Life Throws a Curve Ball – November 2020

The first week of November is especially busy as Clifford wraps up the CI project he is working on, including an online presentation of Carnicom Institute Disclosure Project. I am busy packing Cougar and getting house and yard ready for us to be gone for the winter. When time allows, I continue editing for a couple of authors, post a daily Higher Vibration photo and publish blogs on my website. We plan to leave either Friday or Saturday the first weekend of November, heading for southern Arizona for the winter, but the forecast for 40-60 mph hour winds may delay our departure. We still hope to beat the first snow storms.

Friday is much too windy for us to leave, and Saturday, Long Story Short, I have a stroke. It is not scary or painful really, but potentially extremely serious. Fortunately, Clifford is there when it happens, notices something is quite wrong and gets me to the hospital in Monticello within a short time. After a couple of CAT scans, I am given a medication to break down clots. The docs want to airlift me to a bigger hospital in Provo, but with the wind and snow, it is not possible, nor is ground transport available due to ice over the pass between between Monticello and Provo.

It is all a bit odd. I don’t know what month it is, can’t walk heel to toe, I am chilled and have a headache, but otherwise I feel okay. In the morning a flight is arranged in a small fixed-wing plane, and I am soon in the big hospital. During the flight, I want to look out the window, but I am strapped onto a stretcher and can’t move much. At the hospital, more tests, IV’s, many helpful caring people all doing their job as if I am important enough to matter to them. Clifford has gotten hold of my daughters, so the family knows what is going on.

I am happy that my room has a large window and what I really want to do is get up and look out the window and take photos of the snow on the mountains around Provo. However, I am not allowed to even stand up, let alone walk to the window, without a nurse with me. By the next day, I am allowed to sit in the chair nearer the window, eat meals, and walk the halls with assistance. There a steady stream of caregivers coming to my room, from neurologists to housekeepers, and everyone is kind and helpful.

View from my hospital room
Sunrise from my room

The days blend together, but on Wednesday, my daughter Katie, who has flown from northern Idaho to Provo, rents a car and comes to the hospital to take care of my discharge and drive me back to Monticello.

Discharged and on our way

For the next week, she takes care of meals and dishes, while Clifford continues with his activities. It is absolutely delightful to have her here. We walk around town, as I am supposed to walk every day.

Walk about town with Katie

One day we go on an outing to Newspaper Rock and to the Visitor’s Center at the southern entrance to Canyonlands NP. We even go for a hike at the Pothole Trail. I need to hold onto her arm for the ups and downs of the uneven terrain, but all in all, I do okay, and it is a beautiful fun outing.

Castle Rock
Katie in Canyonlands

The days go by quickly and I am sorry to see her leave, but she has a business and a family waiting for her back in Idaho. I receive some assistance from Home Health Care, but for he most part, I resume my usual activities and chores. Clifford and I plan our leave-taking of Monticello, albeit with a different route to accommodate the changed circumstances. Things are different, but I am ever-so-grateful to be alive, as well as grateful that I can walk and talk and do all the things that I do.

Well wishes from a friend

Wrapping up October – October 2020

October has been a fun and colorful month. Rollie and Tata and I make another trip up Abajo Mountain, this time for a brief stop at Lloyd Lake on the edge of town, then on up the mountain to where Pipe Line trail joins the mountain road. The views and the colors are exceptional.

Lloyd Lake
Rollie & Tata with Ninja & Fifi at Lloyd Lake
Abajo Mountain

The last few days before Rollie and Tata leave are spent enjoying the nice weather, sitting outside and playing music together every day.

Tata, Fifi, and Rollie enjoy the backyard sunshine

The 24th is a blustery day, but they have intentions of getting to southern Arizona before an approaching weather front. We have plans to join them in a few days at Cochise Stronghold, one of our favorite camping spots in the southeast corner of Arizona.

Rollie and Tata on their way to Arizona

Looks like they left just in time, as the next day snow and cold are a serious reminder that winter will soon be on the way. Montana already has foot of snow and more on the way with a forecast for 0 degrees tonight. (This turns out to be a 100-year record for snow in October in Montana.)

However, before the end of the month, with Cougar organized and packed for the winter journey and the CI Disclosure Project nearing completion, Clifford and I are able to make one last trip up Abajo.

