There are places that are beautiful and then there are places whose beauty eludes any photographic depiction. The Grand Canyon falls into the latter.

It is often described as the Earth’s greatest geological showcase covering over 277 river miles.  The oldest rocks at the bottom of the canyon date from 1,840 million years ago. The depth, width and length combined with colorful rock layers, canyons and impressive buttes pose a spectacular diorama.

It has always been our goal to get to the bottom of the canyon and we finally did it by mule in an overnight trip. It was 28 degrees, snowing on top and 11.5 miles down– a 5-hour  ride of a lifetime.  You make your descent through intense switchbacks appropriately named as Devil’s Corkscrew, Poison Point and Jesus Corner. During the ride, you love your mule, hate your mule and you are convinced your mule is trying to kill you but by the end of the day you bond with your mule.  It is your only shot at peace of mind.  Our mules and dear friends were Wyatt and Chilhula.

The heated cabin is a welcome site at Phantom Ranch–an oasis along the Colorado River.  All meals аrе served family style and announced bу a clanging bell. They have a limited and small kiosk at the ranch and thе mοѕt popular souvenir and item for sale, aside from Advil, аrе postcards stamped “mailed bу mule”.

Furthur, Boca Raton, FL

You can call it the counter culture or hippies but you have to admit every time you immerse yourself in this culture, you embrace a world of freedom, hope and creativity. 

The lifestyle, dress, spirituality, richly colored produce and every imaginable concoction with  healthy grains sold on Shakedown Street is still the same as it was twenty years ago.  

The culture is a precursor and a reflection of what is sweeping our nation today known as Whole Foods-ism or the slow food movement.  The emphasis is clear–a focus on community, fresh products, an exchange and a return to life as it was. 

It is a culture trying to rescue a system endangered by good all fashion corporate greed and commercialism.  The music was wonderful.  They played the classics like Turn on Your Love Light, Uncle John’s Band and Eyes of the World.  Everyone is dancing and you leave enriched with a heightened sense of euphoria.  You feel you have the power to change things.

My first loaf baked May 4, 2011.

When a dear friend tells you that this no knead bread recipe adapted from Mark Bittman’s  recipe (food journalist at the New York Times) will knock your socks off,  you simply have to give it a try.   It requires minimal preparation the night before so the dough can rise and a few hours the next day so the dough can nap but the recipe is easy and the bread is mouth-watering delicious.  It needs only four ingredients and it forms into something magical for your taste buds.   You can plan meals around this one basic food staple.

The smell of homemade bread baking is so provocative it should make even a non-baker want to give the recipe a try. 

Artisan bread is crafted rather than mass produced.  The special attention to ingredients, process, and a return to the fundamentals of the age-old bread-making tradition set artisan bread apart from any bread found on your local supermarket shelf.

Here you go –the No Knead Bread Recipe 

Ingredients:

Directions:

I observed this Knight Anole outside my kitchen window while having my morning coffee.  When you see a creature such as an anole stalking around your house, you wonder if your backyard has become a setting for a  sequel to a Stephen King novel such as The Mist and his sinister imagination.

The Knight Anole is a diurnal predator (only active during the day). It is territorial and aggressive. As an adult it eats larger prey like other anoles, geckos,  baby birds and mice.

You get up one bright and shining morning and decide to go out and pick some fresh tomatoes only to find a horrific sight. Your beautiful tomato plants have been ravished by giant, four inch long caterpillars–the Tobacco hornworm and they are everywhere. And I thought my plants were suffering from soil depletion. The only thing more disgusting than their size is their appetite.  The hornworms feast on your plants overnight and leave their equally large droppings everywhere. It makes you rethink a farmer’s market.

or feed him for a lifetime!

Pompano caught off  Jupiter Beach on March 27, 2011.

Snowshoeing is not only good cardiovascular exercise but it’s a great way to get outdoors and stay active in the winter. Our latest trip to Vail Mountain included hiking up the mountain on snowshoes.  We had the added pleasure of family and friend.  It was a challenge but worth every minute!  Here is our journey.

• Eagle’s Nest Gore, Vail
• Elevation: 10,328 ft / 3,148 m

Three hours later but we did it!

Amateur sand sculptors at work but we are getting better at hand stacking and compaction–two well documented tips on building a great sandcastle!  If you are looking for your 30 seconds of fame, build a sandcastle the next time you go to the beach.  We were amazed by the beachgoers (all ages and sizes) that came by to inquire and photograph our work.  There is something very gratifying about creating something others enjoy.

I built a sand castle,
I thought it would stand.
Because after all,
It was built from the land.

From all of it’s windows,
For miles I could see.
Each day a new vision,
From there was for me.

Jeannie B. Cook

There is lots of laughter going on in my backyard!

I watched Food, Inc and finally read the book and particularly enjoyed the chapter by Joel Salatin on Declaring Your Independence– “How can we help and what can we do to  impact the problem? ” 

As Michael Pollan so succinctly states in his chapter Why Bother? “We can …turn (our) lives upside down, start biking to work, plant a big garden, turn down the thermostat….forsake the clothes dryer… (get) a hybrid, get off beef, and go completely local……when (we) know fully well half way around the world there lives (our) same evil twin, (our) carbon foot doppelgänger in Shangai…who just bought (his/her) first car and eager to swallow every bit of meal (we) forswore….so why all the trouble?”. 

It is simple–better intelligence. There is a reason we need to opt out.  When you buy local or plant a garden, you gain a better understanding of food and the life cycle.  The USDA approved, industrial produced foodstuffs laced with preservatives, dyes and high fructose sugar syrup are problematic.

Buy organic, local or better yet plant a garden. 

It has been an eye-opening experience for me when I pick a strawberry in my backyard.  Although I have always been conscious about where I buy and what I eat, I have learned so much more about life this year from my garden. I eat what I grow.  You have never tasted a better green pepper!