Tag: Nature

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Changed the header photo

I thought it was time for a change, I’d been looking for something to represent all four seasons, but hadn’t settled on anything beside Winter Snow and Autumn leaves. Now I have a Spring / Summer photo with some of the local flowers blooming.

The photo was taken on a nice day walking the dog. He ended up on the cutting room floor because he managed to have only his tail in the photo.

Here is another photo of him from that day. I was a good walk and a good day for both of us. We hadn’t been walking around this particular area for a while. Part of it burned a couple of years ago. I’d stopped doing our walks down there, because I didn’t want to think about a mostly white dog running around in a mostly black charred mess. I’d have gone broke in groomer fees. (OMG! I just used a term that’s banned on some platforms!)

This is the problem with redefinition of words and subsequent censorship of those words.

I digress…

I like this photo for its contrast and it also provides commentary on the county’s efforts to rehabilitate what they did to the wash behind the house.

This is the wash after the county spent 10 years working on it. The gash is 20 to 30 feet deep. Straight as an arrow and looks a lot more like a log flume than a flood control project. It was supposed to prevent erosion and manage occasional floods. In the distance you can see a bridge. For Years, the county resisted putting that bridge in. Building the bridge was the county admitting they were wrong.

There had been a bridge built over this wash in the 1930’s or ‘40s. It had washed out in a particularly nasty spring thaw/rain event. The county, instead of putting the bridge back, decided to dig a log flume. Then they decided to simply have the road surface drive through the wash bed.

In an effort to slow the water down they built a series of concrete and rock steps into the wash and subjected the residential area along the wash to 2 years of living in a construction zone.

The subsequent 10 years the neighborhood was a heavy equipment / construction zone for 3 to 5 months out of the year. An added bonus was that the roadway washed out pretty reliably, closing the road to town.

After a decade, the county redid the math and figured out if they put a bridge across the wash it would save them money. DUH!

The residents had been telling the county this from the beginning and because we were a bunch of rubes who knew nothing, the county ignored us entirely!

This is what the wash looked like before the county started messing about. There was water in it much of the year. The dogs and I would hike up the wash about 3/4 of a mile and play in the pools of cold clear water. We’d be dry by the time we’d walked back home but we’d all be happy. In late Summer there were wild blackberries to eat along the wash bank. It was rugged, natural, beautiful and ever changing.

Yes, rocks moved around through the years but usually not very far. This was due to natural erosion. That being said, the erosion was minimal and honestly seemed to be flattening the wash bed out, so the water was slowing down naturally. The wash bed was also meandering more so the water wasn’t rushing quite as much.

There was also a lot of wildlife that used the wash as a highway, water hole, and hunting ground. One of the reasons I liked this neighborhood and specifically this house was the proximity of the forest and the wildlife.

For years before the county’s destruction of the wash and its surrounding habitat there was a coyote that I could set my watch by. We called her the 6 am coyote and If I saw her, I was running late for work.

The lone California Poppy growing on what looks like the surface of the moon is my reminder to never trust a government agency.

San Bernardino County Flood Control promised that they were going to restore the wash to its natural state.

Originally the wash was lined with trees. There were some pine, some mountain oak, there were even a few aspen like trees. There was also a really nice trail that meandered through the trees. All of this was literally 1000 ft from the back of my home. I loved it, the dogs loved it, and hearing the owls hooting at night was comforting. My home was an oasis from the insanity of LA

All of that was destroyed by people who did not live in the area, who KNEW better than everyone actually living here. People who didn’t ask questions, and who didn’t consult history.

People who used the phrase, “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.”

They gave us more heat, more dust, a scar in the ground that looks like the surface of the moon, and a single California poppy.

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It’s one of those perfect icy mornings

There’s an effect that happens when it gets super cold here.

There’s no reason that it wouldn’t happen elsewhere and perhaps it wouldn’t even require super cold temps. It’s about 24° F at the moment. I’ve only seen this when it’s below 25° F.

This effect is where the snow looks like it has rainbow fairy dust sprinkled across it. I’ve tried to capture it photographically but my cameras always miss the nuance.

Scientifically, sunlight is refracting through tiny ice crystals. Since the crystals are at random alignments relative to the observer you get little sparkles of rainbow sitting on top of the snow. It’s beautiful, and I wish I could get a picture of it from my yard to post here. Knowing what causes it doesn’t make it any less beautiful to me.

