Poor Beethoven!

My poor betta Beethoven has sure had a stressful three days!
On Wednesday I cleaned his bowl and he had to be caught and put back in his little tupperware container. I was worried about putting him in the fresh water because I didn't know if I'd gotten the right amount of de-chlorinator in. But he is still alive, so that is good!On Thursday I was trying to feed him and lifted the plant up and all the marbles from the plant's base cascaded down into his bowl! Poor dude, his little heart definitely got a workout that morning! And then today on my break I of course had to fix my mistake with the marbles, so I was fishing for marbles in his bowl while he swam frantically around. Poor little fella, at least I know he won't have any blocked arteries or anything after all the near heartattacks I have probably given him! At any rate I don't think he'll have to exercise with his mirror for a couple of days!

Today's Fun

After cold, dreary yesterday, Vanessa and I were more than ready to hit the trails and get out in the sunshine today! Shockingly, we decided not to go to Oakslough Trail (our current favorite for hiking and mountain biking) but instead to find Whiskeytown Falls. Interestingly enough, nobody knew about these falls for forty years. When the land for the park was being purchased in the 1960's park staff came across it, but kept its location a secret because the sellers did not know of the falls' existence. When the then superintendent suddenly passed away and staff members left and were replaced the falls were forgotten and lost. It wasn't until 2005 that Whiskeytown Falls were found again. Apparently there had been rumors about its existence and a few locals even knew where it was, but unless you knew exactly how to get there it was impossible to find.The trail to the falls is actually an old logging road from the 1950s and is rated as moderately difficult. I back that fully! You start out hiking at 2000ft in elevation and climb an additional 700ft on a very up and down single track trail. My lungs were screaming by the time we got to the Falls! And the hike back down definitely exercised my legs!After about a 20 minute hike we reached the falls. At no point on the falls can you see them in their entirety. In fact, the only way to see the entire fall is from the air!Vanessa and I took the trail up the falls, but it only goes about 3/4 of the way up.This is the middle part of the falls. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but there is ice on those rocks!Vanessa and I had a wonderful time this morning on our hour hike and are now off to do a little bit of shopping at the Outlet Malls and to catch a movie! Hope you all have a good day!

Springtime Activities

With spring so obviously here, we all have had horrible cases of spring fever! Luckily, we've mostly been able to ease it with all the cool things there are to do here!Skipping rocks on the Sacramento River is always fun and I always need the practice! Plus the walk through the woods to get to the good skippin' spots is a definite bonus to this particular activity!
Vanessa and I, particularly Vanessa, are crazy about kite flying! You know those incredibly sunny blue days when the sky is almost too blue and you just have to put a little color up there? Well we've been having quite a few of those days lately!
And of course hiking! Our new favorite place to hike is Oakslough Trail on the BLM Lands, but anywhere is beautiful this time of the year. Just look at all those flowers! And I think you can see Lassen on the horizon.
And of course, skipping rocks! We sometimes enjoy staying out late and scaring ourselves silly on the walk back to the car through the deep woods of Anderson River Park. The last time we did it we heard turkeys gobbling and all kinds of weird things rustling around in the undergrowth. I love the moon in this picture by the way!

I hope your springtime activities have been as much fun as ours and that you are all enjoying the season!

Happy Spring!

Spring is finally officially here! Or has been for a couple of days I should say. I'm a little behind on the times, but I had to share some of my photos of spring here. Everything is astoundingly beautiful and the bird songs are phenomenal! Mom's barrels of pansies, tulips, and daffodills.
My Moth Orchid.
The neighbor's tulip tree.
One of our four types of camellias.
A hyacinth.The orchards.
Wildflowers out on BLM Lands.
Same.


And me in a patch of wild mustard!

Happy Spring and Happy Belated Easter!

