Wednesday's Winding Road

Taken in June of 2009 down in Valley of Enchantment, Crestline, Ca.

A Quotation For Monday

"All things are contained within all other things, and everything in the universe shares a living soul."  Felicity Hayes-McCoy, from her book "The House on an Irish Hillside"

This is a portion of the trunk of a huge Western Red Cedar tree that crashed to earth in a violent windstorm many years ago.  My husband trimmed it up; we used some of it for firewood, but the largest portion we left to nurture the earth it lays on, the forest around it and the little creatures who dwell here. Insects nest in it, Ladybugs winter safely underneath it, birds and chipmunks eat some of the insects who dwell in it, chipmunks and squirrels cache their stores of seeds and nuts in the holes woodpeckers have made while getting the insects, and a tired woman hiking back to her cottage frequently rests upon it, talks to it, and is nurtured by its enduring beauty, its enduring soul. 

(Please be sure to left click on the photo to enlarge it; the colors and patterns in the trunk just don't show up very well in small format).

Sunday Sunlight

I was trying to get a photo of a blue jay in the tree yesterday when I noticed the beautiful sparkles showing up in the viewfinder.  I always get distracted by sparkly things, even though these sparkles mean I probably need to clean my camera lens.  My great-great grand-niece, Sabrina, who was visiting me today,  saw this photo and said, "Who needs another picture of a blue jay?  I'll take sparkles over feathers any day!"  While I can't agree with her completely, I do have to admit that I love sparkles, too.

Interesting Times

This isn't what any place in my garden looks like right now (I took this photo in June of '07), and I'd be ashamed to show you what my poor garden does look like right now!  But...the weather has been so strangely (horribly) nice that while I was outside puttering around today I found myself thinking, "Hmmm...maybe later today I should check the garden center and see what they have in stock."  Then I caught myself and realized they would have nothing in stock in January! 

We've had a couple of little earthquakes in the past week, the nearest centered about 30 miles away.  There is a fire burning to the west of us in the Glendora foothills.  It poses no threat to these mountains at all.  However, a fire that's burned over 1,900 acres and destroyed several homes is unheard of in Southern California in January.  In a normal January in California, there might be flooding in some areas...never wild fires. 

I was watering the trees that my hoses will reach today because the Governor has declared a State of Emergency due to our on-going drought (several years now), rapidly shrinking reservoirs, and only two feet of snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which is where Southern California gets most of its water.  Normally at this time of year the snow pack is twenty-five feet deep, in a good rain/snow year it's not unusual for it to be fifty feet deep.  So I was watering the trees while I can, because I'm pretty sure the next step the Governor takes will be to implement mandatory water rationing. 

What keeps going through my mind is that old expression/curse: May you live in interesting times.

Wednesday's Winding Road

A tiny part of Highway 18, winding around the outer edge of the San Bernardino mountains.  I took this in June of 2010.

A Winter Visitor

It was so windy here today, I don't know how this poor duck kept his equilibrium.  He's a Redhead Duck (Aythya americana), and they're winter visitors here. (Left click on the photo to see him better).  I tried to get a photo of a female, but they kept diving underwater.  There are ducks underwater all around him; I think that and the horrible Santa Ana winds worked together to make a very interesting water pattern.  I'm always intrigued by the water patterns I see when I've uploaded my photos.  I don't really see them when I'm taking the photo because the water is shifting so fast...and, if I look at it too long I get dizzy and fall in!  Not a bad thing to do in the summer (well, a little embarrassing), but you definitely don't want to fall in any lake up here during the winter.  Right now, the water temperature of Lake Arrowhead is 39 degrees Fahrenheit.  Brrrrr!

A Quotation for Monday

"Of winter's lifeless world, each tree now seems a perfect part; yet each one holds summer's secret deep down within its heart."  Charles G. Slater

(Photo taken in 2012)

Sunday Sunsets - Winter Pastels

Wednesday's Winding Road

I wish it looked like this now!  I took this on December 20, 2008. 

Wishing For Snow

That's what I titled this little painting I finished today.  Since the weather won't oblige, I thought I'd just paint some snow!  It's 5"x8", done in alkyds on canvas.  I only used three colors: Lamp Black, Titanium White and a touch of Dioxazine Purple. 

I found myself wishing as I was painting this that I was the sort of person who doesn't pay attention to the seasons.  When the weather doesn't behave as it should, I feel disoriented and out of sorts.  Our rain/snow didn't materialize, and today was sunny with a high of 50 degrees.  Way too warm for January, although our night time lows are where they should be, down in the low 20's.  Meanwhile, my poor friend who lives in Kentucky is so tired of rain, snow and cold she's ready to hop on a plane and come out for a visit!

Faeries Friday - A Tale From the Faery Forest

I caught our poor Snow Faery in a photo while on my early morning walk through the woods.  I was putting out nuts and seeds for the birds, mice and other little creatures that live in this forest when I saw one lone snowflake drift down and melt as soon as it hit the ground.  I looked up, startled, because the sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky, and that's when I saw her.  I whipped up my camera and quickly clicked, but there was no need to hurry; she was too sad to move quickly.  She waved her wand quite a few times, but only a few snowflakes appeared and those melted before they reached the ground.  I thought I heard a forlorn whisper from her as she faded away: "I'm trying my best, it's just too warm...it's just too warm."

Weather for the Birds

I heard on the news tonight that 2013 was the driest year on record for California.  The second driest year?  2012.  The weather guy is saying we might get some rain and snow on Thursday.  I sure hope he's right. 

