Prairie Dogs & fairways

Saturday was the day to join the Invitational for Ladies Golf at Cedar Ridge in Cedar City, Utah. I volunteered to fill in for someone who had needed to drop out due to illness. Ed, being the kind man and dedicated golfer that he is, offered to go to the golf course with me on Thursday to get acquainted with the course which has expanded to 18 holes from the previous nine that I had played. It had been years ago last played but Cedar City is a good 10 or 12 degrees cooler than St. George.

The setting is gorgeous against the green high mountains and red cliffs. The thing is that I had read a book by Terry Tempest Williams who discussed prairie dogs in southern Utah and those in the Cedar City area as well as those near Bryce Canyon. Someone had told me also that if a golf ball was lost in a hole, the golfer got a free drop. The day that Ed and I played we donated a lot of balls but I could not blame the prairie dogs. Just the golfers.
There has been some controversy over land development up there versus prairie dog protected environments. Some sort of truce must exist with golfers because I counted as many as sixteen burroughs and dogs on one hole. They are kind of cute. The dogs stand up or just lounge around looking at the carts. They also eye the balls and I believe they have been known to take a view. I am surprised we didn't see any snakes although we did see ravens and eagles circling in the sky.

The Saturday open included about a hundred women, some of whom braved road construction on I-15 to get there. All in all it was a wonderful time for everyone. Good food, good company and for some good golf, door prizes and wins. I think the golf pro, John Evans, a very nice gentlemen, was kidding when he said our low net of 54 was the record for the course. I wish I could win by gross scores so that my friends wouldn't accuse me of sandbagging. But a win is a win and the ladies in our foursome were in mid-seventies to middle eighties and still playing which deserves some praise. It was wonderful to find people who can laugh at errors, prairie dogs and good jokes and make a few pars while they are at it.

Summertime and the Living

Well so many desert dwellers have left for the mountains and the seas I have increased my reading quotient. For whatever I have been studying the rise and fall of empires, Romans, Greece, Mesopotamia, Eygpt etc. We in our travels have seen so much left of these civilizations in archeological museums. It is a wonder that these populations have left so much to be studied and to wonder at. Our own country is relatively new but powerful, and we have been a force for democrasy just as Greece was. It seems we have tried to make changes in so many countries whose politics have been in turmoil since the time of the Greeks. Right now I am in the middle of a book about the Athenian navy which really caused their expansion and began a movement upward for the common man. Seems like they also turned their backs on leaders who had served them well but then became unpopular and were ostracized. Yet we all have common basic needs.

Today got away from all that and went to golf. Just me and a club and a ball and the various worries that torment many of us on the fairways and greens. At least these are troubles that I can work on. Perhaps not change, But work on. With others who have similar interests and needs. Next item to work on dog training with new gentle leader leash and new training hints video, Going to see How to Train a Dragon this afternoon to see if that gives us any ideas about approaching our schnauzer Fritz or at least developing a sense of humor about same. After that some bridge and maybe we should learn to play chess. I once did that as a form of therapy with brain damaged children but now that my own brain is becoming damaged and wearing out, I don't know how much if any I remember.
Also I'd like to see some large outdoor chess games in parks like we saw in Europe. I don't know why they haven't emerged here. Maybe chess pieces could be made out of recycled materials or something.......Maybe.........

All For the Birds

We just got our warning butterflies on the window facing North today. Exactly one day short and too late for the mourning dove that crashed and died yesterday. It happens every summer because the birds get flying and just don't know it is a window. It really makes us sad. Usually those mourning doves fly in a swift flock south toward the Santa Clara river. This one must have been trying to catch up.

Following our return and on warm days Fritz has been enjoying a sunbath on the back patio. I had noticed that one or two large birds were circling now and then. As one got closer I could see the white feather tips and realized it was an Eagle. Fritz at less than l2 pounds could be a promising tid bit, so I ran him into the house. I also have been maintaining a closer watch on his ins and outs because he has these two doggie doors now. Anyway seems one of my neighbors had sighted an eagle nest and two adult eagles flying back and forth, apparantly feeding young. Well more recently a young eaglet was rescued off the highway below us after a raven was harassing it. Wild life rescue came and got him. They said the young birds sometime get overly tired learning to fly and just set down. I will try to attach pictures.

