Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Clay turtle with beads.

Signed "MAM 1992."

A great start to another Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day!

It's off to a great start.

First, we had our espressos.

The coffee was recently roasted with The Roadster, ground in Rocky and brewed in Silvia (why don't I have any posts that really feature Rocky and Silvia?).

Jerry's is in a coffee mug. It has milk and sweetener that wouldn't fit in an espresso muglet. Since this is a holiday, we got an extra treat with our coffee. I made some bizcochito biscotti from a recipe in New Mexico Magazine.

Then we had breakfast.

(A lot of the following is a repeat from last year's thankfulness. We had about the same breakfast last year!)

The pancakes were made with:

• Wheat and oats that we milled this morning with our KitchenAid grain mill
• Vanilla made the BobBIE-Baby Way

On top of the pancakes we put:

• Peanut butter ground in our BlendTec Blender
• Pomegranate syrup made from juice from our bush

We swallowed our morning pills with:

• Pomegranate juice from our bush. The juice is cloudy since it was what was at the bottom of the pitchers where the juice settled (we wanted clear juice for the jelly I made).

I'm thankful that:

• We had a nice, wholesome, home-cooked meal and didn't get overfed
• There aren't a lot of dishes to take care of
• We have all our gadgets that make fairly healthful meals like this fun to make
• I have friends and family who humor me by reading these silly messages
• I have Jerry to take care of all the hard parts of Thanksgiving meals (and the rest of my life)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now, we're off for an adventure (with picnic)!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Navajo pot.

Thanks, Poss.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Turtle tiles.

You might recognize the one on the right. It's my blog's wallpaper.

One more day at the Grand Canyon

After breakfast with the ravens, I went out on Desert View Drive in search of a new spot for a movie. I ended up at Moran Point. I got my camera set up at 8:20 and had it click away until 10:30. I was alone for much of the first hour and the car was parked right by the camera. I was able to sit on something more comfortable than a rock, stump or wall now and then.

A couple from Michigan asked about my automatically clicking camera. I explained what was going on and dragged out my laptop and made them see a movie I had shot the day before. They were politely impressed and took off.

Later, I was sitting on the wall near the camera and I heard a voice behind me saying something like "Well, here's Charles!" I turned around and there was John from Encinitas.

John has a print hanging in his living room of the painting that Thomas Moran made from Moran Point. I had no knowledge of who the point had been named for. I think he said that the print was produced by Moran himself and isn't a modern, mass-produced reproduction.

I showed John the movie I was making when we visited the day before. He was more impressed with the result than the Michigan couple.

Now you have the opportunity to be impressed with watching two hours of the view from Moran Point in just over one minute. (Remember, you can press buttons on the player to show it in HD and full screen. I recommend both!)



Later, as I was turning onto the road to Lipan Point, there was John from Encinitas at the stop sign leaving the point. I didn't make a movie there. I had run out of patience for standing around for long periods. Besides, the camera's batteries were running low and it takes a long time being plugged in to get them recharged.

The rest of Saturday and a bit of Sunday

After the clouds moved back in at the end of my Desert View video I packed up and drove back to the village by way of the many view points. I took some pictures along the way but that was it for the time-lapse videos for the day. I was tired of filming thick clouds.

I went back to Yavapai Point where I had recorded the rain and clearing clouds to watch the sunset.

Sunset, October 23, 2010
Yavapai Point, Grand Canyon

Three minutes after I took the sunset picture I got one of the full moon rising. The clouds reached almost to the horizon to the east but there was a slit where we could see a very narrow slice of the moon rising.

Moonrise

I went back to the campground where I heated up my water for coffee on my little Sterno stove. It takes a very long time to heat water over Sterno. I had warm, but not hot, coffee. Heating my bowl of Madras Lentils was much more successful. It didn't have to reach a state change so it didn't take as much energy.

While my supper was heating I enjoyed listening to the quiet breeze in the dark. There were thick clouds so I didn't get to see stars. There was the full moon that weekend so I wouldn't have gotten to experience the dark, dark sky that I would like to have seen. And it was rather cold.

So I spent much of the rest of the evening keeping warm in the tent. I didn't have a lot of quality sleep the night before so I spent most of the evening in the sleeping bag with my eyes closed listening to the goings on in the neighborhood.

There was a noisy party at one of the nearby campsites. Quiet time in the campground is supposed to start at 10:00pm and I thought that they were going to break that rule. But it broke up just in time.

I slept well Saturday night. I let the pad inflate fully so I didn't bottom out this time. After the party broke up it was quiet for the rest of the night. The sleeping bag was warm.

The party people broke other rules. When I got up on Sunday morning there were a lot of ravens helping themselves to the food that the noisy folk couldn't be bothered to put away the night before. While I was eating my bagel and peanut butter a raven or two perched in a tree over me eying my bagel. I pointed out the easy pickings in the party people's camp. By the way, Sterno isn't the best way to toast a bagel. It gives it a Sterno-y flavor.

I headed out for one more day at the Grand Canyon...

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A little, unsigned bronze.

Circle of Life

Jerry and I went to the Wild Animal Park the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Saturday. We got there early and snagged a primo parking spot that's about as close to the entrance as mere mortals can get.

A hybrid vehicle

We used our membership cards to get right in without waiting in line. We headed to the Journey Into Africa by way of an aviary. Someone there seemed to want Jerry to feed him (or her).

Big bird (not being fed)

On our way to the Journey into Africa we approached a circle of people all studying the walkway. One was poking at something with a stick. A little crayfish (or some relative) was standing on its tail threatening the group with its pincers. They wanted to rescue the little creature but were afraid of getting pinched.

So I grabbed it by its thorax and wondered what they wanted me to do with it.

They were just trying to get it out from underfoot. But the thing needs to be in water. It was far from any water. I suppose a bird was going to snack on it but it somehow escaped from the jaws of death.

The circle of would-be rescuers dispersed and they thanked me several times for rescuing the creature.

The Journey into Africa ride wasn't taking its first trip for forty minutes so we wandered through a part of the park with ponds. We got to a bridge that is just a foot or so above the water. This should be a good spot to toss the little crustacean. There were ducks paddling our way. I quickly gave the little lobster a toss to give it a head start.

I didn't count on the catfish.

Hungry (cat?)fish

I think the little crawdad became a snack after all.

We saw some other animals eating (but not other animals).

Rhinoceros eating (and baby)

Porcupines eating

Poor little crawdad.

More clouds

I left Grandview Point and continued east. The last viewpoint on the rim (or first if you start at the east entrance) is Desert View. This has the Desert View Watchtower.

Watchtower (undergoing renovations)

The inside of the watchtower has murals on the ceiling.

Watchtower ceiling

And murals on the walls.

Watchtower wall

And views of the canyon.

Desert View view

I made a short video here. It was shot in only half an hour starting around 2:15, October 23, 2010. It was getting very cold and windy and I was getting discouraged with all the thick clouds. I wanted scattered, puffy clouds but had to deal with thick ones. You might be able to see the landscape shaking from all the wind. I need a sturdier tripod. And I need to check that the camera is horizontal.

Oh, What a Beautiful Day!

I left Yavapai Point where I had recorded the three hours of thick, morning clouds and headed east. I stopped at Grandview Point.

The clouds were finally breaking up so sunshine reached the canyon floor. This time we see not only clouds moving but their shadows as well.

This video captured the canyon and clouds from 11:20 till 1:00 Saturday, October 23, 2010.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A ceramic tray signed "Christy."