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Good-Bye Tucson

April 12, 2012 by Pat Bean

Folks, we have reached our cruising altitude now, so I am going to switch the seat belt sign off. Feel free to move about as you wish, but please stay inside the plane till we land. It’s a bit cold outside and if you walk on the wings it affects the flight pattern.” – This is the Captain speaking.

 

I saw blooming cacti everywhere I looked in Tucson. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

Hello Austin

I take to the air this afternoon, flying to Austin to attend the Women’s Circle Network Stories from the Heart writing conference.

I’ve been looking forward to this event for months. I will be meeting up with some of the women I met at the event two years ago, and will also be meeting face to face with many women who have become dear friends via the Internet since then.

I will be sorry, however, to leave this beautiful Arizona desert where my daughter, Trish, lives. During my three-week visit here, we have both done some healing. Trish from some physical ailments and me from the emotional stress of losing my beloved dog, Maggie, and then her replacement just eight days later.

I’m finally to the point of thinking again about getting another dog. I will be getting back on the road in my RV shortly after the conference ends, and the thought of traveling without a canine companion is mind boggling.

And each variety of cactus I saw had its own unique beauty. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Just in case anyone in the Austin or the Dallas areas of Texas might know of a dog that needs a lot of love and spoiling, I’m looking for a one to three–old, 20 to 25 pound, female that loves walks, cuddling and car rides.

Bean’s Pat: Life in the Bogs http://tinyurl.com/6lw7u9hAn armchair trip through Amish Country, and great flowers, too

Posted in Journeys, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments »

Favorite Places: Alabama Parks

April 11, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” George Eliot

Lake Claiborne, Issac Creek Campground, Alabama -- Photo by Pat Bean

Issac Creek Campground

http://pixilatedtoo.wordpress.com commented that she was new to Alabama, and looked forward to reading more about Alabama parks after reading yesterday’s blog about the state’s Frank Jackson State Park.

I’m happy to oblige, especially since my brain is in a can’t-think-of-what-to-write-about fog this morning.

The  Issac Creek Campground on Lake Claiborne near Monroeville is a Corps of Engineers’ facility, which meant I could use my Golden Age Passport and camp for half-price, which in 2006 when I stayed there was just $8 a night for a site by the lake.

Maggie at Lake Claiborne. I can now look at photos of my beloved pet and recall memories of our good times together instead of crying. Well, almost. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The park, which had been recommended to me by two fishing enthusiasts from Louisiana, was awesomely scenic and pleasant – and well off the beaten path. I got lost several times before I finally found it.

I asked a park staff volunteer why it wasn’t listed in my Trailer Life campground directory. The answer was that the Corps of Engineers couldn’t advertise and compete with commercial parks.

I did, however, learn that I could purchase a book listing all Corps’ campgrounds from Cottage Publications (PO Box 2832, Elkhart, Indiana, 46515). I did and it now sits alongside my other campground directories.

Following is a few bits and pieces from my journal during the three days my canine traveling companion, Maggie, who died last month, and I stayed at the park:

A walk along Issac Creek was always a delight. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Saucy squirrels are everywhere, and while the species of birds aren’t numerous, each one seems special. I heard a cackling rumble, and back-tracked it to a red-bellied woodpecker…

Blue jays seem to be everywhere, and delightful to watch as they swoop back and forth above the lake. One actually rippled the water while playing this game, sending sunlit droplets splashing into the air…

This morning there was a hazy mist over the lake that broke to reveal a blue canvas on which was painted an echo of the fall dressed trees on the opposite shore…

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all” – Stanley Horowitz

Lake Claiborne is a fantastic place to be in the autumn. The days are warm and pleasant and the nights cool enough to warrant snuggling up in a quilt at night, which is how I sleep best ….

I learned today that female pine cones are fatter than their male counterparts and have harder scales. Well, that explains why we ladies have wider hips then men and an inner toughness that has nothing to do with brawn …  

On the morning of my third day at Lake Claiborne, and after receiving a phone call the night before from my granddaughter, I said a reluctant good-bye to this great Corps of Engineers campground. Heidi wanted me to meet her in Shreveport, La., for her 24th birthday, which was less than a week away. I enthusiastically accepted the invitation and replotted my journey’s route.

Posted in Birds, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

Favorite Places: Interesting Walks

April 10, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy. – Susan Polis Schutz

While the walk across Frank Jackson Lake and the exploration of this island wasn't a lengthy one, it was an interesting one. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 And Scenic Places to Park Gypsy Lee

I had a great view of the evening's sunset from the Gypsy Lee's rear window. Discovering Frank Jackson Park off a less traveled road was a great find. -- Photo by Pat Bean

State Parks top the list of the places I prefer to spend the state when traveling. These days, most are set up for RVs. The sites are almost always larger than those of commercial parks with the bonus of usually providing access to hiking and biking trails.

