暖冬cool夏
这里一年四季温暖如春，没有酷暑没有严寒......
01/02/2022: This is our second visit to Joshua Tree National Park, two years apart from the first one in December 2019. J was in a driving mood that day, and with the dad sitting by the side as a guide, she drove to and fro with confidence-- two hours nonstop to the park and three hours back in the nightly darkness, in a row. Asked why she was so into it this time, she answered that this is the last skill that needs to be mastered.
It was a perfect winter day, sunny and windless. As we entered the park at noon, the temperature outside the car was 50s F. Inside, the temperature was set to high 60s. Sitting at the back seat on the right side, I may not have the best view, but was compensated by the warm sunlight slanting through the car window. Like the Joshua trees that stood by the sides embracing the sun, I felt enveloped in the sunny air.
We stopped by a rock mountain. While J and I lunched in the car, he ventured alone to explore. “The daunting mountain isn’t what it looks”, he said after he safely descended. So under his lead, three of us, sometimes on all fours, made it to the summit. Standing atop, we saw a floor of withered grassland, dotted by numerous scrubby Joshua trees. A road in the middle snakes up. Elevated at the end of desert are mountains forged by varied rocks-- small, big, round or pointed. The formations could be random but often geometrical. The scene was sedate, and we found peace in front of the wilderness.
Two-hour-drive must be exacting for a new driver. As J took her nap in the car, he and I sauntered around. The air was crisp. The recent rains must have freshened the tips of Joshua trees, as they looked greener than what were in our memories. The needle-like spiny cacti were silvery and shiny in the sun. Later on another trail, we saw a fat gray rabbit scurrying for food among the dry bushes. At our last stop, a coyote was spotted before it disappeared into the depth of the desert. The land looks barren in our eyes, still it is home to dozens of plants and animals, who choose to live in this harsh but spacious desert, surviving and thriving as they adapt themselves generation after generation.
The temperature soon dropped to 30s F in the afternoon. As our shadows dragged long over the rocks, the sun suffused its last rays over the mountains. At twilight, we were headed home, driving out of the park, down a long slope that was illuminated by the city lights.
谢谢暖冬答复！孩子大了，能常回家看看我们也就知足了。
新的一周快乐！
才看见三个人的合影, 太不好找了：）
祝愿暖冬和家人新春快乐，安康吉祥！
谢谢介绍和分享！
你们的假期过得有意义，一点都不宅。我们去年也去了Joshua Tree National Park,希望今年可以去更多的地方。
南加的天气是没得说了，虽然干些，但是总体真是好啊，让我们都珍惜吧。小小还去花车展那里做义工啊，我女儿高中也去过一次。今年的花车展很不错。等有空下了首页再贴几张。
比起你们，我们走的地方算少的，欧洲都没有去过的。
谢谢小小临帖，同祝你们全家新年快乐，女儿residence圆满，心想事成!
暖冬夜猫子啊，我就估计你要更新，昨晚临睡前还来转了转，可就在转身之间错失沙发啊，哈哈：））开玩笑，别介意：））
暖冬这还叫宅啊，是外出运动多多。好壮观的雪山风景，千疮百孔的啄木鸟树干也令人震撼！
花车游行太漂亮了，前年，我还做义工帮着装饰花车，转眼两年了，疫情之后就没有去看花车游行了。在暖冬这里补上。
三人的身影多么和谐美好，一家人一起欢度节日乐在其中啊：））祝愿新的一年健康快乐、事事如意！
新年到现在才进城，问候暖冬，祝你们全家新年快乐平安！
花车漂亮！祝暖冬新年快乐！
You are a very diligent writer. I just read your recent post, and I believe listening to radio in your spare time will help improve your English greatly.
Wish you and your son a happy 2022! Wish your son a great 2022!
I learned a new word "varied" which has similar meaning as assorted and diverse. When I saw "sedate", I thought about "tranquil". Digging more, I learned another word tranquilizer镇定药.
Regards.
Your comment of water reminds me of 林璎（Maya Ying Lin）, a designer who won the national design competition for Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington. In this monument, she utilized flowing water, which is emblematic of peace and life (flowing). The stone by the lake caught my eyes too that day, and I am glad you like it too. Have a nice day and week, my friend! (and no worries about the small difference)
"Meditation and water
Are wedded together"
reminds of a story where anglers spent long hours at the lake with little to
show, and their wives argued for buying tuna instead with the mmoney spent on
fishing. The men insisted that the catch was not the point. "What IS the point
then?" demanded the women. They couldn't say.
And the author concluded that "men always have this deep need to look at water"
which drew guffaws from the audience as he was telling the story on stage. He
might have gotten the idea from Moby Dick!