Wordless Wednesday - Motion

Strange May

Yesterday, Sunday, the weather acted as it used to in May...in the 1950's, 60's and 70's.  We had several inches of 'corn snow' which is not a hard ice ball like hail, but a ball of solid, yet friable, snow, along with a humdinger of a thunderstorm that was centered right over us for over an hour. 

I had gone over to the Arrowhead Resort, which is a hotel with a nice restaurant and spa facilities, to have lunch with a friend at the restaurant, Bin 189.  It's a little expensive, but the food is wonderful and, hey, we all need a little treat now and then, right?  The photo above is a bit of Lake Arrowhead looking down from the hotel. 

This is a photo of the pool...the unheated pool.  We couldn't believe that people were swimming in it!   (This picture is blurry on purpose because it has people in it).  We also watched some teens jump into Lake Arrowhead, whose water is still COLD.  Those teens got out of the water so fast it was like watching a movie in fast-forward, lol.

The snow melted quickly and by today just a few patches were left here and there, like the ones on my studio porch (which still needs a winter cleanup), below. 

 

And there were a few patches left in my studio garden.  Odd to see snow on the ground and the Dogwood trees in blossom.   

Glynda, the good witch that guards my studio, is glad to see that the snow is almost gone.  I'm sure she knows, though, that the weatherman is predicting more snow for Wednesday and Thursday.  Strange May...

Sunday Sunsets

My Favorite Flower

The above picture is one of some of this year's lilac blooms.  We had a 'Dogwood Winter' a couple of weeks ago and it froze most of the blooms and the leaves on the lilacs.  A few, like the one above, were sheltered enough that some of their blooms managed to survive, but most had their buds and leaves killed by the unseasonable cold.  They'll put out new leaves but, sadly, no new flower buds. 

And tonight?  I just heard on the news that we are expecting snow flurries!

Here are some blooms of years past...

The photo above is of a pink lilac that the man at the nursery assured me would be hardy up here "because it's from Canada."  It was in bloom when I planted it, and made lots more blooms, but it didn't make it through the following winter.  I think that nursery man didn't know his lilacs (or knew a sucker when he saw one).

And wouldn't you know that the only lilac I've planted here would croak.  I'm going to have a look round and see where I can plant some more reliable ones.  My six year old great-great niece wants to plant them with me.  We'll do that either this spring or the next, now that she's old enough to really remember planting them.  And of course I'll take lots of pictures.



These lilacs below are really more the color of the buds when they're open, a gorgeous deep purple-maroon, but the camera didn't pick it up.  They're one of my favorites, and they have the strongest scent of any of the lilacs that I have.

The two pictures above are of hardy pink and white lilacs.  I don't know the species name.  I've asked some of the nursery people up here if they know, but they can only generalize at best.  

I don't really care about the proper names of them, I just want them to keep on growing and thriving and blooming for many years to come!

Some Friday Florals

I found this growing beside a stream near the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, but I have no idea what kind of flora it is.  Maybe some kind of berry bush?  

And this, below, is a Columbine that's growing in my back garden.

  

This is a Money Plant.  It grows wild all over up here in the spring.  This one is unusual because it is more of a red-violet color than the usual lavender or purple color.  And I have no idea why Blogger is making everything align exactly where I don't want it.  Maybe it's just having a case of Spring Fever! 

Sunday Sunsets

Taken in July of '07.

Pleasure and Drudgery

This past week has been a mix of pleasures and drudgery. Spring is so glorious up here, despite a hard freeze about a week or so ago that nipped the lilacs and dogwoods. It didn't harm my apple trees, thank goodness. But I noticed a disturbing thing while walking among them; no bees. Not a one. I'm hoping that they went back into hibernation and will be back out soon. I haven't found any little bee bodies, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

I've been out taking lots more photogaphs. The past winter was generous with snow and rain and the wildflowers are, for up here, very prolific this year. Not a lot of flowers yet at my altitude, but lower down the mountain they're all over. A few more days like today, warm and sunny, and they should pop out up here, too. Such a pleasure to be out in beautiful spring weather!

I've also forced myself to spend time (every second seemed like an hour) backing up files on my computer, weeding out unwanted photographs to free up space on my hard drive, and prepping canvases. Ugh...I detest doing stuff like that! Pure drudgery. But, at least it's done with for a while and that is such a good feeling!

Sunday Sunsets

Taken April 1, 2007.

Mrs. and Mr. Mallard

I've been seeing this female Mallard for about a week now, floating around on the creek.  Yesterday she was joined by a male.

I just hope they're not planning on having a family on the banks of this stretch of the creek.  There are so many Raccoons and feral cats around I don't think any duck babies would have a chance of making it.   Hopefully they'll move on soon.

Into the Quiet

I've been out rambling the past few days, driving and hiking all over these mountains, seeing what Spring has to offer and taking photographs. Rambling with my dogs, with no set destination in mind, is my favorite thing to do. In the Spring and Autumn, everything else comes second.

But rambling is made all the sweeter because I know I have the quiet haven of my cottage to come back to. I'm so grateful for the space and quiet I have, because space and quiet are very much in short supply in Southern California, even in the mountains.

