La VIE en ROSE

Cette semaine c'est le festival Divers/Cité à Montréal (Festival Divers/Cité); La presse parle du tourisme rose alors, j'ai pensé faire un blog en rose aujourd'hui.  De plus le ROSE est aussi la couleur associée à la lutte contre le cancer du sein. Si vous voulez faire un don allez au: Fondation canadienne du cancer du sein.  Donc allons-y pour le ROSE.

Pink, the ultimate girl color; when it comes to flowers, I personally think it is the most flamboyant and vibrant.  It is hard to miss a pink flower; it just stands out from everything else around it.  You will see what I mean when you look at the pictures.

Rosier rugueux

Ronce odorante

Let's start with two that look alike and are from the Rosacées family.  First, le Rosier rugueux or Wild Rose and then la Ronce odorante or Purple-flowering Rasberry.  This last one does not produce eatable fruits and its leaves look like the ones of a Maple tree. They are both beautiful.  

                                                 

Salicaire commune

Here is a very common flower seen along our roads: la Salicaire commune or Purple Loosestrife.  Some of us have them in our flower garden.  It's funny that I don't remember seeing them before the last couple of years.  I guess if you don't look, you don't find.
















La Gesse à feuilles larges or Perennial Pea belongs to the Fabacées family or Pea family; the same family as the Lotier cormiculé that I showed you in the "Special yellow flower" posting.  If you compare both of them you'll see that they look very much alike.


Gesse à feuilles larges

Liseron des haies

Who does not know the Morning Glory?  A flower that blooms in the morning and fades in the afternoon.  I remember planting them as a kid and waiting every morning to see if they had bloomed.  Here is the wild version: le Liseron des haies or Hedge Bindweed.  Don't be fooled, this one is perennial and invasive compare to its more civilized annual sibling.

Asclépiade incarnate

The color of these flowers is amazingly rich.  When they say purple is the color of kings here is what I have in mind.  If you look closely there are little curved horns that encircle the corona of the flower.  By the way, they are called Asclépiade incarnate or Swamp Milkweed.

This one, called Oeillet arménia or Deptford Pink, I identified last year but, did not have a picture of it.  This year, remembering the area where I found it, I looked carefully to see if I could see it again and take a good picture.  It is a small flower and it took many takes to get one that shows its details.

Oeillet arméria

I had been searching for the two last ones of La vie en Rose series.  When I found them, I was jumping up and down with excitement.  It's funny because I found la Mauve musquée (Musk Mallow) on a vacant lot next to one of my neighbors.  I found Kalmia a feuilles étroites (Sheep Laurel) along la rivière Doncaster near St-Adèle.  It is a very nice place for hiking; visit their site: Parc de la rivière Doncaster

Mauve musquée

Kalmia à feuilles étroites

California: Part 3

After San Francisco and Monterey we drove to Yosemite National Park.  We stayed at the Ahwahanee Hotel, in one of their cottage.  We got there at night so we could not enjoy the scenery but, Oh boy, in the morning, what a view.  You should have seen Chris’ face when he saw that we were standing against a rock wall.  We had a late start so we were not planning to do a long and strenuous trail.  We decided to go see the foot of Yosemite Fall and then…… go to the first point of view (Columbia Rock) and then…… since we were there, why not the top.  Well, our little “promenade” ended up being 15 km long and took us about 7 hours to complete.  As you will see it was well worth it.

Yosemite Fall; its full length

If you look carefully at the bottom of the picture you will see tiny little persons.  It gives you an idea of how tall it is.  Actually here is what the park services say about the Fall:
Upper Yosemite Fall (strenuous, but difficult in winter due to snow, especially beyond Columbia Rock)
7.2 miles/11.6 km round-trip; 6 to 8 hours; 2,700 feet/823 m elevation gain
One of Yosemite oldest historic trails (built 1873 to 1877), the Yosemite Falls Trail leads to the top of North America’s tallest waterfall 2,425 feet (739 m) above the Valley floor. Do not stray off the marked path, as you will find steep drops adjacent to the trail. Enjoy spectacular views from Columbia Rock located one mile (and dozens of switchbacks) from the trailhead. This waterfall is often dry from late July or August through October. However, expect spray in spring and early summer. Yosemite National Park Website

We were sprayed all right and, because of record snow falls we were offered a special treat: huge, roaring water cascades. 

The Half Dome

This is the view from Columbia Rock: the Half Dome. It is one of the most popular hikes in the park.  It does not open until the end of May because of snow and its level of difficulty.  Part of the way needs to be done using cables and it takes about 10 to 12 hours to do the 14- to 16-mile round-trip.  For more information on the Half Dome visit the following link: Yosemite National Park - Half Dome 








There are a lot of fantastic views along the trail.  Here is one where the colors are unreal.  It is amazing what nature can do. 


Yosemite Fall trail

After a lot of sweating and water breaks, we finally stumbled on a sign; Oh yessss! We're almost there.

0.2 miles to go


Yes, it is really snow you see behind the sign.  We are high enough (6,526 feet or 1,989 meters) that there is often snow on the ground until the end of May.  Actually several roads in the park don't open until Memorial Day because of it.

Here are a couple of pictures taken at the top. 

