After enjoying the best colors of our November in Utah I visited Lithuania, my home country, had a lot of tasty meals (especially the ones my mom cooked), nice talks with friends and relatives, enjoyed the snow and the whiteness of the surroundings there, which is not so pleasant for drivers. Got used to cold, which never left the country after it gripped on the last days of November. And here I returned back to Utah on the night of 21st of December, luckily with no major delays, right into the clouds reaching the ground in Las Vegas! Never before have I seen such a phenomenon. My husband, while meeting me there, took this picture from the Flamingo hotel towards the City Center (Aria, etc.):
Never before…
The next morning we drove to Bellagio (the best way to go around Las Vegas, even if it is a short distance – is to drive, then you don’t get annoyed by poor Mexicans handing the pictures and phone numbers of naked women “with low social responsibility” as one of our friends calls them; and parking in Vegas is free and it is easy to get from them to casinos). The Christmas flower and tree exposition in the Atrium was beautiful as usual – one can argue about the beauty of the whole concept, but the abundance of flowers, some cute decors make it really worth seeing (and they change it 7 times a year):
There were Polar bears made from carnations…so many flowers were beheaded and kept being beheaded for they wilt and the workers there fix the wilted parts every day. How to get such a job?:
As if it is not enough of the abundance of poinsettias there were amaryllis buds coming out to bloom soon.
By the reception area of Bellagio there are always big flower arrangements like this one (I always try not to miss them):
And then we drove home to Southern Utah with the Virgin River roaring on the side of our road -RT 15:
It had unusual amounts of water and the mountains in the Gorge were “crying” with bridal veil waterfalls. Here is what we saw once we got to Rockville:
Our friends’ Browns’ (Alan is the Mayor of our town) property was so flooded that they had people help them take the chickens out of water , they lost their pasture and a big part of their grape-yard. After this ordeal the river just changed its course and now their property turned into a riverside front property…I don’t know whether it is better or worse for the value of the property, but certainly it got very bad for their three lamas:
So they had to stay on their porch for a while and then were taken for vacation in Escalante.
Here is how the river changed its course. it used to be behind the sandy beach and that line of bushes, no one could see it from this bank:
And this is how it looked a day before when all the residents form the river side properties were told to evacuate:
The pink color is not some exotic flowers, it is the failing of our old camera to do its job well, maybe it also got tired of the 5 day lasting rains. Here is how the flood looked just before one enters Rockville at our neighbors’ property:
And this is what it did to their road:
So the New Year’s Party at their house was canceled.
Then we had a very nice Christmas Eve with all 12 dishes in Lithuanian tradition and Christmas Carols in American tradition:
I expect our friends form here would be glad to see Ruth smiling and with her naked shoulder 
Alison introduced a new tradition – to lit candles for everyone we would like to be here with us:
and we liked it a lot, but we didn’t prepare a tripod for taking the picture with this little light:
then some normal days passed and again a rainy one which ended in big frosts and snow. So the morning of the 29th of December was marvelous, we never get this much white in our area:
Mount Kinesava. Lower: a view from the Rockville cemetery hill towards our Main street:
From our garden towards Lyon’s pasture:
Our friends came to see Zion and I felt bad – one day they had rain, the others – terrible frost with all the trails in Zion NP closed. So at least we very carefully drove to Grafton (the first time during our stay here the roads were covered with ice ), where “Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid” (classical western) was filmed long ago:
And I’ll finish this Blog with the funniest Christmas Picture I got this year:
This is our Lithuanian friend Stephen Burzgulis who used to live in Springdale and now lives in San Diego, has done a lot of research about Afghanistan, has created a very good song about it and even learned how to make a Pashtun head cover (my guess – from his curtain ) and sent his best regards from “high mountains”.
This is the time now when red cacti bloom in our area:
They are most prolific on the bench or mesa on top of Rockville, a “secret place” where Rockvillians go for their walks. And who can say they are not worth visiting and seeing?
