Tonight is Easter night for those folks who follow the holidays.  This is the way the Ahwahnee looks tonight.  It is april 4, 2010.  Maybe this will be our last snow storm of the season.  Maybe.  But earlier this morning we had our big lawn decorated with colorfull flat bunnies running across the green velvet lawn.

Earlier, like at 7 in the morning I was outside litter picking the lawn for the celebration of the hopping bunnies and I spotted a wayward egg, and I thought, " oh goodie, the bunnie came and left me an egg."  Ha, ha...as I put it in my pocket I see Christina exit the Sweet Shop holding up bunnie ears, tail, and bright pink bow tie, "put this on" she hollers to me.  So then I realized the egg was not meant for me so I tucked it back in its green hideout alongside the hopping bunnies...took Christina's offering and put the ears on my head.

Guests got a laugh at the litter picking lady wearing bunny ears.  I got my aqua mate and went inside the Hotel to water the plants and continued wearing my bunny ears.  I felt so silly....a bunny eared plant lady watering her orchids.  The guests got quite the laugh and I had to volunteer a few authentic bunny hops to complete the theatrical event.  In our Solarium a curving table was decorated with Easter Bags and colorful soft rabbits.  The children were given an Easter Bag and then escorted out into the meadow to search for more Easter Eggs.

Our feathered friends, the Ravens, had gotten to some of the eggs before the children made it out doors.  Some found the egg leavings from discarded Raven gatherings...and others more fortunate, got there before the Ravens ate the eggs.

Some of the guests made great sport out of my little white bunny tail and others loved the pink sparkly ears.  It was fun for us all and the best part was being a spiritual part of the event.  Our Ahwahnee Bunny Host, Sarah wore ears also and a pink satan bunny jacket that looked runway perfect. (I did not see 1,500 children however.)  The few we did have searched the fresh spring green grasses and graced their faces with sparkling smiles of delight at the Easter Bags.  Then everyone wandered off to hike before the snow came down, soft and wet...

Our sitting bridge looks like this tonight.  This snow will be melted by morning or the afternoon.  It is our typical spring snow, wet and heavy but beautiful.  So far it measures about 2 inches.  This bridge and the path beyond were swept by me today...they were clean and clear.  Our porters with their luggage racks and carts, and our housekeepers with their fully loaded carts  require clean paths for easy rolling.  The pine needles and the little pieces of branches that flicker and fall, sprinkle about everywhere with no designated space nor position.

     The woods are a giant web of intricate lace, dry, wet or covered in snow.  If you are a ground person, or a walking person all you can see at eye level is a lattice network of wood taking up the entire space around you.  Sometimes it is impossible to see through the forest.  Some of the trees are so big and the giant trees populate the area intensely the area becomes filled with giant growing wooden stalks...I call the living trees, the soldiers of Yosemite because they stand guard and their function is to keep us alive by purifiying our air, and they provide houses or homes for all creatures, and they provide warmth when there branches are used for kindling or for a fireplace...well maybe not these trees directly, but trees in general.  Our Yosemite trees are more sacred than this.

Yet during the big winds, they become humble and loose their grip on the earth and tumble in great yielding descent to the forest floor.  Then tons of wood crash with sound of crackling and thunder and the earth trembles and shakes and the tree digs into the soft swollen ground, embedding itself and surrendering back to the mother earth, thus it begins its decaying process.  And the wood becomes home to other forest inhabitants, like grubs, and ants, and beetles and squirrels that make use of the old soldiers for hiding their acorns or pine nuts, to consume them later when hunger comes.

Trees like this fall.  Seldom, but the last few storms have yielded tons of downed wood.  Mostly Black Oaks and some of these along the roads of 41.  They have been falling quite often this year so we must be cautious and watch the wind cells up on the 41.  One fell in front of my vehicle as I was traveling back into the Valley and it was perhaps 4 feet in diameter and when I gave it a little push it would not budge.  It fell completely across the road, and split like a toothpick, yet to move it required a call to 911 and a large earth mover had to come in the middle of the night to push it off the road.  It was not the only fallen tree on the road.  A wind cell had whipped through the forest and the road was crisscrossed with entire trees and large limbs of these forest giants, some a 100 years or more old.  We live and occupy space in a high risk mountain.

