On Sunday, we took the dogs and drove up Electra Rd. to the P,G & E power plant. The day was warm and beautiful.
The turbines inside the build were humming and the water was rushing out into the river.
We stayed out of the grasses and watched for snakes.
On the way back, Carl, our Corgi, found the old staircase from a time when people lived here.
And a time when someone planted this huge Magnolia tree and piled rocks into a stone wall to separate the small community from the commotion and activity of the power plant.
The Electra Camp even included an indoor swimming pool. Imagine. Must have been a nice place to live... along the river... in Spring.
Wildflowers abound... This plant and flower, called Euphorbia was everywhere.
It would appear that this is a very invasive wildflower. It's beautiful but, like Genisteae or wild Broom, it spreads like wildfire.
We stopped at our favorite place along the river.
Where the bedrock called out to us ...
and Carl got his paws wet without getting in over his head.
And where Cutter could continue to be in his panic mode. He is getting better about being near this noisy river but he still seems afraid of any place that doesn't have walls and the familiar feeling of home.
Carl tried to set an example of how to investigate and still have a doggone good time.
I really think that Carl would go swimming if he was down here more often. He loves the water.
Of course my shadow and I were taking pictures the whole time.
And complaining about the debris that people leave in the river. We collected plastic water bottles, soft drink cans, assorted paper containers from fast food places, a Walmart price tag from a childs bathing suit and this tennis shoe. (Odd?) We left the shoe, hoping that someone would have the other one and might come looking for it.
And then there is this...
Three creatures in the middle of the river... small wooly mammoths... waiting patiently, to come alive when man leaves. Waiting on a rock island for a moment when they can reclaim the river from all the fighting and arguing that never seems to end. I'm sure that they simply wish that man would become extinct and leave the environment to them. This may happen sooner than later.
The wildflowers...
and the butterflies wait patiently....
Telling us, in their own quiet way, that we need to leave before we decide to save one more thing... before we try to save nature from itself.
And so we took our last look at the river.
And moved on.
“If we surrendered
to earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
~Rainer maria Rilke~
