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Thirsty Thursday: Wildflower in Big Sur

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Trader Joe's Pomegranate Limeade 

Looks like we missed Thirsty Thursday last week while we were busy celebrating our anniversary, and I'm squeaking this one out just while it is still Thursday on the west coast! 

I have many photos and a few words to go with my bikepacking overnight in Big Sur a few weeks back. But, I got distracted by a tennis match tonight (happens every year in mid-March), and didn't get all those pixels edited nor any of the words written. Hopefully next week! 

In the mean time, here is an image from that trip. I literally sat my camera attached to the Joby tripod right outside my tent door and snapped this image with my legs still in my sleeping bag. I'm not sure if it was complete laziness or shear genius of campsite selection, but I'll take it! 

Looking forward to another bikepacking trip in Big Sur soon!

Thirsty Thursday: Missing Lupines

Rambler: Terry
Drink in Hand: 2011 Francis Ford Coppola Chardonnay Director’s Cut Russian River Valley

It's pretty much the same time of year and we're missing the lupines. Don't get me wrong, there's a few out there, but nothing like last year. I think even Massey misses them.

Thirsty Thursday: My Take on the Lupines

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Tolosa Rose of Grenache

Hey Welliver Photography fans...Thirsty Thursday here again. Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Terry has been carrying the blogging workload around the home office due to my MBA homework. But tonight I couldn't ignore the pretty lupine photos from last weekend sitting in my Aperture library any longer, so I decided to ignore my homework and take care of Thirsty Thursday night. 

We didn't have to travel anywhere fancy for these photos. We probably park at this trailhead two or three times a week to take the dog for her favorite run. All that means we are ridiculously spoiled to have easy access to such beauty a mere five or six minutes from home, depending on the one spotlight along the way. ​

​Sunrise

EOS5DMII-EAW-20130406-IMG_5588.jpg

​Fields

​Cuteness in the Prettiness. 

Single and Double. ​

​Patrol.

While I'll be doing my homework, please get out there and find a field of flowers this weekend for me!​

Thirsty Thursday: Wildflower Season

Rambler: Terry
Drink in Hand: 2011 Wente Riva Ranch Chardonnay

​It's been a crazy busy couple of weeks. I think that Beth and I have worked more in the last couple of weeks than we have all year. Perhaps it's because we're both trying to change our organizations. I think we are both making progress, but change is slow. Always was, always will be. That's probably a good thing. Sometime through the mix of staring at computer screens, editing pages, and creating content we found time to get out for an 8 mile hike. It was refreshing to get away from it all and watch Massey do her thing. It's also the start of wildflower season! Yay! The hills are so gorgeous and now covered with lupines. Last weekend when we went on the hike, little yellow flowers were everywhere. I've heard it may rain this weekend, but hopefully we (and you) can get out there and take some more photographs or just enjoy the outdoors!

Massey Monday: Center of Attention

Fans of Welliver Photography are well aware that we take a lot of photos of our dog. Generally, she doesn't like the paparazzi attention and runs away or turns her head the opposite direction...she's quite a slippery subject. So imagine my surprise when little Miss Massey plopped down right on top of the wildflowers I was getting ready to photograph at sunrise during our last backpacking trip like it was her job. I guess she woke up ready to model.

I had to go elsewhere to find some wildflowers.

Such a diva!

Thirsty Thursday: View from the Valley

Rambler: Terry
Drink in Hand: 2009 Tolosa Edna Ranch Pinot Noir

Like usual from me, not much to say other than we're off to find a view like this. Well, not quite like this, as this shot was taken in Mayflower Gulch in Arapaho National Forest near Frisco, CO. Regardless, enjoy the long weekend and go get lost. I know we'll be out there.

Thirsty Thursday: Wildflowers

Rambler: Terry Drink in Hand: 2008 Titan Hills Fiasco (recommended by the local grocery store manager...and it's excellent!)

Last Thursday I posted some images of the gorgeous and grand landscapes that we were able to see during our week in Leadville, CO.  This week I thought I'd post a few photos of the many, many flowers we saw.  I still have a dozen or so photos process and I hope to post them at a later date...but I hope you enjoy these!

Massey Monday: Excitement

I've taken too many pictures of her over this last week. I'm sure I'll eventually end up being posting them as a Massey Monday; but, I think, this picture sums up Massey's Colorado experience. As much as she misses her Ft. Ord stomping grounds, I'm sure she doesn't want to go back just yet (and neither do we). Too much fun.

