CreekHiker

May Photos - Junk Food

2013-05-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

This is a cookie bouquet made with food safe rubber stamps. I make a lot of cookies for the classes I teach and for demos and such. And since this is the only craft where you get to eat your mistakes... I eat a lot of cookies and so do my friends!Good thing we all love shortbread!

May Photos - Hairdo

2013-05-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

I cheated on this one... My long curly locks are either down, freshly coiffed to impress or, more likely, up in double knot pony tail bun in order to not irritate the crap out of me. My hair IS my air conditioner and heater! I've been known to tie the ends under my neck like a scarf to keep warm when a sudden winter wind appears at the creek. And at the studio, I work with fire or a hot vulcanizer and the hair MUST be out of the way. Not exactly the epitome of glamor!

But I stole these pics from my glass bead blog. They were taken when I first became enthralled with making glass bellflowers.

May Photos - Abnormal

2013-05-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Bart - imploring us to throw rocks at him.

And... our not so typical "May Gray" temperatures:

May Photos - Nutritious

2013-05-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

My favorite breakfast of the year is always the 2nd week of May when the Mulberries are ripe. There is nothing in world like standing before a tree or bush and partaking of her bounty! Enjoying her shade on a hot day and eating until your belly is full feels like such a simple, yet extravagant luxury!

May Photos - Nearby

2013-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

The creek may not be nearby according to some definitions. It's just over a mile away. But in Los Angeles, that's nearby! Mabel is always nearby, often choosing to be right beside me throughout my day. Only wind or extreme heat will send her to the safety of a corner bed in the middle of the house. And if we are hiking, Bart is always near Mabel.

This is our favorite swimming hole. You may be able to tell that it's nearly dry by the fact that I'm standing in the middle of the river. It's gonna be a long summer without water!

Same spot, looking East...

May Photos - Adorable

2013-05-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

May Photos - Happy

2013-05-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

THIS... is my 900th Creekhiker post!

May Photos - Red

2013-05-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

May Photos - Hilarious

2013-05-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

This is my DAILY bit of hilarity!

Hey Mabel! What did you do with Baby?

Where's Baby, Mabel Lou???

She's Vey down dere.... (So wish you could see the "Rutt Roh" on her face!)

Mabel, what did you do???

I'm sorry Mommy!

Did you put Baby on the floor???

I didn't mean to.... She jumped!

MABEL!

PET ME MOMMA! You KNOW I can't make it through the night without Baby!

There there sweetie!

I suppose I'm going to have to go get her??

That would be nice Momma!

Oh Baaaabeeeee? Where are you????

There you are!

Here ya go! Now don't be putting Baby on the floor! You KNOW she's doesn't like it down there!

Sorry Mom!

Now you girls settle down and go to sleep!

Night Mom.

May Photos - My Mother

2013-05-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's funny - the photos we like of ourselves and the photos others like of us. This is my mother's favorite photo of herself. It was taken in the fifties at a Mardi Gras Ball where her older brother was the king. She has a giant version of this on her mantel and had smaller prints made for my sister and I about 20 years ago.

This would be her second favorite.This was actually a black and white photo of her from the forties. As a gift for her, I had it colorized but the artist got a detail wrong. That dress was a V-neck. But I was impressed at the accuracy of the other details.

Maybe these are not my favorites because I wasn't around then. This is not the mother I know. This next one is my favorite:

It was taken in the early eighties in our home in McComb, MS. Mother was doing dishes... as always.

And this was was taken in my kitchen in 2010, after she allowed my sister to talk her into going gray. (I've nearly talked her out of that and she's almost ready to be brunette again!) She's holding Twinkie's brother Predrito and I simply love the smile on her face.

May Photos - From a Distance

2013-05-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

Hank

MayPhotos - Spice

2013-05-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

This is Murray River Flake Salt from Australia. To me, it is the finest, most amazing salt on the planet! It's thin flakes melt on the tongue and make anything taste better! Because of the diversion of the Murray River, the removal of salt is necessary. It's good for the crops in Australia that rely on the river for irrigation and it's awesome for food lovers of the world!

Since I've started using this, I find a lot less need for all this:

The bestie, her sister and I buy a HUGE bag of the stuff and divide it up...it's much cheaper that way.

May Photos - Flame

2013-05-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

This one was easy... I look at a flame several days a week if I'm lucky. If I'm really lucky, I'm actually making a glass bead and not just staring into the flame and wondering what to make! I'm making a heart off mandrel here:

May Photos - Younger You

2013-05-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

This is hard as I hate posing for pictures. I have mouth that naturally turns down. And I'm usually lost inside my own head, deep in thought. I guess I just look unhappy to most people. Funny thing is, total strangers have ruined a perfectly fine day for me by saying, "Smile! It's not that bad!" Grrrr.

There is a photo (#3) of me in this post where I look SO angry... and I was angry with the photographer. His sin? He told me to smile!

But I like this photo. It was taken by my production secretary on some horrible tv movie. It was summer and we were wrapping a movie set in November, Halloween props and all. My production assistants we teasing me that I had mistakenly packed "my" hat.

