Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
Doc has Tuesdays off and I don’t have anything to do (yet–I do have some freelance starting next week, hooray!) so we went up to the Uintas yesterday. Nothing like some vast distances and being surprised by four deer bounding across the trail (not pictured) for some perspective.
I made a lot of progress on the garage over the long weekend! I finished mudding and then sanded and even started with primer in one corner. My dad told me about “dust control” drywall compound and it was definitely worth the extra money: It’s still dusty but the particulates want to fall to the ground faster, so at least it’s not floating in the air.
My walls aren’t the smoothest in the world but they’re also not the most textured either. I can tell I got better!
I took a little break from everything to go on a hike Friday afternoon up Big Cottonwood. The clouds were doing the most and it was just lovely.
We had a really hot day with wind over the weekend so the valley is starting to get a little crispy, but the mountains are still green and still doing their “enchanted forest in bloom” thing.
When you get an overcast day in the first flush of spring in the mountains, everything looks the way you imagined the England you read about as a kid did–green and gray and maybe filled with unicorns?
Whatever little bit of snow the mountains got is long gone and everything is sprouting and leafing out. Even with some wet weather moving in, it was nice to see it all yesterday.
We got a big storm last week and some of it was still around even in the lower elevations, which made the hike yesterday feel much more right. (This is the worst snow year since Utah started keeping records in 1980.) The sun was warm, though; I bet the snow will be mostly melted by next Sunday.
Let’s ignore the fact that we’re seeing green because there hasn’t been any snow this winter and yesterday was 50 degrees in the mountains and instead just enjoy some growing things:
Our Sunday visits took us further west than we usually are so we walked a section of the Jordan River Parkway to mix things up. Every time I see a body of water, I think we need a SUP or a kayak because how fun would it be to float down that under the trees?
Of course, you wouldn’t see the Virginia creeper on the bridge doing the most from a boat. (That is an unedited photo; the light was making those stems just radiate.)
Fine, I guess fall is OK if it’s going to do stuff like this:
I’d say colors are peaking in the next week or two at altitude, so get up there!
I’ve been prioritizing going to the last open days of the pool for the last month, so imagine my surprise when we headed up Millcreek and saw (whispers) fall colors.
