Goodbye February

It's starting to look a little like spring might be on her way: Here and there Ivy is poking a few leaves out above the snow...

The snow on the roof is melting fast and the last icicle is barely hanging on... 

But the most telling sign is the greening Dogwood buds, which will be the centers of the enormous white blossoms in April. 

Goodbye, February!

A Haiku for Wednesday

Wind sculpting with snow 
Freezing the fluidity
Defying the sun.

(Please left click to get a better look at the wind's sculptures; the little one on the lower right looks rather like a flying saucer).

Kindness

"Constant kindness can accomplish much.  As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate."
Albert Schweitzer

(Left click to enlarge). 

Sunday Sunsets

 

They Were Right!

Last week the weather forecasters predicted we would get a foot of snow during Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.  They were right!  I was so surprised because usually they're quite wrong. 

The sun came out in the afternoon though, so it's melting off the trees pretty fast...but only on the sides that face south!  Today, none of the trees in the above photo have any snow left on their 'sunny' sides. 

Which is probably just fine with the birds!

Wordless Wednesday - Almost Free

(Left click to enlarge).

And Yet the Books

"And yet the books will still be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet,
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
We are, they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters. 
So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant,
Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights."

Czeslaw Milosz

Sunday Sunlight - Sun Drops

I took this in August of 2011 and I had fun today playing around with it a little bit in Photoshop. (Left click to enlarge).  This tree is by the Subway sandwich shop in Crestline, but I have no idea what kind of tree this is; I've never seen one like it anywhere else up here.

Spring, Winter, Spring, Winter

I wish the weather would make up its mind! It's warm and sunny today (well, by winter standards) but by next Tuesday the temperatures are supposed to plummet and we're supposed to get a foot of snow.  This is the strangest winter I can remember.

Have a Happy One

Wordless Wednesday - Shapes

The San Bernardino Mountains

(Left click to enlarge photos).  My sister sent me this picture of the San Bernardino Mountains, which are the mountains where I live.  I rarely see them when they look like this because I'm waaay up there in the snow!  The snow level in this photo is down around the 2,500 foot level in the foothills.  This range has eleven peaks that exceed 10,000 (3,048 meters) feet in height, the tallest being Mt. San Gorgonio at 11, 489 feet (3,502 meters), the highest peak in Southern California.  You can't see Mt. San Gorgonio in this photo; it's further over on the right.  

This mountain range is unusual in that it is a Transverse Range, meaning it runs west to east instead of north to south like most mountain ranges.  They were formed millions of years ago by tectonic activity along the San Andreas Fault and are still actively rising!  It makes a turn to the south right before Mt. San Gorgonio.

This is Mt. San Gorgonio (1) taken from about the 5,000 foot elevation out on Highway 18, the road that goes along the outer edge, literally, of the range.  It's also called 'Rim of the World Highway.'  In some places, the drop down to the San Bernardino Valley floor is a sheer fall of thousands of feet.  Off to the right is Mt. San Jacinto (2).  The town of Palm Springs, moderately famous for movie stars and Spring Break, is in the desert on the east side of Mt. San Jacinto.  Both peaks have snow on their tops year round.   

Okay, done indulging my inner nerd now...if you made it this far, thanks!

Sunday Sunlight

Sun rays breaking through clouds over Lake Arrowhead, California.  I took this in July of 2010.

Not Telling

I think this poor robin is really confused.  We had freezing rain during the night of the 7th and it snowed heavily all day yesterday...YAY!  We got almost a foot.  But by next Friday it's supposed to get up to almost 60 degrees F.  I hope that doesn't mean the end of our rain and snow season.  However, I wonder why this robin has arrived in February, when usually I don't see them until late March.  I'd love to know what he knows, but he's not telling.

Faeries Friday -Twilight In the Faery Forest

Twilight in the Faery Forest and stars float down to play. 
But don't be fooled, dear mortal one,
They're Faeries from the Great Far Wild.
Are they good or are they bad?
Those words don't exist where they come from.
They are what they have always been, 
Faeries from the Great Far Wild.
A memory of distant kin.

I Wish...

I was on my way to a luncheon at the home of a friend of a friend today.  While looking for the address I came across this great street name sign.  Of course, I had to get out of the car and take a photo.  As soon as I left the car and approached the street sign a man came out of a house across from the sign and called to me, "Leave that sign alone!"  I told him I was just planning on taking a picture of it and that was all.  That mollified him, so I asked if they had had trouble with people defacing the sign.  He replied, "No...we have trouble with people stealing it!"  He said it had been stolen so many times the county now refused to make a new sign with the name stamped in the metal and just lettered over old street signs.

I wish whoever was in charge of street names way back in the 1920's when my cottage was built would have given the street it's on a name as cool as this one.  I also wonder how Willow Witch Road got this particular name.  And, I wonder what it takes to get the name of a street changed, or if it even can be?

I have some sleuthing to do!

Sunday Sunsets - Little Tracks

I took this on December 20, 2008 around 4:30 p.m.  This is the top of the ridge behind my cottage and it stays light up there a lot longer than down at the cottage which sits in a narrow mountain valley.  In December I have to turn on the lights around 3:30 p.m. if it's sunny, or, if it's cloudy, they're on from the time I get up to the time I go to bed.

I'm not sure what made the little tracks in the snow.  I know I would have known when I took the picture, because I always look closely at tracks to identify them, but I didn't make a note of what they were because I thought I would remember.  Ha.  I know better now!

Welcome February!

I hope the Snow Queen, or Storm Queen, or whoever is in charge of storms that deliver a lot of snow and rain will be an often and consistent visitor during this month.  Southern California has a rainy season that runs from October to March and the rest of the year is DRY.  Come on storms, we're running out of time!  (The painting above is by one of my favorite artists, Walter Delamare).