Last views of autumn on Abajo

Picnic on Abajo – October 2020

It is a beautiful autumn day, so after a quiet morning and breakfast,

My day starts quietly with tea and journal writing

we all head up the mountain for a picnic and music. After a quick stop at Indian Creek Road for photos, we head on up to Pine Flats. As the breeze has picked up some, we find a spot that is a bit protected and set up our picnic, followed by bluegrass music.

Picnic and music on the mountain

Tata makes dinner for all of us – lentil stew and cornbread muffins. It sure is a treat to have someone else cook!

I edit one of the photos from our picnic outing at Indian Creek from a few days ago and submit it to the San Juan Record, the local newspaper. They have a weekly contest and I only recently discovered that I was sending my submissions to the wrong email address.

Photo submitted to San Jun Record

The next outing is a geode hunting expedition. The road is rugged, a jeep road only, so I am seeing mountain country that Clifford and I could never see in the Suburban. We pick up a few rocks to take back and of course, I take photos.

Jeep ride to find geodes
Mountain and desert combo
Views from the stopping place

When we go to the market to pick up groceries for dinner, I see that my photo submission is this week’s winner and featured on the front of the newspaper – Hooray!

Featured photo for this week

Tata cooks ribs for dinner and we play music while the ribs cook. I run out of time to do dishes, but get the daily higher vibration photo done – a photo from today’s outing. A good end to the day.

Higher Vibration photo – Day 367

Trip to Newspaper Rock – October 2020

After my brother Rollie and his fiance Tata arrive in their motorhome and set up alongside our backyard fence in early October, in addition to shared meals and music, they help with a couple of home repair projects. Rollie is especially handy with that kind of stuff, and it is nice to have some of these projects taken care of.

Music in the backyard with Rollie ad Tata

We also walk out to US highway 491 coming into Monticello from the east, a block away, so I can show them the banners of the Community Beautification Project, four of which feature photos that I submitted.

One of my photo banners

Our next outing is a trip over Abajo Mountain to visit Newspaper Rock. For this outing, I go with Rollie and Tata in their jeep while Clifford stays in Monticello to work on the CI Disclosure Project. Our first stop is the view point on the north slope, followed by a stop at Foy Lake where the autumn foliage is especially colorful. From there we continue on to the junction with state highway 211, which leads to the southern entrance of Canyonland National Park.

View from the overlook on Abajo Mountain
Rollie and Tata, Ninja and Fifi at the overlook on Abajo Mountain
Foy Lake

However, we are only going as far as Newspaper Rock, where we, like other visitors, admire the numerous petroglyphs that were etched into the rock face at the base of the cliff hundreds of years ago. One has to wonder about the ancient tribes and the communication that still remains.

Along nearby Indian Creek, we find a small road that offers a picnic spot with a view of the creek, the colorful rocks and the autumn foliage.

This is an especially delightful stop, and we take our time enjoying our food and the scenery before heading back to Monticello.

Picnic by Indian Creek
The guardian of Indian Creek

Autumn on Abajo – October 2020

Early in October, my brother Rollie and his fiance Tata arrive in their motorhome and set up alongside our backyard fence.

Rollie and Tata arrive for a visit
Rollie and Tata

The next couple of weeks are filled with numerous shared meals, great wine, several outings to the mountain, going places in their jeep that would not be possible with Suburban, and music either inside or out almost every day.

Our first outing is a trip up Abajo Mountain to Pine Flats where Clifford and I camped during he summer.

Heading up Abajo Mountain
Rollie and Tata on the jeep trail

The jeep trail takes us through the aspen forests rich with color.

After a picnic, we get out our instruments and play a few bluegrass tunes.

In the mid afternoon, while there is still sunlight on the mountain, we head back down. There is a stand of maple on the lower slopes that is especially brilliant and I want to catch them before the sun gets too low.

Clifford continues his work on the Carnicom Institute Disclosure Project, but I’ve done all that I can for that, so I am free to go on outings with Rollie and Tata for picnics and sight-seeing.

Life is a Journey, Even in Town – September 2020

Back in Monticello, there are no long morning walks visiting forest tree and flower friends. The trees in and around the yard can be counted on one hand: two pines and three spruce. Two tall deciduous stand at opposite corners of the lot, but outside the fence. Perhaps they are technically on two neighboring properties, but I claim both trees as mine and tell them how lovely they are. I doubt that anyone else is doing that.

