This is a sample of one of my most recent bits of writing. I would love to here opinions. Comments and questions would be appreciated!!

Emma Messinger

A weary horse and traveler trudged on through the silvery cloak of snow blanketing the frozen ground. The horses’ burden sat alert, but there was a definite slump to her figure. It was easy to see that this small party was not merely taking a casual stroll, the squaring of the maiden’s shoulders meant business, and her lips were curled with secrets.

She exhaled with relief at the glimmer of a lantern, barely peeking from behind the thick evergreen boughs. The Inn looked shabby, but suitable. Shouts and drunken laughter billowed from the chimney, along with the tantalizing scents of a well-deserved supper. She sighed, hoping.

Her pallid face was sternly defiant, despite the fact that she looked to be as delicate as a snowflake. Still, it was suspicious, but she had offered a large sum of money. The Innkeeper had to be careful, not picky, he couldn’t afford that, but cautious. He cleared his parched throat. “You wouldn’t be expecting company, by any chance?”

The girl’s cold eyes narrowed. “Don’t be meddlesome sir; it wouldn’t serve you well to refuse such a bargain.” She produced a bulging satchel from the folds of her skirt. “If you follow my instructions, neither you nor your precious Inn shall fall into harms way.”

The man licked his lips greedily as she loosened the drawstring bag. “Deal. I’ll bar the door at ten.”

She was awakened often by the spurts of boisterous singing from the guests downstairs, and the unnatural howling of the wind. Despite her gnawing hunger, she had refused to eat; there was no use risking it. For awhile though, near the middle of the night, she laid peacefully, her dreams undisturbed. Her curly white-blond hair was sprayed out underneath her slender neck, like a wave of sea foam splashed across her pillow. She looked like a beautifully crafted china doll, her complexion smooth and pale as porcelain.

Then, all of sudden, the night was threshed with hoof-beats. A horse, dark as the gloss of midnight swept from the forest into the clearing, rearing up. The rider yanked its reigns and slowed to a stop. Below, there was a hammering on the door. Upstairs, the girl leapt from her bed, her breathing coming faster, her face scared instead of persistent, and her ears straining to catch any whisper of boots on the stairs. But nobody came. The Innkeeper kept his promise. The hammering subsided.

Trembling, she went back to sleep, her dreams now haunted with the shady eyes of her pursuer, looming from the darkness.

Forgotten Poem
I know that I mentioned creating a poem of the Grand Canyon on my vacation and posting it on my blog. Why didn't I do this?! This is what I have so far.

Skys of flames in the evenings,
Bright blue hues in afternoons,
Powdery snow lightly blankets
The trampeled earth.
Colors of mahogany,
And a shadowy teal,
Marbel pillars,
And rocky pyramids,
Clawfooted giant wardrobes,
And stone basins.
Stretching majestically to the horizon,
The breathsnatching Grand Canyon,
Lays before me,
A ruler.
Nobody neglects this phenomenol sight,
Yet no words of mine really describe the beauty seen by my appreciative eye.

How the Grand Canyon Was Formed
By Emma Messinger

While overlooking the Grand Canyon, that enormous and majestic hole in the ground, many people, including me, would ask how it was formed. It is still being formed today by the churning Colorado River, slowly chiseling the walls. How it began though, and how it is still being formed, is a complicated process considered a geologic wonder.

There are tectonic plates spread around the world that carry the Earth’s crust. The plates are stiff but move around on top of the Earth’s mantle. There is a tectonic plate that holds the North American continent. This plate meets the Pacific plate on what is now the western border of California. Between 100-65 million years ago there was another plate that carried mostly ocean (an “oceanic plate”) that started to slide under the western edge of what is now the United States. Where the land was closer to the California shoreline the oceanic plate hit hard and fast creating rugged mountains, like the Rocky Mountains. Farther inland, on the Colorado Plateau, where the Grand Canyon would form, the effects of the oceanic plate were gentler and the Colorado Plateau was raised thousands of feet above the surrounding area without disturbing or jumbling up the layers of rock. This is why the Grand Canyon is such an amazing record of Earth history, because the gentle uplift left the geologic record of the rocks undisturbed.

The Colorado River was like a knife cutting the cake of the Colorado Plateau. But, it was as if the cake, because of uplifting, was moving, instead of the knife. In this way the Colorado River ate away at the Colorado Plateau.