The South, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi are all full of especially nice parks.

Alabama’s Frank Jackson State Park, was one I cam upon unexpectedly on Highway 9/331. I had planned to drive farther this day, but stopped instead — and stayed for a couple of days.

My camp site even came with a cable TV hookup, although I didn’t use it. The cement pad that backed right up to the lake was also a nice touch – as you can see.

Bean’s Pat: Earl’s World http://earlrrichardson.wordpress.com/ A person who can simply walk out into his backyard and find nature’s treasures is my kind of person.

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Favorite Places: Mountain Passes

April 9, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Before computers, telephone lines and television connect us, we all share the same air, the same oceans, the same mountains and rivers. We are all equally responsible for protecting them.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Togwotee Pass, Montana

One of the best things about Highway 26 between Dubois and Moran Junction, Wyoming, is the awesome view of the Grand Tetons from the top of Togwotee Pass.

Bean’s Pat: Laughing Housewife http://tinyurl.com/7wc8h68  While death is not a laughing matter,  I’m with the Laughing Housewife on this one.  Love and laugh with me today, and when I’m gone continue to love and laugh.

 

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

April 7, 2012 by Pat Bean

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” Don Williams 

Oregon’s Highway 395

My kind of journey is one in which I travel slowly and has many twists and turns and surprises around every curve in the road. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Sunshine Blogger Award

Just Words   kzackuslheureux. wordpress.com  awarded me a Sunshine Blogger Award. It’s always nice to think that I’ve brought sunshine into someone’s day, so thank you very much. I’m using my Bean’s Pat to pay back the honor on a daily basis.

Bean’s Pat: Write to Done http://tinyurl.com/89wxokt  One’s writing is something that can always be improved, and this is a great blog to help you do just that. It’s also a new way to look at your “quirky” family. 

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Favorite Places: Agua Caliente Park, Tucson, Arizona

April 5, 2012 by Pat Bean

” A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” – James Dent.

An absolutely perfect morning at Agua Caliente Park in Tucson. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Audubon Bird Walk

As I often do when traveling around the country, I check out what the local Audubon chapter has on its activity calendar.

Here in Tucson, where I’m currently squatted visiting my youngest daughter, that included a bird walk this morning at the city’s Agua Caliente Park. My daughter, although not a birder, accompanied me.

It was a beautiful place to walk, with manicured lawns, ponds and desert-landscaped gardens.

Everyone took a little break from birdwatching to watch the turtles. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My bird list for the day included great-tailed grackles, vermilion flycatchers, yellow-rumped and Lucy warblers, lesser goldfinch, a verdin, mallards, Gambel’s quail, turkey vulture, Cooper’s hawk, northern cardinal, northern beardless-tryannulet, curved-bill thrasher, cactus wren, common raven, cedar waxwing, chipping sparrow and red-winged blackbird.

The most oohed an aaahed-over bird was a green-tailed towhee, which was passing through on its migration farther north. I, however, was more impressed with the Abert’s towhee. Although a much plainer bird, it was the only one among the day’s find that was a life bird for me.

It’s a common bird that sticks around all year in the Tucson area but can’t be found much outside of Arizona. It brought my life list of bird species seen up to 701.

How could it have been anything but a perfect morning?

Bean’s Pat: 400 Days ‘Til 40 http://tinyurl.com/cohgl7p   It’s OK to cry. I agree, perhaps because I’ve recently done a lot of it. And there was nothing anyone could do to make things better, except to simply be there for me.

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

A Do Nothing Day

April 4, 2012 by Pat Bean

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        And I must follow, if I can,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say — J.R.R, Tolkien

Listening to the Planet’s Pulse

A jet paints the desert sky with its contrail. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Yesterday, if you look at it the way I tend to do, was a wasted day. Nothing on my daily to-do list, including blogging, was accomplished.

I woke up in a mood to do nothing, and nothing I did. At my age, when more of my life is behind me than ahead of me, wasted days frighten me.

But today I awoke refreshed, ready to once again try to give my life meaning. I began it with a short hike here in the fresh desert air above Tucson. As I walked I realized yesterday was not wasted. I had needed just such a day and it was time I stopped feeling guilty about taking it.

Am I contemplating this northern cardinal, or is the bird contemplating me? -- Pat Bean

Then I started truly noticing my surroundings in a different way. The saguaro cactus weren’t simply cactus; they were homes for wildlife, shade for them, too, when the desert sun-scorched the earth.

