Savoring Summer

I have been lax on blogging this summer and I don't feel the least big guilty. I have been spending as much time outdoors as possible, in another wonderful summer of hiking and exploring the country. I meander around Laramie, admiring gardens and watching the weather change, and now that I have my new Tom Baker sunglasses, I expect to be able to travel in time any day now, if I can just figure out the trick.


The summer is short in Wyoming, but until I can manipulate the space/time continuum, I'm not wasting a bit of it. I have worn out my knees hiking, learned to identify numerous flowers, read a huge stack of library books and visited lots of family and friends. And it's not over yet! The fireweed never lies.

This pinkish flower that I remember fondly from my time in Alaska, can also be found in areas of high altitude in Wyoming and the Pacific Northwest. The name seems unfitting for such delicate petals, but fields of this flower seen in certain light can look like a smokeless blaze. If you believe that sort of thing.

Fireweed blooms from the bottom up, and as long as unopened buds remain on the top, summer still has some life left. The fireweed in this photo, taken at about 10,000 ft. in the Wyoming Medicine Bow mountains, indicates at least a month or more of summer sun to go. This method has been scientifically proven 30 percent more accurate than that of a groundhog, plus or minus shadow, but researchers admit that the flower has been found not necessarily as cute.

How can anything compare to the cuteness of groundhogs or their mountain cousins like pika and marmot? I love the topography of alpine areas above the treeline, not less because of the likelihood of seeing these cute faces peeking out from their bouldery homes. I know they are probably plague-ridden, hanta virus carrying, lice-filled creatures, but I like them. A hike is always improved by spotting one of these hardy rodents, and they often seem just as curious as me.

I've been trying to see all the variety that the country has to offer, especially in the National Parks and Monuments. A recent incident in Utah stressed the necessity of seeing whatever natural wonders I can whenever opportunities allow. Wall arch, in Arches National Park, collapsed last week due to erosion (so they say..). I saw that arch on a hike only last summer, almost exactly a year ago, and now it is only a memory recorded in these photographs. Good photos, too, I might add, taken by my main man, who took all the pictures on this page.


My summer has also been improved by the acquisition of a new camera. Let me just say upfront, that the camera is a fabulous plum color, and a purple camera is just cool. Besides the purply awesomeness, this little camera slides easily into a pocket--even some of the notoriously poorly designed pockets of women's clothes--and takes amazing pictures at 8 megapixels--can't be bad--even though it was a quite affordable model (Omar Sharif).


My man and I have enjoyed experimenting with settings and lighting to get albums full of artistic and memorable shots. Our adventures are catalogued through photos, which helps me remember all that I have seen, especially given that I have explored a dozen different states in the last three months. Oregon still tops the list, and whatever was I doing in Georgia? Oh, right, eating fruit. Wyoming is not exactly the Garden of Eden. Or whatever Garden full of fruit you prefer.

The kitties also make good photo subjects, although they are peeved if the flash goes off. It's like me with alarm clock buzzers.

I've made some interesting discoveries this summer. Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse has wonderful tea and a killer chickpea kufteh that I enjoyed even though I didn't exactly know what I was ordering (how brave and adventurous!). Idaho Falls, ID and Gillette, WY rank high on my list of creepy cities to avoid at all costs, but the Sun Valley area of Idaho and the Cloud Peak Wilderness of northern Wyoming were pleasant surprises that I would like to return to. I found that Agatha Christie can trick me, but Hemingway is still boring. Fielding, though, is boffo. One last note: Daufuskie Island, South Carolina was curiously lacking Tifton Man or any Daufuskie beans, defying expectations.