Sands and Sunrises

 Sand, yes that is a color


Please bear with me while I explain what I have been up to.


On Christmas Day I flew with my family to Las Vegas and we drove to Death Valley

When we left Las Vegas we had to drive for 2 hours through a desert with no sign of civilization except for some correctional facility in the Middle of Nowhere, Nevada.

Have you ever been to

Photo courtesy of MB Post

If you have then you know that it's in the middle of nothing, nowhere, surrounded by even less, but it is the color of sand... everywhere...

My footprints.. Death Valley National Park, 12/26/14

even at night...

 Mosaic Canyon., at night, 12/25/14

This post is about sand because from the moment we left the city of Las Vegas to about three hours after we left Death Valley that is all there was to see.

But it's really not that bad.  It turns out sand can be fun.  We spent a lot of time walking  in it, up it, rolling down it, and enjoying the sun rise over it.

I know it sounds kind of desolate and lonely out there but it can be gorgeous, fun, and was a really cool place to visit.

I expected the entire place to be covered in sand, it is the desert after all, however I was surprised to learn that it had more rocks and plants than sand!

We wanted to see at least some sand dunes. We decided the best time to see the dunes would be at sunrise (I don't think I agreed to this).  We trudged out of bed at 6:00 AM, in the unseasonalably and unreasonably cold morning.  Despite the early wakeup, I would recommend this to anyone.  It was incredible!

Worth it right????

I wanted to know why there weren't a lot of sand dunes. I did some research and it turns out less than one percent of the desert in Death Valley is covered in sand dunes.  There has to be a certain environment for sand dunes to form.  The recipe is sand, wind, and a place for the sand to collect.  The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are the most popular dunes in the park and its easy to see why.  Some of the dunes rise to about 100 feet, and they run across a wide area and seem like they go on forever, with mountains on all sides.
It turns out that there are three types of dunes in the Mesquite Dunes area, (who knew more than one existed?) which is apparently and ancient lakebed.
Crescent dunes are wide and form under winds that blow from one direction.  They also move more quickly over the desert than any other dune.  We saw many crescents, but sadly, did not actually photograph one.  They were great for sledding and rolling down.

Linear dunes are the next variety. They are straight and long sand ridges that run forever in a line.  It forms as the result of wind coming from more than one direction and can extend for miles, and  were really hard to walk on without starting mini avalanches along the way.

Crossing linear dune in Death Valley

There are also star dunes. They are sand dunes with a steep side in three or more directions off of a center point.  They grow up instead of out to the sides, and tend to be tall and on the edges of the dunes.

Since I didn't know at the time that there were more than one kind of dune I didn't know what I was looking at until afterwards, so sadly I don't know what types I saw.



When we left Death Valley, I thought my sand-colored adventures were over.  I was wrong.  A few days later, my dad and I were at a music store in Fort Bragg, California.

                           He picked up a balalaika, which is a Russian instrument. We ended up buying it and a music book to go with it. Needless to say I am obsessed and it is more my instrument now than his. (I fully intend to have learned it by the time I get home.)

My new obsession
photo courtesy of Accent Music

Happy New Year and here's to sand-colored vacations!

All I Want for Christmas...

It is officially Christmas season!!!!

This is one of my favorite times of the year! I love the snow, except we don't really have any right now.

All of the snow in my yard

             
I also love how cozy sitting in my warm house feels, curling up on the couch to watch a movie with a cup of hot cocoa. This season just feels comfortable!

Unfortunately with the Christmas season also comes the stress of buying gifts for everyone.

Feeling very stressed and hermit-like

I am really having issues with this. As I am writing down a list of people I want to get gifts for, I am slowly realizing that I want to give something to more people, too many, than I thought.  Maybe I should just cut myself off from everyone and become an anti-social hermit in the woods to save a little cash and a lot of stress. I can tell you that being broke during the Christmas season is very, very stressful.
 
                         



Anyway you probably aren't reading this to listen to me complain about all of my problems, so on to the point.

This post is about...

Green, which reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, our family goes out into the woods and cuts down a Christmas tree for my Christian mother. It might sound a little weird and boring, but it is actually really fun.
Its a long standing tradition with a schedule.  First, the parents have to stand in a line for a permit (luckily, because it's at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday).  Then we choose a day and meet up in the mountains.  Every year for as long as I can remember, we have had friends come with us.