I listened to the hum of the city around me. I felt the earth beneath me beat with the sound of traffic on distant highways, and watched as a jet flew overhead, marking the sky with its contrail. There was a part of me that longed for the absolute silence I’ve heard only once in my life.

That occurred in Utah’s Escalante wilderness when a photographer and I drove the Burr Trail for a newspaper story we were writing and photographing. I was amazed how still the earth had been back then, realizing how noisy a simple refrigerator’s hum could be.

But this day, I also enjoyed the feeling of being a part of the pulsing world from which I had tried to escape yesterday. What a difference a day makes.

Bean’s Pat: To Write is to Write http://tinyurl.com/72lmlwy This is a blog I could have written with only minor changes. It made me laugh. I chose it two days ago, and now I wonder if it influenced my yesterday. P.S. Thanks Jim http://notyethere.wordpress.com/  for sending me Tolkien’s quote.

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments »

The Healing Power of Words

April 2, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “You see the woman across the room, you think, She’s so poised; she’s so together. But she looks at you and you are the woman across the room for her.” – Diane von Furstenberg

“Identity is not found, the way Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Identify is built.” Margaret Halsey

Life is full of both beauty and thorns. I'm thankful for the words of others that have helped me past the prickly patches. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Still Finding My Way

I found the two above quotes this morning on Story Circle Network’s weekly offering of wise words and writing prompts. They touched me.

I know that next year they may be words with no meaning to me. It’s often that way with the quotes I write down in my journals.

Perhaps tomorrow, or the next day or the next day, I will be more secure within myself. The loss of two pets within eight days took a toll on me. I know I still have a way to go to get back to feeling like the gutsy, daring old-broad that I’ve worked hard to create.

Perhaps tomorrow it will be Tolkien’s quote: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him,” that is most meaningful to me. That was actually a quote that meant a lot to me during one exciting, but difficult year.

Other people’s words have helped me through life. They’ve let me know that I’m not as alone as I feel, that others have walked my same path.

Their words make me glad to call myself a writer. I can only hope that my words have occasionally touched others as I have been touched.

Bean’s Pat: The Blood Red Pencil http://tinyurl.com/6selj7b Simply a good blog for writers to follow

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

April 1, 2012 by Pat Bean

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir

Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah 

Mother Nature's arrangement of rocks was used in the opening scenes of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." -- Photo by Pat Bean

Bean’s Pat: Ummm, really? http://tinyurl.com/6t3vgps Start your day with a song.

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Books: The Rain Wild Chronicles

March 31, 2012 by Pat Bean

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.” – Dr. Seuss

Don’t Do That To Me Robin

Look what you did to me Robin. My hair might not last until the fourth Rain Wilds book is published. -- Art by Pat Bean

I’m a big fan of fantasy books, but particular about which ones I read. Actually I’m that way about all the books I read, which includes just about all genres except horror, or books where the dark side dominates the pages.

Along with wanting a good plot that keeps me turning the page, a book’s characters must have both strengths and failings and grow in depth as the story progresses.

Without a character with whom I can connect, a book gets tossed aside at my self-imposed 50-page benchmark — or at the end of the first free chapter that Amazon provides Kindle users.

Poor writing, naturally, will turn me off much sooner.

I have many mystery authors that I follow but far fewer fantasy authors. That’s because an abundance of them seem not to measure up to my 50-page limit. This means when I find an author I enjoy, I usually read everything they write, and eagerly await their new offerings.

I took this photo today at the Sonora Desert Museum in an area that talked about prehistoric Arizona. It's only connection to this blog is that it reminded me of the kind of creatures on finds in fantasy books. -- Photo by Pat Bean

George Martin, whose series, “Game of Thrones,” I started reading when it first came out, taught me a lesson, however. His lengthy sabbatical between books convinced me to wait until a series was completed before beginning it.

With this in mind, it was with great delight that a few years ago I came across the work of Robin Hobb. I read her first book, “Assassin’s Apprentice,” in the Farseer Trilogy and was deeply hooked. In rapid succession, I absorbed the other two books in the trilogy and then continued n with her Liveship, Tawny Man and Soldier Son trilogies.

Soldier Son was weird, but even that I couldn’t put down. Of the other three trilogies, I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite as I loved each and every one of them.

At the time I discovered her, Hobb was still writing her Rain Wilds Chronicles. I patiently waited until the trilogy was finished before I began reading them. Last night, I finished the third in the series, only to be left hanging.

Unbeknownst to me, this series has a fourth book, which isn’t out yet.

AAAAccccchhhhh!!!!

Posted in Books, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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