A Lovely Visit

We had a special treat around here the past week: My Mom flew in from San Diego for a visit with us Salt Lake City family members.

The first two days she was here it snowed non-stop.  That was just fine with her and with me.  We sat by the kitchen window or the living room window, watching the snow fall and chatting away.

Friday night Bernie grilled salmon outside on the barbecue while the snowflakes fluttered about him.

Saturday evening we all attended church and went out for Indian food.   My dad doesn't like Indian food so when we asked what kind of restaurant Mom would like to eat at after church, she quickly asked for Indian.

Sunday we lingered over the newspaper,then Bernie went to Jeff's to watch the Master's golf game on Jeff's huge television.  The weather was clearing a bit, so Mom and I drove to Temple Square to enjoy the flowers.  It was still pretty chilly out; it felt good to go back to Jeff's house and watch the end of the Master's golf game cuddled up under heated blankets.
 Jeff and Rachel then hosted us for a delicious scallop dinner. 

Yes, Meowsie and Cheeto were most happy to visit with Great Grandma Dustin.   Cheeto was happy to keep an eye on the dinner preparations while we all visited around the kitchen counter.

I did mention we got a LOT of snow the first few days of the visit, right?
Like eight inches of wet whiteness.
My quest to photograph individual flakes resulted in a few respectable shots.

(Sometimes I kind of like the ghosty clear flake photos.)

Snowflake shapes relate to cloud temperature rather than air temperature.  I really like the kind of flake that looks like stars with little tree like wisps on each spoke like the one in the first pictures, and I was pretty puzzled by the thick coated shape snowflake that were falling at one point.

Turns out that is a rimed snowflake crystal, the kind of crystal formation that creates graupel, a word we had never heard before and yet have come across several times in the past few days.

THIS website has been my inspiration to attempt to photograph snowflakes, or at the very least start looking at snowflakes to see if I can identify them like I do with flowers in the summer.  Since it snows here so much of the year I might as well enjoy snow in every way that I can.

By Monday morning we had sunshine again.  The crocus in the garden looked so cute popping up through the snow rapidly melting on the ground.

Obviously it was time to get out sand see at least some of the 230,000 daffodils blooming at Red Butte Garden.

The grounds are quite steep in places and the walkabout is a good distance.  A free wheel chair was provided for us as my Mom has a permanently broken tendon in the top of her foot that makes long walks very difficult.
Jeff was able to take some time out of his work day to join us; he has become quite a gardener himself over the years and we all enjoyed reading the various plant tags to learn a little more about the plants that grow in the new place we now call home.
(Gardening in Utah is very different than gardening in coastal Southern California, just in case you didn't happen to know that!)

It is still very early in our spring season.  The pruned roses are still just sticks and thorns, but the quail bobbed around to make up for it.

We thought this was an interesting growth...and had no idea it was an up coming peony bush!

I find it most helpful to take pictures of the plant labels for future reference.

Another kind of peony.  Isn't the twisted leaf formation interesting?

It was a pleasure to let Jeff steer us along.  He knows the garden very well and knew which paths to take that would avoid the need to climb stars. 

The bare branches against the cloudy skies were artful in themselves, but I confess I am more than ready to see blossoms and leaves again.

Another week...or two...or maybe three the garden will be fully in springtime, right?
Right???

But on that day, wintry snow still competed with the spring flowers.  The snow couldn't win over the flower fragrance though!

I did see one butterfly flapping past us
 in the breeze and lots of bees and one very proud magpie strutting by.

Snow capped mountain in the distance, and snow filled daffodil beds:  These kinds of seasonal conflicts add to the dismay of living far apart.  We would have loved to been able to set a date to visit the garden again in a couple of weeks.  I guess pictures will have to serve for that visit to happen.

We were astonished to see a bonsai Fig tree inside, bearing full sized beautiful figs.

Oh how tempting to keep returning to the garden on my yearly pass and snatch the figs when they reach the peak of ripeness.
We wondered which staff members have already staked a claim on each fruit!
Wonder if they could be bribed?
(Wonder how the fruit got pollinated inside too.)

After Jeff left us we drove down to IKEA to do a little "look-see".  Mom was able to find a light weigh bedspread, I got a couple of small items as well.  Lunch of a Swedish open faced shrimp sandwich was the perfect light meal for mid day.

