'Tis the Season... I think.

 Yes, 'tis the season...Just not sure WHAT season it is.

Mother Nature is still doing her lovely Autumn thing and it's nine days until the first day of winter.

Fall is trying to cover up the sweet Alyssum of summer without much success.

The Mexican Sage is blooming its purple flowers off.

And the white roses look better than they did all summer.

I think the Christmas decorations feel a little out of place. My "snow" effect doesn't even give me that hot chocolate and marshmallow feeling. Maybe I should take it off the blog.
The sun is shinning. It's beautiful and warm during the day.
I know this is California, but I think it needs to start acting like Winter... and soon.

So I discussed this with the tired cone flowers,

the struggling Sunflower,

and the bedraggled Boston fern.
We've decided to postpone Christmas until January 25.
There is never anything to do in January. We sit around and worry about "resolutions" and  loosing weight. We get depressed. It's a tough month.
I'm not ready for Christmas anyway. The weather is confused and so is my garden.
Who says that Christmas has to be on the 25th of December?
Let's give ourselves another month. Then we will ALL really be ready.
Are you with me on this?

Something Wicked This Way Comes.... but there was Joy in the Morning.

I took a long walk yesterday afternoon up into the hills. This is what it looked like at about 4:00 p.m.

The wind was blowing through the trees, moving the clouds across the sky. Everything was so lovely.... as if Nature was at peace with the world. I even stopped up there, closed my eyes and just stood there for a few minutes, feeling the warmth of the sun, listening to the sound of the wind, the birds, the distant traffic noises from across the canyon and the strange little squeaking sound that kept coming from one of the oak trees... a bird possibly.
Then I heard a clicking kind of buzzing ... looked down I saw a grasshopper land on the grass in front of me. It was black and medium sized. I tried to lean quietly over and take a picture. This is what I photographed.

Because it flew so close I didn't have to move and I was able to catch it with the camera. It could be a House Lubber Grasshopper. The description says that it is shiny black, about 11/2 to 2", with yellow veins on its wings. I didn't see it fly in, so I'm not sure about the yellow color.
I had my eyes closed.
I was communing .
But it did fly in and I heard its characteristic sound. It says, as I read my field guide, that this "music making" serves as a form of warning, a way to establish territory, or a move in courtship. I like to think he spotted me and decided to be friendly on this beautiful day. After all I was standing still and this little guy flew to me. Their Habitat are grasslands and woods with Live Oaks. That's us.... lots of grass and oaks. It's hard to say exactly what kind of grasshopper it was because in North America alone there are over 1000 species.
I took four photos before it flew away to something more interesting and I continued on down the trail toward the house.
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The wind was picking up and the sun disappeared. When I passed the goats they seemed restless and were heading for the goat house.
I went in and fixed dinner. The Prospector said something about the weather on TV. There was a "cell" moving over Amador county. They were spot on. We had finished dinner and watched Jeopardy. I let the dogs outside and they ran around peeing on everything and chasing each other.  The sky got darker and more ominous and then we heard rumbles from across the river canyon. The sun was trying hard to leave a last impression on us.

The clouds to the east didn't look that bad but the sun was losing the battle.

To the south the sky got a strange look that seems more frequent in the last few years. Clouds that carry the sunset  with them but lay like high fog over the foothills. They have a different look to them.

Standing out there, looking to the west behind the house, there was a darkness moving over the hills that said..." Time to take the dogs into the house and stop standing out here like a fool taking pictures.".
I called the boys in and taking one last photo from the porch...

... we retreated.
We watch this storm hit. First the wind, then the thunder and lightening, and then the hail. Huge pieces of hail that fell, plummeling my flower garden, battering the roof and scaring the dog boys under our bed. Cutter would bark at the thunder every time it hit. I just stood there watching my Iris, hoping for a miracle.
The storm knocked out the TV and the computer. We ended up reading for about an hour until the storm blew itself out and move east where it became snow for all the worn out folks up country and into the Sierras. It was a slow moving storm that planted itself at about the 3000 ft. level for quite a while. We watched it leave and saw the ragged bottoms of the clouds that has just gone over us. We had been told that "ragged bottoms" are the strange rough underside of a very large cloud that produces Tornadoes. It definitely looked like what a blogging friend in the Midwest calls a "bad cloud". We don't get Tornadoes up here but we have had a few in the Valley recently.
I watched that cloud for a long time. I think I kind of understand what it must feel like to know that something  horrible would come down out of the clouds and do great damage to a town or community. Tornadoes are monsters, dark and sinister wind, exposing life to fearful disaster and pain. I can't imagine what it must be like to see one come out of a dark cloud. I'm sure that it's one of nature's most frightening events.
This cloud moved on... and by evening it was dark and quiet.
I heard rain late in the night. As I lay there, save and protected. I felt thankful for this sanctuary that I call home and the protection it effort us here in the California foothills. I said a thank you prayer before I fell back to sleep.
I won't always be so safe. Something wicked eventually comes, but we live each day with hope that there will be Joy in the Morning.

