My apologies to you who have moved to a place still in the snow, but here are some more flowers.
This flower is one of the first to bloom and the flowers start white and gradually turn purple.
The famous Brookdale Lodge has it’s own ghost, as many know. Six year old Sarah somehow fell from the bridge into the pool in Brooke Room, where the creek flows through the dining room. The Inn has just been taken over by new owners, (which is why my link doesn’t work anymore), but they are remodeling. I am glad of that, in its heyday it was very popular as a stopover place for movie stars like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. If you see a little girl over there who is crying and looking for her mommy, that’s her…
I saw this white, blackbird and I found out that they are really rare. So, I think its an omen. Anyway, I was in front of Longs Drugs in Scotts Valley. I was just getting out of the store and there was a flock of blackbirds in the parking lot. You know, they like to hang out and jump into their reflections in hubcaps. Anyway, I hadn’t had a chance to take anything, even though I was just getting out of the drugstore and I saw this white blackbird, he was just like the rest…except white, I took a picture with my cellphone, but it didn’t look as good as this one.
Sure, warming into the sixties, no frost for a week, no rain…birds singing…wild flowers are starting to come out. Banana slugs are on the move. Okay, if you live in St. Paul or somewhere up there, don’t throw up. It just means global warming isn’t the most even thing. What global warming really means, is more energy in the earth weather system, heat is energy. First it moves the air, then the wind, then the wind pushes around these things like cold and warm fronts. That is why, even when its cold, it is still…global warming. I am no expert, but I do watch the weather channel. Anyway, something was making my columbines start sprotting before I could get them in the ground…
Next blog will be on the slow, but steady progress of …sudden oak death around here. I swear, its thinning the woods enough that I can see through the trees to houses I didn’t know were there.
The weather is clearing, sun is coming through the trees at noon. We just had two inches of rain last night. So, its wet but it looks nice and moss is everywhere. This past month has really rained, no record for here, but we did have two days that rained 7 inches each time. Biggest reason why it is hard to write much on the blog, is quite honestly…I’m down. Lately, I feel like I am just gearing up to move. I don’t like moving. I like this place, even though at times its cold and you wonder during big storms if a tree is going to hit your house.
We are just over extended. We pay too much, our mortgage went up too. Plus, we miss family members. I’ll try to hang in there and hope that by this summer it will get better.
From friday until today, Tuesday sometime, we have been blacked out by storm damage to power lines. Not just us but most everyone here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. What I learned…
a generator won’t save money, but it wil keep you from a bad case of cabin fever.
we didn’t have one…
have about 100 batteries, more the better
little clicky lights, like fake tea lights light the stairs great, and they last a few days
put the food in an ice chest and set it outside where the winter cold will keep it fresh (unless your racoons are smart)
always have extra clothes, we seemed to have only summer clothes and swimsuits on hand in the end
lots and lots of fire wood, you need a lot when you depend on it to warm a house all day
battery radios really help pass the time
reading by candle like Abe just sucks
light the stove with a match (like in the old days, it’ll work on a new stove too)
it is reall hard to tell when something is done cooking in the dark
at least the pets didn’t eat us, but the turtles had it rough with no heater
Exploring
On a cool foggy morning,
Only me and Grandpa Joe are awake
we are going to explore the woods today
there seems to be no path, but Grandpa Joe knows the way
the leaves are wet under the huge trees
large banana slugs… sleek, yellow, making s and c shapes on the moss
we watch for a while,
then moved on…
When exploring the woods you have to move slow,
quiet and look with your heart.
Grandpa Joe points to a fallen branch
I carefully lift it… slowly to not disturb the creatures beneath
First… nothing appears,
then …I see them….one…no two!… slender salamanders
Carefully, slowly, I placed one in my open hand,
tiny legs…way too small for the body,
they look like an afterthought….
I wonder about why the legs were so small…
I carefully returned it to where we found it
Grandpa Joe said we need to respect the small things
so we placed the branch
exactly back
the way it was, because
When exploring the woods you have to move slow,
quiet and look with your heart.
We used our walking sticks to keep from slipping on the wet leaves
Slowly we climb the hill
past old redwood stumps that sometimes…. seem like hunched trolls
their hair… twigs of huckleberry…and poison oak!
grandpa Joe points to the place where the stump burned in a fire
the inside…dark, deep… made a small cave
a nice place for elves to live I thought
around the tree were the younger shoots
the old giant, the mother tree,
lives on in the circle of younger trees
you can tell if…
When exploring the woods you move slow,
quiet and look with your heart.
This will be a big update. Nothing like a two day power outage to get me back to blogging. We just had a huge storm pass through, about nine inches at this point, but its still got another day of rain to go. I will post a picture. I am with a whole bunch of people in Scotts Valley at the Coffee Cat where I can plug in and get recharged. I think the hardest thing about a power outage is the lack of light and TV. I don’t want to miss the playoffs.
I wish I had enough light to paint, I want to finish remodeling this one room. That has really kept me the most busy over the past month. I have been putting in paneling, new flooring, staining, cutting wood and smashing fingers.
We are still out for school, but the hardest thing is keeping the house warm enough for 4 turtles. The two hamsters just hunker down. The turtles had heaters for their water and a lamp, but without heat they can’t eat, they can’t digest their food without heat. I know I should cuddle them and wrap them in hot water bottles. I am not there yet, but Blondie wants me to let them out whatever I do.
I am working on poem, I will post it…let me know what you think.