The locals at our cabin.

The birds and squirrels have us well trained. They made a commotion outside our bedroom window early this windy morning awakening us and demanding "their" morning birdseed!
Click arrow below to start movie.


Here are some more photos of our new friends. We are obsessed with feeding and watching the birds and squirrels fight for their position at the birdseed trays. Saturday we moved into this cabin #18. Today is Monday and we have already bought another bag of birdseed.
(click on the photos below to enlarge them)
First the squirrels:
I call this squirrel - Fatso, Ray calls the foodmonger and bully of everyone - Jowels.










Our living room and view of the mountains and our local birds and squirrels.

Girls Sundae Out.

Dinner in Mammoth at Moguls tonight was a blast.
Sophie wanted to sit next to me when Craig, Ray, Sophie and I were being seated. I had no idea how much fun we'd end up having. I immediately reverted to being a 7 or 8 year old. I even asked the waitress to bring me the same set of crayons and puzzles Sophie had been given. We played, we colored, we laughed, we tried to tell jokes, and we ordered the same things...just like best friends.

Mammoth photos.

Tina came up to visit us in Mammoth the last three days. The photos below were taken today.
Miss proper hiker on our morning hike.

Cute Tina.

Pretty lake on our morning hike.

Tina left to go home after our morning hike, but as she was loading up her car she came back to the cabin screaming, "Bear, come, come see the bear."
I put my shoes on, changed to a telephoto lens on my Canon 40D and ran out to the lake where the bear had been swimming! I missed him swimming, but ran in the direction he'd taken off. When I found the bear he was checking out some cabins.

But then I guess he wanted to go for another swim as he headed back down by the lake. I followed him.

I guess I followed him a bit too closely as he turned back in my direction. He looked as startled as I was when I clicked this photo off. I stepped aside to give him room and he ran by me.....thank goodness. Ray had been watching me from the cabin while he was on the phone. He ran down to the lake when he noticed the bear and I were only a few feet away from each other.

Photos from Woods Lodge during Week One in Mammoth.

I'm in a Starbucks in Mammoth and have my computer with me (of course), so thought I'd post a few photos. We are having the time of our lives up here.

View from our apartment over Woods Lodge of Crystal Crag, Mammoth Crest and Ducks Pass to the left. We stay in this very small, one room, apartment the first week. We love the view but find living in one room a bit confining. Don't get me wrong, we still love being here.


Ray took this photo of me trying to get closeups of the birds we feed on our balcony. Each morning we wake when we wake, usually around 6:30am, have coffee, read a spiritual reading out loud from Simple Abundance, have oatmeal, read and then go for a hike (after we've had enough lazying around most of the morning!!!)


This was unreal. I was taking photos of the Lodge (last picture below) when out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving to my right. I look and it's a light brown, small, bear. He looks at me (we are 10 feet away from each other), I look at him. He turns back to look ahead of him as he continues to the other side of the Lodge.

I follow him with my camera. I'm so excited, most of the photos I took are blurry. But I got this photo of the bear climbing over a fence while another vacationer was in a chair outside his cabin reading not very far from the advancing bear. The man doesn't see the bear. I yell, "Hello!" The man looks up from his book and immediately begins to run backward with his chair in his grasp and his eyes and mouth wide open indicating he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Obviously he was scared to death. I wonder what he thought of me moving closer and following the bear with my camera?


Ray and me near the top of Mammoth Crest after our hike yesterday. We both feel the altitude. Ray is doing great. I'm thrilled he is hiking with me.


This is the view looking north from the top of Mammoth Crest, 2+ miles up the trail from our cabin. LR.....Like the view of the Minnaretts, Ritter and Banner?


This is one of the photos I took that I might submit for the September photo class assignment #1 on Walls, Windows and Doors.

Off to Mammoth for the month of August.

When the pool/fountain guy was here last week and we were in the backyard, he mentioned that this pictured fountain my brother gave me one birthday would look better moved from where it was to this new position, right outside my desk window.

This Junco bird has made the Angel's head his new perching place. I love it because, as my husband knows, I believe my deceased mother has come back in the form of a Junco bird. Silly, but true.


We won't have internet access, so until September, have a great month.

Paula's birthday. Firsts are always special.

"The Ladies" during dinner at El Rancho July 31st.

Katya and Paula

Paula and Me.

Paula and her boyfriend, Terry who drove in from the desert to surprise Paula in Sherman Oaks.

Terry and Paula, Mom and Dad (Carol and Tom). Tom is an avid hiker and read my journal as I was backpacking.

A new day on top of Bump and Grind

Meeting Rick and Katie this morning for the second time this week sure makes it easier to keep my commitment to daily exercise. This is the third week Katie and I have met Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 5am to hike the close-by, local Bump & Grind hill. The hike is about 4 miles and usually takes us about an hour and 20 minutes. We aren't fast but we keep up a pace where we probably sweat a half a pound of water on these humid, warm summer days. When we begin our hike it's still dark and cool compared to later daytime temperatures around 108 degrees.

Rick was excited to see the sunrise this morning. He kept wondering when the sun would pop-up over the mountains. At the moment the sun appeared, I asked Rick and Katie to pose for this shot. I focused on the sky so the camera would expose for the sunrise with fill-in flash selected to light up Rick and Katie.