swollen creek

Feb 27, '04
after 2 p.m.
Dry Creek east of Walerga Road

Wandering around the now swollen creek, it's warm and sunny right now but the storm of the past several days has raised the water level here about six feet, flooding all the low paths and leaving the rest quite muddy. Most of the trees are still bare of leaves, a few oaks have started to green and one tiny tree has pale pink blooms, as does a second slightly larger one.



The tallest grasses are a little over a foot high, grwoing green among dead growth from last year. A few birds quietly twitter and the sound of the rushing water is a constant in the background. Wildflowers have begun to appear, looking weedy up close.



Saw a pair of mallard ducks floating down the creek, letting themselves be pulled along by the current, then swimming to one side and up a little inlet, where they seemed to disappear.

taking a break

Feb 20, 04
Kohler School
1:45 p.m.
cloudy, cool, wish I had grabbed my jacket...

Just finished my last class of the week, school is still in, last hour on Friday afternoon.



Fourth graders garden in a small square in front of the office - some other group is singing "The Ants Go Marching" so that it echoes out over the parking lot. The trees in front of the school are still bare of leaves, the lawn below them kept green. If I listen past the sounds of school, I just hear a couple jays in the distance, a mourning dove fly over head, the call out of coo-ooo-ooh from a nearby perch, heard but unseen. The sun tries to break out from the clouds, casting pale shadows on the page. A seagull flies over silently and I can just hear a couple smaller chirps over the boisterous fourth graders, now being called back to the classroom. A breeze tries to blow my page over my writing hand. And now I see and hear four pigeons perched on the power line, joined at a distance by smaller twittering sparrows or finches, who have a quick argument and fly off again.

a day away

Feb 7, 2004 - A day just for Scott & I
noonish
walking into Muir Woods
cool, sunny, clear, light breeze


Moss covers so much of these scrub oak trees, the sun is hitting just right, I just had to stop.


Dark in the woods, very drippy and cold. Too many tourists for my taste.


Names and references, "Spirit of the Woods," "Cathedral Woods," suggest many people have a sense of the Maker here. The huge redwoods inspire awe in many, much as I am inspired by all parts of nature.




Later: maybe 2ish
little hike on Mt. Tamalpais
we find a spot to sit and picnic
sunny and clear, slight breeze

We have a panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay and all the surrounds, we can quite literally see for miles and miles and miles. Hikers and daytrippers pass through - one couple stopped on a path, suddenly has a pair of deer dart across in front of them - we see it all from our vantage point. Here we also look down on the pocket of trees between the hills that holds Muir Woods. Funny but I prefer to look down on them in peace than wander among them with throngs of others.


Muir Woods from above, the Golden Gate beyond the point.

Trails where deer darted across in front of hiking couple.

Looking west, the Pacific stretches farther than the eye can see.


4:30 p.m. at the Golden Gate

Saw a redtail hawk soaring off the updraft, seemed close enough to touch, almost. Deer tracks in the mud next to tourist tracks. Windswept clump of eucalyptus catches my eye, I wait for a moment when no tourists obscure the view. Little crested sparrows in the low brush seem quite comfortable with our presence, no doubt well fed from occasional crumbs.