End of September Photos

 It's been a while since I've posted end of the month pics, so I thought I'd share a few here and wave goodbye to September. It's been a beautiful month.

A Great and Snowy Egret sharing a moment together

It was the bluest of blue skies and ocean day

The Pelicans surprised us by flying so close

The mouth of the Mad River

And then more Pelicans

We're always so glad when we get to the ocean to hear those waves. The best way to end the month. 

Autumn Has Arrived

 The weather has been lovely for the past few days, and we've been taking full advantage of all that warm sunlight. Lots of long neighborhood walks and the sweet hints of autumn.

The tippy top view of the tree right down the street from our house. Many of its leaves are already on the neighbor's lawn, on the sidewalk, in the street. Flashes of red and orange everywhere.

The sunflowers are almost ready for harvest and so is the corn behind them. 

A contrail shadow heading toward the mountains in a blue sky over a field already harvested for its tall grasses by the hungry dairy cows. They have moved on into the next field. You can see them if you click on the photo. 

We're expecting a bit of rain on Monday, but then a week more of sunshine. We're ready!

A Funny Revelation

You know how obsessed I am about how many blog posts we've been posting this year. Not many and certainly nothing like last year. I had been wondering about that. I noticed that we had 126 posts in 2020. How is that possible? We were just as locked down and bored as we are now. But somehow we managed to come up with 70 more posts (from our most recent number here) then. What was our creative spark? Well, I had a funny revelation... we cheated. Seriously,  the Dharma Bums cheated their way through 2020 by posting 46 posts that linked to music. Oh yes, those Friday Music posts. Who knew they would be rich for my obsessive post counting? Not me. So of course it made me wonder if I had a song in mind to post here. Maybe I could start Friday Music again. Nope. Even my play list has left me without an inspiration. 

So instead of music, how about something to laugh about. I posted this photo on Facebook the other day. It was a pretty funny moment. I had looked out the window and noticed this...

... a praying mantis on our clothes line. It made me laugh. I said out loud, "You can't fool me, mantis, I know you're not a clothespin. Nice try though!" 

Or I could show you the beautiful full moon rise from Monday night as it come up over the mountains and trees.

I love watching the moonrise. It's always so beautiful. 

I sent the moon photo to my twin brother. We had a conversation about the planets we saw on this night. Those twinkly little planets. We laughed about how earth must look the same from Mars, from all the other planets. Just a little twinkle of light in a dark sky. Then of course we talked about our solar system, the Milky Way, the universe... and suddenly we grasped the delightful insignificance of earth. Oh yes, it was a funny revelation. 

Two Views From The Marsh

We did get out for a walk at the marsh the other day. These two views capture the beauty of the moment for us.

I hope you will click on them to see the full beauty of the moment. Top photo a lovely Great Egret and bottom photo I think are Godwits and their interesting, other-worldly, multi-dimensional reflections. 

I'm still working towards the goal of more than 67 posts this year. So here is Post #56. Wheeee! 

Views From Home

 Just a few scenes from home over the past few days.

The yellow rose bush has been stunning this year. I've been photographing it like crazy.  So, I thought it might be time to share a pic here.

Our first homegrown tomato of the season. When Roger sliced it, it looked like a heart to us. Then, I took another look and thought it also looked a bit like a red tomato barn owl. 

One morning the view looking east a little past sunrise. A bit of rays in the low fog in the trees.

Tuesday morning's smoky view at sunrise. We're always glad when there's no fog or clouds, even if it's an orange sky of haziness. 

I'm grateful for these views from home for post #55. Yes!

Finally We Could See The Sky

Readers of this blog know how much I love the sky. The ephemeral beauty of the changing light, clouds, ice crystals, colors and shapes of clouds... all of it. I love the sky. So after spending nearly three months under fog, clouds, and smoke, it lifted my heart sky high to see blue sky again. And not only that... a heart shaped cloud, and not one but two rainbows at sunset. I had forgotten how much I love to run outside with the camera. 

Do you see the heart-shaped cloud in the above photo? I didn't see it when I was photographing the sky, but when I downloaded the pic, I could see it. 

