Pat Bean's blog

Friends

February 4, 2016 by Pat Bean

Kim and me retiring the raft that gave us many years of exciting adventures on the Snake River in Wyoming.

“The greatest gift of life is friends.” – Hubert Humphrey

Lucky and Blessed Am I

Kim a long-time friend, who now lives a thousand miles away, called yesterday and we talked for hours. And when I hung up, I realized how blessed and lucky I was to have her in my life.

We’ve been friends for over 30 years now. She’s more family to me than some members of my own family.

Kim and me on my 70th birthday, right before we went sky diving together.

As a person who has lacked roots most of her life, I’ve had friendships that seem to have simply disappeared after a year or so when I moved away. Others, like Kim in Utah and Kris in Idaho, are friendships that have survived the distance. Whenever I talk with, or see, them, it’s as if our conversations just ended the night before and we pick up right where we left off.

I thought about this when I walked my canine companion Pepper at o-dark-hundred this morning beneath a sliver of moon that reminded me of the Cheshire Cat’s grin. Both Kim and Kris are as unlike me as a live oak tree is from a palm tree. But I’ve found over the years that such friends are the best kinds, because each fills in the holes of the other person.

Thinking about how each of these two friendships began, as I am now, is making me giggle. I met Kris after a breakup with my second husband, and at that point in my life was still searching for a male soul mate, as was she. She found hers, and I realized I was sabotaging relationships because I enjoyed being single much more than I had ever enjoyed being married.

Kim came later, after I had given up on ever finding a soul mate and was focusing on outdoor activities, like rafting, skiing, sailing and hiking. Kim, who worked at the same newspaper as I did, was more dedicated to being a single mom than finding a man – and so it was that we found ourselves the only single women at work who weren’t chasing after some man.

And once we started hiking and taking road trips together, the friendship was cemented. Or maybe it was the night we had too much to drink and pledged we would get tattoos, then both reneged the next morning when we came to our senses.

Whenever I count my blessings, I always include Kris and Kim. As I said, I’m a very lucky and blessed woman. I hope you are, too.

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: The Paths of the Spirit http://tinyurl.com/zofb836 Sleepers are quiet. Lovely post that left me with lots to think about.

Posted in Journeys | Tagged friends | 3 Comments »

Art: American Bittern

January 27, 2016 by Pat Bean

Painting by Pat Bean

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” –Picasso

“A picture is a poem without words.” – Horace

Hiding in Plain Sight

An American bittern in its natural habitat. — Wikimedia photo

I haven’t seen many American bitterns, but the ones I have seen have all been surprises. By that, I mean that I usually had stared at a weedy patch of grass in shallow water for some time before seeing this wading bird.

And then I only saw it because it moved.

The American bittern is one of my favorite birds, perhaps because it’s striped feathers are in themselves art.

“Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. – Francis Bacon

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Daily Echo http://tinyurl.com/jt9r6rx Meeting on the Moor. My kind of walk.

Posted in Art, Birds, Journeys, Nature | Tagged American bittern | 2 Comments »

Nature: Winter Trees

January 26, 2016 by Pat Bean

Winter gives this tree a stark beauty that spoke to me. — Photo by Pat Bean

“If you look closely at a tree you’ll notice it’s knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully. – Matthew Fox

I didn’t realize until I got home and compared my photos with ones I had taken earlier at Arivaca Cienega that the same tree had spoken to me when it was decked out in spring finery. — Photo by Pat Bean

There’s Beauty in Starkness

I took a friend and her dog with me and my canine companion Pepper this past weekend to hike the Arivaca-Cienega trail 70 miles southeast of Tucson. It’s an important birding area, and a place where I’ve hiked before, only in the months when everything was lush and verdant..

I realized, looking at the naked branches of trees on the narrow, winding and rough backroad that we traveled to get there, that today was going to be different. It was winter and the color green was almost nowhere to be found.

But as before, beauty was around every corner. It was just different, a starkness that let you see deeper into the heart and soul and bones of Mother Nature.

It was an awesome day, even though we got there late and the birds were taking a nap somewhere out of sight. The exception was a pair of greater roadrunners that scurried across the road ahead of us as we headed back to Tucson.

I will return… Perhaps I can catch the tree in autumn.

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Open Suitcase http://tinyurl.com/zohd9u6 Take an armchair train ride through Africa.

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Hikes, Journeys, Nature | Tagged Arivaca Cienega hiking trail, trees | 4 Comments »

Road Trip: Dinosaur National Monument

January 25, 2016 by Pat Bean

Turtle Rock at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” – John Muir

A Turtle and a Lizard

One Saturday morning back in January of 1999, I woke up at o-dark-hundred feeling lazy and bored after a heavy-duty work week. My first inclination, as I noted in my journal that morning and reread for the first time this morning, was to turn over and go back to sleep. That, however, was quickly followed by the words “road trip” jumbling around in my brain.

