The Blonde American and the Naxi Herder

We're in a very rural village today that is about 1100 years old. It is pronounced Bai Sha.


The village is surrounded by beautiful mountains.


I left our tour group this morning for an adventure of my own. I walked off the main drag of town and headed for a dirt road that led into the mountains. The views from that road were spectacular and stretched to the horizon. There were corn fields, Chinese style homes, rice paddies, mountains and vistas. It was a feast for the eyes. I began climbing a road that twisted up the mountainside until I got to a clearing where an old Chinese man was leaning on his cane. He gestured to me and I thought, "Why not?", and followed him. He was a Naxi (pronounced Nasi) cattle herder. The Naxi's are native to this area in the Yunnan Province.
The Naxi herder had about 10 cows and 6 dogs with him. His face was lined with age. His skin was dark from the sun. And while his teeth were yellowed and crooked, his smile was beautiful. He had only a simple wooden cane and a tattered backpack.

He wouldn't let me take his photograph (but I sneaked a few anyway). We traveled together up the mountainside following his cattle. The only words we had in common were "thank you" in Chinese (pronounced ju bai say) and "hello" in English, but somehow we managed. I'm sure it was quite the scene: an American blonde who is a bit clumsy and an agile, old Chinese man traipsing up the mountain. He showed me these old stone structures, which I later found out was a graveyard. He tried to teach me some words as he chattered to himself in Chinese. He also looked through my journal and was excited to see the only Chinese writing, which symbolized the word "China". He pointed to himself and said something like "chin quoi", which means Chinese, and then he pointed at me and said "men quoi", which I took to mean American or foreigner.

Mostly he enjoyed watching me take photos of his cattle and was amazed that he could see the finished product on the camera screen. He taught me how to move the cattle up the mountainside and together we made the gutteral Chinese sound that was a signal to the livestock. When we hit the road again we parted ways. He pointed at himself and gestured farther up the mountain. Then he pointed at me and gestured down the mountain. I thanked him many times for his kindness. The whole time I was torn between two feelings: fear that I would lose my way as we traveled through the mountains higher and higher, and exhilaration at being able to have this experience. Happily, the fear dissipated as I started seeing familiar sights and I was left with the feeling of exhilaration. Daughter

I'm Here!

A visit to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square certainly stirred up some reactions. I traisped across the square so I could see the bullet holes on a statue; the only evidence of the Tiananmen Square protests and resulting massacre in 1989. When I took pictures of the guards I got yelled at and one guard help up his hand and said, "No pictures!" in English.
The Great Wall is absolutely breathtaking. It seems almost rainforest-like with all the greenery and the mist that hangs in the sky. One of the group members got lost while we were hiking the wall and she ended up walking 25 kilometers. The Great Wall is a huge place and there are six different entrance points. She was lost for about 3 hours or more until she got to a police station. I was actually a little jealous (I know that's not a good thing) because it sounded like she had quite the adventure.

The Chinese peoples' reactions to me have been a bit unnerving. At the Great Wall two young Chinese girls kept taking pictures of me and then they both wanted to take pictures with me and they were so excited. Everytime I saw them they would shyly smile and wave and just watch me. I guess I am an oddity here.
A visit to a Cloisonne factuory was amazing. Cloisonne is original to China although now people associate it to France. Cloisonne is made out of copper and then a design is made and painted.
This is a Naxi man in native dress in Li Jiang. To get this picture, I had to pay the man 2 yuan...less than 50 cents. The Naxis are similar to American Indians. They were originally in Mongolia, but the Mongols drove them out and they settled in Li Jiang. In Li Jiang a beautiful woman is one that is dark and very fat...I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder! Daughter

Splenfloriferous

A trip to the SW part of Colorado over several mountain passes led to some splendid scenes of color. The aspen in the high country were beginning to turn...not quite at peak but still a beautiful show with the mountains framing the background.
For those who think that Colorado is dull and brown take another look at the range of colors...yellows, golds, blues, ambers. Mother Nature's palette is full of colors.
I do hate to see the leaves changing as that means that winter will soon be following. Summer definitely was not long enough and I am not ready to give up my shorts and tops for wool socks, hats and mittens. Oh if only fall would linger for a time longer! Mom

China: A Contradiction in itself

I head to China tomorrow. Wow, even as I write that I can't believe it. I really have no idea what to expect, especially since my research has led me to a complex history that seems at odds with itself. Take Mao Zedong. His image is everywhere in China. The Chinese revere and celebrate him. But under Zedong's leadership, between 40 and 70 million people died, which according to some historians is more than the death toll under Stalin and Hitler. How can someone whose policies and reforms killed so many people be so avidly adored and honored? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Even the political and economic systems seem to be in conflict. On one hand China is Communist, but on the other it has a market economy. Deng Xiaoping led this economic reform and argued that socialism and a market economy are not incompatible. I would argue that ruling a country with an iron fist does run contrary to the ideas of a market economy, which depends on some level of market freedom.

It's funny because the Chinese also venerate their history, which is one of the oldest in the world, but they don't seem to care about the physical manifestations of that history. In Beijing, old homes, buildings, temples and landmarks were torn down at a rapid rate to make way for the new China. Under Zedong, each of Beijing's entrance gates--Xibian Gate, the Gate of Earthly Peace, Chaoyang Gate, Dongzhi Gate, Chongwen Gate, etc.--were demolished. Again, it just seems inconsistent from my perspective.

Even the country's official name, the People's Republic of China, seems to be an oxymoron, as the people have no voice because it is suffocated by the government.

