Snow in Tahoe

I saw a lot of snow when I lived in Vermont. There were some occasional serious storms where we had to shovel snow off the roof for fear of its collapsing, but more or less, winters felt like living in a quiet snow-globe postcard with the fun challenge of driving around in it.

The week we were in Tahoe, it seems they were measuring snow in feet, not inches (and I think in yards up on the ski slopes). John and I arrived in Reno in the early evening and drove through a blizzard to get to Incline Village, where we were staying. The guy at the rental car place told us about an amazingly helpful Nevada website that reports road conditions & closures on a color-coded map. Some roads even had live webcams you could click on. The mountain pass to Incline was closed, so we drove around through Carson City and even that felt pretty harrowing, especially once it got dark, but we made it. In the morning we woke up to snowy lumps where cars were supposed to be. Hello, winter!

We were pretty much snowed in that first day as lot of the passes were still closed. We did manage to shovel out cars and the driveway and venture out to rent skis (downhill for John and his friends, cross-country for pokey old me!) This was the road back to the house after it was plowed:

Most roads looked pretty much like that the entire time we were there!

One of John’s relatives lives in Incline Village & I was so happy that we were able to meet up with her. She said one of her favorite things to do in the winter is watching the sunset at the beach. Off we went! I froze my butt off but it really was beautiful. I felt like an arctic explorer (thankfully with a hot shower waiting at the end of the day!)

The weather was so strange during our week in Tahoe. That first day was a bust for skiing, another day it rained & was too windy for the lifts to run, and on another there were storms that logged over a thousand lightning strikes which shut down the slopes. In between all that, I did manage to cross-country ski a handful of times, once in a lovely snowstorm. The lady at the trailhead ski lodge called me a brave soul (I was the only person out there besides a couple who were snowshoeing) and made me promise to check in with her when I got back.

On our last day I’d wanted to drive up to the Tahoe-Donner Cross-country Ski Center (it’s supposed to be one of the best in the country) but once again the pass was closed and it was snowing like crazy. I thought, well, okay, maybe I can at least get to something closer, but after seeing a couple car accidents, and encountering unplowed roads I didn’t want to take a chance on in a rental, I finally gave up. Instead I stuck close to the lake and stopped here and there to photograph it. These turned out to be some of my favorite photographs from the trip. I love that the blue-grey of the lake was just about the only “color.”

Driving back to the airport after the week was over, we decided to brave the pass. Ha ha ha! This is what it looked like for a good half of it:

Winter! I LOVED this trip. I loved that I got fresh air and exercise doing something that didn’t feel like exercise. I loved the giant icicles and the snow piles taller than I am. I loved the tall trees and skiing out in the middle of nowhere. And I love that spring is coming soon…

Hello from Lake Tahoe...

Greetings from the cross-country ski trails of Lake Tahoe, where I am thoroughly enjoying all the snow!

I’ve been feeling a little out of sorts lately and I can’t put my finger on why exactly. My guess is that it's a combination of a few things: I haven’t been sleeping well (kitty antics at 5am don’t help), my commitments to some volunteer positions I have are stressful lately, I haven’t been eating very well, nor have I been getting any exercise to speak of unless it's walking through an airport.

January came and went and we’re already halfway through February (?!) and I’m feeling the inevitable sense of “Holy cow, my June exhibition is going to be here before I know it and I’ve got an insane amount of work to do for that.” I love my life, but lately I’ve been edgy and the classic Retter "short fuse" is rearing its ugly head. We're mellow until all of a sudden we're not.

It couldn't be more perfect timing that I am cross-country skiing in Tahoe for a week. John tries to meet up with a friend of his every couple of years to go downhill skiing and this time I was able to tag along, going off on my own while the guys go zooming down the mountain. Tahoe feels like a winter wonderland dream come true and, best of all, it’s getting me outdoors in fresh air moving my body around for hours at a time. More photos to come.

Now to figure out how to keep up some version of this at home without feeling like like I’m “exercising.”
*sigh*

Life Lately: January

I took apart my desk calendar and hung the pages on my wall because 1. They were too pretty to just have them doled out one month at a time, and 2. I’m realizing that I need to see every month at once sometimes. There’s a lot coming up this year & it’s kind of exciting! By the time December rolls around I wonder what these pages will have filled up with.

So far I have loved January! Starting out the year by hanging up a huge exhibit was a great kick-off! It was a surprisingly satisfying thing to see my photographs out in the world again. I even sold a piece from the show already! The buyer and I chatted over the phone— I can’t wait to meet her when I take the show down in April and give her the photograph in person.

Then there were the snowstorms! It finally feels like winter, ahhh. I was even able to go cross-country skiing, which felt like such a treat.

It got pretty cold too… here is Sherman looking out the window at 7 super-puffed-up robins who were perched in the courtyard trees.

Miss Hazel. I love her so much! She is growing but still has that “little kitten” meow which I hope never goes away.

She is giving Sherman a run for his money (and I think Sherm is happy to finally have a friend he can have some fun with).

John came home with these beautiful flowers! I cut them short and put them into the one ceramics project of mine that was a success. I love the turquoise/purple combo.

In the studio… I’ve started working on finishing my Tiny Poems book. Yesterday I spent a couple hours sorting through sample packs of Japanese papers to see what I might use for printing. In the process, I was hit with an idea for another little project… sometimes the perfect paper leads you straight to the project it’s perfect for :-)

Also art-related: I’m excited to be working out the details of new collaborative projects with the Ohio State School for the Blind and also with Project Jericho in Springfield.

So yes! A lovely January. How is your 2019 so far?