This is our snow blower.  We used it once this year.  And I waxed it once this year.  It makes so much noise the upstairs windows of the Ahwahnee rattle from the sound of the blower.  And it gets clogged up and when that happens it stops working.  It was more useless and less effective than my shovel.  If we allow the weather systems to operate, the snow melts off within a day and so far has not gotten deep enough to be of concern.  One of my co-workers said it was 6 feet high one year.  This year we have seen it be a foot high perhaps and have had maybe 6 to 8 storms.  Sometimes rain and sometimes snow.

Tonight you get 3 out of 5 that are horizontal...tippy canoe and tyler too!

Weather is always a favorite topic at the Ahwahnee Hotel.  Everyone plans their day according to the sky or the condition of the air or the elemental effects on the ground or in the air.  Yosemite is an ever changing landscape and weatherscape.  The morning skies can be bristling cracking blue as sharp and pure as a new song put to the wind...by mid morning the high flying snow mists filter in along the upper edges of the towering grey granite cliffs spilling down upon the tall evergreens and soon we have rain drops and or snow drops... the weather climate is a moment to moment mixture of turbulent temperatures, dominated by a coolness or perhaps a coldness depending on the mood of the wilderness environment.

This March we have had golden leaves, snow storms that appeared out of nowhere and looked like they were preparing to build the next glacier and then much to my chagrin have been spirited away a quick melt, leaving old brown pine needles scattered about the lawns and paths and meadows in there helter skelter disarray.  Then the dust came.  The forest floor for all the wet a few hours before quickly became a dry dusty  brown scatting up in polluted billows.

We do have green tips showing on all the trees and we have out first Crocus's leaving out.  Soon the Dogwood trees will be showering us in their full glory of whiteness.  They say the flowers exit the bark before the leaves.  I can hardly wait.

I did find lupines and jonquils in a vase behind the elevators.  Some guest must have found these on a hike or they were part of an Easter bouquet.  Speaking of Easter, I was looking for all the bunnies and Easter Eggs today, but saw neither.  I guess that is because Irish Leprechans know that Easter Bunnies do not lay Easter eggs.

The problem I have with my life is like this photo.  I can never quite figure out how to do things correctly.  I would really love to figure out how to rotate images.  The best I can do is  is enter the image and turn my head sideways.  It is inconvenient, but it gives my neck a  little exercise.

This is the steady gurgle of spring snow melt that flows in continual song across the Ahwahnee property.  I keep a watch out for fallen branches that make their way down or across these streams because they tend to block the water flow.  Another detrius that prevents water flow are the billions of pine needles that fall into the streams.  Beavers ought to use them to build dams.  They are excellent at slowing water flow and diverting regular channels.  They make a game out of prevention pathways, as they lattice in intricate divisions all gurgle and rivelets of water that attempt to pass and make head way down to the rushing Merced River.

This is another sign of spring.  When the youth come out of hiding down in Camp 4 and take to the Bouldering pathways along the Royal Arches.  Our huge boulders are marked and mapped for consistant trial and error attempts at the heights or on the parallel.  You have to be able to hang-on no matter what angle the rock is setting and if you are for real climbing way up...well...do not let go.  Finger, Toe, nor leg cramps are not part of the climbers gig.  This boulderer is teaching a class of novices the techniques of the sport.  To learn how to become a rock climber, usually you can start by bouldering in order to learn proper hand and foot  holds.  However Bouldering in Yosemite is as much of a sport and a fun day spent on the rocks than Rock Climbing the Walls with gear, such as pitons and ropes.  One of the more popular climbs is up the Serenity...and up the Royal Arches by the water falls...during the summer and late Indian summer months we have seen as many as 8 climbers at a time working their way up to the summit of the wall.  I was indeed startled one day by the adventures of a climber who was near the cliff where the rocks had been  falling and on that particular day there was another rock slide or rock fall and it was nearby the climbers were working to the top.  They kept moving on up dauntless.  It is a risky sport and those willing and brave know the dangers, and do it anyway in the same spirit of fearlessness as the Search and Rescue Teams go about their business of collecting stranded climbers off of the cliffs.  The interesting thing is that both sets of adventurers learn the same skills and know the same dangers and when not rescuing, SARS members head out into the wilderness to enjoy it just the same as the day climber or hiker does on his personal quest for adventure.

