Bristlecones and More

DH and I took a little road trip this week and visited a spot that we have wanted to visit for many years.  Each time we drive north to the Sierra mountains we always pass a sign for a turnoff to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.  This time we decided to make it our destination location. 


The Bristlecone Pines are the oldest single living organisms known.  The forest, located in the White-Inyo mountain range, is at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet so it is springtime there at this time.  The wildflowers were just blooming and were wonderful to see.


The oldest of the Bristlecone pines is called Methuselah and is nearly 5000 years old.  It is located along one of the hiking paths, but they do not point it out to avoid vandalism to it.  Shortly after a Nat*ional Geo*graphic article came out about it in the late 1950s, someone broke a branch from it.




Gorgeous stumps everywhere.

Snow capped Sierras peeking through behind a high meadow.

The needles were really quite "bristly" feeling.

Springtime flowers.

After visiting the forest we continued eastward into Nevada and spent the night.  We saw many abandoned gold and silver mining towns and noticed that there seems to be more activity around some of the mines which we assume is because of the increase in the cost of the metals.



Once a booming city.

Coming home we took the road through Death Valley.  The temperatures were surprisingly low for this time of the year with the high being only in the mid 90s.



Heading onto the floor of the valley.

Loved these gorgeous sand dunes.  I would have loved to have slid down them.

It’s always good to get home and sleep in your own bed again.  Guess I am a homebody at heart.  I always seem to become more aware of my gardens when we return.



The plumerias are starting to bloom.  This was a piece of one of my father's plants.

JUST starting to bloom.  The smell is heavenly.

A late blooming Clivia.

An even later blooming iris.

The bougainvilleas that froze this winter have made a wonderful return.

I had a couple of nice packages waiting for me when we got home too.  The first was a whole bag of I Spy blocks from Michelle.  The little ones just love the I Spy quilts and it is so nice to have a great collection of them for making up quick quilts.  Thank you, Michelle.

I also had a whole bag of goodies from Leona that I won from her fabulous giveaway.  It was loaded with fabulous items for quilting and I know that I can use all of these.  Thank you, Leona.

Lastly, I received my mug rug from Leona’s Mug Rug 2 Swap.  I just love it.  I love the bright colors, the design as well as the wonderful fabrics and quilting.  Unfortunately, my partner did not include a blog link  to share.   I would really love to follow her work.



The picture does not do this one justice.

My sewing machine has been humming away since I have been home.  My daughter came over to make some burp cloths for her SIL so I made a few for a shower that I am attending in August.  She worked in pink fabric and I worked in blue.  Everyone seems to know the sex of the babies these days.  I always like surprises myself.

My next row of my PURPLE Rockin’ Robin is finished.  There were plenty of HSTs in this row!!!!!



Lastly, here are my latest Civil War blocks.  I can’t believe that we are over halfway done with the year already.

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy around here so I may not be around as much as normal.  I will continue to read blogs, but please forgive me if I don’t always comment.  I have a ton of canning to do – tomatoes, strawberries, peaches and apricots are all in right now.  Too bad it can’t be spread out throughout the year.