This post was for Karen Deborah and all of those that suffer from chronic pain and depression. We all suffer "storms" in our life. For some it's more difficult than others. This is a kind of a prayer for those who weather each day with fortitude and grace.

(My Iris survived the hailstorm. They are a bit ragged but they are fine. )

A Beautiful and Endangered Place

They said a big storm was coming....
We waited for the power to go off, planning to cook dinner on the top of the gas stove, lighting the pilot with matches like my grandma did and thinking about how much water we would use before the well shut off. (The pump needs electricity to get the water to the house.) Then I cleaned and filled the oil lamps. The power never went off.
We waited for snow.... the wind came first, then the rain..... and then some hail. All morning we watched the weather have its way, whipping our farm into a frenzy, frightening our pups who stayed under our bed almost all morning. It didn't snow.
By noon the rain stopped and the sun filtered through the dark clouds.

I went outside with the pups.... the garden was so filled with water that the ground wasn't taking anymore in. There were puddles everywhere. If it continued to rain, as it had all morning , my garden would have drowned.
 and.... Where do you suppose all the little creatures and insects go when it rains so hard and long? I imagine them in many places. Maybe under the porch watching and waiting for a sign that it's safe to venture outside again. 
As I walked around the garden, straightening things that had been tipped over by the wind and were out of place, I passed the ceramic toad sitting in the pot of lavender.

He winked at me.... or maybe he was just opening one eye to see who was there. He surely had a rough morning holding on to that rusty leaf he was perched upon. I left him there to get some shuteye. We don't want any cranky toads in our garden.

The daffodil that had the audacity to bloom a few days ago was holding on to the little sun ornament, as if it knew that attaching itself to something in the planter was a life saving idea. I think this was wise because the daffodil was still standing upright.

A chair was down near the porch....

and one of my garden ladies was looking a bit waterlogged. 

Even Carl and Cutter were a little anxious about being cooped up all morning. They were happy to be outside for a while. 
Oh, the poor little lawn. Not enough water in the summer and most of it died, then too much water in the winter and now the lawn is a muddy mess. We are discussing the idea of a deck that will take its place. I'm tired of the lawn. It's nice to have one but it's not practical here in the dry foothills, with a well that doesn't give us enough water to keep the lawn alive in the summer.
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I could hear the creek down in the canyon. It was roaring. I brought the dogs in and told the Prospector that I wanted to drive down to the river and take some pictures. I grabbed my camera and a warm coat and off I went.
As I drove down the hill, I saw little water falls and rivulets everywhere. 

For a few days we will have a beautiful waterfall at our entrance. It's coming right out of the side of the hill, permeating through some rocks. Maybe it will deposit a few gold nuggets in the hole at the bottom. I can only hope....

One of the two creeks that come together on our neighbor's property comes down from a small canyon west of our property. This is a beautiful creek anytime of the year but after a rain it's a torrent of beauty as it comes down and under the road, through a four foot corrugated drain pipe and drops down again into the lower creek. ( Another good place for gold panning when the water is low or gone in the summer.)

All of these many, seasonal creeks flow together and into the Mokelumne River a few miles away. All this water ends up here...

The photo above is looking east from the Middle Bar Bridge. The photo below is looking west, from the bridge, toward Pardee Dam.

This is a controlled river. PG&E releases water at the Electra Power Generating Plant a few miles up river. Because of the runoff right now the river was very high and was moving like molasses this morning. So much water..... smooth, deep, wide and beautiful.

I LOVE THIS RIVER!  So I'm giving all of you who care about the beautiful places in this country a gentle heads up. Please read what is going on with this river in the name of supplying more water to other areas of this state. The Foothill Conservancy is trying very hard to have this river designated as a WILD AND SCENIC river. This would protect the river from being damned with bigger reservoirs and controlled by folks that have no interest in this river except for the wasteful water uses that are prevalent in this state.

As I stood on this old bridge, by myself, looking up river and down, the beauty of it all really hit me.  My grandson has run like the wind across this bridge.

