Weird Cloud - Saturday 6/6/2009

No, Weird Cloud is not my Native American name, thank you very much.

It's this thing that was hovering over Palmdale on Saturday morning. I'm pretty sure this formation is caused by a lee wave. If you Google "lee wave" and click on Images, you get photos of things that look like this.

Sunday Sick Day Outside - Sunday 4/12/2009

Well, it could be worse.

It could be raining.

I woke up feeling lousy again today. The Never-Ending Bronchitis, plus the long day yesterday. Hydra was also seriously under the weather on Saturday, too, but there was celebrating to be done that involved, food, chocolate and assembling jigsaw puzzles and we weren't about to miss it.

We had a great time, but about 40 minutes into our two-hour drive home, we had a call letting us know that I'd left my antibiotics prescription there.

Oh no. We'd left the house at 7:15 a.m. and didn't get home until a little after 9 p.m.

Anyway, this is the view from the little swinging bench we put between the house and the slope that leads to the open hillside. We call this the back of the house. We also call the back yard the back of the house.

We have no sides.


This is taken from my reclined position. Very good advice from Hydra to get outside to continue my convalescence. It lifts the spirits.




He busied himself cutting the lawn and cleaning up the shrubs and stuff while I hung out with the lady bugs in the vinca. I've never seen as many flying lady bugs as I did today. I wasn't even sure what they were at first.


Giant (overexposed) California poppy in the back yard. He's not really threatening it, just showing how big it is.



How is it that California poppies are so fragile that you can't pick them and bring them inside, and yet they have the strength to fold up at night to protect themselves?

I really love this about poppies. Poppies have good boundaries.

If you've gotten this far, here's a reward. Or a punishment. It depends on how much you like amateur poetry.

Still writing a poem a day for the month of April. Here's today's :

From Where I Lie

Mint and vinca mingling on the slope
The old table, decaying
The shed waiting for paint
The tilled soil waiting for herbs
The grape vine sprouting
The tip of my shoe resting
on the far end of the sheltered bench
The book
The water glass, sweating
The cedar, the willow,
the apricot, peach and plum showing promise
The lady bugs defying gravity,
orange asterisks on the breeze
The geranium sprouting from the nest
of last year’s bloom
The round brown bird of unknown origin
who nevertheless enjoys
a good reputation in our back yard
for bug consumption and dancing
The man who told me, rightly,
to rest outside.

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Monday 3/9/2009

They've restored the sign at Papoo's Hot Dog Show. Yay!

It's a gorgeous day. Sunny and cool. Perfect for walking during breaks.



Down the street at Trader Joe's it looks like a European market. Wow.



Later, at Braveheart's, I attempt to capture the drool of ecstasy on Jimmy's face. Didn't really capture it, darn it.


Settling in for the night in the guest bed. Braveheart has a keen sense of style and decor, but I wouldn't advise letting your kid spend the night in here.


Seriously.

Oops! It's Spring Already? - Wednesday 3/4/2009

Apparently the apricot thinks so!

I didn't get around to pruning again this year. The fruit trees are a little spindly.

Putting My Feet Where My Mouth Is - Thursday 2/26/2009

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to scale these rocks!

Sometime in the middle of the afternoon over on Facebook I said I'd rather be hiking. It sparked a lot of agreeable conversation.

It was sunny and cool, so I bypassed the gym and went to Vasquez Rocks County Park for a hike.



My foot next to some nice moss. Amazing green!


The long view.

As I climbed the first ridge, a ranger called out through a bullhorn that the park would be closing in about 45 minutes.

Ah well. It was time to pick up the pace.



Water on the trail. Very exciting.



The famous rock as seen through the skeleton of a reproduction native dwelling.

Ansel Adams, Eat Your Heart Out - Wednesday 2/18/2009

They say Ansel Adams sat for hours in remote places to get his amazing photographs.



I'm really not saying that I'm anywhere near as good as he was, but I am lucky to have great subject matter right outside my house.

Poetry in Motion - Friday 2/13/2009

As I left Priscilla's with my coffee this morning I noticed a flier for their upcoming poetry reading. A note at the bottom urged open mic readers to honor the wishes of the coffee house that will provide them a stage by abstaining from profanity or graphically sexual language.

My first thought was, "Wow, poetry ain't what it used to be."

But by the time I got upstairs and pulled this book off one of the shelves in the office, I'd realized that poets have been pushing the boundaries for a long long time. (See: Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric".)

Wonder what racy stuff Homer wrote when he wasn't working on "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."





Oh, and it snowed in SoCal again!

I drove home around noon so I was able to see it fall in big fluffy flakes. It coated the hillsides in a little over an hour .

