clwriter

June 23, 2008

  Morning in Torrey, UT

Nothing like a summer rain to clear the air! When I walked around outside our Torrey motel, the sunrise light drew all the finest colors from the tamarisks and sages and the surrounding redrock cliffs. Becca slept in: we didn’t have to be at our meeting place for the planned trail ride until 9:30, so I had plenty of time to contemplate the morning spectacle.

  Home on the range?

June 22, 2008

  Canyonlands seen from Dead Horse Point

This is the day the Mom-guilt hit me: I’ve worn out my kid!

   Looking over the edge

June 21, 2008

  Dawn in Westwater Canyon

So many things I never want to forget about this Midsummer’s Day. Start with the color of the cliff opposite our campsite at sunrise. How the moon was just barely visible there as I awoke.

  Little Hole

Somebody’s voice calling out “Coffee!” when it was time to go get our breakfast. The pancakes and bacon never tasted so good!

  Ready to rock and roll!

June 20, 2008

  Westwater Canyon Wall

“The canyons of southern Utah are giving birth to a Coyote Clan—hundreds, maybe even thousands of individuals who are quietly subversive on behalf of the land. And they are infiltrating our neighborhoods in the most respectable ways, with their long, busy tails tucked discreetly inside their pants or beneath their skirts. They understand that beauty is not found in the excessive but in what is lean and spare and subtle.”

--Terry Tempest Williams, “Coyote’s Canyon”

  The top of the canyon

Westwater Canyon was our destination—after we met our guides at Canyonlands Field Institute on the outskirts of Moab, and organized our gear into dry bags for the river trip, we jumped into a van for the trip to the put-in.

June 18, 2008

Lucky for me, I bought two books at SFO for my trip to Utah. My flight to Salt Lake City was on time, but Becca had a big delay coming from LA. She missed the check-in time for her flight by 2 minutes! TWO! And they said she had to go on a later flight. So she didn't come in until 10 pm. I arrived on time at about 7, got my rental car, and settled down to read Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson. That book, about a rather haunted mountain town in Idaho and a weirdly eccentric family, got me through the waiting. Such excellent writing, although hardly cheerful. The happy ending is that the main character gets to be a transient, which is about what I felt like.

The Colorado River near Moab

June 14, 2008

  Primrose

Jam-packed days, lazy evenings. I love having the light so late! Otherwise I’d never have time to take walks. Today Peter and I went down the road for a few minutes after dinner. For once the primroses along the roadside were open, AND I had my camera! I’ve been admiring these all spring. They are some kind of beach subspecies of evening primrose: they tend to be closed up during the day. Although foggy mornings are much to their liking!

  Evening light

June 10, 2008

  Charlotte cuddling up to my (injured) hand

With my finger bandaged up and still sore, I’m glad that I decided not to write something new for Guy’s workshop tonight. He asked us to bring something longer, so I printed out a copy of “A Stray Proverb,” the first of my stories about Touchstone the cat. It’s longer than any of the assignments in his “Low Fat Fiction” class so far—usually we are trying to write something 600 words long that still tells a story. My Touchstone stories are just under 2,000 words, so they’re still short-short stories but not exactly Flash Fiction. This one still fits on six double-spaced pages: I got it copied double-sided so it’s only three pieces of paper. Shorter than the ones that the other half of the class brought last week when it was their turn for “longer” stuff!

  Cozy kitchen kitty

June 8, 2008

  Sitting Room poster by Marylu Downing

The stupidest thing happened yesterday afternoon—I messed up my finger, the ring finger on my left hand. Late in the day I asked Peter if he’d like to take Bart out for a walk, and we went out to the Laguna. Peter had never been to the other side of the summer bridge so we went there. But his back was still bothering him, so he lay down for a while on one of the benches. Bart and I continued on the trail, then came back to join him.

