Oh my tired feet

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.”
― John Keats

If you follow my blog you know we do a lot of hiking, especially in the winter. But we were exhausted after yesterdays hike. We chose to do the Weaver's Needle loop. According to our hiking book it was supposed to be about a 10.7 miles. We thought no big deal. We do ten miles on a regular basis.

We gave our selves plenty of time. We started out about 8:30, we made it back to the parking lot at 6:15. The hike was actually about 13 miles and it was almost all either going up or going down. Very little just going. It takes longer to negotiate hills on rocky trails. All three of us were pretty tired and foot sore when got home.

But the weather was delightful, the temperatures almost perfect and the water was a running in the desert after the good rains the previous weekend. We were serenaded a large portion of our hike by the tinkling water cascading over the rocks.

Music for my soul.

Spring was starting to show its self out in the desert.

A few blossoms and lots and lots of buds. A week or two and we shall see a riot of color.

 In the meantime I will enjoy the first tastes of spring.

Project report:

After several starts and redoes, I think I have this design about figured out. I don't do a lot of garments so this is a challenge for me to make it work the way I intend. Trying to keep it fairly simple so writing up the pattern won't make me pull out my hair.

A few photos from this weekend

This a color study.

It made me stop in my tracks when I saw it. It may not be a flower but oh the beautiful way nature combines colors always takes my breath away.

Seed pods have their own beauty. Not only for the visual senses but for the promise of their seeds.  

One of the blooms I found this weekend. Most of the flowers in the desert are small and delicate. They do their jobs in the most economical fashion.

We marched clear around this landmark.

This is Weaver's Needle

Not quite as impressive up close as when we see it standing alone in the distance on most of our hikes. But  still impressive. I have more shots of the it to share this week. But this shot relates to the next photo.

In one of the many pools of water  I captured the Weaver's Needle reflected in the water.

It matched the same angle as the photo above.

This was a common occurrence on this hike.

The water dancing and skipping down the hill side over the rocks.

It may be a long time before I see so much water up there again.

But I definitely was loving it this time.