The birds really like the sunny days.  Probably not the nights, because the lows are in the low to mid-twenties.  Now that I think about it, maybe they don't like the huge temperature swings from day to night any better than I do.  A low of 21 last night and a high today of nearly 60 today is just crazy!  But, if we didn't have to worry about deadly forest fires and running out of water, I have to admit that this weather is pretty nice.  My heart goes out to all the animals and people who are being impacted by the enormous storm in the mid-west and the north-east, and they're all in my prayers.

Happy 2014

Wishing everyone a year filled with joy, blessings, good health, love and peace.

A Quotation For Monday

"The ordinary arts we practice everyday at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."  Thomas Moore

Sunday Sunlight

Taken in February of this year.  It looks absolutely nothing like this here now...the snow that was still on the ground on December 21st is completely gone because we've had highs in the 40's and low 50's for the past several days!  This is the warmest December on record for these mountains, although the nights have been cold with lows in the 20's.  We've even been under a "Red Flag Warning," which means the wildfire danger is extremely high due to high winds (70 mph gusts) and dangerously low humidity.  I've lived here all my life, but I've never seen weather like this in December. 

A Few Glimpses of Christmas

...Around our little cottage.  The tree was very different this year, due to the completely insane nature of my five youngest cats, Merlin, Malcolm, Penelope, Priscilla and Alyce.  (You have yet to meet the last three).  I bought all new "shatter-resistant" ornaments for the tree and only put a couple of plastic Hallmark ornaments from years past on it.

The little teapot and the "Merry Christmas" are old; everything else is cat-proof (so far, anyway).  Oh, and the wooden candles that my husband made are very old.  The sterling silver bell is our "dated" ornament from last year.  I figured it was cat-proof.  Things have been so crazy this month and last month I forgot to buy a "dated" ornament for this year!

Only six of the treasured ornaments from my childhood were brought out this year, and I placed them up very high.  The two little cardboard houses hung on my Nonna's Christmas trees, the three Father Christmas ornaments hung on my Godmother's Christmas trees, and the barely-visible-at-the-bottom-of-the-photo aqua glass ornament hung on all of my mother's Christmas trees from the year she married my dad (1927)  until she gave it to me in 1971.  I have a photo, somewhere, showing a three-year old me standing in front the Christmas tree with this ornament hanging on that tree. 

More Christmas around the house:

 

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas filled with joy and blessings.  I have lots more Christmas photos to post, but that will have to be after tomorrow because it seems like everything went into fast-forward right after I got up from the Thanksgiving table and I'm still behind...on Christmas Eve!  Oops, there goes the cookie timer......Happy Christmas!

Winter Solstice/Yule

On this day, every winter, the hours of day and night are equal.  Tomorrow, the amount of daylight will increase a bit every day until the Summer Solstice, when the amount of daylight starts decreasing. 

The Yule log is lit and burning brightly here in my living room fireplace.  It's quiet in the narrow valley where my cottage is tucked in among the pines and cedars, except for the sleepy murmur of the creek and the faint sound of the wheel of the year revolving as Mother Earth turns back to the light of Grandfather Sun.

A Quotation for Monday

"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." 
Mark Twain 

Sunday Sunlight

Icicles hanging from the roof of the cats' play yard.  The way the light was shining through them caught my attention.

Settled In

I finished this painting of a friend's cat a few days ago and remembered, for once, to take a photo of it before it went to live in her home, although I should have photographed it before I put it behind glass and framed it. She saw the small version a couple of years ago when she was out here visiting a mutual friend and called me last summer to ask if I could do a bigger one.  She sent me a photo of her cat; she wasn't kidding when she said the kitty in my original small painting looked just like her Tomaso.  I'm going to try to remember to take photos of each of my paintings before they go to their new homes because I know there is a day coming when I won't be able to paint; it will be nice to be able to look back at what I created.  I wish I had started taking photos of all of my work a long time ago.  Ah, well...

December Snow

Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.  ~~ H. W. Longfellow

A Christmas Memory

The first weeks of December were a wonderful time in Mrs. Van Ostrand's first grade classroom.  On the big windows that looked out on the forest, we used stencils and Glass Wax to make Santa Clauses, reindeer, candy canes, stars and snowflakes, even though real snowflakes were usually falling on the other side of the windows.  (In the Big Bear, CA, of the 1950's, you could absolutely depend on snow in December).  After we finished the window stencils, Mrs. Van Ostrand gave each one of us blunted scissors, construction paper, cotton puffs, glitter and glue.  Then she guided us in fashioning decorations to take home to our families and decorations to put on the little tree in her classroom. 

Each year her first grade class sang a carol at the school's Christmas pageant, and my favorite part of the day was when she taught us to sing the carol she had picked out for that year.  Our carol was "Silent Night," and we learned a few lines every day.  I was having trouble with the "round yon virgin" part because it just didn't make sense to me.  Shouldn't it be "young?"  Just what was a "yon," anyway?  Mrs. Van Ostrand patiently explained it to me, but I think her patience was sorely tried when, as we were singing for the second time the verse "holy infant so tender and mild," my barely six year old brain had a moment of misunderstanding so epic it caused her to never use this carol again.  I shrieked, "Tender and mild!?  They cooked Baby Jesus!?  THEY COOKED BABY JESUS LIKE A TURKEY!!" 

It's not always a good thing to have a vivid imagination...