The river is not responsible for everything you see in the Grand Canyon. In fact, the only reason why the river is a cause for the Grand Canyon’s formation, is because of all the rocks and sand being rolled around and scraping at the canyon walls. There are many different kinds of erosion that create the canyon. Water getting into cracks in the developing Grand Canyon froze during nights causing expansion which broke apart rocks. The sun baked the soil of the Grand Canyon so when rains would come they would run off instead of soaking in, another form of erosion. The last form of erosion that is carving the Grand Canyon would be wind, shaping the walls and towers. These forms of erosion are what made the canyon so wide at the top, once the Colorado River had opened up the first narrow canyon.

When were the layers that can be seen in the Canyon created? At the bottom of the canyon there exists an ancient mountain range formed about 1.7 billion years ago. Even these very old rocks are only about half the age of the Earth, which is about four billion years old. Still there are very few places on Earth that you can trace the history of the Earth as far back as you can at the Grand Canyon. On top of these old base rocks, there are several different layers of sediment and mud. Some of these layers even include fossils of ancient sea animals, which means that before the uplift, there were several times when the lands and region that now make the Grand Canyon were covered with oceans. Geologists use a mnemonic sentence to help us remember the names of the primary rock layers shown at the right: “Know The Canyon’s History, Study Rocks Made By Time.” The bottommost layer does not exist in this sentence: a layer of Vishnu Schist and Zoroaster Granite, which is volcanic rock, cooled magma and slowly cooled and crystallized rock forms raised from the mantle of the Earth when the collision between the two plates occurred when the oceanic plate slid under the North American plate and pushed up stuff from the mantle through the crust of the Earth.

In the Arizona History Room at the Bright Angel Lodge, visitors may view a fireplace designed by the architect, Mary Colter. The fireplace is built of stone in the proper order of the canyon’s different geologically accurate layers.

Although the canyon is a mile deep now, it still has at least another half a mile to go before it will reach sea level. The same forces which created the canyon continue their work today.

12/3/05
For the next two days, we drove back to Phoenix and spent time with Mom’s family. Then we ended the vacation by flying back to Washington, and our home. It was so good to see our house, and pets, but, I will never forget my amazing vacation to Arizona!!!

11-30-05

After the canyon, we said good bye to my Jolly Grandparents (who were with us all the time), and headed to Prescott to see my father’s parents, Grandma Patricia (Trudy) and Grandpa Philip (Phil) Messinger, and my Aunt Thao, who was born in Vietnam, my Uncle Eric, and their 1 year old daughter, Catherine. I always enjoy seeing Catherine because every time I see her, she’s learned something new. This time, she’s walking! While driving to Prescott, we stopped briefly in Sedona, a beautiful little town that is practically built into its own colorful rock wall! We purchased ice cream. I got chocolate-chip cookie-dough, my favorite.

When we (mom, dad, Lily, and I) arrived in Prescott we went to an English Tea place that was very nice. We had jasmine tea, iced tea, scones, tea sandwiches (my favorite was cream cheese cucumber), bread pudding, French chocolate raspberry cake, and soup.

11-28-05 and 11-29-05

The Grand Canyon was indescribably beautiful. The average depth of the canyon is a mile deep. It is still being carved by many forms of erosion. It will need to be another half a mile deep before it reaches sea level! Even after that it will not stop growing! It is a breath swiping view, unlike any others. It is also one of the 7 wonders of the world. What are the other 6 wonders? I would like to find out. While at the canyon, we visited several gift shops, including the famous Hopi House, designed by the architect Mary Colter. I learned so much about the Grand Canyon’s history! I even learned how it was formed. Don’t ask me though, it is so complicated! I wrote a report about it for my science teacher, Mr. Hargrave.

11-27-05

Walnut Canyon is a place full of Native American ruins. It was amazing to walk around and climb through the tiny doorways and into the small shelters protected of the 30 degree weather. These are cliff dwellings and it was very nerve-racking to get anywhere near the sharp drop to the Canyon floor.

Walnut Canyon was the home of the Sinagua, who occupied these rooms nearly 800 years ago. There is no trace of the Sinagua after about 1400. Some of them may have joined the Hopi, who live to the north and east of Walnut Canyon. The Hopi recognize the ruined Sinagua homes as their own.

