Purple Turtle

Blue Lemon, Purple Turtle, Green Pig Pub and Eatery, Purple Pig Pizza - does that make you want to eat there?  Perhaps, a curious visit but the names are easy to remember because of the color.  What do you think?

We had our little party yesterday to celebrate the Prince of Wales and his new bride Catherine.  Visited the proper stick your nose up in the air London Market and now right next door is a quaint dainty little English Tea Cafe.  They are the only two British eating places in all of Salt Lake City.  There are plenty of Italian delis, Greek take-out and hundreds of Mexican eateries.  The rest are all American with the exception of a couple of Japanese and a lot more oh so so Chinese Restaurants but we have no German or Polish or Russian.  There is one exception if it is still open, to the north in a small community called Farmington is a fancy schmancy German restaurant. I think that there is probably a Farmington in every state of the US - is that as bad as No Name, Colorado? 

I'm wrong, I just googled and found three German eateries in SLC. There is another unusual name of a place in Park City that is Loco Lizard. You need to know that if it is in Park City, it is beyond High End.

 A colorful Mini Cooper

 The Post

English Flag




I took my camera but forgot the battery so this was from my daughter's Ipod - not the best quality photos.

Mountains in Southern Utah

We took these photos at Bryce Canyon; one of the natural wonders in southern Utah.  It is a sight to see - the colors just pop at you with our ultra blue sky. In fact, it is really difficult to get the real color on a photo - the colors of the rocks are so much more vivid.


Below are views of Zion National Park in the narrows:

Swimmer Turban

Off to swim lessons!

I have this 30-year old soft as a bunny cotton shirt.  Once it was a pale blue shirt with delicate deep blue and white flowers sprinkled here and there and one-inch squares of navy blue with tulips inside scattered among the multi shades of blue flowers.  I must say that it has the ugliest buttons that were ever made. Half of the buttons have brown design that spikes toward the middle of the button like small volcanos before they erupt while the other side is opaque.

My daughter is mystified as to why I still keep this old worn-out shirt but it is so soft and cuddly that I use it to sleep in when the weather is too warm in the house but cool enough that I want sleeves to keep my arms warm. The heavier materials that have long sleeves for PJs are too warm so I hang onto this bedraggled ancient shirt.  Basically, I am the only one who ever sees it so I can darn well wear what I want to when I sleep! Just think, it has its own vents!

Photos of my latest Swarovski flower earrings are below:

This flower earring has a dark red cut-rose bead in the center and a clear Swarovski bead on the end of the flower which is the end that hangs.

My Grandfather Used to Say

I take a bath every Saturday whether I need it or not!

That was my grandfather and two of his sisters, taken in the early 1900s. His siblings used to say that they had an even dozen. They didn't have a room for each child but had one large bed; six slept at the top of the bed and six slept from the bottom of the bed and he said often "it was more than once that I woke up with a toe in my mouth".

Like a Patchwork Quilt

Blessed be our Savior who died for us and was resurrected and lives today; Happy Easter to all.


Life isn't given us all of a piece;
It's more like a patchwork quilt
Each hour and minute a patch to fit in
To the pattern that's being built.


With some patches bright - and some patches dark,
And some that seem ever so dull - 
But if we were given to set some apart,
We'd hardly know which to cull.


For it takes the dark patches to set off the light,
And the dull to show up the gay -
And, somehow, the pattern just wouldn't be right
If we took any part away

No, life isn't given us all of a piece,
But in patches of hours to use,
That each might work out his own pattern of life
To whatever design he might choose.

Rocky Mountain Sire Service

That sign was on the freeway road in Wyoming. We didn't stop to investigate - well, you need a horse you see!  I was driving in the morning and after we left Colorado, we decided to return through Wyoming because it was a 30% chance of snow whereas it was 60% chance of snow going through the Vail ski area in Colorado.  It was fine the first couple of hours and then we passed the Continental Divide and topped at over 7,000 feet.  I think we were a little high and of course, it started to snow and then it turned to a blizzard.  This was a white knuckle blizzard but the good thing about this 30% chance of snow is that it was not sticking to the road and after 30 minutes, it started to let up or we just got to the other end of the storm.  

Apparently, there are such devastating storms on this road that they have those railroad crossing arms that are painted red and white which close the road when it is really really bad. The night before we started on this freeway, it had been closed and there were some very horrific accidents with several semi-trucks (could be more but this is what we saw).

After driving through Wyoming for 5 hours, we came to this view which is more like it.  Sunshine, blue sky and fluffy clouds!

Later that day, we were back in Utah.

I took this photo for my cousin who lives in Wisconsin.

Back to Colorado

I was never so happy to see another state than when we left Kansas and started driving toward Denver!  We passed several semi-trucks carrying what I initially thought was airplane wings and a fuselage but my daughter said that they were probably parts of windmills, especially the ones that looked like airplane wings - they were really blades of the windmills.  America should have placed those windmills all over the US.  We've had them in California, Oregon, Utah and Colorado for years now.  

Windmill City

Why Do I Get to Drive in All the Storms?

I guess it just happened that mornings are best for me to drive and that was when all the storms started.  For two days on our return from Rolla, Missouri, it rained in the morning and cleared off in the afternoon. We left behind the military who all looked bald headed because at boot camp they make them shave off all their hair with one exception - the women - they had to wear their hair in a tight skin pulling bun so it looked like they didn't have hair either!