Hydra's van pool was stopped on Sierra Highway on the way home, but make it through okay. He'd left the Tahoe parked by the pick-up point, so when he got home, he brushed snow off of it before putting it in the garage.

Remains of the Day - Sunday 12/21/2008

One of the last snowy places in our neighborhood is our yard! I guess we get a lot of shade from the pine tree on one end and the cypresses on the other.


The road's pretty clear, but there's still a little snow on the other side of the valley, where it really belongs.


We drove into Palmdale for lunch and errand-running. On the way back we saw probably a hundred cars parked along Sierra Highway near the Pearblossom Highway turnoff, and dozens of people scattered up the hillside, sledding!

This isn't that mountain. My camera was in my backpack, out of reach at the rear of the car. But we've seen that before--people coming from down below to sled further up into the mountains. I love that Acton got to be that place this time: the place the kids are going to remember as an amazing day.

All Winter in a Day (or Two) - Friday 12/19/2008

A touch of cabin fever may have helped to inspire me to drive down to Toluca Lake to work today. The road in front of my house was still a bit icy as I started off.

The holiday party was postponed because I wasn't there. Nice of them. I wanted to see my coworkers before the break.


Stopped at the post office to (at last!) get my packages in the mail. I was already behind before the snow storm.

I love the Acton Post Office. There were only a few people in line, but we were all swapping snow stories. The P.O. was closed yesterday!



Amazing. There's still snow all around my neighborhood, but just 10 miles away, on the 14 near Agua Dulce the only sign of snow is on the roof of that SUV up there.


Nice day at work. Finished up what I had on my plate and helped a couple of my coworkers with theirs. Was behind this person with multiple Trader Joe's bags on his arm. Um. I'm not sure you're getting home with those full, buddy.


Ahh! This is about 5 miles from home sweet home. I am still digging the snow. (But thank goodness, not literally anymore. Yesterday's bout with the 10-inch-deep driveway after the hike left me fairly sore.)

Hydra Dances While Rome Becomes Snowbound - Thu. 12/18/2008

The suspenseful buildup.


The promising first act.


The titillating second act, wherein the conflict deepens.


The triumphant finale!


The crowd goes wild!

There's Got to be a Morning After - Thursday 12/18/2008

Ooh! It's still here! Usually when we get snow, it's gone the same day. This is the view from the bedroom window. Wow!


The full effect in the back yard.



Papyrus with snow.


Not sure what the temperature actually is because this daity garden thermometer is frozen in place.



It's just lucky that I'm not homicidal, huh? Because the perfect weapon is hanging from the eaves of my house.

Or...? Um...? Have I read a few dozen too many episodes of crime procedurals and murder movie scripts?



We have not only snow, but drifts! Gorgeous drifts around the 4 foot high peach tree. The steps are nowhere to be seen, so we'll start our hike elsewhere!


Down the road in front of our house we go. Adventure!

Intrepididity - Thursday 12/18/2008

As we ended our hike, we passed a couple of kids heading out. With a laundry basket as a make-shift sled.


Oops!

Hydra told them that we'd scared off the polar bears.

The little one looked at us, and the hill, and home and said, "I'm going back!"



His big brother soldiered on. Though I think he'd have done better sliding on a garbage bag.

Snow Day - Part 2 -Wednesday 12/17/2008

As evening approaches, the snow's still falling and the front yard is filling with snow. You can see just a little of the brick wall on the right that is 20 inches tall...I think we got about 9 inches, but it drifted.



Hydra dutifully shoveled the snow from the walk between the house and garage. Sundry provides her usual respectful color commentary!



While Hydra diligently shovels, Sundry busies herself with the important work of a snow day: building a snow something. Can you see it? It's a snow bird!



The tree in front of the house looks verrry Christmassy now.



Snow's still falling after dark, but the lantern outside the back door has accumulated about as much as it can handle.

Snow Day - Part 1 - Wednesday 12/17/2008

I went out as soon as there was even a little light to get photos of the snow in case it didn't accumulate much or last long. Boy, was I in for a surprise!


The yard outside our front door and the wall Hydra built a few years ago, dusted in snow around 7 a.m.


Hydra is about to free skiiing bear of some of its snow.


The power went off around noon and stayed off for a couple of hours, so we went out to the garage and brought in all the dry firewood. This is from the inside of the garage looking out through a little drift that I knocked with my foot on my way in.


We walk down to the mailbox where--surprise!--there's mail! I'm a little excited about the snow.

Back in the house, our Internet connection does not return when the power comes back on. Sundry is frustrated not only in her attempts to telecommute but--more importantly--to upload photos to her blog!

We continue our walk...with video! (In which it is confirmed that Sundry will never stop sounding like a Midwesterner. Hoosier pride!)