Jul 5 2012

Thursday’s Thirteen: More Photos of Huntington Lake

I took so many photos on my field trip it seems a shame not to share more of them. The area just above Huntington Lake is where my alien compound will be.

1.A creek. I took this photo leaning over the side of a bridge. There were fisherman down there but I didn’t ask them what they were catching.

2. My daughter was “getting” her dad here. I don’t remember what he said to her but she “got him” for it.

3. First view of Huntington lake

4. Nearly the view of Huntington Lake, but the first one was taken back in April of the same year with the ice sheet still on it. And the second one was taken in June (same year) after the snow melted.

5. Now that the snow had melted, I could see that some of these mountain tops were solid rock.

6. Down by Huntington Lake.

7. For a recreational area the forest here is still thickly wooded.

8. Another view of the lake.

9. My daughter’s boyfriend found a log across a small creek to sit on. I told him to sit up straight.

10. Here you go ladies, my daughter BF is taking off his clothes. Actually he just stripped down to his swimming shorts.

11. My daughter and BF going for a dip in the lake. Unfortunately, my daughter found out the water here is icy cold and didn’t go in deeper than her knees.

12. Here my hubby on the left, my daughter in the middle and my daughter’s BF on the right.

13. One last look at Huntington Lake.

Have you been able to take a trip this summer? Where did you go and did you have fun?

Jun 21 2012

Thursday’s Thirteen: Second Field Trip to Huntington Lake

I took one trip already to Huntington Lake, but wanted to go back when the snow had melted to get a better feel for the place. Yup, this is where my Arcon colony will be set in my book when it comes out.

1. a lovely creek

2. First view of Hunting Lake

3. This lovely building is the general store

4. A line of cabins

5. a medow

6. Some tall trees. Hunting Lake is surrounded by a dense forest.

7. I thought this log looked like a monster.

8. Blue Lupine.

9. These little blue butterflies were every where. Also some bigger butterflies and one flew down my shirt.

10. Butterflies were going crazy for these bushes. If you’ll look closely you’ll see a big one in the foreground.

11. This is my hubby in the hat, my daughter on the log and my daughter’s BF with his hands in his pockets.

12. more tall trees.

13. Sail boats on Huntington Lake

Bonus

I made a video of the road trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiSKrF1dPaM

Have you gone on a trip recently?

May 17 2012

Thursday’s Thirteen: Field trip to the Zoo

Field trips are always fun, and this trip to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo is for my research for the book I’m currently working on. It’ll feature space aliens dating humans and this field trip is research for one of the dates.

***Since my birthday was yesterday that means a chance for free gift. Leave a comment with your email for a drawing for one of my hand decorated mini surfboards.***

1. Blue crested pigeon or simply Crested Pigeon. Yup, even though this bird in no way in shape or form looks like the common pigeon, it is one.2. Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

3. Pink and Gray Gala

4. Here’s someone trying to make a friend. I’m not sure what type of parrot this is.

5. A King parrot surveying his kingdom from his lofty perch.

I was disappointed that they didn’t have any lorikeets, I feature them in the second book of Windswept Shores (if I can ever get the thing polished enough to send out).

6. A lioness on a hand carved bench at the zoo.

7. Here we have the giraffes feeding station, where you can pay to feed the giraffes and for a couple of bucks more have a picture taken with them.

8. Fresno is hundreds of mile from the coast, yet here are some Harbor seals.

9. Lemurs

10. Black swan

11. This is the peacock that decided to take a leisurely stroll right through the outside eating area of the snack shack with a little boy trailing behind.

11. A bushy tailed squirrel that ate a discarded French fry

12. Oryx from Africa and parts of Arabia is actually a type of antelope.

13. Pink Flamingos are found in Africa, but they’re also found in the Bahamas.

Ah, you didn’t think I could link it in with my book, did you.

Windswept Shores Except:

“You’ve got some fruit on your face.” She peeked over her sunglasses so she could run her thumb over his chin, along his bottom lip. Their gaze met, but when the look in Seth’s gray eyes turned intense, Megan became uncomfortable.

That’s dumb. You never touch a man you’re not married to so intimately. Embarrassed she stepped away.

Seth sucked in his bottom lip, running his tongue over it, still watching her.

His eyes look like the coals when the fire burns down, but you know they’re still hot and will flare-up at any moment. She gave herself a mental shake. Damn, I’ve been staring into fires too long. Megan wandered over to a small stream trickling through the rocks to rinse her hands.