I certainly don't claim to know all of the events that contributed to the China we know today and I can't begin to understand everything. But the small perspective I have gained as an outsider looking in is that the country is full of contradictions. Right now it doesn't make much sense to me and unfortunately I don't know that it will make any more sense after my trip because I can't freely ask questions and if I do, I'll probably get the generic, government-mandated answers. So I leave tomorrow on this journey and can't imagine what I will encounter, but I hope I will be able to share my perspective--which will only be a small slice of the truth--with you. Daughter.

Update on Gramps

Since Gramps repadded the sax and had it tuned, he decided to get some "How to play the sax" books and began his journey into the world of music. After practicing the scale and learning the notes he has now mastered "Jingle Bells" (should be ready for Christmas), "Abide with Me" and "When the Saints Come Marching In". He blows on his sax for about 45 minutes every day and is enjoying this new found hobby. I guess you can never be too old to try something. Grandmother.

Backcountry Camping

As mom mentioned, our family went backcountry camping in Glacier National Park.  This was pretty much unprecedented for everyone but my husband, who has backpacked through the Australian Outback.  

My brother and sister-in-law have experience camping in the Boundary Waters but camping when you have a canoe is a little different than camping with a backpack, as they quickly learned about a mile into the hike.   They spent the rest of the trip calculating whether their little luxuries were worth it.  

My dad goes hunting each year so he's used to the perks of a hunting camp, where you have large, delicious meals and these little things called guns which protect you from things like...bears.  Unfortunately, guns are not allowed in Glacier so we resorted to things like bear spray (like I'm actually going to let a bear get close enough to me so I can spray him) and chants like "Hey Bear" (which make us sound ridiculous).  Really great protection, huh?  Even though the safety video we watched said not to run because the bear could catch you, I thought well I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun at least one of my camp mates, so that was my plan.  Luckily, we didn't encounter any bears at least while backpacking.

As for my mom and me, let's just say our limited experience involves car camping, which again involves luxuries that I cannot fathom carrying on my back.  So needless to say, this was in the truest sense an adventure.  To bring a little of the adventure to you, here's a video of us hiking into our campground.  Be kind though, as this is my first experience recording video and I'm hiking, which as you can tell from my mom's admonishing may not be the smartest move.  But I didn't fall down the mountain!

Here are some photos of our campsite.  We spent our time fly fishing, reading in the hammock, napping, playing cards and most importantly drinking whiskey because no camping trip is complete without a little bit of booze.

This is where we had to hang all of our food, far, far away from our tents to ensure we didn't get any unwanted visitors.

And lastly here is a video of our trek out. We had a steep climb up the side of a mountain.

Only the promise of some hard-earned, ice cold, Montana brewed beer got us through it all. Daughter.

Goldilocks and the Bear

Just got back from a trip to Glacier National Park with the kids and kids-in-law. The photo is of Upper Quartz Lake where we backpacked and camped. We had a great trip, but it seems that bears are mistaking me for Goldilocks. On our last day in the park we went fly fishing on the North Fork of the Flathead River. My husband and I had been fishing in the morning downstream while our son-in-law checked out spots upstream. We had our bear spray with us, but had only seen sign of deer by the river.

After lunch our son-in-law said he had found a good spot by a beaver jam and had pulled out a lot of fish. My husband and I made our way down to that spot although he was slower than I was. I was reeling in a nice fish standing in the middle of the river by the time he got there. He went on past me and around a bend. Unfortunately the fish I was reeling in ended up breaking my line and taking my fly with him. I tied on another fly and cast several times but couldn't interest anything. About the time I took up my line and was going to check out how my husband was doing I sensed that I wasn't alone. I looked up to see a black bear 25 yards opposite me on the shore. About the same time I was looking at it and saying to myself, "That's a bear! Oh gosh...that's a bear!", the bear spotted me. I froze and then checked to see if I could see my husband because he had the bear spray....nope, no sign of him. Great!! Since we had viewed a presentation prior to backpacking on what to do when you encounter a bear, I did what they said...I started to walk slowly backwards. About this time the bear turned to leave, but for whatever reason he turned around again and stared at me. "Oh, oh...this can't be good!" I was still walking backwards but now was starting to shake. I was looking at the bear and then thought, "Oh don't look at the bear...quick! Look away!" The video had told us that bears will assume you are aggressive if you have eye contact with them. Geez, it's kind of hard not to look at the bear! About this time I was shaking so I did the next thing the video suggested...talk in a low voice. So I started saying, "Easy, easy" over and over. It was more for me than the bear because I wanted to turn and run, but that is the worse thing you can do. The bear kept staring at me but as I was getting closer to the oppposite bank, he finally decided to turn and headed into the trees. When I hit the shore I did a quick step watching over my shoulder to make sure that the bear wasn't following and yelled at my husband. About this time he had seen my peculiar backward two-step and realized that there must be a bear. He never did see it, but he had started making his way toward me. Of course I let him know in no uncertain terms that he was suppose to stay by me because he had the bear spray and I could have been attacked and drug off by the bear and that my life had flashed before my eyes. His response...he had the whole thing under control. Yeah, right!

I think I have had enough bear encounters this summer. I don't need to see any more! Mom

A Tote from Scraps

I am always looking for ways to use scraps of material from quilts I have made. While I was browsing the fabrics in my favorite quilt store I found this interesting tote pattern. It is from "Kimie's Quilts" and is a Country Tote. The pattern calls for 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 squares which works out well using my scrap stash. I have a hard time throwing any fabric away so the remnants are squirreled away in boxes, which were put to use in sewing this tote. I also collect buttons from jackets, shirts, dresses before they are recycled. These came in handy for this tote. I think it is even more interesting when they don't match. Love it when projects come from items on hand.
Grandmother