Trails, Maps, and Signs

There's a trail near the Bear Valley visitor center in Pt. Reyes National Seashore called the Woodpecker Trail. I saw and heard plenty of woodpeckers out there, but I also found plenty of sunshine, and even bluebirds! Zippety-Doo-Dah!



I was there for a poetry workshop, well prepared with a folding chair so I could sit and write for 30 minutes or so. Sitting still really paid off this time!



There was a whole family of bluebirds centering their noon-time efforts around this coyote brush. Dip down to the grass, grab bug, eat, repeat!

( Read more... what keeps woodpeckers busy )

I've been putting this off for a long long time, writing about the days I spent in Philadelphia last August, waiting for Irene. As in Hurricane Irene, I mean. Six months later, and I bet most of you hardly recall Irene.

Clouds gather over Pennsylvania Hospital

I hadn’t planned to be in Philadelphia last August--the unplanned trip was spurred by my son's medical emergency. As of the last Saturday of the month, the day Irene was hitting North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey, he had been hospitalized for seven days. His pneumonia had improved but the staff wasn't about to release him until after the hurricane. There was no way we were going to get a flight out of Philadelphia that Saturday. We booked flights for Tuesday, hoping that the storm would be long gone by then.

The garden south of the hospital

( Read more... Irene skips Pennsylvania Hospital )

Somebody was REALLY SMART to schedule the writer's retreat in mid-June this year. It was a long, rainy spring - almost every other weekend would have been much too rainy and foggy. Love that northern Cali fog, but sometimes even we shorebirds need to see the sun!



Friday afternoon, the light was cool and mysterious.



By mid-day Saturday, the usual overcast was back. But it wasn't as heavy as it sometimes is.



A lovely doe walking towards me, on the trail to Chimney Rock.

( Read more... deer, loons, starfish, and sunset )

Two Saturdays ago, I had the chance to work with the Laguna Foundation at Stone Farm, doing some restorative landscaping around the old farmhouse.



One of the new trees planted by volunteers. The old farmhouse has been restored over the past year and will now house offices for the Laguna Foundation. It was in ruinous state -- but very interesting to local landscape painters none the less! I wonder if we will still see people with their plein-air easels set up out here in the spring.



Some of the crew - moving wood chip mulch. This was at the very end of the 9 to 12 work party - there were two big hills of mulch to start with!
( Read more... why palms? why bulbs? why volunteer? )

Walking around my front and back yard, I hear lot of screeching (jays) and plink-ing (black phoebe) and humming (bees) as a constant soundtrack to a summer day. The golden-flowered ground cover is drawing plenty of bees:



Bart hangs around in the shade, under the giant bee-filled bottle-brush.

 

( Read more... Phoebe, pony, llama, and even a weasel!!!! )

Second morning out at Pt. Reyes - the dependable high overcast, followed by late afternoon fog! After writing and such-like in the morning, I went out to Limantour Beach. I found some interesting sculpture there:



I'd had enough sun the day before, so instead of basking in the filtered light, I hiked around the pond closest to the parking lot.



( Read more... Some places they didn't want me to go!!! )

Rain was forecast, for Friday night at least, so when I got almost an entire Saturday's worth of sunshine at Pt. Reyes, I went what might be considered just a little bit nuts! The absolute riches of an unexpected sunny day!



Later, several people at the Writer's Retreat mentioned how I was walking around, smiling, and SO HAPPY!!! Well, all it takes it getting out there, to see a view like this, of Drake's Bay, to put a big smile on my face for everyone to see!



With a day like this, everything just seems to SPARKLE! The thimbleberries were glowing...

( Read more... SUN???? At Pt. Reyes??? Believe it! )

For Memorial Day, we decided to take Bart to the beach. But he really doesn't like water much. Instead of hanging out on the sand, we tried the Pinnacle Gulch/Short Tail Gulch route, down to the beaches just south of Doran Beach and Bodega Bay.



It was still pretty gray overhead when we got there. Not cold, though. In case anyone was tempted to swim, they put up some highly specific signs.


Those of you who know Bart, know that he is very safety-conscious and would never DREAM of going into the water along the Sonoma Coast!


The tide was medium-low, giving us a view of plenty of sea stars and anemones. Plus hundreds of mussels, crabs, limpets, all the usual lovely rock-dwellers. Bart tried a little slurp from a mini-tide pool, and then made the most disgusted-sounding SNORT! when he tasted the salt.( Read more... after the BIG CRASH last week! )

But certainly, the bluebirds were singing!



A pair of them were flittering about, and of course I was too slow to get a good picture!



( Read more... birds, bees, and blossoms )

Back from a quick trip to Pittsburgh to see the Art Major - while he was occupied I did some hiking about in the neighborhood...

Sycamore enjoying sun on Sat. afternoon

Daffodils amused me, since they're already finished in northern California

I don't know what these are called. Probably a "feral" species, since when I looked at Western PA wildflowers online, these were nowhere to be seen.

  Tenacious little things - popping up all around trees, through the lawn, everywhere!

A nice saucer magnolia outside "Maggie Mo"

The next morning was slightly overcast - I went looking for "Buggy" competitors early on, but only saw some of them being carried away. Back to Schenley, before Phipps opened up...

Buds all ready to go - a few more sunny days will do the trick! People in Pittsburgh are working on these trails - see their blog for details. A big Earth Day party and work day will kick off the improvements. (See http://pittsburghparks.wordpress.com/category/trail-and-signage-project/)

But by Monday, the weather was even worse (the Art Major waiting to cross the street near Morewood)

Luckily there's plenty to see indoors! I went to Phipps (Sun.) as soon as it opened. Tons of tulips and stuff, as you can imagine, for the Spring Flower Show.

Some little Frabel people In the jungle-y orchid garden.

This one is called Paintbrushes!

I also managed to spend some time at the Natural History museum. Some friendly dinos-
Stegosaurus, of cour-us!

Some facts about where the specimens originated.

Back home now - and the weather here is pretty much the same as it was in Mr. Roger's neighborhood! But the trees here aren't fooled: as far as they're concerned it's been spring here for weeks. I guess it just takes a few days up further north to appreciate how "balmy" our NorCal climate really is!