Then we had a tiny bit of a drizzle a little while before sunset last Wednesday evening. I peaked out the window facing east and saw a hint of a lovely rainbow. So of course I grabbed the camera, ran outside and photographed it. 

The next evening after an even tinier amount of a drizzle, I noticed our west facing yard lit up in a red hue. I ran out to the east facing front and saw this red bow in the red sunset sky. Roger and I loved this moment. It was such a beautiful sky that others around town photographed it as well and one photo made the front page of the local online newspaper. 

In these times it's just great to have beauty lift our hearts as high as the sky.

 

 

Six Degrees of Separation

We've often heard that expression, how we're all just six degrees of separation from each other, or something like that. I've been thinking about that lately in terms of the Covid pandemic. People have posted questions on Facebook and other places asking if we know of anyone who was diagnosed with the virus. A few weeks ago I actually commented somewhere that I didn't know anyone. Then I told my brother that, and he said, "Did you forget that our cousin's two sons were both infected? That their children were infected? That our very elderly aunt and uncle were infected?" Oh wow, yes I did in fact forget. This old brain ain't what it used to be. Then I remembered that my nephew's step-daughter had it and was hospitalized for a while. It was difficult. Yes, we know people who have been infected. But the other day the news of an infection took a very dire turn. My niece got married in March. Of course no one could really go to a wedding because of the virus, but her soon-to-be husband's grandmother set up a small wedding for them in her very lovely Southern California backyard. In another time, we might have driven down for such an event, but certainly not during covid. My niece is now pregnant. Her husband's grandmother was so excited about becoming a great-grandma for the first time. She was utterly elated. Oma (as they called her) was fully vaccinated and felt safe in these past few weeks. She and her husband socialized a bit, went out to dinner, etc Then they both got sick and were diagnosed with Covid. But then, she got much sicker, ended up in the hospital, then on oxygen, then on more oxygen, then only one day in ICU on a ventilator. And then she died. Today (Wednesday) is her funeral. So, now we know people who have been infected. People who have survived. People who did not survive. 

I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

Sometimes I lay awake for hours at night and worry about this pandemic. On Labor Day we went and visited with Roger's daughter and the grandkids for the first time in more than a month. We gathered outside, maintained our distance. But then one of the grandkids was very excited about all the pears they had recently gathered and so brought us delicious pieces of pears to munch on while we talked. She touched the pear! I touched the pear! I  put it in my mouth and ate it. She had just gone back to school and started 4th grade last week. Yes, everyone is masked, but still how safe are the kids? So now I will worry for 14 days to see if I show any signs or symptoms. Seems like everyday I start a new 14-day countdown. This is a crazy way to live.  

How about you? Know anyone whose had Covid? Or died of it? Are you worried?

Now The Onions

  We harvested the onions on August 7th.

And then set them to cure in a cool dark place. We didn't notice the size of a few of them until the other day. What a surprise. 

Some of them got very, very big. I wonder how many meals we'll get out of that big one. What do you think?

Thank you, onions, for being post #52.

A Little Goal

 In our first year of blogging in 2005 we had 360 blog posts. We had just retired and moved from Santa Cruz, CA to Port Townsend, WA to start our new life. There was so much to see and do there. We were young. There were eagles! I bought my first camera with a zoom lens. I learned the names of birds. We walked the minus tides. We planted a huge garden on our land. We blogged daily.

By 2006 there were fewer blog posts. Each year there were fewer and fewer, and then we hit rock bottom. In 2012 we had only 67 posts. How could we have so little to say and so few photos to post? I have no idea. That was almost a decade ago. My brain hardly goes back that far anymore. 

So here is the goal. I want to post more than 67 this year. That means I have to do at least 18 posts between now and December 31st. Want to know what else that means... there are going to be some wacky boring contentless posts here. Wait... what... that's not new. LOL! We've been heading down that path for a while. 

So here is one more wacky boring contentless post. 

Yes, friends, that's some very big zucchini that overgrew in our garden. We pay attention but they hide and grow and grow and grow. 

Thank you, zucchini, for being post number 51!