We all go out to breakfast (except not this year we went to lunch instead). We bring hot cocoa and tea and cookies and snacks for the hike to find a tree.  We have lots of gear, like sleds, snowshoes, and a saw or two.


While the adults go find a tree to cut down, all of the children go find a place to hang out. We bring sleds and find a hill and sled and play games all day.

Last year with our Christmas tree

One family of friends that come with us are known to always get the biggest tree that we are allowed to cut down. Because Bart is very picky about his trees and always gets lost in the woods trying to find a good one, we always know it will take forever to find him, and he always needs help getting his tree back to the car.

When we were little my brother made up a song about it to the tune of "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"
 It goes a little like this:

"Bart went over the mountain,
Bart went over the mountain,
Bart went over the mountainnnnn,                          
to get the biggest tree,
to get the biggest tree
Bart went over the mountain....

You get the point (I hope)

Despite the fact that we are Jewish it has always been a really fun tradition for us.


One thing that I have learned over the years is that finding something that is green and finding a good Christmas tree are not always the same thing.

Our skinny, little, no-branch tree

My Favorite Holiday

Hey everyone!

There are lots of things around this time of year that are orange.
Leaves,
      sunsets,

Yummy!!!!!
Photo Courtesy of Pillsbury

          sweet potatoes,
               and best of all pumpkin!
                     Pumpkin pie to be exact  :)









If you know me at all you will know that my one true love and passion is food. Given this information, I bet you then can easily guess what my favorite holiday is!

Yes reader, it's Thanksgiving.

Orange is my color of tradition.  Every year for Thanksgiving we have many traditions in my family.  I can tell you who will come to town, what we will do before, during and after dinner, and what we will eat.  I know who will tell bad jokes, who will get mad, and who will leave early because they are bored.  I LOVE this holiday!

My grandparents are a central part of my orange tradition.  For as long as I can remember, my grandparents have been at my house for Thanksgiving. They come in a week early from Pennsylvania and we go on a short trip somewhere to spend time together, and then...

Holiday Decorations
Photo Courtesy of Jan Coleman

It's time to prepare.
  We spend a whole day just setting up the table and getting ready to go! My grandma and I always decorate the house and table for dinner.
Well... I am making it sound too easy. However, this activity is far from it! When we pull down the big box of decorations from the attic everyone suddenly has an opinion. It's, "Oh, put this here" or "No! not there!" It's like the sheer number of decorations overwhelms us and we each feel the need to sell our opinion to everyone else. The goes on for quite some time, and but eventually someone gets their way (usually my grandmother) and we all agree it's a beautiful table.


A new tradition this year?  I helped my mom make pumpkin pie, not just turned the mixer on, but really did most of the work kind of help!  And to the amazement of all, those pies were fabulous (Just like me! Who knew!)!  Good for dessert, then breakfast, then snack, then dessert again!

Thanksgiving day is agonizing!  The adults, led by my grandmother, cook, and cook, and cook.  I can't stand the wait, and the fact that my mouth waters all day. Then our regulars start arriving, almost always in the same order, with hugs, smiles, and lots of laughter and conversation.  We have the coolest Thanksgiving crowd at our house. Some years there are lots of extra people and some years there aren't so many. We eat food and pie and talk until nine or ten.


Orange, my new substitute for Thanksgiving, is all about is remembering the people and things in life that are important. When I was little I would always get really excited because I got to eat lots of food, see my friends, and my grandparents would come. Now I realize that while all of those things are really fun and good, the holiday is about more than that. My grandma shows her love in her cooking, my grandpa tears up every time he says prayers at Thanksgiving dinner, and always makes me think about how much he loves us.  "The Murphy family meeting"  reminds everyone at our table of all the good things that happen, not just to us, but to everyone over the year.

What is the "The Murphy family meeting"?   Well, it isn't a meeting and we are not the Murphy family.  It did not start as our family tradition, but was brought to us by one of the people that comes to our house for Thanksgiving every year. We go around the table and everyone says what the coolest thing that they did in the year. It always has made me think of all the great things that I did and how grateful I am that those things happened. By the time it's my turn, I have relived my whole year of good things, and I am very thankful.

Once in a Blue Pool...

You guessed it, this post is about blue (It also may include something about me and the sport that has taken over my life).

When I think of blue I always think of swim and when I think of swim I always think of where I started and where I have gone.  I have been a competitive swimmer since I was seven and have spent at least three days a week at the pool since I was four.  My team is like my family and the building is practically my house.

