Waiting for Rain

Wednesday's Winding Road

Only, this time, it's part of a path that winds around Lake Arrowhead.  This was taken in May of 2010. 

Sunday Sunlight

I think this little guy (or girl) thought he was hiding from me.  I know I was having trouble believing I was actually looking at a robin...in February!  Usually they don't show up until April.  I even saw a hummingbird the day before yesterday!  I rushed to put out fresh nectar, but the hummingbird hasn't been back. 

I've been out getting the garden ready because it's been so warm; that's another thing I usually don't do until around the middle or end of April.  I'm not taking the pine needle mulch off the hydrangeas just yet, though, because the nighttime temperatures are still below freezing.  But, our high today was a crazy 60 degrees F. 

No wonder the birds are confused.

Happy Valentine's Day From a Book Addict

I took this photo of a redbud tree ( cultivar Forest Pansy)  last May, and I have been waiting since then for Valentine's Day so I could post it and wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day with red, heart-shaped leaves. 

Yes...I know.  But, I'm a sucker for things like this in nature. 

My Valentine's Day present was a replacement Kindle from Amazon at no charge because I hadn't had the old one for a year before it croaked.  Yippee!  The reason I bought a Kindle in the first place was so that I could (hopefully) find all of my favorite books and have them stored on Kindle in case we have to evacuate for a forest fire.  I don't have room in my car for my books and my animals, and when it comes to that kind of choice the books are going to lose.  Any thing is going to lose, even treasured photos.

BUT...did I get rid of my favorite, and even second favorite, books once I had them on Kindle?  No.  I couldn't bear to part with them.  There's just something magical about holding a book, the scent of a book, and when I open it up (if I've read it before) I can see my favorite characters coming out to greet me.  If I'm reading a book for the first time and it turns out to be a favorite, then I've just made a whole bunch of new friends.  The downside of making these new friends with a Kindle is that I then want to have the actual book so I can add it to my shelves (and shelves, and shelves, and shelves...well, you get the idea) of books.

If it weren't for the threat of wildfires up here I don't think I ever would have bought a Kindle.  But, it's so wonderful to be able to have the best of both worlds! 

A Thrift Store Find...and Drat!

I found this cute little teapot at a thrift shop up here.  I don't think it's antique, or even vintage, but it just spoke to me...really.  It said, "Take me home, I'll brighten up your mantle."  So I did.

When I got home, I made a cup of tea and sat down with my Kindle to read.  DRAT!  It refused to function.  I went to Amazon.com and did all the things the help section said to do, but no luck.  I haven't even had the thing eight months (it is the Kindle Fire HD).  So, I called Amazon and, bless them, they said they would have a new one delivered to me by Thursday, no charge to me since it wasn't even a year old.  I sure hope so.  I was right in the middle of a really good book. 

Thank goodness I couldn't bring myself to get rid of my real books (well, not many of them, anyway).  I just don't feel right if I don't have a book to read!

A Quote for Monday

"The hunter seldom realizes when he is the one being hunted.  He walks in the woods, rifle in hand, eyes alert for his quarry's prints on snow-dusted ground.  He searches for spoor or sits perched in his tree blind, waiting for the bear to lumber into view.  It never occurs to him that his prey might be watching him, biding its time until he makes a mistake." 

Tess Gerritsen, from her book "The Silent Girl" 

This is not my photo, sadly.  There are no grizzly bears left in California to photograph because they were hunted to extinction by 1922.  Ironic, tragic and stupid, since a grizzly first appeared on the California state flag in 1846 and was signed into law as the official state flag in 1911.

Sunday Sunset

Taken in late summer of 2008.

Some is Better Than None

(This photo is a close-up of water in the creek in January, 2011).   We received  a tiny smidgen of rain early today that turned into a tiny dusting of snow this evening.  As my Scots friend, Kathy, says, "Some is better than none."  Too true! 

But, right now, more would sure be better.  I'm hoping for a "Miracle March" like we had some years ago.  We received over twelve feet of snow from just one storm!

Wednesday's Winding Road

I took this last May.  I had stopped my car, gotten out and taken the photo, when a darling yellow lab came galloping up to me.  I put the camera in the car as he joyfully leaped up on me and washed my face.  I was hugging and petting him when his owner came rushing out of a nearby house.  She was yelling, "Stay still and he won't bite you!"  Huh?  Then she noticed that I was hugging him and he was licking me.  She was astounded.  I was astounded that she thought he would bite me...I've never met a lab that wasn't a sweetheart.  We talked awhile and she told me she had just adopted him a few weeks ago to be a watchdog.  I had no doubt he would be a good watchdog, but I gave her my phone number and asked her to call me if he didn't turn out to be the kind of dog she thought he would be. 

The following week she did call me, but it was to tell me she had fallen in love with Sandy and didn't care that he wasn't the killer guard dog the people she adopted him from had told her he was.  She said he was great at "woofing" and that, plus his adorable personality, made it impossible for her to part with him.  I was so glad, but a little sad, just a little, because I had fallen in love with Sandy, too, and was sort of hoping he would get to come be a part of our "fur family." 

I just wish I had remembered to take a picture of Sandy!

Unfamiliar Weather

We got a tiny bit of rain last night, then a light dusting of snow.  I think these two Steller Jays haven't seen snow in so long they've forgotten what it is!  The tiny bit of rain and snow aren't anywhere near what we need to get out of this terrible drought, but maybe it's a start...I'm crossing my fingers.