Austin, Nevada. Yesterday. A Walk Through the Cemetery. The thorny branches covering the grave will burst into bloom this summer. I find that comforting.These are the same type of wild roses. This is the June bloom in our yard.
Yesterday, Austin, Nevada was bathed in sunshine and warm temperatures. Today Austin is buried in snow. It’s mostly awesome, not really a misfortune or doom, and we knew it was coming. Thank you, meteorologists!
Austin History, March 1, 2025Austin YesterdayNearer My God To Thee, Nearer to Thee
We needed snow. We had a dry winter.
Today
As the snow continues . . .
Weather is life. No doubt this is the reason it is so often the topic of small talk. It’s life.
Weather is also death. I fear for our friend who left town just as the snow started, heading west on Highway 50 directly into its path.
And it affects all of us. Humans and nonhumans alike.
Here then is a tiny presentation of the weather in Austin, Nevada, USA, over a two-day period. Life and death. Ironic juxtaposition that the photos with elements of death are awash in sunshine? It was not intended. And that is telling.
It stopped snowing for a bit. But it’s starting again.
Whatever the weather where you are, I hope you are safe and always, always, rolling with the changes. Happy Spring–Soon!
These past couple of weeks have been busier than usual. Our newly reopened library began the summer reading program, folks are out and about enjoying warm summer temperatures, and summer celebrations are underway.
Library Days…
Austin Library at The Gridley Store
We are enjoying settling in to our beautiful “new” facility in the wonderful historic Gridley Store. This building has an important place in Austin, Nevada history, and the Civil War, as the original owner of the store, Reuel Colt Gridley (1829-1870), “repeatedly auctioned a plain sack of flour and raised over US $250,000 for the United States Sanitary Commission which provided aid to wounded American Civil War Soldiers… Mark Twain told this story in his 1872 book, Roughing It.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuel_Colt_Gridley
This is a new beginning for residents and visitors alike! Thank you, Lander County!
Lake Tahoe Days…
After the library opening, Mr. P and I took off for a couple of idyllic nights in Lake Tahoe, about a 3 1/2 hour drive west. We danced (Kat and Arizona Jones were fantastic!), ate, walked, and relaxed all around the lake, which is both in Nevada and in California in the majestic Sierras.
Gridley Days…
The following week brought us to Austin’s annual Gridley Days celebration, which included a parade, picnic, fireworks, live music, and a rodeo. It’s Sunday afternoon now, and folks are resting after church, or packing to go home, or maybe planning one more ride out on the trails to Big Creek before saying goodbye to a great Nevada weekend.
Wishing you all long and happy summer days and nights, where ever you may be. Life is a beautiful gift! With Love and Gratitude, Lori
Hello readers and writers! It’s a bright and shiny day here in Austin, Nevada. We’re experiencing our first really warm days and our summer activities have begun. I’m told that two high school seniors graduated yesterday in our tiny school district in a lovely ceremony with all the pomp and circumstance of a much larger school. Congratulations to them and their families! In addition, our new library opens to the public Tuesday, and our summer friends are arriving—they of the full-time RV life—bringing their fresh faces and musical entertainment to our quiet town.
How are you? Is the season bringing you joy? What are you up to in your community and life? What changes does the summer season bring?
I opened the main page on my WordPress blog today and noticed I’d written 99 blogs so far. The number 99 is so close to 100 that I felt it best to get down to it and send out another. I don’t post regularly, so 100 posts isn’t really too impressive considering I started this blog in 2013. I spend much more time working on my manuscript and querying prospective agents than I spend blogging.
Still, it almost always feels good to write a blog post (once I’ve committed to sitting down and I’m at least a few paragraphs in-not so much at the beginning when I’m staring at the blank page, obviously) – it’s a way to reach out to family, and friends, old and new, and also is a sort of diary where I can record images and thoughts on times and places—and of course, there’s the curative element of a diary or journaling.
Recent and current books I’ve been reading: A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles; The Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo; A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny; and Hang the Moon, Jeanette Walls. They are all wonderful!
A lovely book, and a fun journal I bought in January while traveling.
I was excited to learn that A Gentleman in Moscow has been adapted to the screen in a series (thank you, Denice from Washington who stopped into the library last week!), so I will watch that as soon as I finish the novel.
The Night Tiger is enthralling- we’re listening to it when we travel to the grocery store (112 miles away), and any other time we’re in the car for more than 10 minutes (which is anytime we leave town since we are so remote…). Here’s an example of the wonderful writing just from memory. Choo describes a doctor’s writing as “a conga line of ants.” Brilliant!
As for Louise Penny… she got me with the first Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery years ago, and I am never disappointed as the series progresses. Wonderful characters, heart, and settings.
Books! Wonderful books!
I am a big fan of Jeanette Walls and have read and reread The Glass Castle several times. Hang the Moon is another big thumbs up!
Meanwhile, the crickets are back. Just last week I was remarking that there weren’t any in our yard this year and maybe the gigantic hordes that usually march through town would miss us this year. Uh, no. I’m sure that no matter where you live you have some kind of unusual local wildlife… There are other parts of this state, for example, that experience large migrations of tarantulas, and I know the cicadas are a huge presence in other parts of the country. I’ve heard that Miller moths are everywhere in parts of Nebraska… It’s all a bit eek, but I always think of the line from one of the Jurassic Park films, “Life finds a way.”
I am one of trillions… I just want to travel south (I don’t know why!), but your house in the way! Please move your house!
This, too, shall pass!
Have a wonderful weekend and please do check in and share what’s going on in your little corner of the world!
LakeArrowheadLadyWriter 