Today at the Ahwahnee it looks like this only with raindrops falling from the sky.  I hope I run into folks that know where rain comes from.  I posted this photo for my friend Patricia because she has not been to Yosemite to visit me yet and has not seen the Ahwahnee Hotel because she is busy earning her Bachelors Degree.  I think the only degree I am earning is my Yosemite Degree.  But it will definitely look good on my resume.

Easter is upon us and out on the Wedding Lawn and the Solarium Lawn, our Hotel is staging 3 easter egg hunts and one fabulous wedding.  We are expecting some 1,500 children and families for the Easter  Celebrations.  It was reported to me that the Easter Bunny will be here and in fact there might be more than one...I do know that we have live green Easter Bunnies in the dining room.  For the last few weeks me and my co-worker have been daily bathing the bunnies and keeping their vines growing in the moss...you see these bunnies are special.  They have been created out of wire frames, covered with moss and then bound with see through thread and planted with ivy vines.  They look rather green!  Fresh to say the least.

Our weather today has been pleasant and just tonight it got rainy.  It has been pouring down and we Yosemites expect it to snow soon.

All day today I have been misting the orchids in the Hotel.  Then the rest of the day I spent outside on the lawns, preparing them for our weekend guests.  I picked up sticks and rocks and deer drops and cones.  Some of the cones were full and some were totally eaten by the families of squirrel and chipmunks that scurry about our spring green gardens.  I filled two gator beds full for the trash dump.

For lunch I heated up a quick dinner of southwest chicken.  Now why would I do that when we have the best gourmet kitchen food in all of Yosemite?  30 minutes and no time to savor the delicious food is my only reason.  I like to relax when I enjoy my meal.  By the time I walk up the stairs to clock out, walk down the stairs and down the hallway, say hello to everyone, wait my turn, put in an order, get my dishes, my silverware, walk through the very busy kitchen filled with hub-bubing waiters, busers, servers, and cooks and managers, and squeeze past the bread section and the meat section and the veggie section to the last door on the left and then squeeze into the small dining area, the one for employees and locate an empty space, pull off the chairs and put them on the floor and set up my food dishes, my drink, pull out my chair, and take off my hat, my gloves, my coat and then finally sit down to eat...it is time for one bite, one sip of lemonade and stand and leave again...pick up my dirty dishes and my  drink cup and redress and squeeze back out past all the other hungry diners in the employees dining area...whew, I am tired of eating.  It is more work to take a 30 minute lunch break and call it eating, than it is to work 8 hours plus an 1 of overtime for helping in housekeeping, and omit lunch altogether.

This is Anthony checking over the delicious Sunday Buffet specially prepared for guests on Sunday.  This is served in the relaxing atmosphere of the Ahwahnee Hotel dining room.  The dining room overlooks the meadows and if you look out the surrounding windows toward the south west end you can see the grand display of Yosemite Falls decorated with its legendary winter ice cone.

If we are lucky we will have a taste of leftovers at the end of the serving day.  Last Sunday we had a plate of lime jello fluff molded onto a flaky crust and nestled snuggily inside was a tidbit of chocolate fluff.  It was melt in your mouth good.