Lizard petroglyph at ; Dinosaur National Monument, Utah

Knowing which of those two thoughts would reinvigorate me more, my then canine companion Peaches and I set out on a day trip to Dinosaur National Monument, a mere 250 miles away from my Ogden, Utah, home. .

We left in time to see what I think is the most magical moment of the day, those seconds between night and dawn when the world is all gray and silvery and the world recatches its breath – and so do I. But we missed it because of the bright street lights on Harrison Boulevard as we exited the city. I was disappointed, but I consoled myself by knowing the day was young and there were still magical moments ahead that I wouldn’t miss. It’s the same feeling I have at the start of any road trip – and I’ve never been disappointed.

Among the sights I recorded on the drive to the dinosaur quarry were a farmer feeding his cows, snow in Echo Canyon and ice fishermen out on Strawberry Reservoir. I stopped in Heber for breakfast, where I was waited on by a grandmotherly woman who sweetly called me honey. Her words took me back to my Southern-raised origins.

There was more snow after Heber, but the road was mostly a sandy slush as the snowplows had already been out. I passed a guy rubbing snow on his car’s windshield to clear it, and was thankful my wipers and windshield fluid were keeping mine clean. The windshied fluid, however, ran out just as I was coming into Duchesne, where thankfully I stopped at a gas station and replaced it so I could see clearly again.

Just a few of the 1,500 or so dinosaur bones on display at the monument’s enclosed quarry exhibit. — Photo by Pat Bean

After Duchesne, it was sunny and bright all the way to the Dinosaur Monument, which was located east of Roosevelt. On arriving, I didn’t spend too much time looking at the actual bones of dinosaurs exposed by diggers in the quarry. I was more in the mood to explore the 10-mile Tilted Rocks Road, which is rife with petroglyphs and pictographs, and scenic views of Split Mountain, which a few years earlier I had rafted past on the Green River.

It was memories of a quick drive on this stretch many years earlier that had been in my mind as destination for this morning’s spur-of-the-moment road trip. And this time, as I had not earlier because someone else was in charge, I was able to leisurely enjoy the drive at my own pace. I stopped often to get closer up views of the wall paintings and landscape. I saw mule deer, rabbits and visited a shelter site that may have first been used over 9,000 years ago.

The views of Turtle Rock and the Lizard on the Rock were two of my favorite sightings. They held the magic for me that made up for missing the gray still seconds between day and night.

I didn’t pull back into my driveway until well after dark, and after encountering more snow in the mountains. It had been an invigorating road trip, and I didn’t feel lazy or bored anymore; nor did Peaches, who enjoyed a good romp in the snow on our return drive.

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Glenrosa Journeys http://tinyurl.com/htmsjfj Do a bit of bird watching with Candace.

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, road trip, Travel | Tagged dinosaur national monument | 2 Comments »

A Yellow Burst of Cheer

January 22, 2016 by Pat Bean

“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just beyond the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.” – Henry Ward Beecher.

The lowly dandelion: Perhaps to some but not to me. — Photo by Pat Bean

Neither Storms, or Mowers, Deter Dandelions

While what may become one of America’s 10 top blizzards is menacing the Eastern United States today through Sunday, I admired my first dandelion of the year here in the Sonoran Desert this morning.

A dandelion in two stages with a butterfly to boot. — Photo taken at Rowlett Park near Dallas by Pat Bean

It was a lonely little thing on a manicured lawn that will be mowed over next Tuesday, which is when, regardless of the weather or need, the ground crew for my apartment complex will cut, rake and trim everything into perfection. .

The timed sprinklers even sprinkle to keep things green when it’s raining. Not a huge problem, however, since the sprinklers only stay on for maybe five minutes at a time. They repeat several times a day, and the grass here is always green.

In fact, my apartment complex is one of the few landscapes in Tucson with grass instead of xeiscaping, although there’s as much of that here, too, keeping the extravagant luxury of the green stuff to a respectable minimum. .

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I love dandelions. They add a sparkle to life, one that pops up despite all human efforts to thwart them. You simply can’t keep dandelions down. There’s a lesson here I think.

Bean Pat: Interesting Literature http://tinyurl.com/honweqd Interesting facts about Robert Burns.

Posted in Journeys | Tagged dandelions, flowers | 1 Comment »

Two Women Beat Phineas Fogg

January 21, 2016 by Pat Bean

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

The route of Phineas Fogg in Jule Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days .” — Wikimedia illustration

Around the World in Less than 80 Days

In November of 1889, two women set out to beat Phineas Fogg’s record-setting trip in “Around the World in 80 Days.” Fogg and his journey were the 1873 fictional creation of Jules Verne. The journeys of Nellie Bly, who went east from New York, and Elizabeth Bisland, who went west from the same city, were true journalistic adventures.