New Job

I have a job! I am finally employed!!!!Hooray!!! Yes, I am know a server at Buz's Crab Shack, Redding's nearly world famous version of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. I started this Friday, of all days to start since it was not only Friday, but Good Friday and the place was hoppin', and worked today. So far it is good, I don't mind it. Anyway, how about a mini tour of the place?
This is the Fish Market, which is attached to the restaurant and a place that I have nothing to do with. Or I don't think I do, they haven't said anything anyway...The people who work there are very nice and smell like fish, just like the rest of us.
And this is where I spend all seven or eight hours of my shift. Cleaning these lovely tables. In fact, I have cleaned this particular one only about a hundred times in the past two days. I'm getting really good at wiping down tables...:) So it isn't a glamour job or anything, but it is a job and is really easy money so I think I'll stick with it for a while! Anyway, I just had to share that exciting news with you!

Happy Birthday Jen!

I hope you have a great day! Love ya!

St. Patrick's Day

May your day be touched by a bit of Irish luck, brightened by a song in your heart, and warmed by the smiles of the people you love!

A Visitor!

Wow, I'm only just finding the time to sit down and write a post about all the excitement we had showing our corner of the world to Joe, who left sunny, warm Key West to come spend a week with us here in northern California.

After he'd been over and met the family, he and I headed off to Burney Falls, over by Mt. Lassen. As usual, it was beautiful and green, even with a bit of snow still on the ground!It always astounds me that not only does the water flow over the top of the falls, but out from various levels too. And most of that water comes from a single spring!The other thing that always gets me about these falls is that they are so HUGE. When I think of waterfalls on the mainland, I think small streams over gentle rocky inclines, not huge dropoffs that have thousands of gallons spilling over every day! But Burney reminds me of falls on Maui, like the one at the end of the Bamboo Forest Trail.After admiring the falls, Joe and I actually ended up hiking to the headwaters spring and beyond. We were expecting a big spring like the one at Meramac Caverns in Missouri (by Raleigh), but the headwaters were just a wide spot in the creek, so we ended up passing it by. We actually were hiking along the creek just off the Pacific Crest Trail for quite a long time. But it was very pretty, as you can see, and worth missing the headwaters on the way upstream, though we did pass by there on the way back!After Burney, we drove home past Lassen and had entertained thoughts of going up to see Manzanita Lake at least, but then we actually got to Lassen and changed our minds. Too much snow!Next day we rode the Sacramento River Trail and had a wonderful time admiring the blossoms, water, and mountains. All those blossoms make me think of Anne Shirley's White Way of Delight!

Then we spent two days on the coast. We went to Samoa Island hoping to see the seals, but they weren't there. The shell collecting was primo though.

And was the water as cold as it looked?Yes!Our favorite town Ferndale was next. It is always beautiful, so very green and rural.Plus it is right on the coastline, so it is the perfect town! Rural and with ocean access, my favorite. Course, it might be kind of hard to scale those cliffs...And of course we had to go see the redwoods. They are so huge, it is mind boggling. Shoot, they live in two climatic zones. Pretty impressive!And we finally got to drive through one! It was quite nerve racking because even with the mirrors pulled in it was a pretty tight fit.I just had to include this picture. The only way he could see out was through a little spot in the windshield, but he sure must've had a great day out muddin'! Before we left for the drive home, we had to stop at our favorite California beach: Clam Beach. Vanessa and I were drooling over these four horses. Not only were they beautiful but exceptionally well trained too because as soon as they got out on the beach the lady just turned them loose and they all followed her. Too cool!It was extremeley cold out there near the water and the shells weren't as good as out at Samoa Point, so Vanessa, Joe and I headed to the dunes, which are completely awesome.They are excellent for chasing each other throughand being goofballs.After only a couple of near death experiences on the drive back from the coast, Joe and I spent the next couple of days driving through the orchards and hiking on BLM land.All in all, we had a really wonderful time. The weather was perfect here in the valley, it was beautiful, and we had a ton of fun. Now we just can't wait for him to visit again!