Picture of my Second home
Courtesy of Park City Swimming

It's not really about blue, it's really about me. When I was little I had really bad anxiety. Most new things scared me; it was social stuff, talking, meeting new people, being alone, big groups, etc., and I distinctly remember my first day on the "junior team" as a turning point in how I understood myself.

It was terrifying to say the least. While everyone else got into the pool for tryouts I stood there clinging to my mom tears streaming down my face. My mom left me standing at the edge of the pool and walked away, telling me I could do it.  To give her some credit my mother was really trying to let me calm myself down enough to get into the pool.

I was about to just give up and leave when one of the coaches (some of you probably know him, bald head, loud voice, yells a lot?) came over and asked what was wrong.  When I couldn't talk, he smiled and said, " Why don't you come over here with me and we can practice a little bit?" He took me over to the other side of the pool, away from everyone and told me to do a couple of laps. After I had calmed down a bit he led me back over to the group and I jumped right into the pool for the rest of tryouts.

It was a true blue moment for me and the start of something great!

Me (age 7), with a friend, and some random photobombed at practice
Photo courtesy of my mother

Swimmers are a different breed.  They are about times, cuts, technique and of course, practice.  You have to really like something a lot to do it over and over and over and over, and over again.  But those repetitions have taught me something. No matter how hard or scary something may seem there is always a way to work through it if you are willing to keep going.  When I swim I don't have to think about where I am going, I spend time working through problems or vent my emotions into the water, I just swim and when I am done I feel so much better. Which is why every time I see that blue water I get the feeling that everything will be alright. Why is pool water blue anyway?


Have you ever wondered why water is blue? Well I know that water outside is blue because it reflects the sky, but why is pool water blue? The blue color is apparently a property of water, created by white light and colored wavelengths. It shows up at a certain depth in our perception (although I was unable to figure out just how deep you have to be to see blue.

Photo Courtesy of Brinvy

The deeper water is, the bluer it gets, the opposite is also true. The thinner water is the clearer it gets. Think about the difference between the ocean and a glass of water!

Photo Made by me via PicCollage

I found out that at about one hundred to two hundred meters under the ocean, blue becomes the only color in water,  because all other color wavelengths begin to fade away and a deep, rich, blue is left.

200 meters under
(Photo Courtesy of Scuba School)

I hope you enjoy blue as much as I do (hey that rhymes!). Blue has been an important color to me for a very long time. It is also my favorite color and reminds me of all my favorite places (ocean, pool, etc.).

The Nature of Brown

Did you know according to surveys brown is the least liked color in all of Europe and the United States? I mean I know it isn't the prettiest color, but come on! Is it really that bad?

Driving up Parley's Canyon today I noticed a lot of brown. All the pretty golden leaves from the last couple of weeks had dried up. I started thinking about how much brown there is in nature. Brown is so earthy, so absolutely natural. One of my favorite smells is, in the spring, when you are planting or even walking around and you can smell all of that soil. It smells fresh and new and is also brown!

Photo courtesy of Dirt Matters

and then there is the matter of my favorite treats....

THE END!
Photo courtesy of Clark Books

   

Yum!
Photo courtesy of Meaningful Eats

(Brown is my favorite food group!)

See Brown isn't so bad!
Photo courtesy of  My Baking Addiction

So, if brown is the color of all of these yummy treats (and many more) why don't many people like it? Likely it is because it is common and maybe just a little boring.

What do I mean by that? Well it turns out that brown is the second most common hair color and the most common eye color. There seems to be a stereotype that people, especially women, with brown hair(brunettes) are more serious, stable, and smart. In at least one study they were described as independent, self-sufficient, and intelligent.  I guess "independent, self-sufficient, and intelligent" aren't very exciting, but they definitely aren't bad.

It turns out there is a reason why I seem to be so comfortable with brown, I am a brown.  Not really in the sense of skin color or favorite color, but in the personality sense!

There are many traits to the personality of brown, and most of them actually describe me!
If you are a "brown" according to color psychology, you are most likely:

• honest, down-to-earth person with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
• steady and reliable and quietly confident.
• friendly and approachable, genuine and sincere.
• have a keen sense of duty - I take my responsibilities very seriously.
• a loyal and trustworthy friend, supportive and dependable

It's strange to see yourself in print!  

