Fly Fishing, Trail Walking and Ogden's Beautiful Gardens

 We awoke to a beautiful, breezy morning here in Ogden, so I decided it was time to introduce Kevin one of the beautiful walking/biking/hiking trails here in Ogden.  This particular trail head starts just steps from where we will be living when our Town Home is completed, and runs right alongside the Ogden River.

The trail is paved and therefore works well for casual walking, running, biking and strollers.  There are all kinds of beautiful places to stop and take a break, and there are benches, picnic tables, grills and areas where we can walk down to the river.

Part of this gorgeous trail takes you right by the Ogden Botanical Gardens.

These meticulously maintained gardens have a huge variety of flowers, fruits, vegetables and trees which will make you Oooohh and Aaahhhh with their beauty and fragrance. 

I couldn't resist taking dozens of pictures, so this blog today is more of an pictorial essay than a true blog...forgive me...just couldn't help myself!

 I hadn't seen this type of day lily before and loved the way their heads hung down like trumpets.  Lovely and that is actually a HUGE plant.

Part of the fascination with this garden, is the constant change as new vegetables and fruits come into their own each week.

Can you think of a more beautiful location for a Botanical Garden?  I can't!  The mountainous backdrop is amazing.

 I haven't a clue what type of Thistle this is, but found myself compmletely fascinated with the lavender stems!

 Huge splashes of color abound everywhere you turn in the garden, from dahlias, and zinnias to cone flowers and daisies...beautiful....

 The mountain air was clean and fresh and there was a great breeze this morning as the suns rays reached down to wake the flowers.

 A Japanese garden area offers some beautiful displays of Japanese Maple and other lovely trees.

There was a lady sitting on the ground beside this group of flowers with a special lens on her camera taking close up photographs of the lovely selection of blossoms here.

Flowers flowers and more flowers everywhere you look!

 Ash and Liv love the lovely Blue spruce trees they call Christmas trees.

 Makes you want to reach out and touch them doesn't it?

 I loved these beautiful deep pink zinnias with white edges...so lovely.

 I enjoy the contrast of the different plants and flowers growing aside each other.

 And then there is the rose garden...

    wish I had smell-a-vision...asaaaahhh.

 Amazing color isn't it?

 Some of the roses are hybrids, some are heirloom varieties...the heirloom varieties tend to have the best smells.

Just another beautiful reason we love Ogden so much.

 I almost hated to leave the beautiful Rose Garden...it is such a peaceful place...

 Isn't it lovely here?

 Nasturtiums...brought me back to my childhood.  I remember getting a seed packet full of them one summer and planting my own special little flower bed.  They are a nice edible flower to put in salads too.

 A huge Sunflower..

         one of God's lovely creations.

 I am just amazed with the variety of flowers available in the garden.

 I'm not sure if this was a giant (as big as my head) hibiscus or Rose of Sharon...beautiful isn't it?

 There are lovely covered pavilions with nicely maintained picnic tables all along the trail...this is one of many...

Many of them have charcoal grills available for use.

 So we were back on the trail again, walking along the lovely Ogden River where we spotted a fisherman fly fishing.

I want to try that soon.

 The trail is paved and has a white line dividing it so that there is a kind of "passing lane" for bikes and runners...

Moving toward the mountains...

 Another little break to walk down to the River's edge to look for some trout...

 If you look hard you can see a rope swing in the center of the picture hanging from that outstretched branch..

 We found a stump where a beaver had chewed off a medium sized tree in an attempt to create a dam.

The view of the mountains here is absolutely breathtaking...

We walked about three miles today, but I am anxious to get a bicycle and travel the entire 9 miles available on the trail.

There is talk of connecting it with another which will make it a total of 23 miles!  Each vista is more beautiful than the next and I never get tired of exploring it.  I can hardly wait for the seasons to change here to experience even more of the West.

Isn't this a beautiful open meandow..I love the sun streaming down through the trees...

 We walk continuously along the river and stop periodically to take in some of the beauty afforded and the cool breezes off the mountainsides.

 You can see the edge of one of the nice benches alongside the path which are available for viewing the river and just relaxing as you hear it roll over the rocks and falls below..

 Aren't these gorgeous?

 I love the glass like quality of these red berries...

 This tunnel passes under the highway between Slackwater at the trailhead and the continuation of the trail...Note the beautiful orange flowered vines trailing down over the rocks.

 The tunnel has whitewashed walls where local artists are encouraged to ply their arts..Wow...

Ogden encourages arts and artists as is evidenced by such groups as "Nuture The Creative Mind," and RAMP (Recreation, Arts, Museums and Parks).

 The Cottonwood trees here are incredibly huge and beautiful ..


We were really taken with this Knarly Dude!  I have no idea how this was formed, but I couldn't resist the picture.

And so another hike ends and we go back to fix a nice lunch from the lovely fresh vegetables we bought from the Farmer's Market last weekend.

Aaaaahhhhh, sweet Ogden!


PEACE, LOVE & JOY

    from God's Country!

Linda

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE AND NO ALCOHOL ON THE STREET!

