Wandering Wednesday - Wilder Ranch

 From earlier in the year,some pictures of the beach and historic ranch at one of our local state parks, Wilder Ranch.

 The mossy ranch bell.

 Climbing in the enormous cypress.

Enjoying the sunset down on the cove beach.

Singing Sirens of Seaweed

I was at Natural Bridges beach last weekend, just for a short, windy, and kind of cold after a while visit with all the visiting priestesses of the Sisterhood of the Silver Branch. And from way way way across the beach these seaweed covered cliff rocks called to me. I was pulled to them without a word, holding only my camera as if in some kind of trance.

I had to take some pictures, even though I could not of course see the picture on the back of the digital camera in the very bright afternoon sun. I tried to not get to close up and to listen for the focusing sound of the lens going in and out. It seemed to work pretty well, as I got some fairly in-focus, clear photos, a bit glare-y, but that is what happens at 2pm at the beach.

Don't you love how mossy this looks? And how smooth and curvily sensuous the rocks are?

I don't know anything about seaweed, but I do know what I like to look at. If, and I'm just saying IF I were a seaweed monster I would want to be comprised of this stuff. I think it would be a real Cousin It effect. But smelly and wet of course.

This one gets rearranged every time a wave comes in and goes out. Those yellowy danglers move around quite a bit. Like party decorations moving in the wind.

Don't Fear the Reaper

On Fridays during the summer the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has free concerts of formerly popular rock bands. This past Friday, we finally got our fannies down there in the sand and watched Blue Oyster Cult rock out. They were still really good on their instruments, the singing, not so much. Anyways, it was super fun. So we stayed until the evening show and got on the Sky Ride and got this excellent view of the stage from above. And yes they did play "Don't Fear the Reaper" and even referenced the famous Saturday Night Live skit with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken (I Gotta Have More Cowbell). Some hilarious person brought their own cowbell and played along with the song, almost in time even. Sheesh.

I love this picture of the boys in the Sky Ride. The stage is down in the bottom left corner.
And I'm thinking hard about the beautiful Merced River canyon that we just drove through coming back from Yosemite. Which is on fire now. On both sides of the river. It was so dry (except for the river), I'm not surprised that the fire is growing so quickly. May it be extinguished soon!

Maple Beauty

Having a fun Thanksgiving weekend with family, so I'm too pooped to post much at the moment. So here is a picture of our Japanese maple that is in the front yard. With some of the best colour we've ever seen. Not sure why, maybe it is just old enough, or the weather fairies cooperated or... I think this tree is about 4 or 5 years old. It is protected by some round wire fencing to protect it from marauding bambi type characters.

Today we:
stole a bunch of music from my brother and v.v. (I see it as just like making tapes for each other like we've always done)
went to the best deli in Santa Cruz for lunch: Zoccoli's
Toured the UCSC campus (Alex has declared he is definitely going there, I'll ask him in 5 years and see what he says).
Went to the beach and watched Zach and my brother skimboard, and watched a huge seal watch them from the waves.
Drove back to my parent's house.
Went to see BodyWorlds at the Tech Museum in San Jose.
Drove back to my parent's house and devoured (completely gone!) the leftovers from T-day and drank mojitos, both the hi-octane and unleaded versions.
Drove home.
Collapsed!
Yikes, no wonder I'm so beat.
Good night!

Baths, Brunch, Beach

Here is a bit more on what I did this weekend. On Friday before the mendhi, and when we still had the late afternoon sun three of us did a traditional Mayan ritual which is taught by Rosita Arvigo as part of Mayan Abdominal Massage. This is a picture of my spiritual bath.

You've got to try this sometime! I swear I feel like a completely different person after I've done one of these, a very powerful tool. There is a great article online from Mothering Magazine about using these with children who have nightmares. If you're at all interested check out the book,
Spiritual Bathing
by Rosita Arvigo. It has all the information on how and why to do this along with stunningly beautiful pictures. Here is a review, and an excerpt.



I gathered all of the plant materials from my spot of heaven on earth (aka my home and garden) and shared them with everyone in a big basket. I contributed: rosemary (prostrate and not), lavender, rue, plantain, pincushion flower, calendula, rose (red and white), marigold, basil, mint, lemon balm, catmint, society garlic, redwood, pine, and tea tree. My car smelled wonderful on the drive over with all this great smelly plant stuff! Yumm.
A very cool vintage lamp (maybe 1930's?) I spotted during our fabulous brunch in the Crepe Place. I didn't get to ask about it, but I will next time I go there. There are two of them hanging from the high open beam ceiling and they make the room if you ask me.
I noticed this horse head on a beach house, it is from the nearby amusement park where they have a great old carousel (seen in a Clint Eastwood movie...), this looked to be from when it was refurbished a while ago. A fun thing to have on top of your house, no?
I always end up taking pictures of my feet at the beach. I'm wearing my favorite hand-dyed rayon pants which would not stay rolled up and ended up being quite soaked by the time we left the beach.
The waves were crashing and noisy at Seabright beach. It was a lovely 80F, and we were all remarking on how you wouldn't know it was November. Except for the absence of any fog (that is the Santa Cruz secret, the beach is the best in late autumn!).