We crossed the Missouri River about six times - apparently it winds through the state like a snake.  It is  a very winding river compared to the Snake River in Idaho.

Missouri River

I am very glad that it was not flooding when we were there.


On our way home, we stopped at the infamous Dairy Queen and there I saw an unusual sight.  This very tall and thin young lady was wearing black pants (trousers for you Brits) which had orange tiger paws on the butt - well they were not tight and it wouldn't have matter anyway because she had a very very flat bottom.

Boiling Springs on Big Piney River

We took a short cut according to the worst US map atlas that was ever made.  The roads were windy (not windy but winding), hilly and we were constantly going up and down through small towns. The bright yellow Forsythia bushes were in full bloom and so were all the spring trees. Very pretty.  It was 80 degrees F and just delightful.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at Ft. Leonard Wood.  Small farms that we saw on the way there looked like the one below:

 Typical American Red Barn

Boiling Springs on Big Piney River

Look out for the frog in Missouri!


Old Rolla:

 We didn't stay here.

Licking Milling Company

Cobalt Blue Murano Earrings 24 kt Gold

I designed these beautiful round earrings from Cobalt blue hollow glass with 24 karat gold that surrounds the beads, and added Swarovski rondelles and faceted round cobalt beads. They have gold hooks and are found on my Etsy Shop.    Etsy.com/shop/DiansEarrings

Tornado warnings

We kept hearing about the Tornado warnings for Davies County which we were driving through.  To the west as the sky darkened, we saw the most fantastic lightening show that either one of us has ever seen.  It was incredible - lightening struck in multiple places through the clouds every second.  In the west we never see such a storm; our lightening storms are never that dark to begin with and they don't strike but every 10 to 15 minutes. 


After we left Gallatin, we tried to find another historical site but missed the turn and ended up on a road that was not on our little map.  We were headed directly toward this tornado clouds so we decided to head south to Kansas City if we could find the road that we came north on but it was not such an easy transition and in fact, we ended up making a circle coming back to the same road we had been on previously after we left Gallatin. 

Gallatin Rotary Jail

This historic jail was there in 1838 when the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who lived at Adam-ondi-Ahmen came to town to vote and the Missouri Residents refused to let them so it started what is called "the Mormon War of 1838".  Many people were killed not only here but in other areas of Missouri. The Mormons were expelled from Missouri even though many owned land there.

We finally found the right road and headed for Independence.  A branch of the LDS church broke off from the main church and became the Reorganized LDS church.  It continued to carry that name until the last living descendent of Joseph Smith died and so they voted to change the name of their church in 2005. They still believe in a living Prophet but their new ones had no blood line from Joseph Smith.

We visited the temple site and visitors center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At some point the RLDS church changed their name to the Community of Christ. They also lost the original doctrine of eternal marriage between a man and a woman and a number of other changes so that they no longer have anything in common with the LDS church except the Book of Mormon which they have modernized and Book of Covenants which has been added to.

This is a photo of their temple:

This temple is across the street from the site where the LDS church will eventually build a temple but there is a property issue.  When that is settled, a temple will be built.  So the LDS church owns property across the street and has a visitors center there.

Inside the visitors center - a little history about the pioneers who crossed the plains to Utah.

A beautiful statue of Christ called the "Christus".  It is a smaller replica of the statue in the visitors center in Salt Lake City, which was sculped by a Danish man.

The area where the LDS temple will be built before the coming of Christ.

My neighbor likes to look in my back door at me

I took a photo as proof - my grey and white neighbor looks into my house from the back door every other day.  He or she is attracted to my cat.

Spooky cat - he terrorizes the neighborhood.


Being the Sabbath Day, after worshiping my Father in Heaven this day at church, I am going to work on genealogy.

Adam-ondi-Ahmen - pure Adamic language

After reaching Kansas City, we took a road going North to see Adam-ondi-Ahmen.  It may be the very first and last time that I ever see this special place.  It is special because it could mean "Adam in the presence of God"  or "Adam's blessing place". Adam and Eve dwelt there after they were banished from the Garden of Eden. This site was dedicated for a temple block in 1838 by the Prophet Joseph Smith. The temple has not yet been built - property is rented out to local farmers.  

The road to get here was a cute little road with lots of ups and downs and turning, with tummy ticklers.

Darla said, "we are the first ones here, where are the rest of you?"


Adam-ondi-Ahman is the site of the future grand council where Jesus Christ will meet with his people for His Second Coming.

We didn't stay long because the tornado was coming to Davies County and it started to get dark.
We stopped in a quaint little town called Gallatin and had dinner at a Subway.  We parked in front of a flower shop which had interesting residents.

There were two cats who lived in the flower shop!

Liberty Jail

What crazy person would spend one of three days of vacation touring a jail?  That's me!  Liberty Jail is where the Prophet Joseph Smith was held for six months on trumped up charges in 1838 and then he was released with the other prisoners.  They were held in the basement of this brick jail where not only can a person not stand unless they were incredibly short but also there were only two peep holes with bars for any kind of light from the outside. They are represented by wax figures.

 The jailor would have been upstairs; prisoners below. Notice that the rope was the only way in and out.

This is a replica of the golden plates that Joseph Smith translated into the Book of Mormon from the Egyptian language.

These are some of the historical sites in Missouri that belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We were able to see at least 3 of them.  Tried to find one of them by this map and got lost and ended up on a hi-way that was not even on the map.


Then the tornado warnings started as we were headed to Adam-ondi-Ahmen.