasatch Front mountains. The mountains that make up this dramatic range soar up to almost 12,000 feet above sea level. One effect of living so close to the mountains is the sun does not rise above the mountains until long after the official sunrise time. We can watch the shadow of the mountains disappear eastward as the sun progresses each day. In the middle of the Winter, at our house, the sun only makes it above the ridges for a few minutes each day. We enjoy the shade of the mountains in the summer but we also live where the snow almost never melts when it is cold. 

Yellow and Blue

It seems that most peoples opinion about flowers corresponds to how they feel about a lot of things in life; essentially, that more is better. People will travel across the world to see huge fields of tulips and rose gardens and other huge displays of flowers. But in a recent walk in the mountains, I realized the joy that comes from seeing the small individual flowers. The mountain wildflowers bloom all summer and into the fall. There are always new ones to enjoy. We have a statement that has always been on display in our house: "Bloom where you are planted." Maybe it is good to enjoy what we have around us rather than always seeking more. 

A Late Spring Snow

The mountains along the Wasatch Front have turned green with the warmth of Spring. But an unusual Spring storm on June 7th and 8th brought a coating of snow to the mountains. This late afternoon shot show both the green and the white. Two days ago, the weather was over 90 degrees. Last night and today, it has been cold enough to have us go back to our coats and turn on the furnace. We are surprised by the weather and the beauty of new snow on a mountain in June. Almost all the snow from Winter had melted. 

A Mountain Trail

This is the Bonneville Lake Shoreline Trail high above Provo, Utah. The trailhead is about a five-minute walk from our house. This beautiful morning we were almost the only people on the trail. This area uses to be fruit orchards and farmland during earlier times. Some of the fruit trees are still growing and producing fruit. It is hard to imagine that this scene is only minutes from one of the largest cities in Utah. I do have to admit that I photoshopped out a gas line marker. 

Yellow Salsify

It is interesting that some of the most beautiful plants in the world are considered to be weeds. I sometimes let "weeds" grow even when I know they are invasive just because they are beautiful and make me happy. I enjoy the way that some plants never seem to thrive even with careful attention and others will grow spontaneously without any attention at all. This plant has a lot of names. Here are some of them: western goat's beard, wild oysterplant, yellow salsify, yellow goat's beard, meadow goat's beard, goat's beard, goatsbeard, common salsify, or salsify. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: Tragopogon dubius.

Tragopogon dubius (yellow salsify, western salsify, western goat's-beard, wild oysterplant, yellow goat's beard, goat's beard, goatsbeard, common salsify, salsify) is a species of salsify native to southern and central Europe and western Asia and found as far north and west as northern France. Although it has been reported from Kashmir and India, recent evidence suggests that specimens from these areas may be a different species. Western salsify has been introduced into North America where it has become widespread, being reported from all the continental United States except for a few in the far south-east, and all provinces of Canada except Newfoundland and the northern territories.

Along with tumbleweeds, tamarisk, and other introduced plants, salsify is listed as a "noxious weed." I have always thought of the incongruity of having a list of endangered species alongside a list of noxious, invasive weeds. It seems like the plants that can do well on their own are weeds while those we choose to protect have such a difficult time surviving. Maybe there is a lesson here. 

Utah Valley with the Provo LDS Temple

This is part of the City of Provo in Utah Valley and the prominent building in the center of the image is the Provo, Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This photo was taken mid-morning and the shadow at the bottom of the image is the mountain behind me. I am standing on the Bonneville Shore Trail high above the city. 

St. Peter & St. Paul Church Cemetery in Oberammergau, Landkreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria (Bayern), Germany

For a long-time genealogist, finding a cemetery as remarkable as this one is always a treat. This is the St. Peter & St. Paul Church Cemetery in Oberammergau, Landkreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria (Bayern), Germany. You can search hundreds of gravesites in this cemetery and thousands of others on FindAGrave.com. 

Ornate House Facade in Germany

Living in the cookie-cutter modernity of the United States, it is hard to imagine anyone with this much decoration on their house. This is an amazingly interesting work of art. This is in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany. 

Street View Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany

Quoting from Wikipedia: Oberammergau:

Oberammergau is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany. The small town on the Ammer River is known for its woodcarvers and woodcarvings, for its NATO School, and across the world for its 380-year tradition of mounting Passion Plays.

 We enjoyed seeing all the woodcarvings around the town and visiting the local church and cemetery. That's what you do if you are a genealogist.