Snow at the Ahwahnee

The Inuit and the Eskimos have many words for snow.  The Inuit have at least 300 words for snow and the Eskimos I have heard have at least 3,00 words for the white stuff.  Wondering why is not an option now, because multiple words for snow, after living and working in the snow In YNP at the Ahwahnee, really is understandable.

We had reports from a couple of guests who made stellar comments about our snowfall lately.  One couple, from Florida asked what it was that was falling from the sky.  Apparently they had never seen snow before and were quite shocked by it.  They said, "we had no idea that snow came from the sky!"  They were from Florida and had never seen snow before.  I wonder if they  know where hurricanes come from or rain?  I wonder if they had ever heard anyone from New York say, "we are visiting Florida because we wanted to get away from the cold and snow of New York!"  But then I have always wondered where allegators came from.  Maybe someone knows the answer!

The second guest said he loved our snow.  He talked to me as I was shoveling snow off the emergency stairs.  He says to me, "what are the stairs for and why are you shoveling the snow off of them?"  So I says to him, "These stairs are our emergency stairs in case of fire or some other extreme circumstance."  He says oh!  He then says, "I love it here.  You know we have been here only three days and so far we have seen and experienced it all."  I ask, "What do you mean?"  And he replied, " Our first day here it was warm and sunny, like summer or early spring.  The second day we were here it rained in torrents and the air was wet with water and the skys were boiling.  Our third day here it snowed all night and is still snowing...look at this, it is a beautiful wonderland of white.  This is so wonderful.  We just love this.  We have experienced it all!"

Truely we are given the four seasons up here at Yosemite National Park and we have not even gotten to spring or summer yet.  Last August of 2009 it was Indian summer and the full of fall and the it got cold, but it still was not winter.  We had golden leaves everywhere then the weather put dark brown colors on the oaks and dropped off all foliage.  Well alot of it anyway.  It never puts all the leaves on the ground.  Some just hang on for dear life, not wanting the changes of nature to take place.  Then followed the snows of winter.

The first snows of early winter were colder than the snows of spring.  The snow was lighter and seemed to hold less water.  The snows now in March of 2010 are heavy with water.  They are very white and bright and then they fluff down and settle everywhere, but this spring snow does not stay long.  What fell is nearly all gone within a day and it leaves behind rivelets and streams and waterways everywhere.  Beneath the waters is the thick dark earth filled with wetness, and grass seeds and as soon as the sun strikes its surface it drys out and becomes dust of the finest of particles.  If you kick up this dust it flies everywhere.

Snow has many qualities.  We think of snow as one type of substance: a white fluffy ground cover that drops from the sky.  If you watch the snow dropping from the clouds you notice the sizes of snow flakes varies with temperature of the air, the altitude of the snowfall, the water or moisture content of the snow, and the location of the snow...what side of the mountain it is on or if it is on the peak or down the valley.  If the wind blows we see angles of falling flakes.  If there is not wind then it drops.  Sometimes it drops thick and fast and sometimes it just filters down in a lovely slow sprinkle, like sifting a small amount of powdered sugar on top of a cake.  The moment it sets to the ground the heat from the earth begins to make the snow change and it melts or, not.  If the air and the ground are cold then the snow becomes hard and sometimes it turns to ice or becomes hard just like a granite slab.

The famous ice rock climber Kurt Diemberger, the author of Summits and Secrets describes endless details of ice and snowfall variations that he has endured while conquering Chologlisa, the Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush, the North Face of the Eiger, the North Face of the Matterhorn...and many other mountains.  Where we live in Yosemite we see walls to climb, however the snow is settled upon granite and is not like the ice cliffs that Diemberger describes in his books.  The point is snow is not bounded by a few words, nor by a few locations, snow is complex and after living in it and around it you can develop a deep appreciation for its many properties, including those of learning how to use snow to save your life.

Mountaineers use snow to build makeshift shelters for the night and create ice caves to stay warm, not unlike our ancient ancestors of  10,000 years ago, or early man who trekked across the wilderness and used snow for his temporary shelter.  Not unlike the Eskimos who never left the ice fields because they knew and understood all the words and all the properties of our miraculous weather condition: snow.