Brown personalities are also homebodies and prefer family to other activities and people.  They tend to like simple things that are comfortable and of good quality.  They like everything in its place, and prefer to know exactly what is going on before they commit - no surprises please!  

I began to think more seriously about my "brownness"... this is me in bullet points!

We browns will work hard to change a situation that seems unjust or unfair. Like others, I have a strong need for security and a sense of belonging, and see life as a struggle believing that it wasn't meant to be easy. But probably the most descriptive phrase of browns and of me?

I prefer to stay in my own safe little world - I don't like my little world to be upset by anything, just ask my mom.

This is new information for me because I had never thought about what color has to do with your personality or feelings before. The weirdest part about this is that, if you know me I am sure you will agree, I fit the description for brown perfectly!

So here's to all the wonderful shades of brown in the world!

It's Not All in Black and White!

What do you notice about every word in every book that you have ever read?
Even if you aren't paying attention to it, the words are all black, but the pages are white. Why is that?

A section of The Tale of Desperaux  By: Kate DiCamillo
You can find more about it here

Well I have an idea. In art class when you are drawing, in architecture, interior design, even in writing, what do you always hear about? Contrast, contrast, contrast!

Contrast is what makes things easy to see and read. I guess it makes sense then why every book you have read is written with contrasting colors. But there must be something special about black and white.
If you look at your basic color wheel you can easily see that all of the contrasting colors are opposite each other.

Color Wheel
Photo Courtesy of Five Star Painting

Wait a minute, where is the black and white?!

It turns out that black and white are not on the color wheel because a lot of people don't think that they are colors. I didn't really understand this so I did a bit of research. I found that there is actually some "scientific" debate on whether or not black and white are colors. Depending on what type of scientist is responding, multiple answers are given. For example if you ask experts in the graphic arts industry if black and white are colors, they might respond that since color is generated by light, white will be a color and black will not. This is because black is the thing you get in the absence of light.  If you ask an artist whether or not black and white are colors, they are likely to respond based on their understanding of pigments and you will get the opposite answer because white is the absence of pigments.

I found this new information very interesting...

Questioning whether black and white are even colors strikes me as weird, because black and white are very important to, well, everything.  They are how you get all of the shades, tints and everything in between (Like when you are in the paint store watching them make your paint color, every shade depends on how much black or how much white they add). It seems strange to me that something so important is being debated as to whether or not it is real!
                       
                                ______________________________________________


My love for contrast leads me to deeper thoughts about black and white.  In many ways the colors black and white don't represent those two colors, but always represent contrast.  Black and white are used to make a complicated argument simple, but sometimes too simple.

Black and white can represent a fight against our personal dark sides, which we know is bad and often keeps us from doing the right thing.  We all have parts about us that come out sometimes. Our dark sides, no one likes them but we all have them. They come out when we least expect it and we use our understanding of good and "light" to balance the "dark".

The fight against "evil" goes under this category as well. Think about it, in every movie you have ever watched there is always a "bad" guy and a "good" guy, or a protagonist and and antagonist. Either name works but there always is one of each.  Black represents the dark side of humanity, and white, the fight against evil in the world.  Why does the bad guy always wear black?

Maleficent
Photo Courtesy of Globe and Mail 

                               ______________________________________________


Maybe most disturbing to me is the contrast that black and white causes in humans of different races.  The civil rights movement seems like it could be another contrast between black and white, except that it really isn't at all.

Think about it,  have you ever seen a "white" person...

White Figure
Photo Courtesy of Stock Photo

Or a black one?

Black Figure
Photo Courtesy of Cliker

I thought not!

How do we describe people of different skin tones?  We say they are either black or white. Really, it is not only black and white.  There isn't even a black or white skin tone! It isn't really a contrast of color, but a contrast of beliefs and understanding. I think it's stupid that skin tone somehow got caught up in this idea of contrast, because it seems to represent a difference that shouldn't be there at all.

So my parting thought on black and white?
             Make sure when you are referring to "black" and "white" that you are really wanting to explore contrast, understanding that contrast is not a judgement of good or evil, or the value of a fellow human.
                                                                                                                             

A Color For All Seasons

Behind Every Good Season is Color...
YELLOW!!!!

I always thought that yellow was a summer color.  I mean think about it!  Summer yellow is bright, fun, happy, all the things that make summer, well, summer. 

