Summer Park In the Mountain Cool

We are keeping sooo busy. Joined the local bridge group at the Senior Center and the local women's golf league which is great fun.

Many occasions to eat and visit with friends and family. Keeping up on the news both locally and international. Reading POLAND BY MICHENER. He was born in Poland and has provided a historically based novel. Not easy reading but so much information about Europe and the turmoil over the centuries to maintain borders, independence and life. Although it makes our quibbles seem rather trivial the participants are much similar to today's struggles. I would like to visit Poland which must be a beautiful country. We have been to countries which surround their borders but I never realized how much these borders have changed.

I suppose I am most impressed by the people and their love of country. Everyone wants their own space and right to a good life. this novel is rather lengthy and having completed the read I would like to keep it. Our country is so young in comparison. Perhaps we will have an opportunity to visit Poland. Maybe it will go on my bucket list. So many places to see, just limits of time and money which become more real every day. Love being home though with grandkids & babes and bros and sis. Nothing quite like family and friends you have known all your life. And Fritz and his doggy cousins seem to love the time to play.

60's Remembered

We were so lucky to get tickets to see the Hair production at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City. We had not seen it before although we were acquainted with the music. Such a turmoil those days, drugs, the Viet Nam war, the draft. Sexual revolution of sorts and the beginning of so much open communication in Theatre and writing. I wonder where all the hippies went. It is a remarkable time in our history which the musical deftly presents. Hair was such a symbol of rebellion against the status quo. Shocking for men to have long curls and pony tails. I loved it. A fun evening of memories of those days. Great production and performers. Bravo Egyptian!

Summertime and the Living

Well so many desert dwellers have left for the mountains and the seas I have increased my reading quotient. For whatever I have been studying the rise and fall of empires, Romans, Greece, Mesopotamia, Eygpt etc. We in our travels have seen so much left of these civilizations in archeological museums. It is a wonder that these populations have left so much to be studied and to wonder at. Our own country is relatively new but powerful, and we have been a force for democrasy just as Greece was. It seems we have tried to make changes in so many countries whose politics have been in turmoil since the time of the Greeks. Right now I am in the middle of a book about the Athenian navy which really caused their expansion and began a movement upward for the common man. Seems like they also turned their backs on leaders who had served them well but then became unpopular and were ostracized. Yet we all have common basic needs. 

Today got away from all that and went to golf. Just me and a club and a ball and the various worries that torment many of us on the fairways and greens. At least these are troubles that I can work on. Perhaps not change, But work on. With others who have similar interests and needs. Next item to work on dog training with new gentle leader leash and new training hints video, Going to see How to Train a Dragon this afternoon to see if that gives us any ideas about approaching our schnauzer Fritz or at least developing a sense of humor about same. After that some bridge and maybe we should learn to play chess. I once did that as a form of therapy with brain damaged children but now that my own brain is becoming damaged and wearing out, I don't know how much if any I remember.
Also I'd like to see some large outdoor chess games in parks like we saw in Europe. I don't know why they haven't emerged here. Maybe chess pieces could be made out of recycled materials or something.......Maybe.........

Monsoon Months

Yesterday the afternoon rains made everyone run for cover. Ed didn't get to finish the 9th hole. The puddles don't last long in the summer heat, so it is a refreshing break. I have four good friends from southern Utah in town so we have been bridging and dining out. Such a fun summer. I didn't play golf today. A little achy this morning but maybe Ed will take me this afternoon. If the rain doesn't come. 

Need to get some new books. Recent picks have been big let down drivels. Yuck! Well I do have a Faulkner classic SANCTUARY. Possible I have read it before but a good reread is better than shmuck. Bridge tonight with buddies.

Park City Pleasure

Early morning and the sun is just beginning to light up the pine trees. Cool 4th of July for the Furias and Fritz. Early walks on mountain trails mark the beginnings of our days, A few blasts of firecrackers broke the calm of the 3rd night but we were tucked in. Fritz gave a snort or two but overall I think we are a laid back group for this holiday.

Checking in with blogs my day begins reviewing glorious shots of new babies. These are the products of my beautiful, smart babes--my granddaughters who are producing the best and the finest of the next generation. We experienced a barbecue to end all barbecues this week. Three little boys in place and one charming young lady trying to help tend them all.
Our family gatherings are growing and the Grandmom is somehow managing to bring them all in closer and warmer. It would be too much except that the kisses and hugs are sweet and one cannot get enough of that in a lifetime.

Then too, there are my own brothers, sister and friends. All doing well tending to business, families and aging concerns. We have so much to get caught up on and an entire summer in which to enjoy and love their company. I am so lucky!

Prairie Dogs & fairways

Saturday was the day to join the Invitational for Ladies Golf at Cedar Ridge in Cedar City, Utah. I volunteered to fill in for someone who had needed to drop out due to illness. Ed, being the kind man and dedicated golfer that he is, offered to go to the golf course with me on Thursday to get acquainted with the course which has expanded to 18 holes from the previous nine that I had played. It had been years ago last played but Cedar City is a good 10 or 12 degrees cooler than St. George.

The setting is gorgeous against the green high mountains and red cliffs. The thing is that I had read a book by Terry Tempest Williams who discussed prairie dogs in southern Utah and those in the Cedar City area as well as those near Bryce Canyon. Someone had told me also that if a golf ball was lost in a hole, the golfer got a free drop. The day that Ed and I played we donated a lot of balls but I could not blame the prairie dogs. Just the golfers.
There has been some controversy over land development up there versus prairie dog protected environments. Some sort of truce must exist with golfers because I counted as many as sixteen burroughs and dogs on one hole. They are kind of cute. The dogs stand up or just lounge around looking at the carts. They also eye the balls and I believe they have been known to take a view. I am surprised we didn't see any snakes although we did see ravens and eagles circling in the sky.

The Saturday open included about a hundred women, some of whom braved road construction on I-15 to get there. All in all it was a wonderful time for everyone. Good food, good company and for some good golf, door prizes and wins. I think the golf pro, John Evans, a very nice gentlemen, was kidding when he said our low net of 54 was the record for the course. I wish I could win by gross scores so that my friends wouldn't accuse me of sandbagging. But a win is a win and the ladies in our foursome were in mid-seventies to middle eighties and still playing which deserves some praise. It was wonderful to find people who can laugh at errors, prairie dogs and good jokes and make a few pars while they are at it.

All for the Birds

We just got our warning butterflies on the window facing North today. Exactly one day short and too late for the mourning dove that crashed and died yesterday. It happens every summer because the birds get flying and just don't know it is a window. It really makes us sad. Usually those mourning doves fly in a swift flock south toward the Santa Clara river. This one must have been trying to catch up.

Following our return and on warm days Fritz has been enjoying a sunbath on the back patio. I had noticed that one or two large birds were circling now and then. As one got closer I could see the white feather tips and realized it was an Eagle. Fritz at less than l2 pounds could be a promising tid bit, so I ran him into the house. I also have been maintaining a closer watch on his ins and outs because he has these two doggie doors now. Anyway seems one of my neighbors had sighted an eagle nest and two adult eagles flying back and forth, apparantly feeding young. Well more recently a young eaglet was rescued off the highway below us after a raven was harassing it. Wild life rescue came and got him. They said the young birds sometime get overly tired learning to fly and just set down. I will try to attach picture