May Photos - Something I Made

2013-05-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

Whatever glass beads I've made lately are always my current faves! This is a Memorial Bead I made last week for the parents of a dog name Wardena. It contains her cremains. The story of Wardena and the bead is on my Bead Blog.

May Photos - Sugar

2013-05-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

With California adopting a new home baking law, I've been pondering selling cupcakes at our local Food Truck Night. The more I make cupcakes, the more I realize I need a real job. Sigh....

May Photos - Painting - Evidence of Sarah Jean

2013-05-06T04:00:00.000-07:00

This is the painting that I wake up to every morning. I painted it. It's of the seven sacred pools in Hana, Hawaii one of the most spiritual, amazing places I've ever been lucky enough to visit. But that's not what I love about this painting.

The day I painted it, I was so excited, I tossed it in the back of the jeep and drove to the bestie's to show to her. I put it back in the car and before I could shut the door, her dog, Sarah jumped in...and ON the painting. I consider Sarah one of the greatest friends I've ever had. She was one of THOSE dogs. I could have conversations with her. She was amazing and kind and funny.

And she was a good and patient teacher to Mabel.

Sarah simply thought I had popped by to take her for a hike and while I was upset about the painting, I wasn't upset with Sarah. I did my best to fix it...but, I can still see paw prints in the clouds. And now, all these years later, that's what I look for...evidence of Sarah Jean...my friend. She's always there...in the clouds.

Springs Fire

2013-05-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today's post subject was supposed to be Mexican. But the only idea I had for that involved driving and the jeep has been in the shop, I thought it better to post on a more timely subject of the Springs fire. These photos were taken Friday night.

Sunsets during a fire are always mesmerizing

On Thursday, the skies were blue but there was a distinct smoke trail some 40 miles west. I had hoped to take some pics of it Friday but, the wind had changed. It was so smoky at the creek, I got an instant headache hiking.

This is the smoke line coming from 40 miles away!

There was also another fire much closer 8 miles or so down Chevy Chase Canyon. But the fire department made quick work of that and except for a freeway closure, there wasn't much of an issue with that one.

Smoke traveling up the canyon

Above is Mt. Lukens - tallest point in Los Angeles County. The "clouds" to the left is actually smoke from the Springs Fire. The right side is smoke from the Canyons fire as they were calling the Chevy Chase Canyon fire.

May Photos - Drink

2013-05-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Iced coffee on a hot spring day...

Another Skill for Her Resume

2013-05-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

I only know the beginning of this story because our furiends, the Rottrovers, know Rocky. Rocky was a small dog...a Jack Russell I believe, that died last week on the Ranger free trail many of us off-leashers have fled to since our favorite trails have become a "park."

Rocky dashed into a bush...I'm sure his mom thought he was after a ground squirrel...only a Momma coyote was in there. And while his Mom did all she could to save him... running across the river to get a golfer to drive her to her car and racing him to the vet... he could not be saved.

I often wonder if I could hike our trails without my girl...

This is "part" of the memorial Rocky's mom made for him. We stumbled on it beside the "dark side" swimming hole. I was with Hank and Sue's mom and we checked out the memorial, checked the flowers to see if they needed water and proceeded to watch our dogs swimming.

As I was taking pictures of Sue who was busy demonstrating her new nickname of "Shovel Head" (a whole other post!), their mom said, "Uh, I think Mabel Lou is trying to bury the memorial!"

I turned on my heels to see her heading up the hill and further upstream. I gave chase and caught up with her...

She had been attracted to the rope toy Rocky's mom had left there... and luckily it was stapled to a wooden cross of some heft! This had slowed Mabel Lou down considerably! Thank Goodness!! She knew she had more than she bargained for and dropped it when I asked.

Only then did I see the note Rocky's mom had left for her creek friends:

As you can see, Rocky's mom doesn't plan to keep hiking.

I took a rock and replanted the cross and adjusted that note. The girl went swimming and, as we were leaving, it took all she had to NOT steal it AGAIN! Here she is "trying" not to look at it! Why is nonchalant never actually nonchalant???

So, in addition to Possum Pooler, Bed Hog, Heart Stealer, Thief, Bacon Lover, Mamma's Girl, Kitty Killer, Stuffie Mauler, Coon Fighter and Queen Bitch of Everything, we can now add Grave Robber to her resume!

May Photo Challenge: Button

2013-05-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

I make glass buttons... No one buys them so I keep them for me. This is one of my faves and I keep it on my desk. It's a metallic angel wing and it makes me happy.

I'm hoping to get a Mabel Lou post up later today for those of you who can't go more than few days without her. (I KNOW who you are!) You won't believe what Somepup has done this time!

Handwriting

2013-05-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

I admit it... I had to clean off my desk to find a notepad... this was a to do list from January. The other bit I find hilarious is that I'm writing on a notepad from my college days!

May Photo Challenge - Shoes

2013-05-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little hectic around here so I thought I would do this photo challenge I saw on Facebook as a prompt for posts!

I have more elegant shoes...but I rarely wear them. But these, I wear every day:

And Mabel Lou gets so excited when I put them on! And yes...it's time for a new pair!

Here's the challenge if you want to play along:

Baby Lou Loves Mabel Lou

2013-04-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

Fun with sleeping dogs!

Her Happy Place

2013-04-29T21:01:00.001-07:00