“Uh, Megz?”

“Yes.” She shook water off her hands.

“Thank you.”

“What for?” She glanced at him.

“I reckon I didn’t thank ya for the food and the clothes.” He plucked at his Hawaiian shirt, wrinkled from sleep and getting wet earlier. “Also fer putting me up last night.”

“You mean putting up with you?” She chuckled. “I’m sure you’d do the same for me.”

“Orright, mate, anything ya need, I’ll be there.” He picked up his pack. “Ready to go?”

She slung her backpack over her shoulders. “Yes.”

Seth climbed a boulder. He gave Megan a hand up, pulling her next to him. “The going will be a bit rough, stay close so you can call-out if you need help.”

“Okay.”

They made their way over the rocks. Shrubs tried to make a foothold along this barren area. The skeleton of the ones that didn’t make it were everywhere. Megan grabbed a bone-white branch for support, but it broke in her hands.

Seth held her steady. “Careful, mate, dry rot has set in.”

They climbed the ridge to a safer spot, but disturbed some nesting sea-birds. They squawked their alarm as they took wing.

Seth moved ahead to climb up on a boulder and gazed around with one hand shading his eyes. Megan stepped up beside him, and then he turned to her. “Megz, look there.” He pointed. “That’s my mate’s boat, but see, she’s got herself beached.” Rushing down the slope he jumped from rock to rock.

Megan watched him with raised eyebrows. He’s a kangaroo.

She hurried to catch-up, stepping down between two widely spaced boulders, loose rocks rolling under her feet. “Uh-oh.” Losing her balance, she grabbed a branch which broke, causing her to slip down a steep area. She tumbled into a dead bush, and felt a sharp pain in her right thigh. “Ouch,” she cried. “Seth, help!”

Windswept Shores from Pink Petal Books: http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Windswept-Shores-Janice-Seagraves.html

Windswept Shores for the kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Windswept-Shores-ebook/dp/B003URROMW

Windswept Shores for the nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/windswept-shores-janice-seagraves/1025707130

***Don’t forget to leave a comment with your email address***

The drawing for the hand decorated (my me) mini surfboard will be held this Sunday, May 20, 2012.

Mar 27 2012

Field Trip: to Hunting Lake

The last field trip I got distracted by water, but on this trip I got distracted by snow.

I hadn’t been to the snow in years.

I was rather gleeful to finally see snow. I wanted to dig my hand into it.

This is Shaver Lake.

From Wikipedia: Shaver Lake is an artificial lake on Stevenson Creek, in the Sierra National Forest of Fresno County, California. At elevation 5,500 ft (1,700 m), several smaller streams also flow into the lake and receives water from the underground tunnels of Southern California Edison’s Big Creek hydroelectric project.^[1] The town Shaver Lake is located on its south-west shore.
Here’s my husband saying, “I’m freezing!”

This is me, imagining where my alien compound will be.

You see a bit of Shaver Lake in this photo. The water level is still really low because they were working on the dam.

Lovely view of a snowy hill though. Parents were taking their kids here to slid down the snow.

A better shot of the snowy hill.

I might use this shot for a Christmas card.

Here’s my husband again. He’s pretending his hand is caught in the crack.

Don’t worry, he’s okay.

This is me again with that same boulder behind me.

Hubby takes one last look at the lake before we leave.

Took this photo on the way up to Huntington Lake.

Snow on top of the mountain.

Hubby pulled over so I could take this photo.

More snow.

Believe it or not–this is a creek.

It’s just buried under snow.

At last we made it to Huntington Lake

I posted this one larger so you can see the ice sheet over the lake.

Amazing isn’t it?

This is the snow covered mountain behind us as we stood looking at the lake.

Dock at Huntington Lake.

Here we turned around and headed back home.

With all the snow and ice we were afraid we’d hit a patch of black ice and slid right off the road.

I like this cabin. I think I’ll have it in one of my Arcon Alien Stories.

This is how high the snow was along the side of the road.

We noticed this mountain on the way back down. This photo was taken from the car. The little droplets are water on our windshield.

I’m not sure if you can see it or not, but there are grooves in the snow from skiers.

I hope you enjoyed my field trip.

The infromation that I gathered from this trip will be in my Arcon alien stories or Exodus Arcon Series, which will be a SF romance series that I hope to launch sometime this year.

For more information on my Arcons, check out my free read.