Temporarily blogging on Facebook

 I hope I didn't loose any of you in my absence. It just seemed easier to write a few things on Facebook than tax my brain writing a blog post. Anyway... that's my excuse for not posting here for almost two weeks. I wish I could say I've been on a wonderful vacation to the Bahamas or published my first book... but I didn't. Sometimes life slows you down to a crawl and sitting with your foot on three pillows and an ice bag is mandatory. Having someone dig bad things out of your foot tends to take all the fun out of EVERYTHING.

But... I'm healing... I'm walking without a walker... I'm wearing the beautiful and fashionable black shoe that comes with the operation and yesterday... I got all the stitches out. Yes, I did. Now my foot looks like a beat up cat... without whiskers. I'm walking on my heal, mostly. Someone said it's called "chicken walking". Good description.

So thanks to everyone who emailed, called, stopped by, wrote comments here and on Facebook. It did make a difference. It wasn't that big a deal, having my foot operated on, so it is fun to have someone write and say, "Stop whining, you weeny... ". I had a good laugh over that. If you can laugh, you will probably recover. Either recover or pass on to the next life with a smile on your face.
None of this was that serious or life threatening. They were causing pain, growing bigger and interfering with my ability to walk and hike. Thank heaven for modern medicine. They have "fix its" that really help the quality of life issues. I don't know where these Morton's Neuroma's came from... but it must have been from some lesser known ancestor of mine. Someone that I didn't know at all. A latent gene or blip in my DNA. My mom had 'bad feet' but hers were about arches and bunions...and, in the end, neuropathy from Diabetes. So I have very little to complain about.
I did get a card in the mail, from a blogging friend that was just the sweetest.

 And she wrote the "thinking of you and hoping you'll be back to walking the beautiful trails soon" inside the card... with a broken hand. That's got to be above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you Jojo.  I think the beautiful little vintage handkerchief is for those days when we all need to have a good cry and blowing of the nose... but I don't want to mess it up because it's so pretty... so I will use Kleenex instead and keep this for special occasions.
My sister sent some magazines and candy... bless her heart. She knows me well.
She has a new dog, a rescue German Shorthair named Stella. I can't wait to recover and go see Stella. I have some photos in my new phone, but I haven't figured out how to download them to Picassa. I will figure it all out and then... you will get to see this beautiful dog.

Oh... the little eggs on the porch ? They hatched. One of the babies thinks the camera is "mom".
"Hey, mom, where's the food." What amazing little creatures they are.
The heat went away for a few days and now it's back. This is Summer in the Foothills. I love how it smells out there... even in the heat.
Carl and Cutter are taking their "just before lunch" nap.
The Prospector just left to get ANOTHER tattoo.
I need to do a post on his tattoos sometime. You'd be amazed.
Things are going well. 

Perspective from the Porch.

I went outside just before lunch today. The heat was building slowly. I decided that I needed to smell something besides the air-conditioner so I carried my camera around my neck and carefully waddled out to the porch with my walker. I'm getting pretty good at this walker walking.
The thermometer read 100 degrees.
Some things do really well in a heat wave. The cactus is blooming in all of its happiness.

I always forget to water this prickly little plant and it forgives me by producing a most beautiful orange flower.

It needs to be separated and replanted but I need to read up on how you do this. It's a touchy subject.
Pittosporum on the left... Strawberry tree on the right... and in the middle, the lovely Chatalpa tree.

The Chalapa tree is in bloom now and will continue into the summer. It's so beautiful with its azalea like blossoms and lightness of being. We bought this tree a few years ago at the Flower farm in Shenandoah Valley. It's drought resistant, loves hot weather and doesn't need any extra watering when established.

There was some limited verbal chit chat going on at the birdbath. The yellow finches were discussing the weather and didn't seem too happy about it.
They all had their mouths open, as if fatigued with the hot air. 

I'm sure that they are grateful for the water in this intense heat. We fill the birdbath every morning. We have many birds that come to drink and bath here. It pleases everyone.