There are so very many things I love about Ogden.  I know, Ive said it before, but every day that passes reminds me of how blessed we are to be here.

Sequester has been painful...17 hours of furlough on this paycheck alone...we are still paying rent on our apartment in Macon, but at least we are able to to that.  I fear there are some people who are going to be so far behind when all this is over that they may never catch up!  All that and Congress and Senate going out of Washington for their PAID 5 weeks vacation!  You have to be kidding! 

But, I look up at the beautiful mountains and the blue sky with scattered white puffy clouds and am thankful that we are here in Ogden.  It is like being in a time warp.  Today was a little challenging, but in a kind of fun way.  About 3 PM the power in the Hotel went off.  I knew better than to try an elevator, so I put Buddy on his leash and we headed down the ten (yep I said ten) flights of stairs to the Lobby to see exactly what was going on.

 About the fifth floor, the dog refused to go down any more stairs, and so - yep - I had to carry him!  Good grief!  When Buddy gets tired, he just plops down and refuses to take another step, yesterday it was walking back from the park, today the stairs! I need a strap on doggie carrier! 

Upon arrival in the Lobby I found that both elevators were stuck with people inside and the staff was scurrying around to get them out of the elevators.  I must say, they managed this quite quickly, and had a generator up and running to keep one elevator going as well as minimal lighting throughout the building.  I found out soon after that power was off to the entire block where the hotel is located.  Bummer!  Worse than that was the fact that the power company didn't seem to know what was causing the problem.  This was going to take a while.  Sooooo, picked up a couple newspapers and made myself comfortable in the Lobby.  One of the employees came down out of the offices on the second floor and began to play the piano.  Very nice. 

After I had been reading for a short while, Chris, General Manager here came over and we sat and chatted about Ogden for over an hour!  Ogden is kind of like being in the 50's or 60's...like going back to my childhood years when it comes to the kindness of the people, and being a great place to raise children.  But, on the other hand, they are quite progressive when it comes to things like public transportation, irrigation, the arts and more!  When you check out a book or five at the Library for instance, you don't have to fill out anything; you just stick one or even all five of the books atop a scanner at the same time and it records which ones you are checking out!  How neat is that?  Alivia is at the Eccles Art Center this evening getting her first DRAWING lessons.  That girl is really good (and she is only six).  She carries a drawing pad everywhere she goes and is super excited about taking lessons.  There is a group here called Nuture The Creative Mind, and another called RAMP an acronym that stands for Recreation, Arts, Museums and Parks. They have all kinds of activities for adults and children all year.  Some cost and some are free.  There is just a huge emphasis on families here and clean living.  Amazing in 2013! I am more than impressed. 

RAMP funds have been used to fund such projects as:

• Playing Fields
• Walking, biking, equestrian and cross-country trails
• Neighborhood parks and pathways
• Swimming pools and aquatic centers
• Community recreation centers
• Multi-cultural and arts festivals
• Dance, theatre and music activities and performances
• Literary outreach programs
• Publicly owned tennis, basketball and skating facilities 

See what I mean?  Amazing!

People here actually USE public transportation, and trains and buses here are immaculate and on time and inexpensive to boot.   In Salt Lake City they have instituted a BIKE SHARING program.  There are green bicycles on the sidewalks and you just pay to take one for a half hour or more and ride it to your location, returning it to another station when you are done.  You can rent them by the hour, week or yearly pass.  Entirely too cool, and catching on so well that they are going to put more of them out in the next few months.

We have found that people here just LOVE Strawberry Lemonade.

Yes, I said Strawberry Lemonade.  Actually it is quite delicious, and not overly sweetened, but coming from Georgia, the land of SWEET TEA, this has been a surprise.  You can get iced tea here, but it seems to run second to Strawberry Lemonade.  Another interesting and refreshing thing is that although you can buy alcoholic drinks here, you can not drink them on the street!

Also, in a restaurant (not a bar) you HAVE to order food in order to be able to purchase alcohol.  I am not sure how much the Mormon influence has had to do with that, but it sure seems to work well here. 

On Sundays most businesses in this town are CLOSED!  Yep, closed...just like used to be in the fifties and sixties.  People spend Sundays with their families here.  Amazing.  There are picnics and biking and hiking and all kinds of family oriented activities.  There is a lot less trash thrown out of cars and onto the streets.  People here seem to have a greater appreciation of the beauty around them, and just how fragile the environment is.  There are more organic farmers here than anywhere I have ever lived.  I have fresh produce delivered to my door once a week from a local group.  Today it included tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, cherries, mangoes, lettuces, onions and more...I am getting very spoiled!

The power came back on by around 6 PM, but you know something....I really didn't mind it being off all that much.  Oh, I couldn't cook dinner the way I had planned (we ended up at a local restaurant where I had some great Creme Brulee - forbidden fruit!), but sharing conversation in the Lobby of the Hotel with the people who work here and other guests was fun and educational.  So it was another really great day in Ogden, Utah!  Looking forward to many, many more!

LOVE, PEACE & JOY

Linda