Earth-toned in winter, surprisingly colorful in spring, summer and fall, this is a place for people with wild imaginations. See more photos from Sunday in Palomino Valley.

Posted by tee in photos, sense of place
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Tags: day trips, nevada, palomino valley, photos

Hi Madeleine,

I saw your story about a wild horse sanctuary in Nevada this morning. I live a stone’s throw from the Wild Horse and Burro Center in Nevada’s Palomino Valley – and I’ve taken family, colleagues, guests and anyone else I could wrangle out there to see those beautiful animals. It breaks my heart to know that so many of them are at risk right now.

I’m interested in your idea. I’ve got a few hours a month I can spend if there’s a way you can use my help — I’m a blogger and a feature writer/photographer. The west and its wild places and creatures are my foundation in most of that.

Let me know how I can pitch in.

Best,
Tee Poole
tee@adventurejournalist.com
775-xxx-xxxx

If you’re curious: http://madeleinepickens.com

Posted by tee in sense of place
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Tags: environment, madeleine pickens, nevada, wild horses, wildlife

My birthday lasted a richly strung-together, animated, exhausting, delicious (literally and figuratively) four days.

Thursday night was drinks and coffee with Susanne at Foley’s Irish Pub, Friday was a low-key but nonetheless nice birthday day with Shane and the kids. Saturday Shane and I drove down to Mammoth Lakes to meet some old friends, Billie and David, for dinner and a night of talking and laughing and drinks by the fire at the lodge. More friends, Kristen and Cliff, stopped by to chat awhile. Sunday morning brunch with Billie and David before leaving to drive a leisurely 180 or so miles home, detouring to check out the June Lake area (pictured above), then rolling into Reno just in time for Sunday night birthday dinner at my mom’s with the usual crew, plus my friend Jen and her daughter, Sami, who had driven down from Oregon. Then curled up on the couches talking with Jen into the wee hours of morning on Monday before she and Sami left to tackle Donner Pass in the snow and head home.

I had such a great time that I barely know what to do with myself today. Thanks, everyone, for all the well-wishes and gifts and time and fun and great company. More photos of the Mammoth Lakes and June Lake area.

Posted by tee in de la vida, fun stuff, photos
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Tags: california, food, mammoth lakes, photos, road trips

I had a better picture to use for my birthday sign tradition, but this outtake ended up being more fun.

Thanks for all the great birthday wishes. I’m officially out of my “mid-30s,” but I kinda like that. Because at almost 40, I’ve finally figured out what a good year really means: finally feeling exactly your age…in all the good ways, and none of the bad.

Posted by tee in de la vida, photos
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Tags: photos, tee

“…and I am certain this has not to do with some ability to set up camp in the woods or build a fire or traverse some icy rock face, but rather with a willingness to entertain those thoughts that lie outside the sphere of personal experience. Maybe what we are really looking for when we turn to nature is not so much a river’s torrents or a mountain’s icy peak, but instead, the ability to think and imagine outside the confines of our own biases and preconceptions, the capacity to feel passion or devotion or sympathy toward something or someone or someplace that may not warrant it.”

- excerpt from Akiko Busch’s Nine Ways to Cross a River

Posted by tee in quotes
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Tags: henry david thoreau, living, quotes

Yesterday we joined some friends for a Mexican feast across town — which turned into a comedy as Shane and I scrambled to pull our part of it together as the deadline was ticking closer, tag-teaming dishes and functions in a kitchen that looked like Emeril’s closet of rejected ideas, and ended up being 20 minutes or so late bearing partially-melted ice cream.

But it was good and we had such a great time that nobody seemed to care about their half-melted blob of fried ice cream over sopas. Mojitos, Daquiris, Margaritas… (no wonder I woke up foggy). Lots of great stories. And laughing. And more laughing. Hooray for serendipitous discoveries.

Posted by tee in de la vida
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Tags: food, friends, photos

Chris Clarke over at Coyote Crossing has posted his inaugural Carnival of the Arid for February – the first in what I hope will be a regular feature. I’m really diggin’ all the great desert-centric stuff over there. Check it out.

Posted by tee in sidetracks
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Tags: desert, writing