Even the elusive Cowbird was waiting in the Chatalpa branches, trying to find shade from the heat. This bird makes the most amazing sounds... clicks, whistles and a wonderful song like flowing, gurgling water. I always recognize this bird by its song.
The Hollyhock does well in the heat, but needs a lot of water to keep blooming. It's almost done and will dry up soon. 

Another flower that blooms in the heat...

The garden lady seemed happy with her place under the Rose of Sharon bush.

And in the hanging tea light that my sister made for me...

A Rosy Finch has laid four beautiful eggs. There will be more babies on the porch soon.

Momma finch just fits into the container. It's too funny. All we see is her head and her tail feathers. But she is there all the time, snuggled into her "nest" of choice. Wait until there are four babies. This ought to be fun to watch. What we can't figure out is the TWO males that hang around her all the time. This has been a threesome since the beginning. They both bring her food and they both seem to be at odds with each other. Someone is confused... or momma Finch is playing the field.

Around Noon the heat became too much for me and I retreated into the house for the rest of the day. I'm sure that Miss Mazie was happy to see the dogs and I go. Shortly thereafter, she returned to her nest.

My foot is a little sore today but it's healing. It's pulling a lot, so it must be healing. I can't wait for this to be done so I can go walking again on the road to the river. I miss being down there. Until then... the porch will have to do.
The temperature reached 104 today. It's dry, dusty and intense out there. The Rattlers aren't even showing their faces... but we are vigilant. Tomorrow the Prospector will take the dogs for their Rattlesnake Vaccination Booster and we check the front garden every time they go outside.
Today there was a Red Flag Warning for the Central Northern counties. I'm sure it will be the same tomorrow. We are on alert here. Fires are popping up everywhere.
I really dislike Summer.

Happy Birthday to my Prospector

All my bandages fell off last night. I guess I was too restless, trying to find a comfortable way to sleep. So, this morning the Prospector carefully re-wrapped fresh gauze and tape around the incision and re did the elastic bandage for me.
When I hobbled into the kitchen, there was a rose on the table... brought in from the garden early in the morning. He had picked it for me... for ME.

 The temperature is suppose to reach 104 degrees today. The rose would not have made it through the day. Now, it will survive in the house for a few days.
It was sometime after that, I remembered what I never forget.
The man who is always there, always taking care of me and has never failed to be there for me... was turning 70 years without any celebration. I (wrapped up in my own drama), had forgotten that this was the day.
I'm sorry love. I have no gift, no card... all of this will have to wait for a few weeks.
I can only give you my love, which is always there... and this post... especially for you.

Happy Birthday, my love. May your pan be filled with gold and may you always have a dog in your lap.

I thought this was going to be easy...

Very long three days... this will be a quick post.
Wednesday... the Prospector drove me to the hospital, Kaiser South Sacramento, and I spent the day having the podiatry doctor remove Morton's neuroma's from the back of my toes on my left foot.
It went well. I'm home now. Yesterday was not so good. Today is better.

The swelling from the IV is gone.

My ID tags have been removed.

The bandages are slipping. They went from professional wrap (above) to looking like my foot grew another couple of inches.
The "boot" is on and off so much that I just loosened it permanently, so I can slide it off.

From this................................................................ to this.

Crutches are tricky.

Miss Antsy Pants is not looking forward to six weeks recovery.

Got to go.

Have to get my left foot above my heart.

Sounds like the game called Twister doesn't it?

I've got good meds.

Sleeping a lot.

If trees have souls...

To our south, across the Mokelumne River is the county called Calaveras. This word means "skulls" and was named for the great quantities of human skulls found along the lower reaches of the river. These human remains were some of the native Miwuk people killed by Spanish soldiers.
This county is known for deep caverns, placer mining and Mark Twain's jumping frogs. It is also known for some very big trees. They are the giant Sequoias of the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. That's where the Prospector and I spend the day yesterday.