Cookies In The Jar

Rainy morning spent baking Amerettis. Modification of gluten free recipe and beginning of banana pudding recipe. Experiments with not using flour and cutting the sugar content is rather fun. Amazing to think of all the different flours you can make. Also now trying blue agave syrup in coffee. Whatever works because the aging body does not appear to be metabolizing as well these days. As Hope says, We have now come to the tuck and roll part of our lives instead of "rock and roll." But there are so many new things to try these days that one would really have to work at being bored. Another benefit of cookie baking is that you sort of forget the horrible oil spill and the drowning birds, suffocating shrimp and crab and other fish. Lord if we keep it up Popeye won't even be able to eat his spinach.

So I got out my old cookie jar saved for lo these many, many years. A gift from a small boy and girl about 50 years ago on Mother's Day. A bit of nostalgia on a cloudy day. Visits by cell with daughter and sister and reviews of emails blogs & Facebook. Oh so far away yet so close its a contradiction. Everyone is so over connected that it should be a time for this planet to be glowing with love and caring for all that we humans have achieved and what we can further be. And yet, as the song says "so far away" doesn't anybody care any more?
I was going to read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire until I realized it was six volumes and was written by Gibbons in the 1800s. Substituted reading on the rise and fall of other empires, Mesopotamia, Greece, Roman and Egyptian, So many years and yet so far away. Probably woman have always been baking cookies or trying to reach a few hearts and get a few smiles.

Fabulous Fritz, The Desert Dog

He did it. Walked into the wading pool and scarfed up all the treats waiting in a bowl. Learning is an expensive proposition for the mini-schnauzer. His dog doors are working but he now knows we will help, even pay for him to go in and out. Schmart Schnauzer this pup. At the rate he is gaining treats and knowledge we could send him to college.

Spent all morning downloading 845 picts from the Rhine, Moselle River and Luzerne Switzerland region. We did the same thing at Cosco yesterday but they confused our disc with someone elses which we did not learn until we got home. So I have to go back to my tacky techy skills. I love Apple Steve Jobs, but I have an aging forgetful brain. If I get better at this I may share some of our photos. I will do a slideshow for DVD copies and get a few pics on my blog. Maybe. The ravishing Rachel is so talented at that. Lovely Lisa too, but she is involved with another project just now. They make me feel so lazy.
They are producing the fourth generation of smart kids besides other spectaculor and amazing accomplishments. In old age, you don't rest on your own laurels so to speak, you just bask in your grandkids. Of course I take first credit for their Mom. She is a top notch attorney, mom and grandmother, a marvelous cook, a creative program developer and an awsome gardner, besides being a caring, supportive daughter.

So many things to be grateful for. Ed, of course caps it all. Busily checking the drip system, the budget and bills, the social schedule:golf, bridge etc. and etc. Our days are fun and full.

Hot Spot

Cool nites & mornings save us all. Walking follows a fragrant trail among the spectacular desert orchid trees, the cactus blooms. In the shadow of red mountain the developers are digging, new people are coming and new roads transverse the desert sage. Mixtures in emotion not to be selfish but water is scarce and eternal beauties cannot be replaced.
Fritz, the timid shnauzer, has to be coaxed through his new dog doors. I think he always followed other dogs when they were using theirs. Who thought he would want someone to push the way. Food is an entizer. I also am trying to get him in his wading pool. Treats floating in a dish get his interest but he is definitely not a water dog. His most fun game is catching house spiders and watching the lizards until they move. He likes his walks along the desert trails with us but I know he misses his doggie cousins and the romping that took place every day. Consequently his watch duty has increased and he is taking good care of us. Oh the fierce barking he can do. I hope he calms down before I get out my water pistol. He is such a loving guy I hate to splash him. It is good to be home.