I can hear, quite clearly, the voice of the creek because I have all of the windows open. (Well, this time of year I can hear it even with the windows closed, swollen as it is with snow melt). Even though it's after 8 p.m. it is 51 degrees F outside! That's pretty warm for an early May evening, but the cats begged me to make a fire in at least one of the fireplaces, so I made one in the living room, which necessitated opening the windows. The warmth from the fire is tempered by a breeze dancing her way through my cottage every now and then, bringing with her a gift of cool air scented with damp earth, water, the sharp resin of pine and the sweetness of apple blossom.

Going into the quiet, being so still that sometimes I feel I've almost disappeared into it...that's another favorite thing of mine.

Sunday Sunsets

I have a gazillion photos of sunsets, so I thought I'd start posting one every Sunday. 

Spring is still being very moody, warm one day, freezing temperatures and snow the next.  Spring has always been capricious, but this one has been more than that, it has been absolutely crazy.   So I've been kept busy covering cold tender plants, then uncovering them, then covering them again, and so on...

Weather is crazy, the animals are behaving badly and people are acting like they're insane.  (More about insane people in a later post).

I think the line from Bob Dylan's 'Things Have Changed' sums it up perfectly: "People are crazy and times are strange."

The Vagaries of Spring

It felt more like Summer than Spring here today; our temperature high was 70 degrees F!  Definitely not normal for late April.  

I was so tempted to pick up some annuals and plant them, but I managed to resist.  I remembered when, three years ago, I spent nearly $100.00 on annuals that I bought in a moment of madness in early April while visiting a nursery down the hill (6,000 feet lower in elevation and 30 degrees F warmer) with my sister.  Two weeks later they all died when the temperature dropped to 25 degrees F.  Sadder but wiser, now I wait.  

Before Global Warming really kicked in, I always waited until May 30th to plant anything.  The seasonal changes were more reliable than they are now and anyone who had lived here for a while knew that to plant before May 30th was just asking for disaster.  Now, I plant during mid-May and hope for the best.  And if I've guessed wrong and Nature plays her tricks, I watch enviously while the gardens of the gardeners who planted in April (and got lucky) bloom way ahead of mine.  Oh, well.

 I did pot up some pansies today that I bought down the hill last week and 'hardened off' by putting them outside for the warmest hours of the day, then bringing them inside for the night. 

Now the temperature has dropped to a chilly 39 degrees F and a cold little wind has picked up, so I've made a fire in the living room fireplace, and I'm going to have a mug of hot tea along with the peanut butter cookies I just baked.  The cats are asleep in front of the fire but the dogs are waiting not-so-patiently for the cookies they know I'll share with them. I just wish my Great Dane wouldn't drool...

In Praise of Eccentricity

While out driving around with a friend, I passed this sign. I thought it was charmingly eccentric, my friend didn't care for it. (Not the sign itself. She just doesn't like any sort of yard decoration).

I've always been drawn to eccentric people. I find them, usually, more interesting than people who are strictly conventional. But that is not to say that I don't know or like any interesting, conventional people, I do.

Most of the women in my family, and extended family, could be called 'eccentric' and they would take it as a compliment. I think it takes a certain amount of courage to be eccentric, especially if you're a woman, even in current times. Of course, in times not too far past, it was risky, even life-threatening, for either gender to be anything other than exactly like their neighbors. I'm so glad I don't live in times like those; I'm not sure I would have survived!

Beautiful Birds

A female Black Headed Grosbeak and a couple House Finches.

Another female BH Grosbeak.  This picture is blurry, but you can see a bit of the beautiful gold that's on the underside of their wings. 

A handsome male BH Grosbeak displaying his gorgeous coloring. 

A male BH Grosbeak, a Purple Finch, and the back of a House Finch.  They're all a bit out of focus, but the bird feeder kept swinging back and forth. 

January in April

It snowed all of yesterday and all through the night.  The snow started out as typical spring snow; heavy, wet, exactly like the kind we had on April 5th.  Then, around 10 p.m., the temperature dropped dramatically and we were getting the kind of snow we usually get in January.   Our low last night was 21 degrees F!  It didn't knock any of the blossoms off of my Rainer Cherry tree, and the apple trees haven't put out their blossoms yet, thank goodness.  It's not unusual to get snow in April.  Up until the mid-eighties it was a regular occurance.  But it is unusual for it to be so very cold!

This male Black Headed Grosbeak is standing on top of the snow that's left on one of the bird feeders and, to my eyes anyway, he looks a bit indignant.  The Grosbeaks usually don't show up until cold weather is over.  He was probably confused by the hot-cold-warm-hot-cool-hot-cold completely crazy weather we've been having lately.  I know I am! 

We have four Grosbeaks visiting our feeders, two males and two females, so I hope we'll be seeing lots of Grosbeak babies in several weeks, along with lots of the babies of all the other species of birds that visit our feeders.

Wordless Wednesday - Renewal

Spring Fluctuations

"Oh, NO!  Not this cold stuff again!"  I wonder if that is what this little squirrel is thinking. 