These giant Sequoias, Sequoiadendron giganteum, occur naturally only in groves (about 68 altogether) on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada  Mountains of California.  They are named after Sequoyah (1767–1843), the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary . He wrote a syllable based language in the late 1810s and early 1820s.

Giant sequoias are the world's largest single trees and here they are... right in our own backyard.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that, in all the years that I have lived in Amador County and the years growing up in the Bay Area, I had never gone to this state park before. Yesterday we remedied that situation.

 These are truly massive trees.

Some reaching 300 ft in height and over 50 ft in diameter.

Sequoia bark is fibrous and can be 3 ft thick at the base of the trunk.

 It provides significant fire protection for the trees.

This is a seed cone.

Each cone has 30–50 spirally arranged scales, with several seeds on each scale, giving an average of 230 seeds per cone. The giant sequoia regenerates by seed. Young trees start to bear cones at the age of 12 years but then most of the seeds remain green and closed for up to 20 years before the cone lets go of them in very hot weather, forest fire heat or damage by insects. This is probably why the trees are dying out. We have prevented fires for so long that the seeds aren't able to grow successfully.  Fires also bring hot air high into the canopy, which in turn dries and opens the cones. The subsequent release of large quantities of seeds coincides with the optimal post fire seedbed conditions. Loose ground ash may also act as a cover to protect the fallen seeds from ultraviolet radiation damage. These seeds also need wildfire to clear competing vegetation and soil humus before successful regeneration can occur. Without fire, shade-loving species will crowd out young sequoia seedlings, and sequoia seeds will not germinate.
Right now, the park is clearing thousands of smaller trees, mostly dogwood, from the grove to give the young sequoia seedlings room to grow.
The dogwood is beautiful but has taken over the groves and is becoming a threat to the large trees.

Because of  the Dogwood's root system they have to use a special tree removal system to be sure they get the whole bush. As you can see, the Dogwood is a beautiful bush/tree and has an exquisite flower on it.

 Most of the flowers were gone now and the few that were left were drying up. It's a shame that something so beautiful is so detrimental to the Sequoia. In nature, everything is connected. Each thing is part of the whole.
When man chooses to change the system by not allowing fires, he creates a different system that then has to be remedied. Now we, in our "wisdom", are trying to save these huge trees by removing other trees. Sometimes I think we should leave Nature alone. I really believe that after we are gone, Nature will heal itself and find the balance that we have destroyed. We want to save everything and in the process we have created more damage. Just my opinion.
So we walked about a mile and a half around the North Grove... following Jim, our very informed volunteer docent.

Our small group consisted of Jim, the Prospector, myself and two ladies from Mexico (mother and daughter). We walked the tour of the North Grove backwards so that, as Jim explained, we would not have to go with the flow of folks who were walking by themselves and so we could choose to stop in between the crowds.
The ladies were so cute. Mom only spoke Mexican (Spanish?) and the daughter translated. Mom walked with an umbrella to protect herself from the hot sun.

As we passed other folks, Jim would shout out "Hi, how are you. Isn't it a lovely day. Hope you're having a good time." He was so nice to everyone and seems to love his "job". He knew his history and he liked people. Very pleasant man. 

We finally walked through the iconic Pioneer Cabin Tree. At one time this was a drive-thru tree. This Sequoia had a tunnel carved through it to compete with the grand and more impressive Yosemite Valley. The tunnel damaged the tree irreversibly. Visitors can only walk thought it now.

 The ladies took our picture in front of the tree.

I hope you can read this.

"Today, the injured tree is hanging on to life by only one branch. Look up, the single bough with foliage is working to photosynthesize for the entire tree." It's dying because of man's actions. What a shame.

We saw so many ways that man has damaged this area but thanks to some dedicated people and the State Park system, we may be able to protect these natural wonders from any further damage. 

We saw the wild lilac....

and a small flower

I think this is Wood's rose. Beautiful!
And the ever present Dogwood leaves.

And the multitude of ferns.

But with all this beauty... the sadness of one tree brought tears to my eyes. Again man, in his attempt to make a profit from nature, did this horrible thing to one of the Sequoias.