Most Americans I have known use one word...snow  or two, snowflakes.  And sometimes we express this grand verbal sentiment: "Oh My God! The snow is falling!"  Wow and we think we have said a mouthful, as well something intelligent.

Lots of snow means we have lots of water, maybe.  If the snow is dry with low moisture content, we are out of luck.  Like in Utah.  They get great powder for skiing, but not high moisture content for soaking the ground and giving the living waters back to the earth and its creatures.  Yosemite does produce snow storms that give us snow with high moisture content and I am sure this makes people feel the liquid wealth from our skies.

What a thriller this was.  I was suprised by a birthday cake for my 66th birthday.  It was such fun and I felt loved and blessed by all my new friends from our thriller gig at the Loft.  Connie, who made the cake out of white batter and coconut frosting, also added candles, although I am certain it was not 66 candles.  I did make a wish.  And I did blow them all out.  That means I will get my wish.  If I can remember what I wished for...joke! We have put together a video and it will be on UTube very soon...perhaps under the heading...ThrillTheWorld..maybe Yosemite after.  We were all celebrating in a secret location...on the meadow.  We all contributed something to the party.  Mine was my favorite bags of chips and a cake.  I brought a cake because I did not know they were going to suprise me with the above...Connie is a fabulous cook by the way.  It was a 10 star cake.

Our friend and fellow dancer Greg Bruner took this photo.  I did not know anyone had brought a camera.  I got one of this on my camera, but it is still locked away in a memory chip.  Thanks Greg I really appreciate this sentiment.  I was wearing my pink thermals printed with tiny cute cartoon reindeer.  I do not think anyone could see the reindeer.  They look like music notes, but they are really reindeer feet.  Right now I wish I was younger and prettier.

The only present I got for my birthday was a handknit scarf that I knitted for myself because I fell in love with the soft pastel colored yarn.  My grand daughter made me a second cake with no candles and chocolate batter decorated with white frosting.

Now I have to make a bucket list, since the years are beginning to pile up on me.  Still no prospects for a husband though...OMG I do not even have a boyfriend.  But I do have a great job and it is working at DNC in YNP and they do something that no one has ever done for me...they pay us to work on our birthdays, even if we do not work!  And if we work on our birthdays we are given time and a half in pay.  Fancy that! A company birthday present...that is the coolest.

During Christmas of 2009 we all celebrated in some way.  This was a gathering of NPS and DNC employees to express their Christams sentiments and enjoy a potluck together.  This was sponsored in part by the local Yosemite Chapel and the nativity performance was staged at the local Yosemite School.  The school is nestled near the government housing area and is showered upon continually by the steady roar of the famous Yosemite Falls.  Many people were there and some drove up the curvy 140 road from El Portal to celebrate.

We sang Christmas songs and ate delicious food and visited among the gathered crowd.  Eventually at the end of the evening Santa Claus appeared and we watched the children tell Santa their Christmas wishes.

The Yosemite School is for grades K - 12.  If I were a child I would love to attend school their.  I can't think of a more beautiful setting than this where I could learn and grow.  This school will probably produce the next set of Park Rangers and Foresters and Ecological Environmentalist.  Housing in one of the classrooms is a completed project, one that I always wished I had the time to do:  a mobile of a thousand origami cranes floating in the air.  These cranes arranged in a group of a thousand according to Japanese legend, are a living symbol of eternal peace.

They also have a community project in the works.  It is a story of Yosemite and this large circular mosaic tablet will be placed on the front entrance wall of the Yosemite School.  Eventually.

If I were a teacher i can not think of a more wonderful place to teacher.  All the children are bright and enthusiastic because of the positive environment and the encouragment of all the teachers.  This school will produce exceptional people who have been educated in an exceptional location...Yosemite National Park.  How great thou art....