Our backyard and the trees that I claim as mine

Being back in town, the daily routine is very different and the tasks not worth mentioning except that Clifford has started on this segment of the CI Legacy Project and my part in it is to take a hand-written transcript of a three-hour talk that he gave at a conference in Santa Fe April 2019, get it into a digital format and then edit like crazy. Kudos to our friend who took the time to make the hand-written transcript from an audio file of the conference.

There are three things of interest during the first two weeks of September. One is trip up Abajo Mountain for a picnic. We are delighted that the spot were we had camped is free. We have a tasty picnic and then play music – Clifford with dulcimer, me on viola – feeling right at home.

Abajo Mountain outing

The second thing is that a Canadian cold front drops our daytime temperatures from the mid-ninety’s to a high of 39 on September 9. It snows all day long and I have the rare opportunity to take photos of trees covered with snow. Even after the cold front moves on, there is no doubt that autumn has arrived.

Canadian cold front on September 9th

The third thing is that I found out by chance that an editorial I submitted to the local newspaper, Abajo Mountain – Our Backyard Treasure, was printed in its entirety along with several photos from the blog. In my daily walks while we were camped on the mountain, I picked up trash every day and observed damage done to the forest by careless visitors and campers. I wrote a blog/editorial in praise of the treasure that we have, pointing out that some people are disregarding all the etiquette of being a good visitor to the mountains. I was very pleased that the newspaper printed the editorial.

Although I loved being on the mountain, while we are here in Monticello, we take advantage of the conveniences that our home base has to offer.

Thistles and a Friendly Visit on Abajo – August 2020

August 15 to 20

These are good days on Abajo Mountain. Our daytime temperatures are in the low 80’s, while in town they are mid-90’s, as I discover when I go down to do laundry and run errands.

Smoke in the valley from Colorado wildfires

The morning walks continue to be a source of outer peace so that I am better able to experience inner peace. As one wildflower fades from the scene, another takes its place and now I see thistles sporting their beautiful purple.

Sunlit grass on the morning walk
Leaning Aspen

A highlight of these days is a visit from a friend who also lives in Utah. It was quite the delight to have him visit us on the mountain, and I even got to ride on his fancy motorcycle from the entrance of the dispersed area to our out-of-the way cul d sac. Such good conversation. It sure would be great to have get-togethers more often.

A ride on the fancy motorcycle

A low point for me is a discussion with Clifford as we finally decide for certain that a trip to Montana is not going to happen this summer: mostly covid, but also finances and our aging Suburban are factors. This is a great disappointment to me, but I do understand the thinking behind the decision. Great advice from one of my daughters is to have a Knowing that I will see loved ones in the future and hold that thought with joy.

Abajo Mountain – Our Backyard Treasure

We who live in Monticello or nearby have a treasure in our backyard. Abajo Mountain with its variety of trees and shrubs and flowers, campgrounds, dispersed camping areas, mountain roads and jeep trails, “lakes,” and views provides something for everyone.

Heading up Abajo Mountain

At 9,000 feet, Pine Flats where we picnic or camp is delightfully cooler in the summer than the valley below, let alone the canyon lands. A myriad of roads, sometimes rocky or rutted, lead to spots where a bit of privacy can be found, surrounded by scrub oak or shaded by great pine trees. Stands of aspen add their graceful beauty and ambiance to any stopping point.

Camping at Pine Flats in the shade of great pine trees

We have camped at Dalton Springs Campground and picnicked in the late autumn at Buckboard Campground when all campers are gone. The autumn-colored aspens on a clear fall day are quite the delight, even though sometimes it has been so chilly that we’ve ended sitting in the car for our picnic.

Buckboard Campground

A picnic at Monticello Lake is a treat for us, since bodies of water or streams are a bit of a luxury in Utah. Fishermen certainly seem to appreciate Monticello, Lloyd, and Foy Lakes for their own reasons.

Autumn at Monticello Lake

The paved route over the north slope of Abajo is a most enjoyable and scenic way to make a trip to Newspaper Rock and on to the southern entrance to Canyonlands National Park.

Newspaper Rock

With all this being said, not all those who go up the mountain are aware of their responsibility as stewards of the land. When we are camping, I walk daily, sometimes on the jeep trails, sometimes on game trails, and I always come back with a bag of trash I’ve picked up due to the carelessness of others. Beer cans and soda cans, tinfoil, broken glass, and so on are found even in remote spots as well as along the roads and in campfire rings.