I knew of Nellie Bly, who won the race in 72 days, four days ahead of Bisland. She was the first woman to fight for equality with men as a female reporter, a fight that was still going on three-quarters of a century later when I had my first byline in a daily newspaper.

I had never heard of Bisland, however, until I read the two women’s compelling, and well researched story in Matthew Goodman book, “Eighty Days.” Published in 2013, it was a great library find. In addition to the compelling story of the two women and their journeys, Goodman weaved in details of what the world was like in the late 1890s, as well as historical events that took place during this time period.

The book also had me turning pages to see what would happen next. Because of the way the book was written, which woman would win the race was a question mark until almost the end. I identified more strongly with Nellie, and so found myself rooting for her when she was behind. And when she did win, the entire country cheered. She was an instant celebrity, acclaimed by all.

But fame is fickle, and in the end, it was Bisland whom I came most to admire.

Goodman didn’t end his book with the race, but followed the two women’s lives and careers until their death.

Although it had been Nellie Bly who had convinced her World Newspaper editor to send her around the world, and it was Bisland’s Cosmopolitan editor who persuaded her to undertake the journey against her wishes, it was Elizabeth who enjoyed the journey simply for itself. She became the true traveler of the two women.

Nellie was simply glad to be back in America, which she defended as the best country in the world. Elizabeth, who admired the English and her Anglo-Saxon heritage, developed wanderlust after the journey was over.

While the two women went on to lead entirely different lives after their journalistic adventures, they both stayed writers to the very end.

Bean Pat: Why Climb Mount Kilimanjaro http://tinyurl.com/jj386yt This could inspire you to get out there and do something different.

Posted in Books, Journeys | Tagged Around the World in 80 Days, Eighty Days, Matthew Goodman | Leave a Comment »

Rainy, Cold and Overcast

January 11, 2016 by Pat Bean

The view of the Catalina Mountains this morning from the parking lot of my apartment complex. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.: — Vivian Green

Days for Being Lazy and Reading

We had snow in Tucson the January month I began nesting here. Three years later, we had snow in Tucson again.

The peaks a couple of days ago when they were mostly hidden behind a cloud curtain. — Photo by Pat Bean

My first Sonoran Desert snowfall was fairy like, and I got a photograph before it all melted a couple of hours later. This past week’s snowfall never made it down to the valley. But unlike my first one, which dusted the Catalina Mountains fo only a day, this one has provided me with mountain snowfall vistas for a full week. I’m assuming that while we got consistent rain in the foothills where I live, it snowed at higher elevations .

In the meantime, no matter how many things I wrote down each morning on my daily to-do list, by 10 o’clock, all I wanted to do was curl up in my recliner by a window with a book, and watch in total contentment as the cold, overcast, rainy day passed by my window..

And mostly, with occasional outings in the weather to walk my canine companion Pepper, that’s exactly what I did.

Today it’s sunny in the valley, and the Catalinas are losing their frosting. The sun defrosted my lazy ways too. Already I’ve cleaned house; spent an hour on the telephone with Comcast trying to get them not to raise my internet fees as they do every year in January; went to the store and bank; retrieved my mail, which has been sitting in my box for a week, read a bit, painted a bit, crocheted a bit, cooked a bit, and now am writing this blog – and it’s still early afternoon.

The sun and warmer day have recharged my batteries.

Bean Pat: In recognition of the death of David Bowie, my pat on the back today goes to the Wall Street Journal’s article and video on the rock star. http://tinyurl.com/hgagykl And as a writer, this is one of my favorite quotes by Bowie: “Don’t you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything.”

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Journeys, Nature | Tagged Catalina mountains, lazy days, rainy days | 8 Comments »

Nothing Seems to Have Changed

January 6, 2016 by Pat Bean

The color purple makes my world better, especially when it trims up some white flowers and helps attract a butterfly. Photo by Pat Bean

Flowers make my world better, especially when they attract a butterfly. Photo by Pat Bean

“The salvation of America and of the human race depends on the next election … But so it was last year, and so it was the year before, and our fathers believed the same thing 40 years ago.”

While these words might have been written just yesterday, they were actually written 168 years ago by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The color blue cheers up my world too, especially when used by glass artist Chihuly in this outdoor sculpture piece. — Photo by Pat Bean

I came across the quote when I was reading my 1998 journal, some of which was written at the same time I was reading Emerson’s journals and, at the same time, ranting about talk show hosts like Jerry Springer and narrow-minded windbags who preach of Christian values but seem to have no Christianity in them.