Bernie had worked all day, but had snuck out to a bakery to purchase a dessert treat for our dinner.  We had first seen chocolate porcupines in Switzerland, and hadn't indulged in one while we were there.  He decided we should finally give one a try.
I hardily recommend that everyone add a chocolate porcupine to their dinner menu plans as soon as possible!
He also created some delicious home made pizza combinations; a nice and easy meal for all of us to enjoy.

I did mention we got a lot of snow while Mom was here?
We took a drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon on Tuesday morning to both enjoy the scenery and to get breakfast at Silver Fork Lodge.
The snow pack completely filled the lodge's front windows.

It is a favorite restaurant of ours year around.  Their sour dough pancake starter is over fifty years old!

The fall colors can be seen outside during the fall, and the cozy fire is just a perfect place to dine during a snowy winter day.

In summer time humming birds buzz about one's head when one is dining outside; that lures us to come there for a meal when we are out camping in August.

Tuesday we had Flickers visiting outside.

One can always count on plenty of birds to watch while dining there any time of the year.

(Gotta be quick though...those birds won't stand around posing all day!)

Mom's last night with us was Tuesday and it was decided that my birthday would be celebrated with her on that night.
My dinner choice was the Aristo's Greek restaurant that we used to regularly visit when we would come up from Texas to visit Jeff.
Somehow we had not been there since we had moved here ourselves; the moussakka was every bit as good as I had remembered.

A huge serving meant plenty left over for the lunch the next day too.

Bernie selected a French wine to take along from home.
I am not a huge wine fan, but this bottle was delicious.

Bernie had also ordered a Chantilly Cream Cake for us to have as dessert back home.
Oh it was a light as a feather!

Gifts from Mom and Jeff were opened; while others were saved to be opened and enjoyed on my birthday proper.

(While we were at IKEA I had purchased a few bottle of Swedish Easter soda, a drink the Swedes called Paskmust. 
Apparently "Grandpa Lindquist" had concocted the recipe back in 1910 and it is reportedly available and consumed only at Easter.
It is made from barley and hops...and we tried to figure out what it tastes like.
Sort of like a combination of Dr. Pepper and Pepsi, but not sweet was one description we came up with.
Worth a try...I liked it quite a bit!

Bernie had the birthday candles read to go.

I did blow out the candles and made a wish.   Bernie re-lit them on my slice of cake.

Do birthday candle wishes count if you blow out candles two days before your birthday?
I guess I will just have to keep blowing out candles over the next couple of days, wishing for different things each time to find out the official birthday wish granting time policy.

I forgot to mention my other dessert guest.  Rachel had a class she had to attend that evening, but Jeff felt that Cheeto should be included in the party. He swung by his house after dinner at the Greek restaurant to pick up my grandcat for a visit.

We got lots of laughs over the resident cats reactions.  Bitsy kept creeping up to placid Cheeto and staring at him.
Clearly she knew he was some kind of animal, but surely not a cat!
Eventually our cats sat on the stair steps looking intently down on Cheeto.  We haven't seen their eyes so big in a really long time.
(That's Bitsy's eyes glowing in the background.)

Cheeto is a really good sport.

I think Jeff is a really good daddy to his cats.

(Tate:  I am not going to look again. Is that thing gone yet???)

Then the visit drew to a close.  One last hug and off to the airport.
Each visit is sweet in its own way, and sad when it ends.
We plan to be out in San Diego soon so it wasn't quite so hard to say good bye this time.
So as I write this on my actual birthday, it is snowing again.  I was born at three minutes to midnight so I am enjoying knowing these are my last hours as a 56 year old.
It has been another good year

.
Thanks Mom for visiting us, and thank you for being my mother!

Halo Phenomena: Just because God wanted one.

Just look around...and up...and see what you see.

That was good advice this morning; a sky phenomena called a 22-degree halo was just to the north of us over head.

So beautiful!

I have rarely seen such a thing, and yet my Weather Identification Handbook (by  Storm Dunlop, and no I am not making that name up!)  tells me that they are extremely common, and can be seen one out of every three days in Western  Europe and the British Isles.

The book had no notation about the frequency of such things in my neck of the woods.  I would be tempted to say they must not be that common around here or else I surely would have noticed them before.

Now granted the 22-degree halo phenomena is not as bold as rainy day rainbow, and it is a bit hazy, plus because it encircles the sun it does require looking pretty close to the sun itself, and most of us avoid doing that when we can.