I've stood here and cried, laughed and had many Ah ha moments standing over this river on this bridge. My family has picnicked on this river's beaches and I've brought friends here to see its beauty. This is a friend that comforts me and I can share it with others. That is why I want you to read THIS.... please. 
I don't want this bridge to disappear beneath an expanded Pardee Reservoir. I don't want any of this to happen....

• Flood the entire Middle Bar reach of the Mokelumne River, destroying the river for whitewater recreation and stream fishing and gold panning.
• Flood the new whitewater boating takeout and parking area below the Highway 49 Bridge.
• Mokelumne Electra Run east of Highway 49 in high flow periods, leaving a dead-zone bathtub ring the rest of the year.
• Inundate the historic Middle Bar Bridge, restored by local governments just a few years ago, cutting off a critical emergency route for local residents.
• Inundate the historic and cultural resources of the Middle Bar area, including a sacred place where the Miwok people gather willow for baskets and cradleboards and teach their children the Miwok language and culture.
• Result in eminent domain proceedings against local landowners.
• Require construction of a new Highway 49 Bridge.

If you live in Northern California this is a big deal. Our rivers are at risk. I know how important water is. I live with the threat of a well going dry every summer. That's why we are getting rid of our small lawn. When I see folks with big huge manicured lawns down in the flat land and the automatic sprinklers are on and water is running down the drain in the street, I want to sneak a few big cows in there and let them loose in these front yards. I want to bang on their doors and yell at them. Is that where the anger starts?
Water is a scarce resource here,  as it is in many western states, and I don't think that we just need to make our reservoirs bigger to accommodate folks that don't know how to conserve their resources. 
Anyway, this is my request. Turn your water off when you're not using it.  Do full loads of laundry and then, when you have a free day, take a drive to a nearby river and really look at it . 
The river is rainwater. The river is melted snow. It is a precious commodity and it's not going to last forever. Our rivers will tell you this story if you listen. Just think about it.  Please READ what happens to rivers when folks want more and more water.
It rained today. It was beautiful. The River is happy.... for a while.

It's One of Those days.... again.

I have no "purpose" today, but there's some consolation in the fact that Shakespeare might have had the same problem if he had been blogging.
So I will kind of do a collage of things for you, starting with a bit of guilt at complaints about the weather. It's foggy and cold today. REALLY FOGGY AND COLD....

The sun tried to shine and did for a while yesterday. The fog backed away and we had sunshine even though it was very cold.

and then, in the afternoon, it came back with the wind and settled into the river canyon for good.

This morning the thermometer read:

And it froze last night, breaking the hose that goes to the goat house for water.  But, it's OK, because then I get pictures from my friend Dawn, the "charming baglady", who lives in Michigan and I feel like a whiny baby for complaining about a 36 degree high and the 28 degree low.
Dawn talks about blizzards, wind chill factors, lake effect snow, loss of electricity and how she can't get to the store for days on end. She says that they do come and remove the snow from the street but it piles up at the edge of the driveway and freezes into ice that can't be driven over so if they are home.... they are stuck.
This is the view from her house. She loves the Michigan winters. She's always been tough.
This is her street and that is her neighbor's house in the distance.

And this is Mugs, her dog, after a romp outside....

Isn't that the cutest dog with snow on face. Wanna kiss?
Anyway, I know that I live in California and part of me is glad that I do. I don't live were it's always below 0 in the winter. I know I'm complaining about nothing compared to other places in the world but .... I'm sorry. It's cold for the California Foothills above Sacramento.  There.... I said it. I'm a wimp. An old wimp. If the rain and the cold would get together and snow for a day then I might be so delighted that I wouldn't feel like this... like Brownie, but it hasn't and, well..... Brownie isn't even talking about it today. Maybe he will have something to say tomorrow.
So, I feel like Seinfeld today. I have a Blog and I really don't have a lot to say, but I'm finding things to talk about the longer I sit in front of this computer. Maybe that's what Shakespeare did. Sat at his desk and dipped his pen in the ink well long enough that he finally came up with "a rose by any another name.." and " How sharper than a serpent's tooth...." etc. Genius is just hiding under this pile of notes on top of my desk. It's going to happen any moment now.....
Maybe not...
 
When I was at my sister's house during Christmas they were feeding the birds in their front yard. Sis, her son Ben and I watched the little Chickadees and Sparrows eating the birdseed from the livingroom window and I was taking pictures.
You know how they say that Opportunity knocks? Well, I have photographic evidence that, even in nature, there are opportunist. This rat was on that birdseed. He was darting in and out of the Star Jasmine grabbing all the seed he could get. 