June 6, 2008

   A place for memories

Today was probably the last day I’ll work this school year. I got a call to sub for the Foods teacher at Analy. She’s going on the Senior Picnic today. I love going to any of the classrooms in that building because the Jeremiah Chass garden and labyrinth is outside the door. So I took my camera along to take a few pictures.

  Sunflowers will soon tower over the fence

June 1, 2008

  You can just barely see the squirrel's tail!

This morning felt like the cliché: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Even though almost everyone was here (Beth had to go back to SC already) I had the house to myself most of the morning. Finally Becca appeared and I got to show her the funny way the squirrel has been coming and eating the bottlebrush bushes. It happened that it was being even more daring than usual, getting way out on the tips of the branches. I can’t imagine why Bart wasn’t barking at it—we could easily see and hear it from the kitchen window! Probably too tired from all the playing he did yesterday.

May 30, 2008

  Bailey Field (SRJC)

“Allie woke up, 8 am, graduation day” starts that damn disturbing Better Than Ezra song. No morbid stuff allowed here! Although I must admit, with school colors of black and orange, it does feel rather Halloween-ish. Dan has to wear an orange gown: he’ll look like some kind of overgrown pumpkin, going up to get his diploma.

May 27, 2008

  The ladies of Dairydell

I worked on one of the poems from the Lifeboat Retreat and pasted it at "Abbey of the Arts" Poetry Party. I ended up calling it "Appetites." I don't think I'm really finished with it yet - it might want to be a poem with end rhymes, which of course takes many days of work! (http://abbeyofthearts.com/blog/2008/05/25/invitation-to-poetry-celebrate-the-gifts-of-being/)

May 26, 2008

A misty view of Drake's Bay

Estero Memories 

I’m home, back to my own room, my own kitchen. But images, words, sounds from the weekend away are swirling through my head. I worked out in the garden, pulling weeds, listening to the oak titmouse families up in the trees make their wheezy little sounds. The squirrels catch my attention too. I see one coming way out to the ends of the branches in the bottlebrush bush. It looks like it’s grabbing something there to eat—what is a squirrel doing eating bottlebrush? It normally only attracts hummingbirds.

  Yellow lupine on the headlands

May 25, 2008

   The steep cliffs of Point Reyes

Wouldn’t you know it, of course the last day of the retreat, we had the sunniest morning! Our agenda had our first group meeting at 11, so I had time to wander about on the hillsides and enjoy the views.

   View of Drake's Bay

May 24, 2008

   My breakfast-time companions!

We Don't Mind The Rain!

Another one checks me out

May 23, 2008

  Historic Lifeboat Station at Pt. Reyes

What Did I Leave Behind?

  View from the Chimney Rock Trail (Sat.)

May 20, 2008

   Trail buddies

Back to Pt. Reyes – the Bear Valley Trail is looking shady and cool today! Although the weather has changed a lot since last week. It’s back to the regular spring weather: sometimes an overcast or foggy morning, clearing in mid-day, windy towards late afternoon, and then maybe fog before sunset, but most often clear until well beyond midnight. That’s what keeps the Marin hills green until the end of May!

  The picnic area at the cheese place

May 17, 2008

   The current AHS main building, constructed in the 1930's

This was the day of the local high school’s 100^th anniversary party. The school is named Analy High School. The odd name is explained by the poor spelling skills of a 19-century resident. A landowner from Ireland named Jasper O’Farrell used the Irish place-name Annaly when drawing up the original Township map but forgot one of the N’s.

May 14, 2008

   Western Sky

Everyone is talking about the heat. By Thursday it is expected to get up near 100 degrees. It’s hard to believe. I ran around watering everything again, even giving some of my young trees a good drink. I have a little pomegranate and a little nectarine tree out in the orchard. I don’t want anything to dry up!

May 11, 2008

   At Helen Putnam Park

For Mother’s Day, Peter and Dan surprised me with a floppy purple sunhat. The best part was the drawstring inside—this came in handy on our Mother’s Day hike, when the wind began to kick up.

   Mother's Day bouquet