Top of Yosemite Fall

Not my foot, my boyfriend's

There were a couple of lizards on the rocks at the top.  I could not resist the male's colors.  It is a Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) also called blue-bellied lizard.  The female also sports blue but in much more subtle hues.  They are pretty commun in California and can be found up to 6000 feet in altitude. Reference: San Francisco State University

Blue-bellied Lizard

When we finally got back down to the hotel we were tired, dusty and ravenous.  We thought we would have a nice diner at the Hotel Dining Room.  Hmmm, that did not work…. I think we were actually a little bit under dressed.  We had diner at the bar instead; they were not that picky.



Ahwahanee Dining Room



I know, the picture is not very good but, it gives you an idea why of we ended up at the bar.  If you  want to see more of the Ahwahanee hotel go to:The Ahwahnee

That night after diner we drove to the Tenaya Lodge.  The next morning we were planning to see the Giant Sequoia trees at Mariposa Grove.



Answers to Rock Star Guitars

I almost forgot about it but, for those of you that tried to guess at who was behind the guitars here are the answers.

1) This one is easy: Jon Bon Jovi, frontman of Bon Jovi.

Jon Bon Jovi



2) If you guessed Richie Sambora, Jon's partner in crime, you were right.

Richie Sambora

3) That one might have been a little bit harder.  It's Corey Diabo, guitarist extraordinaire of Jonas and the Massive Attraction.  If you don't know them go check them out. Jonas and the Massive Attraction

Corey Diabo

4) The last guitarist is the guitar player of Styx, Mr Tommy Shaw.

Tommy Shaw

Tommy Shaw

California Colors

I was going through my pictures from our trip to California last May and, I could not help but marvel at the colors.  When we made our way south, along the coast on Route 1, we started noticing large, dense carpets of bright pink flowers along the side of the road near beaches.  That night at the Inn where we were staying, the manager told us that they are Iceplants and are now considered weeds.  In fact, the plant was brought from South Africa (where it is native) in the early 1900s to stabilize soil along railroad tracks, hold drifting sand and control erosion. It was also used as an ornamental garden plant but, because of its resilience and the way it reproduces it has become an invasive species.  It poses a serious ecological problem, forming vast monospecific zones, lowering biodiversity, and competing directly with several threatened or endangered native plant species. If you want to learn more about the iceplant go to:

http://www.calipc.org/ip/management/ipcw/pages/detailreport.cfm@usernumber=25&surveynumber=182.php

Iceplants at sunset in Monterey, CA





Vibrant colors at the beach near Monterey, CA



While we were along the coast, I expected to be able to see wild sea otters; they are so cute.  Well no luck, even if we looked in all the places they are supposed to hang out and, even if I kept looking at the sea while driving hoping to see a little brown spot in the big blue ocean.  However, we saw seals with their pops and cormorants.  Did you know that there is a scientific debate about the real reason why cormorant spread their wings on shore?  Most people think that it is to dry them after diving under water for fish but, it might not be so, or at least not the only reason.  If you are interested you can read this article.

http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2007/CAB74.pdf



Cormorant on a buoy at the Monterey Warf, CA


Can you believe the colors in this picture ?


Here are a few sunset pictures for those who don't have color overload yet.



Shades of purple, Monterey, CA



Shades of orange, Monterey, CA

The Montréal Guitar show



Last Saturday I went to the Jazz festival in Montréal and we stopped by the Salon de Guitare de Montréal at the Hyatt.  You see my boy friend is an artist at heart; he plays the drum, the piano, the accordéon and most importantly the guitar.  Therefore we could not miss going to the Salon.  I brought my camera along knowing I would get good photo opportunities as well as interesting stories.  Chris was interested in the sound that they make; I was interested in what they look like.  Here is a few of my favorites.



Butterfly inlay



These two are from a luthier in North Carolina; he makes everything by hand with beautiful inlays.  Here are two examples of his work. They are both electric guitars with detailed heads. The one that looks like someone has dropped paint on it is actually inlayed with ebony.

Paint splash inlay



Metal guitar

 This guy from LA makes his unique guitars using metal.  The one that I liked had a paisley motif on its body.  I which I knew how he managed to do that.  Wonder how they sound!  They are probably good to play heavy metal music!

This next guy is amazing, he is from Austria but lived in LA for a long time before he moved back home.  I spoke to his wife which is American. She told me that he uses a special resin on top of the wood to embed things in the body.  She told me he collects nick-knack from the beach, thrift shops, pieces of glass he finds.  He even made one with prozac pills.  Each one is like a work of art.  It usually takes a least three months to build and that is working on it full time.



Like a jewel



The Circle of Buddhas

 

The white sisters

These two I just found funny, sitting there together as white as can be.

 



I have a thing for blue guitars.  There were a few at the show.  Here are two of them.

 

Blue acoustic

   

Blue electric

And for the finale, my favorite one.  Its color caught my eye when we entered the room; an amazing shade of red.  When we talked to the maker he said that his guitars have been exposed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, that he makes very few of them each year.  He is located one hour North of San Francisco and invited us to visit his atelier next time we go to California.  When we asked the price, to no surprise to me, it was the most expensive one we asked about (I have a talent with liking the most expensive stuff). 

Red wing


I love its winged design, it's flowing, the sound hole is in a unusual position but that makes it more special. If I remember correctly it is made of 4 or 5 different kind of wood and as luck would have it, it is sold.



Red wing



I don't think my pictures give it justice but it looks wonderful.  It is the one featured in the Salon's catalogue.

We managed to leave without buying anything.  My boyfriend went back the next day to try out more of the guitars.  I was sure he would bring one home but he only bought CDs.  Go figure.

If you have questions on some of them, let me know and I will try to give you an answer.

I promise the next post will not be about guitars.