I was a reporter at the time and so couldn’t turn off what was going on in the world, which some days I now do for the sake of my sanity. Instead, back then, I comforted myself with the thoughts of writers like Emerson, who recognized the world has its cruel side, always has and probably always will, but focused more on its positive attributes.

“My life is a May game. I will live as I like. I defy your strait-laced, weary, social ways and modes. Blue is the sky, green the fields and groves, fresh the springs, glad the rivers, and hospitable the splendor of sun and star. I will play by game out,” he wrote, as well as: “If Milton, if Burns, if Bryant, is in the world, we have more tolerance, and more love for the changing sky, the mist, the rain, the bleak overcast day, the sun is raining light.”

For me, it’s been writers like Maya Angelou, who believed God put rainbows in the sky to give us hope, and Charles Kuralt, who saw the everyday kindness of the back roads as making up for the acts of greed in the headlines, who have made my world better.

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn’t in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers and criminals,” wrote Kuralt.

If, as my grandmother would say, it looks like the world is going to hell in a hand basket – and I can’t disagree in these troubling times – there is good out there, too. Neighbors helping neighbors when hard times fall, kindness and thoughtfulness as part of everyday, ordinary lives, and friendships and partnerships that last a lifetime.

Yes. Nothing ever seems to change.

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: CindyKnoke http://tinyurl.com/jsbmjdl I’ve always wanted to live for six months on a houseboat on the Mississippi River. It’s on my bucket list. But this houseboat in Amsterdam looks pretty cool, too. What do you think?

Posted in Art, Books, Journeys, Nature | Tagged changes, Charles Kuralt, journaling, Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson | 4 Comments »

New Year’s Resolutions

January 2, 2016 by Pat Bean

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” Neil Gaiman

I want to take time to smell the flowers and enjoy Mother Nature in 2016. — Photo by Pat Bean

Kindness

I toasted the New Year into being with two dear friends and with my last Jack and Coke of the evening; and then the three of us burned our New Year’s resolutions in a bowl on my balcony, sending our intentions smokily drifting up into the cold night air.

And so ended 2015 and 2016 began.

And I want to play more. I’m third from the right floating down the Little Colorado into the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon in 1999.

Steven Spielberg says that every single year we’re a different person. I agree 110 percent.

My two friends said the way they wanted to be different in the coming year was that they wanted to be kinder. An admirable resolution for one, an outspoken, cheeky woman whom I treasure, but a redundancy for the other who is one of the kindest people I know.

I think of myself as a kind person, but as the others spoke, I realized I was not that kind as I seldom go out of my way do kind things for others. Perhaps, I thought, this should be one of my New Year’s Resolutions, too.

It’s certainly a resolution that the entire world could use during this time of terrorism, war, beheadings, rapes, and mockery of others on television. We’re all guilty of the latter one. If such atrocities as making fun of how people dress, or look, or are simply different didn’t attract viewers, such media behavior would disappear.

Then there is the recent political rhetoric about Muslims that has made a Muslim friend of mine, one who was born in America and is one of the most peace-loving people I know, afraid to go to the grocery store.

Yes. Purposely and thoughtfully, I added kindness to my New Year’s Resolutions. I believe it is the only way that 2016 can end up being a different and better world.

What do you think?

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Daily Essay http://tinyurl.com/z7yu6pe Tongue in cheek about New Year’s Resolutions. If you’re a writer, I bet these will make you laugh

Posted in Journeys | Tagged kindness, new year's resolutions | 5 Comments »

A Homemade Christmas Gift

December 30, 2015 by Pat Bean

“The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.” – Charles Dudley Warner

birthday wall hanging made by my daughter and her husband that is both thoughtful and appropriate for me. I love it, and I hung it where I can see it frequently. .

A birthday wall hanging made by my daughter and her husband that is both thoughtful and appropriate for me. I love it, and I hung it where I can see it frequently.

Appropriately Thoughtful

My kids have accused me of better remembering where I saw a bird for the first time than their birthdays.

Not true. I remember all my children’s birthdays. You don’t forget the day you gave birth. Of course I don’t remember, or sometimes even know, the birthdays of their spouses, grandkids or great-grandkids. In my defense there are a lot of them.

Now, however, I have no excuse. My youngest daughter and her husband made a Christmas gift for me that is most appropriate. I love it and immediately made a place on the wall to hang it where I can’t help but see it frequently each day.

I suspect I’m not going to get away with forgetting someone’s birthday anymore.

Bean Pat: Snow crow http://tinyurl.com/qhwlcdc Simply a short blog that a birder might enjoy, or anyone else who loves watching wildlife in nature’s habitat.

Posted in Journeys, Uncategorized | Tagged birthdays, gifts | 2 Comments »

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