Personally, I'm very glad to see the 'white stuff' even though it turned to heavy rain later on in the day.  Rain, snow...it's all good! 

Our high today was 30 degrees F.  Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 55 degrees.  That's normal Spring weather up here.  We have a saying (similar to many other places, I'm sure) "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes!"

A Little Kind of Day

A little sun, a little sleet, a little rain, a little fog, a little wind, a little earthquake...

Well, actually, the earthquake wasn't so little. It was a 7.2, but it was centered in Mexicali, a town just below the California/Mexico border. I was standing at the dining room table, clearing the dishes, when I thought I was having a dizzy spell...then the light that hangs over the center of the table tapped me gently on my head and I looked around to see other things swaying and shaking. As earthquakes go, it wasn't much of a big deal up here. I hope and pray the people and animals who are closer to the epicenter are all right. And, oddly, it was felt as far north as Santa Barbara, about 200 miles from here.

The strongest one I can remember was the Landers/Big Bear quake in 1992. It's magnitude was 8.0 and the epicenter of the Big Bear portion was just a few miles from me. It damaged the foundation of my little cottage, separated the third floor staircase from the wall, knocked things off walls, and knocked everything out of my kitchen cabinets. Well, the cabinets that faced north and south. The doors on the cabinets that face east and west didn't even open! I guess it all depends which fault line the earthquake is on. After I had that damage repaired, I had the cottage retro-fitted for earthquakes, which basically means they bolt the house to the foundation. It's supposed to make it earthquake "proof." I sure hope so...I live just a few miles from the San Andreas fault, one of the biggest in California. It's funny...I have a healthy respect for earthquakes, but they don't really scare me. Good thing, since we have so many here!

Who Are You?

I thought my feeders were being visited by a new species of bird, but then I looked up "House Finches" in my Audubon book.  According to it, the yellow and orange ones are immature males and will become more red as they get older.  I've been feeding birds for years, but this is the first time I've ever seen the yellow and orange ones.  I guess I'm not as observant as I thought... 


I wish they'd stay yellow and orange, I think they're gorgeous!

March Moon

I've been taking advantage of the energy surge that the waxing moon usually provides for me by cleaning out winter's debris from the garden.  It's a good thing I got this picture earlier, as She is completely obscured by clouds now. 

It has been quite nice for the past several days with temperatures in the low 60's F, but snow is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.   It will be welcome; even though we've had what seems like a lot of rain and snow this past winter, what we've gotten so far hasn't been enough to end our drought. 

10:32 A.M.

That's when Spring officially arrived in California.  Not that it looks anything like Spring up here.  The header photo and the photo above were taken around the end of last April.  But, since it is officially Spring/Ostara, I felt like making my blog look like it, even though I'm glad it doesn't look like Spring outside. 

The ground is still mostly covered with a thin layer of snow.  A lot of it has melted due to the unseasonably warm weather we've had for the past few days.  I suppose it will all be gone in another week. 

But, I'm not really ready to let go of Winter.  It used to last a good 6 or 7 months up here.  Now we're lucky to get 4 months.  Spring doesn't last as long as it used to, either.  In this time of hateful climate change, Summer is the longest season.  I suppose most people like that, especially here in California, but I am not a fan of hot, dry weather.  Hopefully, we'll get at least one more snow storm and some good rain storms in April and May.  Then it's goodbye rain until November, unless some of Arizona's monsoon rains in July and August get pushed West.

Anyway, happy Spring/Ostara!

Little Gems

This is one of my favorite lakes up here, Lake Gregory in Crestline.  It isn't the largest, but I think it's one of the prettiest.  Most of the lakes up here have very little accessible shoreline, due to the stacks of docks and mega docks that cram their shores.  Lake Gregory only has one small dock, I think they use it to rent canoes or rowboats during the summer tourist season.  Motorboats are prohibited.  It doesn't have any houses close to the shoreline and it has a lovely walking path.  One can walk around the whole lake in under an hour if walking briskly.  If you stop to take photos or look at interesting trees, rocks, birds, leaves...well, you get the idea.  It can take all day!  And it's a lovely way to spend a day in the Spring, Fall or Winter.  I avoid walking around it in the summer, usually, as it's just too hot and crowded. 

Lucky

I've been seeing this guy for a several weeks now, but I never had my camera bag with me.  When I did have my camera bag with me, I would never see him.  But, last Thursday afternoon when I went out for a walk, I took it with me and I got lucky!  I was about 80 yards away when I spotted him.  I didn't want to waste time trying to get closer because I was afraid he'd fly away.  I grabbed my Canon Digital Power Shot SX10IS, not my DSLR, because I didn't want to waste time changing lenses.   I just kept zooming in (the camera has a 20x zoom lens) and snapping pictures.  I only wish I would have had my tripod with me because this camera just won't take a clear picture at full extension without it.  But, hey, I'm happy with what I got, especially the last one.  He had obligingly moved to another branch so I could get a different view of him.  The cloud bank, which was just cresting the ridge when I started shooting, was starting to drop down into my valley and I was lucky to get the last shot before he was obscured completely.