I have seen many 22-degree halos around the moon though.

Probably because staring at the moon isn't quite so hard on my eyes.

So what exactly is going on with these pastel colored halos?

According to the book:

"The presence of ice cystals in the atmosphere produces a whole range of optical effects.  Because the crystals may refract the light, dispersing it into a spectrum, or simply reflect it, some of the effects are strongly colored, while others are colorless (i.e., white).  The position of these circles, arcs, and spots of light are strictly governed by the shapes that the ice crystals may assume."

"Halos are circular arcs around the Sun (or Moon).  They occur whenever there is a thin veil of cirrostratus, and this often precedes a warm front.  But under such conditions, the sky remains bright and the majority of people do not even realize that clouds are beginning to cover the sky.

"In temperate regions there tends to be more reports of  'rings around the Sun' in summer, when sun-bathers feel that the warmth of the Sun has started to decline, hold up their hands to block the sunlight and see a halo for the first time in their lives.  Yet haloes occur throughout the year and are particular common in the polar regions, and in the winter in continental regions, where the cold conditions often produce diamond dust, tiny ice crystals that float in the air and create brilliant haloes."

"The most frequent halo is a circle around the Sun or Moon, with a radius of 22-degrees (a hand span at arm's length).  It is produced when light passes through two (non-adjacent) faces of a hexagonal ice crystal, with an included angle of 60 degrees. 

(ouch, geometry...I never did very well in geometry...)

These crystals normally have a completely random orientations so that the light is spread in every direction and thus appears as a circle at a fixed distance from the Sun.  Because of the variation in the amount and nature of the cloud that is present, the circle is often incomplete, or varies in strength.

"When faint, this ring appears white, but when stronger, the inner edge is red, surrounded by a yellow tint. On rare occasions a blue-violet color has been reported on the outside. "

(THIS IS WHERE IT GETS REALLY INTERESTING TO ME)...

"This sequence of colors is exactly the opposite of that seen in a primary rainbow, but is hardly necessary as a means of identification, because a halo lies on the same side of the sky as the Sun, whereas a rainbow always appears around the anti-solar point." 

"The sky inside the halo is darker than that outside."  (That was what first caught my attention actually...it almost looked like part of the sky was smoky.)

"The reason...is that light from that portion of the sky is diverted away from the observer."

BONUS POINTS FOR FUTURE HALO SIGHTING: 

"A second halo, with a radius of 46-degrees may sometimes be seen.  This occupies such a large area of sky that it is rare to see a complete circle.  It is much fainter than the 22-degree halo, which is undoubtedly another reason why it is less often reported.  It is produced when light passes through the end face and one side of a crystal where the included angle is 90 degrees."

While I am generally curious about the names of things seen in nature, I tend not to care too much about the science behind how natural sights come about.  This semi-scientific explanation caught my interest because it pointed out several details that I had missed: the reverse color sequence, the fact that it occurs with the sun while the rainbow occurs in the sky away from the sun, that there is a second halo to look for and most importantly, is that this beautiful sky decoration is made possible via ice crystals that have a specific design and yet are dust particle sized.

How amazing!

God certainly didn't have to design all those elements just so, for something to happen that (near as I can tell at least) serves no particular purpose except to be pretty for us humans to see, when we happen to be outside, and happen to look up into the sky at just the right time.

Makes me wonder how many of His spangling and bejeweling I have missed in my life.
Makes me glad He allows me to have sight to see such things, and a camera to document it, and a place to share it with others too.

(If you would like to see the eight pictures of the 22-degree haloes in a full screen sized slideshow, click HERE.)

Kitty Games: How to help make a bed

If you have ever had a kitten and tried to make up a bed with kitten help; then you will totally get this post.

If you don't love cats (gasp!) then just go click on to another post.

Bernie was making up the bed last night when Tate joined in on the project. 

The camera was handy, and the rest...well...see for yourself.

Going wild!

But Tate wasn't the only one "helping" Bernie...

Bitsy: Oh my stars...what is THAT?????

"That" being Tate wiggling under the sheets.

A good romp ensued before it was all figured out.

Our bed is now officially safe from ghosts and goblins and who know what else the two of them managed to chase out.

Bitsy isn't totally relaxed though.

I think it will take awhile to get over this haunted bedsheet situation.