Now I don't know how you feel about Rats. I have fairly good feelings about them. I don't want one in bed with me or biting me but I think they are very interesting creatures. My Dad use to talk about the huge river rats up on the Russian River when he was young. He said one crawled into his sleeping bag one night and, luckily, didn't bite him but he never slept outside again that I can remember. 
We had a white pet Rat in our 6th grade classroom in Pine Grove school when I was working for a living and he was the cutest little guy (rat) I had ever seen. He would wait for the kids to come and play with him. He would sit on their shoulders and laps. He was part of the classroom. He was cool.
So I don't get all hysterical when I see a rat and it appears that birds don't either. My sister pointed out that they all seemed to be OK with the rat taking some of the seed. She said that she wished all beings could live in harmony like this... sharing and coexisting together. And in a perfect world... she's right. It would be wonderful. I agreed, but I think it had more to do with the size of their brains   and the fact that there was a lot of birdseed to go around. 
In other parts of the world it's more like this....

...and that's just scary.

A Little Bit of This and That

The latest on "billy goat gruff".... He is doing very well. The purple bandage is gone. He must have rubbed it off on a tree or the fence. His short horn looks kind of funny but I would never tell him that. He has, somehow, built some self-esteem in the herd from this ordeal so it's best to just tell him he looks handsome and leave it go while were ahead.
He came out to greet me this morning, complained about the wind and the incoming storm..., and then walked back into the goat house. Love ya Brownie.....

Storms coming in fast. The wind is picking up and the sky is this wonderful color of blue and creme. The fall color against the cloudy sky is beautiful.
The house is warm and comforting as I walk back into it and stand here looking through the windows. I love the coming of a storm..., the anticipation of winter..., and the holidays. It's a thankful feeling. It's the promise of needed rain and the slowing down of life, for a while. I love this time of year...

And with the slowing down, the anticipation, comes a magazine that lifts the spirits and makes me want to climb the stairs in the garage and drag out all the boxes of Christmas decorations. A magazine that inspires, with lovely ideas for the home and delicious food and homemade gifts. If you haven't picked up ROMANTIC HOMES yet..., do. If you want to be motivated, spurred on, or need a reason to sit down with a cup of tea or coffee on a rainy afternoon..., just pick up this magazine, find that corner with the comfortable chair and spend an hour or two sitting quietly, looking at the charm and loveliness of the holidays. What else can you do on a stormy day? Relax...., give yourself a moment of silence before the storm.

Storm's a Comin'

There is a storm moving in on us this afternoon. It's suppose to be a big one. The weather people say it's unusual for a storm of this size to hit us in October. I agree. We don't usually get the big storms until after Christmas.
So, yesterday I decided, at the last minute, to sand and paint the wood slats on our bench seat out front. The finish on it had disappeared from being in the hot sun for a couple of summers. It was a clear wood finish with a thin factory coat of varnish on it. The varnish was almost gone and the wood was crying for help. So I spent almost the whole day sanding and painting to make this pretty little bench proud. I love the dark green. It will be nice for the holidays and matches the trim on the house.

Last week, when the Prospector was gone, Annibel decided to play her.., "I'm stuck on the roof and I can't get down." act. She does this every once in a while, for whatever reasons, and no amount of "Here kitty kitty." makes any difference. She meows and acts like she wants to be saved but when I get the extension ladder and try to coax her down , she backs away. CATS!! This time she spent 3 days up there. The Prospector built her a ramp from the back porch to the fence the last time she did this. Do you think she used it? NO. It must not be to her liking. CATS!
Finally, feeling somewhat sorry for her and wondering which gutter she was using for a cat box, I climbed the ladder, with a bowl of kibble and got her to come over to me.
Try being 64 yrs old, twelve feet off the ground, bowl of cat food in one hand and grabbing for a cat that doesn't like to be held, on an extension ladder. Try carrying that cat back down the ladder while she is fighting to get away. Three days on that roof, sleeping under an eave near the back porch, she finally jumped from my arms about half way down the ladder and landed ON HER FEET. Maybe something scared her up there. I don't know. She's got a big garage to hide in at night. I don't know why she does this. She's a tough cat. She plays with Rattlesnakes for crying out loud.
I didn't fall off the ladder..., Annibel is OK..., but this cat is on my @#%&* list. If she does this again, during the storm that's commin', she's on her own.
The prospector goes up the ladder next time.

Just a final shot..., of the front steps and porch.
The sun is getting some cloud cover today. The wind is picking up. Anticipation is in the air. The humidity builds. The storm is coming. The goats are being restless and the chickens are already inside their house. I've cleaned the oil lamps and cleared the porch of chairs and things that could blow away. We are ready. I'm ready..., for a rebirth of season.