weekend report

Hot Springs, Plans

By in weekend report

We took a long weekend off to originally go camping, which turned into plans for a staycation when the weather didn’t want to cooperate. I had big plans for day trips, taking my nephew out, maybe painting an accent wall–but we only got the first day’s activities in because I got sick.

But what a first day! Our friend told us about a place 2.5 hours north that her brother was bringing back to life: Maple Grove Hot Springs. We went up for the day to check it out and soak and it was just lovely–stunning setting, perfect fall colors, and the best natural (non sulfur!) hot springs.

After we got back home and my head cold hit, I kept wishing I had a hot springs handy for soaking. We’ll have to go back and stay!

Mole Visits The River

By in children's literature, nature, weekend report

Instead of a hike, we went wading yesterday. I’m not a great swimmer and have no desire to become one, but rivers (or creeks, in this case) have my heart. Let me stick my feet in one and see the hidden banks and suddenly I’m thinking of becoming a river guide and breaking out The Wind in the Willows quotes:

Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated.

A happy Mole, “bewitched, entranced, fascinated.”

 

4th-ish Of July Hike

By in nature, weekend report

We drove an hour and went on our annual July high mountain hike last Friday–the Lofty Lakes Loop trail in the Uinta Mountains.

Compared to the last two years, there was a lot of snow on the ground (we brought our microspikes and were really glad we did). In some spots the grass wasn’t even green yet and instead of summer wildflowers, there were tiny spring blooms instead.

It was still a great day hike–I love these mountains particularly and the drive up into them is just heartbreakingly beautiful at times. Maybe this is the year we finally go back with a pool float to the largest lake next month…

Squats, Roses

By in weekend report

This is the kind of story that would have made me roll my eyes SO HARD before I started going to the gym, but my Sunday morning workouts have included Bulgarian split squats for the last few weeks and they make my quads hurt so much that hiking anything steep that same day is right out (I made Doc turn around last week!).

So instead, we went to Red Butte Garden to look at the roses in bloom:

coral roses blooming on a trellis

an orange rose in bloom

pale yellow roses on a bush

pink old-fashioned rose

pink roses blooming on a wall

 

Sun At Last

By in Toby, weekend report

The sun was shining all weekend so instead of a hike in the mountains where we’d still need snow gear, we went to the botanical garden where we wore light jackets and saw flowers in bloom.

 

Toby did not join us for the outing but he enjoyed the sun nonetheless.


(Pet portraiture by Doc, of course. He takes all the good ones.)

The Good Life

By in Toby, weekend report

It was a great long weekend–my brother did a bang-up job with Thanksgiving, we were all there to celebrate, I made a huge dent in some top-secret projects, my friends sent flowers, and the mountains got some snow.

There’s a lot that’s wrong in the world but there’s a lot that’s good, too.

“Wildness and wet”

By in Gerard Manley Hopkins, poems, weekend report

It was a brisk 45 degrees and threatening rain but we made it up the canyon for a bit yesterday. I had to look up this Hopkins poem when I got back home–because who cares about the weather when you can write ecstatic verse in sprung rhythm about nature?

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

(from “Inversnaid,” by our buddy Gerard Manley Hopkins)


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