Spring comes to Leetonia

One of the first trees to bloom in the forest is the Fire Cherry. As you can see the other trees are just beginning to open buds.
In a couple of weeks much will change in the woods. Now you can see across the mountains through the trees. As the leaves come out the sun will disappear and the woods will once again be cloaked in its summer gear.
Spring Trout season starts Saturday and the following week will be gobbler season. I have seen many a gobbler out with hens since we have had such warm weather. It is amazing how many turkeys you will see right up to the day before hunting season. Then mysteriously they all disappear.
Is it the first shot in the air or some sort of Turkey psychic ability, I will never know.
I am back from working in California for a month as work here dried up for me during this winter. I have a few projects to do then some temporary work for the census. Hopefully, things will loosen up this year and people will do more than just repairs.

I haven't adjusted to the time change yet. It takes me a few weeks to make up 3 hours. But I am enjoying being on firm ground. We had multiple earthquakes. All stemming from a 7.2 a hundred miles away from San Diego. I was hanging ceramic tile at the time of the first hit and I wasn't sure it was staying up. I made a beeline off the porch and away from the building. The worst part is it doesn't stop for some time. There were four more after shocks within an hour and at least one a day for 5 days until I left.
I don't like earthquakes. I would much rather deal with snow storms, wind storms, tornadoes, you can get away from them. But there is no escaping an earthquake. I am glad to be back in Leetonia away from the hoards of people and the moving ground.
I feel like I missed much of winter and I am trying to catch up with the fact it is Spring. I am sure the birds and the bugs will remind me. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Country computer

You will have to double click on this picture to see it. It was sent to me by my brother and it reminds me so much of where we live. I talked to Lee today and she said the DSL is up and running so I guess she has no excuse not to post.
I guess the snow is melting fast so by the time I get back it will hopefully be all gone.
I am working hard getting my son's bathroom finished out here. It turned into a bigger project then originally thought as such poor previous work made it a complete tear out. It is a large area 10' x 12' and I am hand building a tile shower and all tile floors so it is labor intensive. Hope to be back soon and smell the mountain air again. City life is not for the mountain girl. Logging off in San Diego, California missing Leetonia.

Shamu and the Mountain girl

Went to Sea World today in San Diego and thought I would share some Shamu stuff with you. The first one is of the whale jumping. It is amazing how high such a big animal can go. The trainer even rides up on some of the big jumps and is tossed into the air.
I think you have to be a little crazy to do that since he must be at least 30 feet in the air before he comes down. The second one shows him riding the whale across the pool.
I saw many other animals as well but thought
you might enjoy the whale the most. The funniest thing was the volkswagen painted like a whale in front of the park.
Mountain girl, Paula, logging out and enjoying a few more days of warm weather before coming back to winter.

kayaking in the San Diego Bay

Had some fun kayaking in the San Diego bay with my son Hal today. We got to see a large group of Leopard Sharks, Garibaldi, Sea Lions and numerous small fish. We went on a guided tour of the bay which included going into a cave.
The tide was low and we were only allowed in one cave. The guide took one kayak in at a time. On the second group in a big wave side-swiped them and they took a pretty good beating, but fortunately, the guide controlled the kayak well enough no one got hurt. I went in with pretty much no problems.

You can see the cave in the second picture. The salt water and animal life is a big change from Pennsylvania. It is nice to visit, but my heart is still in the mountains of Pa.

We kayaked about an hour and a half and just as we finished a fog rolled in. It was great planning to be out of the water, since you couldn't see much of anything at that point. Trying to soak up as much sun as possible to make it through a Leetonia winter.
Mountain girl, Paula logging out.

Trip to San Diego

Well, I am in San Diego, but trying to stay in contact with mountains and nature, I took a trip up to Palomar Mountain with my son Hal.
I will have to say the constant Sun in San Diego is good for my rain soaked soul. This summer in Pa has been the rainiest I can remember and it does take its toll on my outlook.
Palomar Mountain is about 5460 ft high at the Observatory, where they have one of the largest telescopes in the world. The lens for it was made a short distance from us in Corning, NY and is
a 200 inch wide lens. The size of the telescope is stunning and the white outline of the observatory looked great against the blue sky.
We also walked a trail in Palomar State Park. We walked through an area of cedars, black oak and many plants I am unfamilar with. A fire had taken a heavy toll on the trees in this area and it was sad to see trees nearly 300 years old blackened and dead on the ground. I am inside one of them in the last picture hollowed out by the fire. These cedars can have a life of up to 500 years and I counted at least 250 rings on one of the downed cut trees. They are trying to log out the downed trees and at least get some use from the disaster.
Tomorrow I will be kayaking in the San Diego bay with seals, a bit different than kayaking down Pine Creek, but I am sure I will adjust. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out, but still thinking of Leetonia.

From PA to CA

When I left for California, I took a picture of the road at the top of Cedar Mountain so I could show everyone out there what the weather was like here. I don't think I need to tell you which of these pictures was taken at the top of Cedar MT.

While in California I took as many flower pictures as I could and realized why we get so tired of winter here by March. The color of life is missing from us for too many months.

The flower pictures were taken near San Diego and it seems the fire last fall combined with a good rainy season for them contributed to a blanket of color. The Anza-Borrego Dessert yelded the last two pictures showing catus in bloom with the mountain behind it. A mountain girl must take a mountain picture.
I will say I had one surprise on the way back to San Diego with my son as we pass over the mountain it snowed.

I guess it was mother nature's way of making me feel at home in
the warm California weather, but I didn't compare to what I left behind and by the time we crossed the mountain it was back to warm.
Soon we will have flowers and seeing the first ones is always special as the forests makes the turn around the gray, cold, weather to become green and colorful again. Last year it was April 20th when I recorded the first flower, called colt's foot. That is about a month away. I wonder if the people living in the warm flowers appreciate them as much as we do after the grays of winter? Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.