Even the dog deserves a little 'adventure'.

Living here on the Eastern side of the Sierras can be a real 'trip' for our dear doggie. That little white dot to the side of the road (appropriately named "Dog Valley Road") in the photo is him. He shows up better with a quick click on the pic followed by scrolling down.
Our house is undeniably in the desert, but a few minutes of driving to the next community westward puts us in this lovely wooded area.

We never actually found this trail, but he didn't mind. That boy has yet to ever complain about any car trips or hikes or any place at all we want to take him.

I was trying to get him to look indignantly at that bottle someone had littered with, but, he was all "No, that's OK. It's all good." We had just forded a small stream and he couldn't stop smiling.


Before heading back, we stopped at a little community cemetary. The most recent headstone was December 24, 2008. It was the grandfather of a child my youngest went to elementary school with. The family has generations of history in that area.

This was the oldest headstone I found (that was legible). I had no idea that the community was so old. It got me interested in finding out more of the history of the area. Haven't persued that idea much yet, but did find this interesting information here

Verdi is in Washoe County, in the Reno-Sparks metro area.
The community was
named after Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi*
The latitude of Verdi is 39.518N.
The longitude is -119.987W.It is in the Pacific Standard time zone. Elevation is
4,898 feet. Verdi is on the Truckee River
Former and merged names include:·
O'Neils Crossing
Once a lumber center. Declined with depletion of timber and
a disastrous fire*** in 1926
Site of a major train robbery in 1870. Five men
boarded the Central Pacific Overland Express here. They rode off with $41,600 in
gold coin, but were later captured and convicted
Coffee: National and
regional coffee companies with outlets here include Starbucks**

*You have to wonder who instigated that.

**Starbucks! The most important piece of information in the article?

***Yeah, fires can be bad.

I remember when this fire blackened a lot of Verdi.

Good, it didn't get ALL the trees.

Shrinking Violets? (NOT!)

The first two pics are of the same flowers

using two different settings on the camera. One was "soft skin portrait", and the other was

"forced flash off scenery" (I think).

The resulting change in tint almost makes it look like two different plants.

This next one IS a different one, obviously.

The story that accompanies the photos is the sort of thing I usually tell on my multiply site, but, since the colors kind of match my blog's colors, I couldn't resist putting them here.

Turns out the colors also went well with one of my other blogs, so the story ended up over there.

Steps to Make Banana Cake

First, she peels a banana.

Then mashes it to make

finger lickin' good

mashed banana

ready for the mixing bowl.

1)Bake a cake

2)Eat it up

3)Everybody happy

4)Ask "When can we do it again?"

EVERY day is a great day to be alive

Now that the weather has turned absolutely glorious out, Sunny can still vividly remember her approximately seven and a half minute tolerance level for the cold discomforts of winter, but is so grateful that here is better than lots of places that she positively promises to find the beauty in it


...uh, next time.


(Or, hopefully, Mr. and Mrs. Sunny can 'snowbird' in the far distant retirement.)



...Meanwhile, back to real life.



A recent pulled muscle injury gave Sunny a good lesson on how pain can prevent a person from feeling up to stopping to smell the roses (aka, blogging life's lovely moments). Rapid recovery in progress. Probably at least partially due to a relaxing rendezvous with Carson Hot Springs.




Life never pauses though, and here's part of it.
See those little girls. Those are my darling Las Vegas grand nieces that I got to see for a wee a bit while there recently to accomplish some small task. For the one day there it took two days of driving in the cold so bitter that as few stops as possible were made. So, although the scenery merited photographs, none were taken.


See how the big sister guides and protects the two year old? That almost says it all. But, wait, there's more. This incredible 7 year old had a birthday party type social obligation that exactly interfered with accompanying me to Boulder City. So, she asked if I would please try to pick up a post card for her while there. Because, as she explained, she likes to visit new places and collects post cards everywhere she goes. At that moment this child-of-my-heart could have asked me for absolutely anything and I'd have probably tried to get it for her. It didn't take her long to decide to send her regrets to the birthday girl, and off we went on a grand adventure. Even though we didn't have time to do very much there (because I had already 'squandered' part of the day at Red Rock Canyon), I could tell she had no regrets when she exclaimed contentedly,

"I always have the best days ever, and this is one of them." As Brian Brawdy has opined,
"Adventure does not have to be extreme, it just has to be yours".

Warm Memories in Cool Times

Late one SUNNY and warm afternoon last August, when the lengthening shadows could almost convince me of the 'need' to fatten up with a bit of ice-cream...

the Sunbeam and I went out to the desert for part of a yarn art event that she was doing...

which was kind of reminiscent of this. (CLICK IT.)

Two of the pics I took of it ended up in her art show in Tulsa. Never mind that the point was NOT the photography. Priorities here! I got photo credits for that.

This picture had no particular significance, and was not featured in the show, but, it was a little bit humorous that the project ended up right here...


Because I had found this "artwork" biking by the rail-road with Mr. Sunny

last summer ... until we had to give it up ... because the construction being done in the area made it smell like a...