11-24-05

The next day, we went to the home of my Uncle Paul and Aunt Cora Messinger (my dad’s side) for Thanksgiving lunch. They own Messinger Mortuaries and their home is on the edge of a very beautiful cemetery. After lunch, we toured the cemetery and mausoleum. There is a lake with several kinds of fowl including swans, ducks, and geese. I met my Great Aunt Charlotte, Grandparents, and several other relatives that I hadn’t met before!

11-25-05

Today we have Thanksgiving with my mom’s side! I met my cousin, Peyton’s, friend, Dawn. We played for hours on the bouncy blow-up structure next door. We played “red rover”, “Mr. Fox”, and “red light, green light” until my oldest cousin Tanner started attacking us. Then, we went to see “The Polar Express” inside, while preparations for dinner were being made. My mom’s parents, Grandma Cela and Grandpa Ned Jolly, arrived from Payson, where they live in a cabin, two nights ago. Grandma is helping cook the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, oyster stuffing, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy, and, as is traditional in our family, turkey.

Grandma and Grandpa Jolly are taking us up to Payson for a day to share their home with us, then to Walnut Canyon, and the Grand Canyon.

The day after my trip to the Phoenix Zoo, we went to the Harry Potter movie with my cousins Tanner, Peyton, Bailey, Aunt Lisa, all from my mom’s side, and my father. It was an extremely well done film. I’ve been waiting for so long! “The Goblet of Fire” is my favorite of all the books in the series. My favorite of the three tasks in the Triwizard Tournament (a wizard competition) was the first. Harry had to battle a dragon and steal its golden egg. The camera had to move very fast to catch the scene where the Horntail (a breed of especially nasty dragon) was after Harry’s Firebolt (the fastest racing broom in the wizarding world).

So far, my adventures have been plentiful! Beginning at the time we arrived. On the first full day of my vacation, we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. My favorite exhibit was the Caves and Minerals, where you could take an excavating trip into a sandbox, and discover fossils, look at timelines dating back to the big bang, examine precious gems and metals, and climb through fake caves full of stalagmites and stalactites. I also, as always, enjoyed the aviary where fascinating birds with flashy feathers and interesting markings hop around waiting for a hungry camera.

On the second day, after breakfast at a good restaurant, called the Blue Willow, we hurried off to the Reid Park Zoo where we encountered two more aviaries and some active giraffes! The landscape here is amazing. Where there would be evergreen trees in Olympia, there are cactus with gracefully curved arms and thorns that jump at unsuspecting prey. After enjoying the zoo to its fullest extent, we hurried off to Phoenix, where we met with our cousins, aunts, uncles, and their Yorkshire terriers, Max and Jewels! We are staying with our aunt Dina, who has a lovely house and patio, complete with lawn chairs and palm trees.


On the third day we visited yet another zoo, the Phoenix Zoo, with our 5-year-old cousin, Lacy. Did you know that there is such thing as a monkey ‘aviary’? The one at the Phoenix Zoo is the only one in all of the United States. We saw tamarinds, a type of tiny chimps that jumped from tree to tree with their skeletal babies, the size of a cactus wren! We caught their frolicking on video tape. We also saw orangutans. My great grandfather would come to the Phoenix Zoo and watch the orangutans for up to six hours. I don’t blame him because they are so fascinating as they swing around. If they could talk to me, I think that they would be very intelligent. They could be gone from the wild forever in just five more years, if not for the breeding programs that the zoos have set up. This makes me very angry. We are destroying these wonderful creatures, by taking away their habitats. I wish I could do something to help them. After viewing the orangutans, who also seemed to be viewing us, we continued to the aviary and the otter enclosure. Have a happy Thanksgiving!


Emma Rachel

Dear Journal,
This is my first blog entry!

Don't forget that the 4th Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that begins in theaters on November 18!

I'm excited about my vacation to Arizona on November 18- December 3. I'm going to post my adventures, including my required vacation diary for school, and a poem. We {my family and I}are going to the Pheonix Zoo and taking hikes in the Grand Canyon. Right now, we are reading a book called Brighty of the Grand Canyon, the story from a burrows perspective. It's a good book, but, I can't wait to see the canyon for my self! We are also visting relatives and perhaps veiwing the new Harry Potter movie!
Sincerly,
Emma Rachel