Since all of my cameras are digital I suspect that the fact that it disappears in photographs may be due to the resolution of the sensors in the cameras. I’m almost tempted to go back to good old fashioned film just to see if I can capture the effect.

I just looked on the web to see if anyone else had been lucky enough to snap of photo of this. Alas, no. There were quite a few pictures of rainbows in snow/ice storms. But none of the rainbow laying on top of the snow.

There’s something magical about seeing a rainbow sparkling across the yard as the sun comes up. The effect itself lasts only a few minutes, you can extend it a bit by changing your angle in relationship to the snow. Getting higher or crouching down a bit will allow you to see the sparkling colors. I’ve spent too much time over the years improperly dressed, shivering, and feeling joy observing this magic of nature. 

If I was primitive, I’d say the rainbow was trapped by the snow and returned to the sky as it warmed up. Like all rainbows, there isn’t really an end, so unfortunately there’s no pot of gold to find. Leprechauns must be too clever to get caught in snow and ice.

Words don’t do it justice. Nonetheless, I’ve tried to share it verbally with you as a reminder, don’t be so busy this holiday season or any season that you miss wonderful things around you all the time.

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We may have a mostly White Christmas

IMG 2525The jury is still out on that.

It’s snowing lightly now. Yesterday all we got was a slushy wet mix that’s turned to mostly ice overnight.

For me, what we got yesterday is the most hated of Winter weather. It’s heavy, and difficult to clear. You’re tempted to just leave it and hope that it goes away. But you only do that once. If you leave it, you’ll need a pickax and wonder if it would be legal to use dynamite.  The slush freezes to the road and driveway and then everything is a skating ring. That stuff takes forever to melt on its own and it typically doesn’t melt until you’ve get many days of sunshine and temps above 40° F.

So I was outside in the rain/sleet/snow for about 2, maybe 3 hours doing the shovel work to clear as much as I could. In a way, doing the work was therapeutic. When I came in I was soaked through but not really cold. I think I was working out frustrations and anger against an intractable force. 

I wasn’t angry or frustrated at the weather or anything, I was just being physical and doing something constructive. 

It turns out that even moderately strenuous physical activity does more to get my head on straight than just about anything else. Sure I can be physical anytime, the difference is, that I always feel like I should be doing something else if I’m walking or working out. Crazy as it sounds, taking that time for me seems selfish and undeserved. Fighting to keep the street and driveway clear is one of the few times when I’m really in the moment. 

I guess it’s a matter of the snow keeps falling, the ice keeps forming and there’s nothing personal about it. It just is.

Over the past two years or so, banging my head against the job market has taken on a personal feeling. “Why do these people not like me? Why can’t I get traction? What is wrong with me?” Those questions eat at you. After a while it becomes personal, frustrating, and super depressing. In part it’s because you have no human interaction and therefore can’t figure out what your’e doing wrong. There’s no body language to pick up clues from. 

I think that’s why so many people may have stopped even trying to find a “real job”. It’s easy to sink into depression wondering what the point is. Sure, you’ll maybe get a job but you’ll have to deal with a large group of people. Many of those people are looking to be offended about something all the time, and some of those are looking to cash in on a nice lawsuit retirement plan. For someone like me, walking on eggshells all the time is exhausting. The vagaries of human interaction just complicate getting the job before me completed. I prefer to do what we’re paid to do and go home at the end of the day.

Snow and ice are pure. You can see what you need to do, and what you need to do better. For me it allows the opportunity to direct any frustration and anger in a constructive direction and if I call the snow a name there’s only the whispering hiss of ice meeting ice. Mother Nature isn’t going to be offended, no one’s feelings will be hurt, and the snow keeps falling.

I actually prefer to be outside alone when I’m clearing snow. I don’t have to speak, or interact with anyone. There’s a purity about it and when I come in, there’s satisfaction in a job well done.

Because the neighborhood is calm and quiet right now, I can see rabbits and squirrels wandering around fearlessly untroubled by humans. The scene is serene and peaceful. One of the neighborhood dogs just ran by, she’s a shorthair and bundled up in a nifty yellow sweater. She’s more interested in catching snowflakes than chasing the bunnies or squirrels. Her exuberance makes me smile. I wish I could always live in the moment like dogs do.