Messy half-burned trash is ugly and attracts flies and rodents. This thoughtlessness is inexplicable, as are the ruts left by those who choose to go off-road to tear around in the forest just because they can, not because it is good for the land. The ground layer here in the forests, especially where the wild iris grow, is fragile and easily damaged.

Damage to forest floor

Even with signs prohibiting campfires during these hot dry summer months, there are campfires being built, which seems rather irresponsible and potentially dangerous under the current conditions.

We are fortunate to have Abajo only a few miles from town. Being respectful of this mountain and what it has to offer is a must for EVERYONE! “Pack it in – Pack it out” is a good start. Be mindful of forest fire season and refrain from campfires. Stay on the roads and don’t go making tracks through the forest (or other people’s campsites) with ATV’s, motorbikes, and high-clearance vehicles. Loud music and loud generators are not appropriate, especially at night. Being considerate of others and being good stewards of this land is not too much to ask of any of us.

Come and enjoy the mountain, the jeep trails, the picnic and camping spots, the fishing.

Outing on Abajo
A fisherman’s delight – Monticelllo Lake on Abajo Mountain

Most especially, be mindful of the beauty that is here on Abajo Mountain. Treasure the treasure that we have!

A treasure to be treasured

A Good Visit and a Good Abajo Hike – August 2020

Morning walks continue to be a source of inspiration for the Higher Vibration Series, the blogs, and for me personally as a calming and centering influence in troubled times.

August 12th, we have a picnic with real people, a couple of women who were computer clients of Clifford’s back in the Santa Fe days. They are traveling together in a Class C, having intentions of seeing the country, plans totally put on hold by covid. However, since they are in our neck of the woods, having finally “escaped” from hot hot Arizona on their way back to New Mexico, we manage to pull off a picnic in the park behind the library. Big picnic tables under a shelter for shade, trees, and a spacious lawn provide a pleasant place to visit and share travel stories. It is so fun to actually visit with people in person, first time since May when my brother and his lady friend stopped by on their way to Montana.

A couple of days later, Clifford and I go for a hike, this time cross-country to the jeep road that we had discovered on a previous hike. We explore another road, but as it seems to go down down down, we forego it after awhile and just continue the jeep loop back to Pine Flats where we are camped. It was a great afternoon for a hike with lots of opportunities for photos.

Sitting with a Mother Tree

While the world seems to be in turmoil with covid, controversy and contradictions at every turn, we are at peace on the mountain.

Peace on the mountain

August on Abajo – August 2020

One of the highlights of these early days of August on Abajo Mountain is my morning walk.

Mountain walk attire

One day I met a human on the trail. Clifford and I have been camped here awhile and I walk every day and this is the only time I have seen someone else out walking. The fellow and I stop and chat for a couple minutes before continuing on our ways. The brief encounter makes me realize that I miss having people to talk to in person, besides Clifford, of course. I am very grateful that I have him in my life and that I am not living alone. I am grateful for the calls from my kids and really really look forward to seeing them in person… just not this summer.

Aspen grove at sunrise

The walks provide the photo opportunities for my Higher Vibration Series, a daily photo with a comment to inspire people. I am on day 303 – that is 303 days of preparing and posting a special photo, never missing a day. I am also working on getting all of these photos on my website, which has been a big project. There is so much negativity in the world now with Covid, the environmental disasters, the political scene, as well as deep dark things that we scarcely know about, I feel compelled to off-set that in any way I can by contributing something good, beautiful, and uplifting to the energies of the world. It might only be a drop in an ocean of darkness, but it is a drop of light.

Wildflower composite

Another highlight is listening to Stjepan Hauser, the Croatian cellist who performs in interesting scenic locations and almost always barefoot. His posts on Instagram are short romantic cello pieces, played with beautiful sensitivity, as he seemingly flirts with the videographer. His concert “Alone Together” is a full-fledged concert, a contribution to the world during this difficult time of Covid when so many people cannot meet with family, friends, music colleagues, and so on. The performance is quite sensational and I would encourage music lovers to find him on Instagram or YouTube. I am inspired to take playing my cello more seriously again, with intentions of playing outdoors in a public venue, like a park, where people might be uplifted by the vibrations of a real instrument.

A drop of light in the darkness

Clifford continues with his dulcimer, virtual flying, ham radio, and plans for continuing CI research. We both join a UK zoom music group twice weekly. Very challenging for me on the viola, but fun for both of us.

Clifford with the dulcimer preparing for zooming

Life on the mountain is good, social distancing at its best.

Life on the mountain