Desert rain flowers and tortoise rescue

 We caught the tail end of a hurricane coming up from Mexico and had a lovely cloudy/rainy few days here.  We took a drive one day to see if any waterfalls had started yet.  Nope.  The ground was still just sucking it up.  While driving out through Snow Canyon we saw a small desert tortoise along side the road on the pavement.  That's a very dangerous spot for them to be, so we stopped to take a look.  It was slurping up water from the pavement!  Even tortoises love the rain I guess.  We were worried it would  come to far out into the lane of traffic, so we stopped at the fee booth nearby to alert them so they could move it.  She said for us to just move it since she couldn't leave her place there.  We drove back and Paul carefully carried it off the road and behind some rocks to maybe keep it away.  Hopefully it found water to slurp from other places.  

We also took walks up by the Desert Garden and saw the effects of the rain on all of the beautiful desert plants up there! So lovely to see so many things blooming.  

Little bits of wisdom that I love

On my blog page layout there's a place called the sidebar-right.  It has things called gadgets.  They consist of a picture with some words...and they will not print in my blog books that I print every year.  I really like them, so I decided to put them on my regular blog as a post.  They take up a bit more room there than they do on the side, but I want them to print in this year's book.  Here they are.  I've been collecting these from the beginning of my blog years ago.   

Walk Lightly

"We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do." 

~ Barbara Ward

Wilderness

Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity for the human spirit! ~ Edward Abbey

Nature

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~ John Muir

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs

Flowers

The earth laughs in flowers. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Listen..

The earth has its music for those who will listen; Its bright variations forever abound. With all of the wonders that God has bequeathed us, There’s nothing that thrills like the magic of sound. 

~ Reginald Holmes

                                                                              Colors

Colors are the smiles of nature. ~ Leigh Hunt

  

Snow music

The snow is melting into music. ~John Muir

Nature's peace

"Climb the mountains to get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."

~John Muir

                                                                        Nature's heart

"Keep close to Nature's heart...break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." ~ John Muir

Supreme Creator...

...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. -- Alma 30:44

2 Nephi 4:34

"O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever."

Renewal of the spirit

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.  ~ Robert Lewis Stevenson

The finest workers of stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in, for it can be the means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope. ~ Wallace Stegner

Art

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ Pablo Picasso

America...

Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.  Ether 2:12

America is another name for opportunity. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Little drops of water, little grains of sand...

We, ourselves, feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things. ~ Mother Teresa

Life...

isn't about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Being happy...

doesn't mean everything's perfect. It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.

Look fear in the face

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Gifts...

The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example. ~ Thomas Morell

Legacy

Your legacy exists in the lives of people you’ve touched.

Motherhood

There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.

Love...

Real love stories never have endings.

Christmas gift from heaven...rain + more Christmas lights!

This crazy picture is of the rain puddle on our patio reflecting the Red Hill rocks behind our house!  That puddle hasn't dried up yet because of the wonderful rain we received in answer to long time prayers for rain.  It had been so long since we'd had any rain.  We had gray skies and then a lovely slow rain starting on Christmas Eve and lasting all night long.  Then we got a little more another day.  Christmas day itself was a beautiful, blue skies and rain washed day!  The desert responds to any water it can get with the wildflowers coming out!  We took a walk this morning and they were blooming everywhere!  So thankful for the rain!  It's a Christmas gift from heaven this year!  

A few nights after Christmas we finally went up to see the Christmas Lights at the Desert Garden.  We thought maybe it wouldn't be so crowded...we were wrong, but it was still fun!