The local forecast says the snow should stop in an hour or so. After that the likelihood of snow drops to 30% for the rest of the day. I’ll have another cup of coffee and some breakfast. My dog is still being sleeping beauty in the middle of the bed. When I start working in the kitchen he’ll be up trying to mooch something, then he’ll notice the new snowfall and be a 2 year old running in and out all day long.

My day is going to be busy, I’m sure there’s going to be at least one game of “Chase the snowball” in the yard. Then I’ll head out to shovel snow and close my exercise and activity rings.

Maybe the snow will hang around to add to the holiday cheer

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Wildfire Season

Wildfire

Awake at 3:00AM

At first I’m not sure what woke me up. As I lay there my awareness expands.

The house is silent, as is the neighborhood. The sound of crickets is normal, and the oppressive heat of the day has abated.

There’s a coolish breeze blowing through the open windows. The dog is sleeping, I can tell by his snoring he’s probably laying on his back under the breeze from the ceiling fan.

Completing the evaluation of my immediate surroundings I notice there’s the scent of smoke in the air.

From experience, I know it’s the smell of a brush fire. The smell isn’t strong, nor is it the same smell that is present when the fire is close.

Somehow this smells “cooler” like it’s traveled a distance.

It is strong enough that it woke me. There hadn’t been any smoky smell when I went to bed.

Instinct is interesting. We think of sleep as “Turning Off” but that’s not really true. It’s just a different state of awareness. Somewhere in the deep primitive part of our brain there’s something monitoring our surroundings. An odd sound, light, or smell triggers a primal response.

That response in my case is accompanied by a hit of adrenaline that says, “Get your ass moving!”

The smell is strong. Apparently, it was enough to trigger my alert system. I can see the sky, and the stars clearly. I know there’s no smoke in the air, or rather not enough to obscure the sky. I roll over and try to go back to sleep.

I can’t.

The evacuation inventory list is playing in my head. What to take, what to leave, exit routes, and all the rest.

Eventually I can’t not think about fire.

I get up, wake the computer up, and start checking the Cal-Fire incident site.

The nearest reported fires are miles away, they’re 98% contained. The next nearest fire is in Hemet, 50 miles away so that’s not a threat to me. Although I note that two people  lost their lives. That’s bad. I don’t know the circumstances they were in but it reenforces my belief that if there’s a wildfire I’ll run, I’ll grab the dog, and what papers or sentimental items I can, and the rest can burn.

Anything can be replaced except your life and the lives of your loved ones.

For me though, tonite the damage is done. I pour myself a drink and write this blog. It’s going to take a while for the adrenaline to leave my system. 

Until then I’m not getting any sleep.

I hope your night was more restful.

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Ah… Rain

As most of the nation knows by now, the South West is in a bad drought.

That’s led to high temperatures and nasty wildfire conditions throughout the area.

On a more personal level, it’s led to me losing a baby tree that I sprouted from a twig. We’re under water restrictions. Our community is only allowed to water our plants twice a week. My little dogwood never had a chance.

It was a baby and needed a little more water. I tried, I dumped any partially full water bottles or glasses around the little guy in the front yard. It wasn’t enough.

My well established apple tree is feeling the pain too. By the time the watering day comes around the leaves are curling a bit. I’d break the rules and water more, but the water company “excessive water use” rates make it far too expensive.

Over the past few days, it’s been overcast and cooler. Sunday we got some real rain. Accompanied by the occasional rumble of thunder. It was wonderful and welcome.

Sunday night, early Monday morning, there was a bit of rain. The sound of rain on the roof didn’t wake me up, but the smell of rain scenting the breeze wafting through the windows did.

The dog has mixed feelings about it. On the one hand he likes the cooler temps. On the other hand he’s not thrilled about the thunder, or the water falling on him from the sky.

I find this amusing since he absolutely loves the snow.

He’s been a little subdued. Like a child on a rainy day. I’d put out finger paints for him but I think the ensuing mess would be expensive and time consuming to clean up.

On the other hand, perhaps I could have him generate some artwork for sale to pay for his kibble.

More rain is possible. I’ll be happy if it comes in gentle waves. More soaks into the ground and it means I won’t have to water the trees.

The down side is that the desert plants will go nuts requiring me to weed whack and trim them back.

Eh, I’ll take the trimming in trade for the water and cool breezes.