Saying hello and I'm back after some time spent at my niece's house near the coast in Arroyo Grande.

I went for about three weeks to help out and enjoyed seeing them again.  My niece was still in a grieving mode since my sister passed last December.  We were able to have long talks and hopefully it helped her.  She is the only child and doesn't have brothers or sisters to help support her.  Along with her mother passing, her dad has severe Alzheimers so it's like she lost both parents.  He is living with her but to me it's obvious he doesn't really know for sure who she is. I went there to help keep an eye on him while they worked and both she and her husband started new jobs which will give them a better schedule to help deal with his needs.  I had to remind him often who I was even though my sister and I were close and often spent vacations with them at the coast.  

Back home it's mountain chilly and foggy at times but recently several days of sun before a storm moves in tomorrow for several days.  I don't mind the rain - just hoping we don't have a blizzard like last year when the snow starts at some point.

All is well here - just haven't been too inspired to blog. I was having trouble with blogger recently and finally today figured out what was going on.  I hadn't been able to post photos to blogger or comment at other blogs using my google acct.  It's all working fine now.  

Maybe more news next time I post - something that would be interesting, lol.  

Life goes on up here in the mountains at a much slower pace than in the past (Past meaning about 12 years or so ago when I lived down the mountain) . Back then I would often get bored and also had money, lol...to visit TJ Max, Kohl's, Marshalls  and other fun places to spend money on useless items I didn't need. Oh yeah, don't get me started on Pic and Save which became Big Lots and was a black hole when it came to buying NOTHING i needed.   Now my time is spent going through stuff and deciding what to get rid of.  That's what keeps me busy or going through so many photo albums trying to figure out how to divide them up and give the photos to each kid without spending the rest of my retirement doing that (there are SO MANY PHOTOS)... now including photos of grandkids.  

And to add to the above, my dad wrote out his biography a few years before he passed away in 2001  and it is very very long, many typed pages and handwritten  pages also.  With that,  there is  a whole lot of art work, poetry, and an album filled simply with his across country trip he took after my mom died.  In that album are photos of each place he stopped, a poem to go with each state, etc.  I literally don't know how to manage making copies of this for all four of my guys.  The problem is a lot of it is handwritten and won't copy well so it needs to be typed up.  Two of the guys especially want copies and I'm sure the other two would also. 

I'll figure it all out next winter when we are snowed in again.  

Thank God my mom didn't appear to have a lot of talents except cooking and playing the piano by ear.  She could really honky tonk that piano.  She didn't garden, paint, write stories, or put anything down on paper I would need to copy and put together.  But, she loved to dance and really was a fun mom in her younger years when we were kids.    She died in 1985 so as I got older I never got to ask the questions I would have but didn't think to in my 30's.   Like who was she really - ...I have no idea, other than my mom.

Anyway a few photos from another trip down to Redlands  to go to the Kimberly Crest House.  I love to hang around the fountain and see the fish and lily pads. I've never taken a tour of the inside - one of these days we will.  I believe the photo of the smaller building is in the back of the mansion and I think that is where some of the help stayed.  Not sure about that.  Next to this mansion is a beautiful park to walk through.  I can spend hours down there. 

Kimberly Crest

 First time we were confident, as least as much as we could be, to know we wouldn't find big boulders following off the mountain side on to the hwy so off we went up the 18.  The videos and photos that were being posted on the mountain forums up here kept us informed of how many people dodged the boulders and a few cars that had boulders come down on their roofs.  Even though the snow was over the melting alone with recent rains has brought so much down on to the hwys that i was in no hurry to get up that way. 

It was a beautiful day and the lake was almost full, about 6 feet to full capacity.

Big Bear Lake and City is the main draw for tourists but we liked to drive over to Baldwin Lake about 15 miles away from Big Bear Lake and enjoy the wide open spaces.  Baldwin lake has been dry for a long time, several years but now it has water again.  What a great thing to see.  We took the jeep off road so I can visit the horses.  This day only one was out and close enough to photograph.  

These first ones are Baldwin Lake area.  Very rural mountain living up here - I could do this! I posted photos of these  areas last year in the fall and this is spring. 

Last photos are of Boulder Bay last September where the water was absent in this area.  

Even though Winter was a rough one - so much of California's lakes and reservoirs benefitted with full lakes and sadly some flooding more up in central California.

Next photos around  Big bear Lake - Boulder Bay which was absolutely empty of water the bay area, last October.

 So far, other than a few posts on Instagram and a few on FB I haven't found the motivation to post anything.  It's like I try to think of something to say and it just isn't there.   Anyway - May is here and we had a few weeks of beautiful weather from our extreme winter weather and now rain is coming and snow at higher elevation.  

There are several things coming up in the near future I'm looking forward to.  First is a special day at SkyPark, Santa's Village for residents to get in free.  This is a big deal to me because usually for adults its' $50 for admission and other than being a beautiful place there's' not a lot to do.  

Next after that there will be the county fair in our area which isn't a big deal compared to LA County Fair which I also want to go to this year.  Then Lake Arrowhead Village starts their summer concerts which is usually tribute bands of famous bands. Then in my favorite area, Redlands, they have the Redlands Bowl which is an outdoor venue, free of charge, for more tribute bands or classical music, etc. 

I'll be visiting Oak Glen where I can stop and try to interact with  the Llamas who have such a superior attitude towards people and then there is the sweet horses I can't pass by without saying hello to them.

Sweet Horses along Thompson Creek Trail.

And that's about all I can come up with to talk about except for the fact

The grosbeaks are back with their attitude.\

The squirrels are busy stealing whatever seen they can find.

I saw my first swallowtail of the season hanging around the wild lilac trees that is finally blooming.

The frog made it through winter and did fall off the tree again but I put him back.

We did get to see some wildflowers blooming about two days before the blizzard buried the mountains here and caused rock slides and areas where the sides of the hwys were in threat of falling which then entailed many road closures along with our main grocery store whose roof collapsed.  There was a state of emergency called in California in many areas both southern, central and I think Northern - record snowfall in so many places and lots of flooding with the rains.

And soon the Spanish Broom along the highway will be so pretty to look at again.

I guess I did have something to say.  Hope u all who might stop by are doing well.  I hope to get back to spending time in blog land.