A warm summer day be without the sun would be dark , gloomy, and     

Grove Beach, Clinton, CT

cold, definitely not summer.  What would a fun day at the beach be without the golden, yellow sand? Definitely not the beach.

What good would a lemonade stand be without sweet-tart yellow of lemonade? Not sure, but certainly not summer.

Photo courtesy of K Customables

It turns out when you Google "summer yellow" the most popular topic is squash recipes.  I wasn't even thinking food!

                                            _____________________

It turns out though, my favorite season for yellow isn't even summer.  I love Fall! The piles and piles of leaves!  It is a sea of yellows, golds, oranges and reds.  But yellow against a background of dark green pine is a spectacular thing.

 

Photo Courtesy of Wallpaper Den

Leaves on Ecker Hill

Being in the Rocky Mountains in the Fall, you can't help but notice the colors are more brilliant because of the contrasting golden, yellow aspen leaves.  In addition to being pretty to look at, changing colors is also very functional. Yellow leaves are a sign that the trees will begin to shut down for winter. Chlorophyll, which is green, starts to disappear from the leaves which lets us see other colors that have been in the leaves all along. 

Once again Google surprised me, when I searched "fall yellow" I thought that my search would be dominated by sites with leaf pictures. Instead all I found were Yellow Jackets!! Who knew that people were so concerned about bees in the fall?



 
       _____________________

Photo courtesy of The Beat

What about winter? I don't often think about color in the winter and certainly not yellow, but after a few minuets of thought I realized there is plenty of yellow things to think about in the winter.

Photo courtesy of Original Ski Posters

Of course there is the warm, crackling, yellow flames but also apparently, according to Google(once again), there is a huge yellow fashion trend in the winter.
If you look up winter yellow all you get are clothes, clothes and more clothes, although this fashionable look is by far my favorite!

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Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Spring has, by far, the most variety of yellows of all the seasons. 

Photo courtesy of Pintrest

What with all the flowers, clothing, and of course baby chicks you can find practically every shade of yellow imaginable!

When searched on Google there are a couple of different thing that come up. First is, of course the Spring Edition of the Yellow Pages , which is not surprising. What I found interesting though is that there are several towns in the U.S that are called "Yellow Springs". Who knew?







With all of the good feelings yellow sends my way each season, I decided to explore the psychological  meaning of it and turns out... I am WAY off base! According to Color Psychology  "In the meaning of colors, yellow inspires original thought and inquisitiveness." Yellow is a symbol of ideas that adds meaning to experience, which could be why I see yellow across seasons. Although the psychology of yellow could account for my random thinking, it doesn't really help me understand the emotions that yellow seems to give.  

It made me curious, wondering if I am the only "seasonal and emotional yellow" person out there.  For some more information on this colorful topic I decided to ask some trusted friends what they thought about yellow.  Here are some responses I got:

Photo courtesy of Pyramid Flowers

• Sunshine: which I am sure we can all relate to during the summer

• Sunflowers

• Summer (feeling better that am I not the only one)
• I also got dead grass and pudding (banana pudding?)

As you can see there was some diversity in the answers that I received, but not too much that is a sign of originality or inquisitiveness!

Thinking In Pink!

Hi there, thank you for looking at my blog. Each week I will be posting a different color or something about color, please enjoy this adventure.


This week's color is...

Pink!!



Pink is not really my favorite color, in fact I don't even like it much at all. It is an important color though. It can remind us of lots of things. Like maybe those tea parties you had when you were little, or maybe your favorite flower or time of the year. I think that the most important thing that it makes me think of is cancer.

We all have heard those sayings, "Think Pink!" or "Race For The Cure!" (Susan Komen website).  Cancer, breast cancer especially, is very common in the world today. Though most types of cancer are pretty treatable, there is still not an actual cure. In fact a lot of the time cancer can be deadly. The treatments for cancer aren't a lot better. Sure they work, but poisoning your body so you can get better doesn't sound right, does it?

For something so horrible why did they pick such a bright color to represent it? In truth it is not the disease that pink represents but the fight against it. That might just be why they chose such a nice, cheery color. To remind people not to give up hope because no matter what there is still a hope for a cure. People need to be reminded that there is hope sometimes. As a human being sometimes we can lose sight of that hope but we must remember that it is still there.

My inspiration for this week's color goes to a family friend. Who is doing her cancer treatments and staying strong the whole way.


Now here is a picture that reflects this weeks color theme:

Photo courtesy of  HMRC