morning

9.23.05
morning
Gibson Ranch
cooler, breezy, clear & quiet

crickets sing a continuous chorus
wind rustles through the leaves in waves



Here with my plein air friends - first we wander around looking for a place for the painters to plant themselves. We find a great spot at the edge of a pasture.



I wander off down the path along the west side of the pasture, my eyes drawn to the trees along the way.



A row of scrub oaks sprouts up so perfectly between the path & the parallel canal, I wonder if they were planted by people or if this was just the best spot these seedlings had - are these the only ones to survive?


Spotted a pheasant

Approaching the corner of the pasture I see a lage bird land, then hide in the tall grass of the next pasture. I carefully creep up and the pheasant flies off from his hiding spot again.


made a couple friends

Along the southern edge of the pasture, I attract the attention of a couple horses. I stop and they come towards me a bit. I slowly come forward to the fence, then so do they. I end up giving them each hand-fulls of grass from my side of the fence - obviously we are not the only ones who find the grass greener elsewhere.



Finally I move on around the edge of the pasture to the bridle path on the east side, to find the tree again that I had actually seen earlier. It has no doubt been here much longer than the bridle path below its arching branches.

I love it here, I can get lost in the beauty, listening to the background buzz of crickets and the chorus of birdsong, especially along the creek. Somehow creeks bring out the child inside me -


Black phoebe catching insects on water's surface
Hawk? cries out overhead?

Along the trail I catch the briefest glimpse of a red squirrel in the underbrush - I think a pyracantha - then I come to the huge fig tree Kira had wondered over earlier.

Tiny little dark birds, no bigger than a humming bird, flit among the branches of one of the great oaks along the creek - barely bigger than dragonflies, they seem more like little woodland fairies than birds.