Friday Fotos 2024 #3

Friday Fotos is a post where I can dump some photos from the previous week. The goal is to make me more aware of the beauty and fun in my everyday life. 

Trees in the park were budding at the end of last week.  I love the sign of new life, spring, and warm weather!

This is a horrible picture of a hawk. I hear them all the time in the park but rarely see them. This is a red-shouldered hawk. I hear them in the park, and then red-tailed hawks circle in the field across from my house. They are magnificent birds!

I think this is a red maple. I noticed its color while on a walk. Just beautiful.

This is the same tree as the first picture, but a few days later. 

This pretty little flower is a bunch daffodil. So small & delicate!

One of the signs in the rival town of the Small Town. How many times have I driven by this sign and not read it? I need to learn to slow down and take time to read some of the history that's in my backyard.

I hope you're taking the time to enjoy the beauty that's around you every day. Until next time!

Awesome Sauce Hodgepodge

Joyce asks the questions, and we provide the answers. See how others answered at From This Side of the Pond.

1. Has March come in like a lion where you live? If not a lion then what animal would you use to describe the weather in your area this first week of March? Does the weather affect your emotions? When did you last feel 'under the weather'? 

We had quite a bit of rain and some very windy weather but thankfully no storms. I don't think weather affects my emotions. I had what I think was a cold a couple of weeks ago but it was kind of weird: I had a scratchy throat & congestion on a Monday and felt like crap, but by Wednesday I felt okay. I guess it could have been COVID; I didn't test because it really doesn't matter!

2. Do you know what your name means? Does the meaning of your name fit with your personality? Do you like your name? If you have children did you consider the meaning of their names before choosing them? 

Mary is a derivative of the Hebrew name "Miriam" or "Mariam". A quick search says it means "beloved", "love", and even "bitter" or "rebellious". I'm not bitter and not very rebellious, so I'll go with the first 2. I love my name! Every now and then, I will come across a child with the name "Mary". It's one of those names that doesn't seem to be used much any more.

When we had our boys, the meaning of the name didn't even come into question. OS was named after CH's father, MS was named after CH's best friend and his middle name came from CH's brother's middle name, and YS was named after both our next-door-neighbors' last names! It's tough to pick a name for your child when you work in a school. 

3. It's National Sauce Month...what's your favorite sauce? Last thing you ate that used a sauce? 

Shrimp sauce. I don't usually use sauce unless it's shrimp sauce. I don't even use ketchup that much but the last time I did it was on french fries.

4. Something you've seen, tasted, done lately that you'd describe as 'awesome sauce'? 

I really had to rack my brains over this one and didn't come up with anything. I'm just status quo here: I'm in a routine (finally) and haven't done anything out of the ordinary. YS fixed me an amazing swordfish taco a couple of weeks ago. It was incredible!

5. What kinds of things do you love to collect? 

Dust. I'm not a big collector; I've learned through the years to let things go. I do have quite a collection of books that I need to read, though. But they are sitting on the shelf collecting dust.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Inspiration for blog posting has hit me hard. In addition to my Great West Adventure posts, I'm also resurrecting my Friday Fotos post on this blog. I also wrote a post on my Not So Perfect Catholic blog on the stages of hope that I've gone through. You can read it here.

Great West Trip 2023: Part 2

This is a cross-post from Flyin' the Coop

After we left the Badlands, Devils Tower was next on the list. We just passed through and honestly, I would have been happy with seeing it in the distance and not actually driving into the park. It was rather crowded and, since we weren't hiking, the views weren't worth it to wait in line to get to the parking area. 

It was hot, but it was July, and crowded. I am surprised that climbing is allowed, for a fee, of course. We ran into a Polish couple in Yellowstone who climbed it. It must be done in the back of the tower; I didn't see anyone climbing but we saw the information for it.

We thought about camping in the area but with the temperatures predicted to be fairly warm overnight, we opted to stay in a hotel in Gillette. At some point in your life, comfort outweighs adventure.

From there we headed to Billings, Montana. We needed a "rest day" and it was a good time to do laundry and replenish groceries. We were able to secure a somewhat shaded spot at the KOA. This just happened to be KOA #1 so we felt like we found gold!

It was your typical KOA: Kind of tight spaces but the amenities were nice. We thought the location was a little odd: It was behind a residential area. We decided that the campground was probably there first and the houses were built later. CH soaked in the pool and I sat with my feet in it for a while. We finished our laundry and relaxed. The Yellowstone River runs behind the campground.

While driving into town to go to the grocery store, I was pleased to see that the underpasses had been spruced up:

While at the campground, we discovered we had some interesting neighbors:

CH looked it up because the employees had some question as to when to attempt to remove the nest with the least amount of bother to the campers. It's a "bald-faced hornet" and is very aggressive.  According to some sites I looked at, they sting repeatedly and can spray a "venom" in the eyes of an attacker causing watering of the eyes and temporary blindness. The nest was across the path from our site but thankfully they waited until after we left to take care of it.

We had a big decision to make. After seeing CH's pictures when he rode his motorcycle to the Arctic Circle, I've wanted to see Lake Louise. We made sure we brought our passports just in case we went over the border but we had some considerations that we had to take into account. Do we go north into Canada, west to Glacier National Park, or south to Yellowstone? Or do we decide to go another route and do something different? Find out in Part 3!