El Cap

One solid plutonic rock soaring thousands of feet above the Yosemite Valley floor that has been dated by geologists to be approximately 82 million years old, El Capitan is a world reknowned challenge to Class 5  Rock Climbers and photograpers with an eye for the perfect picture.   Just to pass by in an automobile is an experience as one can feel the mightly presence of the rock as it rises far and above, often lifting its stretching top into the tumble of fluffy clouds.  The altitude alone is breathtaking,

The road to Yosemite Valley literally takes you into the bowels of the earth, so to speak, since the surrounding environment is grandorite walls that loft skybound into the cooler upper atmosphere, while you remain on the Valley floor, as small and tiny as a  colorful butterfly in spring, or  a grasshopper hidden by meadow grasses.  One felled tree was laden with 135 rings, while others still standing might be even older as these ancient soldiers stand and sway,  guardians of all that goes on within the Walls and Cliffs of Yosemite.

While you are enthralled watching and viewing cliffs as you may have never seen them before, and trees whose heights may astound you, please be ever mindful of the unguarded dangers that may catch you unaware due to your detachment from your normal earthly reality.  What might that be you ask?  Say for instance you stop your car and get out, forgetting that the road in is a one way road, and perhaps you just stop without pulling over because you do not see any approaching cars.  Well, cars are not supposed to drive over 25 miles per hour in the Valley, however Yosemite boasts 3.5 to 4.1 million visitors and guests per year.  If the road is open and the weather is pleasant, someone will be on the road.  You can count on it!  Pull over and shut off your car engine.  Look both ways and all around and then be mindful of picture taking.  Many people loose themselves in the beauty of the scenery and they forget to be careful.

Everyone wants the perfect picture and we all have to be in the right spot, according to our own perceptions to get it.  This often means we do not look where we are going at eye level and oops, we step into a gully or soft meadow patch or trip over a rock, loosing our foresight in our photo conquest.  Our camera, digital or expensive telephoto goes flying and we can land boot side up with mud on our lense.

Some dauntless visitors stand smack, road to their middle and stop traffic or naught...making the ultimate picture their very last vision.  Believe me, those cliffs and walls will be their finger click or naught, so watch out where you are walking and then stop when you are safe and still and then click away my friends.

Please realize you are in a National Park and it is a wildlife habitat and a forest.  The latter is important because while the trees tower from 5 stories to perhaps 30 or 40 stories high on an average...when limbs and branches break they come a crashing down and the wood in one seeminly small branch is quite heavey.  Falling from a distance far above your 5 or 6 foot human body,  the branch can accumulate a speed and an impact that is deadly.  My suggestion is to pay acute attention to the sounds around you.  Many visitors wear headphones or play music off their ipods...not a good idea in Yosemite.  Listening to the music of the forest is for certain a better way to survival and ensuring your safety.  Those strong branches, that are often falling, make great music and the sound they play is the sound of them warning you to pay attention and hop out of the way.

Yosemite is a geologists paradise.  While rocks can be an absorbing study of geometry, and an artists delight of shifting colors, from grays to whites to blacks to golds, all depending of the moment of light and tones of the shadows, the rocks themselves are never stable and are always moving.  Well, maybe not right at the moment you are there, but they will and you do not know when, and that is why you have to pay attention and be alert.  Again rocks send out warnings and if you are  listening to the rocks or the walls or the cliffs, you can hear them speaking to you.  Rocks make music just like your ipod does, and if you are listening to their voices, it could save your life, however, outside music only provides background noise, drowning out the low growl of shifting granite walls, or the heavey clunking music of descending granite cascades tumbling and grinding rock over rock in a thunder of vertical descent.  Listen to the sounds of the forests.

The trees, the rocks, the waterfalls....are the music of the forests, and these also are punctuated by the bird calls from ravens, bluejays, and other creatures that hide themselves from public veiw.  Know that they are there.  And if you listen you can hear the music of the forest...the music of Yosemite.