Two Sky Views

 It had been so long since I saw any atmospheric optics I began to wonder if the sun and ice particles had left us because of the Coronavirus. I thought it was gone forever. Then I saw this.

Oh yes! That made me so happy. It looked like the dark cloud was exhaling a corona/iridescent cloud. I loved it. The sky's beauty was back! 

Then a few days later I saw this.

Roger and I had gone out to roll the garbage can to the curb for the next morning's pick up. I looked up at the sky as I always do and then ran in the house to get the camera. This is a 22 degree halo with sundogs, a parry arc, upper tangent arc, and above it all circumzenithal arc. 

The ephemeral beauty of our skies reminded us of living life in the moment without worry and with hearts lifted as high and far as we can see.

Come Take A Walk With Us

 The weather warmed up and the skies were blue. We looked out the window and shouted, "Let's go to the marsh." Here is a bit of what we saw out there.

Our beautiful clear blue sky day

American Avocets on their migration journey

Mallard mama and her ten ducklings

A Cormorant who was hanging out with the ducks

A song sparrow perched on the dried head of a teasel flower

A Ruddy duck whose partner was just out of view

This walk reminded me of what once was our normal life. It felt so familiar and comforting. The natural world unfolds in its seasonal beauty. The birds are nesting. Our garden is planted. Our hearts are grateful. We hope you are all doing well and appreciate you stopping by and joining us on our walk.

Dandelions

This is why we let our dandelions live. The Pine Siskin comes and enjoys the seeds in spring time. Perhaps she'll take some to feed the young ones in the nest.

Still quiet times here. It's been foggy, gray, and cold. Not much opportunity for any photography or for even a nice long walk. 

I could do a a whole long diatribe about the current events of my country. We know you know how we feel, so I will keep my fist clenching anger to myself. Grrrrr. Are we ever going to wake up? Whoops, I started to go there. 

We hope you are all doing well, staying safe and healthy. 

Still Not Much Going On...

 ...but here's a Great Egret we saw out at the marsh on a lovely sunny day last week. 

I liked the reflection. It's definitely nesting season here on the north coast. Birds are flying everywhere with twigs and dried grasses, heading to their secret places. The male ravens are still squawking madly over finding mates and flying after each other ready to assert their dominance. The hummingbirds have stopped coming to the feeder. It's been a few weeks since I've seen one. I keep changing the nectar every three days, but no one shows up. I think they're busy making nests and babies. I hope they return. 

Roger has been busy building a sauna in the garage. He has built a sauna in every house we've ever lived in. This is the longest we've gone without taking a sauna... more than FIVE YEARS! If you know our sauna history you know that on our very first date we went out to dinner. At that dinner Roger mentioned that he loved saunas. I said "Yay! I love a good sauna too." He replied that that was great news because he had packed towels in the car and knew of a wonderful place to go for a good sweat. So we went to Kiva Retreat in Santa Cruz and started a ritual that we've practiced for the past 30 years... well until now. But that's about to change. The sauna is being built and soon we will start up our mellow relaxing home retreats again. If you search the blog for the word "sauna" you'll see all the saunas Roger has built. This one is pretty interesting. He's building it in a way that it can be disassembled and taken with us if we ever move again. Yay, said I!

I got my second vaccine shot on April 2nd. So, this Friday it will be two weeks past the date that says I'm okay to venture a bit more out into the world... maybe. Still going to wear a mask and practice every precaution we can, but there really is something about feeling safe that takes a bit of the edge off of these crazy times. We may actually go shopping for things other than food. Wouldn't that be wild? 

That's life here in Northern California. Stay well and safe, friends, and thank you for stopping by.

A Week Goes By

Not much going on here. Still living in quiet times. We did get to see a few things while we've been out going to dentist appointments and taking our neighborhood walks or just taking a peek at the sun...

After the dentist appointment, a short drive to the scenic overlook to see the harbor seals
and a cormorant hanging out with them

Out on our neighborhood walk we had a lovely moment with a cow who acknowledged our presence

Spring blossoms on our little suburban street

A 22 degree halo in a brief moment of wispy clouds

Maybe we'll have something to post next week. So far... nada, but I am laughing as I type this, so that's something to appreciate.

Hope you're all doing well, staying safe and healthy.