In 1854 this tree was stripped of its bark to be reassembled and displayed in New York and London , as a money making venture. The tree is dead.

You cannot strip the skin from anything, or abuse it... or starve it... or neglect it... for profit, narrow-mindedness or stupidity. That includes animals, plants and humans. We are all keepers of this world and everything in it and I do believe that if you know this and still do damage... then you will be held accountable somehow.  This once beautiful Sequoiadendron giganteum is a reminder of the shortsightedness of man.

I have more photos and I will finish on a lighter note next time. This was a day of beauty and reflection. It only took us a bit over an hour to drive up there. It was definitely worth it. I can now say I have seen the "BIG TREES" and it was well worth the drive.

Got baby goats?

Had lunch Wednesday with two friends.  Sylvia, a friend from the gourd club and another from the goat club that I use to belong to. Her name is Jane and I've written about her before. She has Alpine goats.

Every year I call her up and ask, " How are the goats? Got any babies yet?" and she usually says "Yes." So I ingraciate myself and ask if I can stop by. I have even stopped by unannounced... that's how bad this goat lust is.
On Wednesday I didn't have to grovel. We had already planned to met with another friend, Sylvia, from the gourd club who lives close by, so we met at Jane's house.
This is how it went...

The babies greeted us at the gate.

 "Hello friends of Jane. We really like company. Got any milk?"
(Jane carried in the goat food while Sylvia played defence with the little escape artists.)

"Hey, we're on the outside. Run... while she's not looking"

"Yes, I'm eating the grass. I'm a special goat. I had lots of attention from some other humans for a while and I expect special treatment. Got any milk ?"

 "Hey, what happen. Who put us back in here? I'm mad. I'm not even going to look at anyone"
"Did you see that? They just pulled me back in here by my pretty collar. I thought it was an embellishment for my awesomeness but it's not... it's to control me. I'm going to have to use my charms now.

I watched my friend, Pink Collar. She knows how to make humans do anything. She's good. Watch her."

"Hi there. Did you say your name was Sylvia?"

" Aren't I the cutest little goat you ever saw? Do you have treats in your pockets? Can you open the gate... please."
"Well, that didn't work, but maybe Pink was having a slow day."

Meanwhile...
The grass hay was spread in the feeders and it was chow time.

Most of the young goats were eating grass hay and very serious about doing what their moms do at the feeder.
But there is always one that wants to play with its food.

Or maybe this little one was just hamming for the camera. It finally hopped down and joined its sibling at "got milk" central...

 But mom was getting a little tired of all this. She kept walking away.
 "It's time for you little ones to stop using me. I need a rest. Enough is enough."

 And then there's the mother who wants to feed her young forever and even lifts her tail to invite them over.. or maybe she is just peeing. I'm not a goat expert.

After their lunch, most of them walked out to the big tree in the back...

 to rest in the shade.

So we thought this would be a good time to make an exit. Jane left first to get ready for our lunch.

"Wait... where are you going Jane?"

 

"Jane?"

 Then Sylvia and I shimmied through the fence gate, said goodbye to the little one , who seemed perplexed as to why we were leaving, and we drove to Sacramento for lunch.


These are Alpine goats. This link will tell you all about them. They originated in the French Alps. They come in all colors and they are heavy milk producers.
Watch the video at this site and get your goat baby fix for the day.
Thanks Jane for always letting me come to visit and spend some time with your goats. They are beautiful and charming animals.

This is Jane's oldest goat. I can't remember her name.

 "Hello there."

 She's beautiful and has a wise countenance.

She's retired and knows that she will be taken care of for the rest of her goat life.

Jane is a wonderful shepherd (goat-herd? goat keeper? goat angel? ) to her animals. She loves them. I think they love her too, in their own goat way.

I miss my goats and will always have great memories of them. But, at least once a year, Jane gives me a chance to visit her Alpines and her new kids... and get my goat fix for a while.
Thank you Jane.

( For some interesting facts about goats and some funny photos, go here and enjoy.)