Thirsty Thursday: Thin Air

Rambler: Terry Drink in Hand: 2007 Rascal Pinot Noir (Oregon - Willamette Valley)

I don't know what you're doing this weekend, but we're up in the Colorado mountains. Beth has her 100 mile Mountain Bike race (aka, the Leadville 100) this Saturday and we (the Wellie Wheel Folks) are the support crew. She's been out training all week adjusting to the altitude and I've been out hiking (with Massey of course -- a story for another time, but she is a ninja-dog-warrior) and shooting. I know, my life is tough. Most of my evenings are spent editing the pics and sipping wine. Again, rough life. Anyways, I need to get back to editing (and drinking). . . enjoy the few photos taken in the thin air up here. Oh, and if you remember, support Wellie (aka Beth) on her quest to finish the 100 miles of hell that is the Leadville 100!!!

Thirsty Thursday: Arroyo Seco

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: 2008 Ventana Pinot Noir

Last Friday morning I got up super early to make the 50-minute drive to Pinnacles National Monument. I wanted to be there for sunrise, just to see what the early morning light was like in the west side of the park. Its never hard for me to pop out of bed when I'm headed out to shoot a sunrise, especially when I program the coffee pot to grind a fresh cup for me as I wake up. Out the door, down the 101 and right on time for arrival at the west entrance about 20 minutes before the 5:58 am sunrise. As I'm making the final turn toward the park, a waiting CHP car in the intersection flashes its lights. The officer tells me there's a wildfire up the road and the route to the park is closed. Grrr!

After getting up that early and driving all the way down there, I wasn't about to just turn around and go home. I needed a Plan B. I knew I wasn't too far from Arroyo Seco Road, and from my 6-hour bike rides out there, I vaguely remembered some pretty trees in some pretty fields. So off I went, racing to find something interesting as the sky continued to brighten.

I found this spot along Arroyo Seco Road. The trees and the open pasture looked interesting. I paced up and down the side of the road looking for a good composition, but it wasn't easy. I couldn't get the tree completely isolated from the busy scrub brush-covered hills in the background. I enjoyed the challenge though...there is something therapeutic about being out in the chilly morning air, peering through a viewfinder, searching for something inspiring. I love mornings with my camera.

Of course my attention always turns from the wide landscapes to the little details close-by.

The cloudless sky continued to brighten so I headed back down the road toward home...but not before I spotted this old barn in a field down below the road.

I knew I had to make one last stop on the way home. Several times a week I ride my bike out River Road, and recently there has been a beautiful display of yellow and purple wildflowers in a pasture beside the road.

So the morning didn't work out the way I expected, but I still found some nice scenes. More importantly, I still got to explore with my camera. And that makes me happy.

Get out there and explore this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: Henry Coe State Park

Thirsty Thursday is the third and final of our brand spankin' new weekly recurring posts. Back when we were cadets at the finest institution of higher learning in the entire country, otherwise known as your United States Air Force Academy, we looked forward to Thursday nights. The only bar we had on "campus" would open and Firsties (seniors) could go to Haps Place and enjoy pitchers while all the poor underclassmen were confined to their rooms for study time. It sort of marked the unofficial start of the weekend, even though we still had to go to class and march to lunch and shine our boots and do all the other military stuff required of us on Fridays. So during our Welliver Photography staff meeting last week, we decided that we should have some sort of post on Thursdays about stuff we might do on an upcoming weekend or something we've done on a past weekend. Somehow the words "Thirsty Thursday" rolled off my tongue, and then it was stuck in my head.  The idea was born. Each Thursday we'll post some photos meant to inspire our readers to get out there and do something or see something cool. And in keeping with the Thirsty theme, every post will include the drink at hand while writing the post (that will usually be wine for Terry and beer for me). The photos will be a mix from both of us. So without further ado, here's the first installment of Thirsty Thursday.

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Rambler: Beth

Drink: Sapporo Beer...Kampai!

Last weekend we headed up to Henry Coe State Park hoping expecting to find some wildflowers. Coe is known for its spring display of California Poppies, and given the number of flowers we've seen sprouting up at Ft Ord lately coupled with the numerous poppies dotting ditches and pastures around here, we figured we'd see good blooms at Coe as well. Unfortunately, temperatures have been too cold at Coe so far this spring for the wildflowers. We saw about 5 flowers the entire day--and no poppies. Zero.

The great thing about Coe is that its a beautiful place nearly any time of the year (except in the summer when its easily 100° there every day). Rolling, grassy hills, gnarled oak trees, sprawling manzanita groves, and the occasional deer. Coe also gets a thumbs up from me for allowing mountain bikes...its an endlessly challenging playground of fire roads and singletrack if you can carry enough water! We bumped into some guys headed out who had done 50 mi on dirt. Only downside--no dogs allowed, so no Massey adventures.

Here are a few photos from our flowerless hike last weekend, a mix from both of us. Enjoy.

Henry Coe State Park is located roughly 13 miles east of Morgan Hill, CA. Take the E. Dunne Avenue exit off the 101 and then follow the signs. Park admission price: $8.

Enjoy your weekend...get out there and do something!