The other positive thing about those trails on top – they are prepared for mountain bikes and very few bikes ride there. So it is nice to walk in nature by yourself, with no crowds or noises around. This time I walked with a second time guest from Chicago – Daniel Pyne. And here is what we reached:
It is on the very edge of the mesa over our house, over Rockville, over the winding Virgin river:
Up here it is Rockville, down here it is our house:
And here is our parking lot – a closer look -Andrei is filming me on the top :
This view is from another edge which is on top of Dan McGuire’s house, our house can’t be seen here, it is behind the mountain edge on the right. But someone’s pasture all under water is seen in this picture – that is how we irrigate:
It was scary to stand on the edge…Going back we walked through some rocks where mountain lions may well reside:
And also lots of petrified wood pieces, but one piece was especially big, entangled in sandstone:
And this is already my yard with tomatoes and peppers in pots and boxes – this spring is so unusually cold, it is still dangerous to plant them in the garden:
Tulips and hyacinths bloom so late this year:
And this is how I dress at home and meet my guests :
I know I am late with my blogging about this hike, but the views were good, the trail was even better – so I still decided to share. It all started as usual – Adrian sent a message about the coming hike and several individuals as well as their dogs decided to celebrate Easter by challenging their muscles and getting more in touch with nature.
We drove Kolob Terrace Road to the first top valley and parked the cars by a sandy path on the right, leading through the fields towards very pretty looking rocks:
Upon reaching the rocks we climbed up on a path done at some point by Mr. Lee who owns the land and lots of lands around. He has done it for his cows to lead them from one valley to another. As if someone mentioned that he had to blast the path in the rocks:
I wonder if the poor cows see the beauty around them or they just are sad of the lack of food in this desert…
Then we descended down to the valley downstairs and walked along a stream:
The dogs had a blast in that stream , especially in the bath tubs which were supposed for the cows to drink…
Not long after this dam we had to climb up – literally, on a steep slope on a slick rock:
The view on my stop to catch a breath:
There on the top there was a surprise – I love surprises and who doesn’t. It was a pond with water and swamp plants in it:
We had our lunch here and the dogs had their fun. the view to the other side, the one we started from:
That is it, we went down with no adventures. The celebration was over, life is simple.
Adrian led us, a bunch of locals, again to some interesting hike. It was the beginning of June, wonderful weather! By wonderful I mean – not hot, light cloudy skies, best for hiking. One could never wish for more in this desert…
We started in the upper part of our park and went up the Pastel canyon:
Crows saw us off:
And desert flowers met us on the way:
The canyon got thinner and narrower:
We needed to use ropes twice:
We had to sneak through thick bushes and climb slippery sandy slopes:
But we reached the top where the canyon joins East Rim Trail:
Some of the last hard climb on the top:
And there we had lunch. From that point there was no climbing any more, mostly descending, very lightly, very nicely, at first on a nice forest path:
With abundance of flowers here and there:
Then the forest opened up and disappeared in the back… but the flowers were still there:
Doesn’t it look like a path to Eden?
From there we could see our end point in the distance in the bottom of this canyon. But to reach that point – oh, it was a rather long walk – around and around the edges of canyons of which there is no lack in this country:
Thanks God there were different interesting flowers on the way:
Adrian says we walked totally 5 miles, but to me it seems we walked very long miles. Here is the finish line, with a cold bottle of beer (thanks to one of our fellow hikers):
…………the end……….
If you want to see our flowers at their best -May is the time to come. After that everything more or less fades till October, though there is always some plant in bloom. But not in abundance. What else can you expect in a desert…So here are our roses:
Evenings are saturated with Honeysuckle smells…
Here are the flowers that come from seeds every spring by themselves, I guess they are called volunteers. But we don’t know their more particular name:
Finally – my husband’s favorites, the dragons as he calls them, they sit in front of our windows, catching insects:
