warm & sunny

April 24, 04
Grandma & Grandpa's backyard
afternoon
warm, sunny, very light breeze



big amaryllis blooming - an heirloom that once was nurtured by my great-grandmother. Sprinkler running, birds constantly chittering in the trees. Azaleas in full bloom, as are the rhododendrons, potted peonies have large fat bud, nearly ready to burst open, next to the tomatoes planted in rows in the ground. The tomatoes are still short, 12-18" high but already blooming, yellow flowers ready to attract a passing bee. The lawn is green and short, plenty of clover mixed with the grass.

horse trail

April 22, 04
after 4 p.m.
horse trail along creek (Arden Arcade?)
warm, sunny, clear, windy
lots of crickets (or tree frogs?) singing loudly

Walked until I found this great valley oak that had made itself a clearing in the scrub. Plenty of birds here - magpies, robins, and I startled a small flock of blackbirds at one point -




Jays strafe each other, screeching as they fly by - lots of smaller oaks along the trail, fully leafed out but still a brighter green than they will be later in the season. The crickets are a constant chorus in the background, supported by occasional bird calls.

acknowleding

"Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3

April 12, 2004
3ish
Dry Creek in Gibson Ranch, Elverta
warm, 70's, not much wind, sunny

We started out exploring around the creek, but can't seem to kids out of the water when it's warm enough...



We see signs of the water having been much higher than it is now: tufts of water-strewn grassy weeds and leaves cling to plants well over my head. I've spotted a black phoebe at the water's edge, other birds flit and call, too quick for me to identify, but the kids find a robin in the brush almost within reach.



The kids try to catch little fish in a jar in shallows near a fallen tree. Lots of debris has accumulated near the trunk, amazingly its branches are leafing out. Tiny clams popluate the sandy creekbed, my young creature hunters find two live ones and put them into the fish jar.


tried to shade the lens, but had to do without

egg hunting

Sat, April 10, 2004
Aunt Linda & Uncle Butch's
Easter egg hunt with all the little cousins
afternoon
warm, sunny, breeze starting to pick up



Tiny yellow wildflowers form as a top layer on the rolling carpet of green. Small birds call out twee twee between warbles and the wind makes a rushing sound through the leaves of the oaks. Sitting under an oak today has meant tiny green worms falling down on silken cords - landing in hair, on shoulders, in potato salad.



A turkey vulture catches an updraft and soars over the house, the wind seems to follow him.



Deidre found an aligator lizard during the egg hunt - Phillip caught it - a real big guy, maybe ten inches long.

lazy

April 3, 2004
lazy Saturday morning
10:45 a.m.
sipping coffee, reading the paper
looks warm outside, sunny with a light breeze

Watching a pair of doves poke about, preen each other, then themselves, all on the back patio just on the other side of the sliding glass door between the kitchen and backyard. I want to think that this is the same pair of doves I've seen over time but how could I know for sure? Doves all look the same to my untrained eyes.



Next it's a pair of mocking birds that catch my eye, gobbling up old drying grapes that I'd put in the hagning pot whose occupant had long since passed on... The mocking birds are much more skittish than the doves, and seem to contantly stop to assess their surroundings.

I realize that the only birds that I've seen today have been in pairs: earlier it was the resident pair of jays, also interested in the grapes, but also at the seed feeders.

Meanwhile, the skittish mocking birds have moved on, I can hear the male's variable song even through the closed door. I can see him now at the top ot the neighbor's chimney. One of the doves flies across the yard to hide in a large hedge bush.

I open the back door to hear the mocking bird's song better and I can hear a second voice, different but almost sounding as if answering or trying to drown his song out.

At last the mocking bird moves on, taking his song with him.

lost & found

Mar 31, 04
backyard
afternoon
warm, sunny, mid 70's, light breeze

Found these eggs out back earlier - about 1 1/2" long, plain white, broken but it seems from the outside, probably lunch for jays is my best guess. They were on the ground below tree and bush, but no nest in sight. I'll bet they were stolen then brought here to be eaten, much as the jays will bring a peanut from a neighbor's feeder.

record heat

March 17, 2004
Kohler School - out with 2nd graders today
after lunch
warm, sunny - forecast high 86, average high 67
- 8 of the 9 past days have tied or set records for heat, a fact that doesn't seem to impress 2nd graders very much!

tree branches out front

spring

Mar 15, 2004
1:15 - between classes
Kohler Elementary field
sunny, light breeze, about 80



Row of trees on the north side of the playground in various stages of fresh green growth. I'm sitting in the green growth of mixed ground cover, the back of my throat beginning to itch horribly and my nose beginning to drip - suddenly it occurs to me why I prefer summer to spring. By summer, all of my personal algergens have finished blooming and being outside is no longer a mixed blessing.

Hidden birds chirp, warble, twitter. A dog behind a fence gives a couple half-heartedbarks. An insect buzzes past my ear, another smaller one flits past my face. The breeze makes the little blades of grass wiggle, a ripple across the field. Another insect in my face, the tether ball chains gently tinkle, acting like windchimes.


photo retaken 3-17-04: lunched the first neg in the heat...

4:30 p.m.

4:30 p.m.
I pull into the parking space to pick up Dee from ballet and I'm greeted by back lit trees that border the empty lot next door.

The Polaroid print I pull leaves me disappointed - I hope the neg holds more details - The sight before me is all green and growing, my eye easily jumps the gap between low values and hot spots, making compromises that the film never will.

It amazes me how many people can come and go here and never seem to notice the little pieces of beauty that they pass, too busy to seem to care. I hope I'm wrong.

at school

Mar 11, 2004
2 p.m.
Sunny, warm, near 80
Kohler Elementary School



Warm sun on my back, pale green leaves begin to bud out on the tree in front of the school, little green aphids crawl across the page as I sit on the green hillside to write. I can hear the sounds of children calling out on the playground, tetherball chains against their poles, then the school bell calls an end to recess. Birds call out - maybe a magpie - then little twittering ones, then a mocking bird with its strong, changing song.

The hillside I sit on, next to the driveway, is covered in green. Fine small blades of grass puch up between various other weedy plants.

It all seems to blend together to form one big green growing mass. Here and there I spy tiny flower buds, holding the promise of what is to come. This weather is unusually warm, about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year, we'll see if it holds or id a cold front will snap us back into winter one more time...

palm dreams

Mar 9, 2004
Fountain Square Drive, Citrus Heights
about 3 p.m.
warm, sunny, clear, breezy
70's at last!

I noticed the palm trees last week - at least that's when I saw the photo, while filling up my gas tank. I see these trees regularly, every time I drive past this street. Today I scheduled in a time to stop: I'm in the parking lot for City Hall, warm sun shining down, the sound of the fountains drowning out most of the traffic. Small birds warble and chirp somewhere nearby, I'm guessing the bushes planted near the building. While I made the photographs, a couple crows caw-caw-cawed back and forth across the parking lot to each other, one perched for quite a while in the palm closest to my, seeming to cast an eye my way at times.

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.

seeing more of the sun

Jan 20, 04
2 p.m.
Antelope Community Park
cool - seeing more of the sun than we have for many many days. The low cloud layer that has blanketed the valley is breaking up for the first time in over a week.

The sun feels good on my back and there's no wind to steal away the warmth. I'm drawn to the curve of the path around a tree, I think I called the tree "birdsong oak" before.



There are fewer birds to hear today. The oaks are bare of leaves and I can see a couple birds in the branches: a scrub jay, little brown sparrows, earlier a magpie, now I see two magpies lightly hopping from branch to branch, picking at something - maybe like the ants or fly that have landed on the old long I'm sitting on. A tiny black beetle crawls slowly up the stump next to me.

I loaded the camera with a new film pack, made a shot of a nearby dead tree and the film pack stuck - then just lunched itself. Four sheets of film later, and a trip back to the car to clean the rollers and clear the film pack, a test just to make sure, and I'm back in business.



Not to be deterred by malfunctioning equipment, I return to the dead tree. Even stripped of branches it still has a bit of beauty. Dead itself, it still fosters life, several times I've seen woodpeckers flying in and out of it's dark cavities. I'm guessing that they nest there in the spring and summer.



A slight breeze kicks up - the sky has been nearly cleaned of clouds while I was fighting the film pack. We'll see how long the clouds stay away.

Mon, Jan 5, 2004

Mon, Jan 5, 2004
2:30 p.m.
Antelope Community Park
cool, clear 50's

Everything is damp from the rains. Short new green grass and growth is beginning to hide the fallen leaves and debris. Jays and magpies call back and forth. A small group flies into one of the oaks and an argument erupts, then dies down.

The sun is warm on my shoulders. A welcome change from the frosty night, I am such a fair weather creature.

Dirt brown oak leaves are scattered all over the ground. The dirt of the path has been kicked a bit, disturbed by foot prints to reveal a smooth dark brown river rock, something I find frequently while digging in my garden. The oaks are mostly naked now, and I can see large nest in several, which I guess are hawk's nests. What else would build so large a nest here? I'm sitting at the crest of a hill where I can see most of the park, near what I first called the woodpecker oak. I see no woodpecker today.



The air is so clear that I can see the Sierra, covered in snow. A thin cloud weakens the sunshine and it feel a little snowy here, too. It's been freezing overnight for the past few nights, generally as cold as the valley gets and plenty cold for me. A slight breeze has begun to blow.

Now I can hear the voices of smaller songbirds but they mostly hide in the trees. Not near as many voices as I've heard here in warmer weather. My fingers are beginning to sting - it's about time to pick up the kids from school.

tree in the house

Sat Dec 13, 2003
late afternoon
sunny but cool outside

There's a tree in the house. We drove up into the hills today and cut it down. But it wasn't quite that simple.

We looked for the tree farm we got last year's tree from but to no avail. So we followed some signs - first to a place very much like a forest - but we couldn't see the trees for the forest and decided to follow more signs.

We found another tree farm which seemed more promising, "Squaw Creek Tree Farm," which happens to be for sale. We wandered around in the drizzle looking for the right tree. A couple seemed almost right; then it started raining harder. We went back to an almost right tree and cut it.

As Scott was cutting, I came closer to catch the tree and spotted a fuzzy caterpillar clinging to one branch, right as it fell into me. I never saw the caterpillar again. Now the tree stands in the living room, looking a bit forlorn. I'll cut back a couple of the longer branches and tomorrow we'll begin decorating. If we're lucky we'll finish, too. The smell of the douglas fir suddenly makes it feel like Christmas.


The ghost of Christmas future...

out with the kids

Nov 25, 2003
afternoon
Dry Creek east off Walerga Road
cool - maybe 60 - high thin clouds but sun is strong
hiking and exploring with the kids
constant sound of construction tractors
chirps and twirps from birds



The kids are antsy, not real happy to sit in one spot while I shoot and write. Little birds chasing each other catch our eyes and suddenly the tree seems to all be moving, little brown birds flitting around like little brown leaves. A sharp cry overhead gets our attention; a large bird of prey, white underneath with black tips on it's wings, grayish on it's back. Phil thinks maybe an osprey. Meanwhile, Dee has observed the little birds in the trees with her binoculars: goldfinches like some that visit our backyard.

The green grass is taller than the last time I came here. There hasn't been much more rain but it's been cool and moist.



We've headed back and we want to get closer to the creek again... The sun is so low that it puts the whole creek in shadow but the field to the south still has a nice glow.

late afternoon

Nov 21, 2003
park on Auburn Blvd near Watt Ave, next to Discovery Museum
late afternoon
cool & clear, not a cloud out but a light gusting breeze, almost too cold for my sweater

There's a bridle path near the creek here (maybe Arcade Creek?) but I don't have time to wander too far...



Big oak just off the bridle trail near a ballpark that's right here, too. Birds call out, one flies low and twees as I walk down the path, not a kildeer but I wonder if it's trying to get me away from a nest nearby.



Many many oak leaves litter the ground and crunch under my feet as I walk back to the car. It's a little sad that they just turn brown instead of some glorious red or yellow. I guess the Valley Oaks are glorious enough without flashy colors.

dry creek

Nov 13, 2003
Dry Creek at Walerga Road
2 p.m.
cool - mid 60's, a few clouds hide the sun, then it comes back out again

The weather has changed a lot these past two weeks - rains have come and gone and the creek is higher now. The plants and lower banks look as if they have been flooded lately, no doubt the waters rise during a storm.

A couple small brown sparrow types twit and hop among a pile of cut branches across the creek. Traffic passes by constantly - I'll see if I can follow the creek away from the road...

I've gone a little farther, now the sound of running water competes with the traffic. A crow passes overhead, calling out. A couple smaller birds chit chit chit in the branches of trees while the beep beep beep of heavy construction calls out.



Poking up from the dry horizontal straws are a carpet of fat new green short blades - rain here means green.



I stop to make a photograph and I hear rustling noises in the tall dead growth nest to the path I'm on. I'd love to look further but my time is up...

Oct 30, 2003

Oct 30, 2003
Dry Creek in Roseville
off biketrail off Walerga, north of PFE
1:30 p.m.
Much cooler than it's been - clear, sunny, but maybe mid 60's

Still trying out the Polaroid 450 - not sure about focusing -



Right next to the road here, steady stream of cars passing by, along with the semi's associated with building the big new development on the other side of the creek.

I fiddle with the 450 a bit & I think I might have found the problem - a sticky spring on the bottom support structure of the bellows that controls the focus -

I'll have to see if Scott can help with it, but for now I'll go get a trusty 250 from the car, already loaded with the 665 film, to explore the creek a bit more with - I'll probably try the same shots to compare the focusing of the two cameras.



I return to the creek with the 250 - I get the sharp image I've come to expect - now if I could get more reliable shutter speeds, too, I'd be set. Cameras have been on my mind too much lately - I'd like to set aside the technical glitches and focus on the work, the images and feelings. Even with the sounds of passing cars and heavy construction in the background, I hear the calls of birds: little swee's and tsi tsi tsi sounds, as well as the occasional squaw of someone larger...

The creek is hardly dry right now, though I know full well it could be this time of year. It's fully 20 feet across here, a foot or more deep, and running swiftly. Many times I've seen fishermen here, so I'm sure it supports some decent sized fish. All sorts of weedy looking plants grow here, green with a little brown about the edges - the birds take opportunity of a short lack of traffic to twitter a bit more to each other - the green that lines the creek is in strong contrast to the straw pale dryness of the surrounding fields.

I start away from the creekside and find a pair of white cabbage butterflies dancing around each other, but they're off before I can get a good look to sketch them.



I head out toward the open field, away from the creek, there I'm greeted by large flying grasshoppers - brip brip brip brip brip - again, too fast to sketch.



Time is running out - I have mom-duties to attend to - but I'm going to bring myself back here soon.