Thankful Day

 

Today's the day for us to think about what we have to be thankful for in the midst of Thanksgiving celebrations and all the hustle and bustle that it entails. I'm thankful for everything that's been growing and is now ready to harvest and enjoy.

I'm thankful for the ingenuity of our fellow humans to make bridges and freeways and cars so that we can easily get from here to there and back home again, even in a big wind and rainstorm. And for all the people who work in our various government agencies that regulate all of those enterprises so that our travels are as safe as possible. 

I'm thankful for clever people who come up with new ways to make us laugh in unexpected places, especially when we really need that laugh.

I'm thankful for artists and musicians who continue to thrive and prove that they can still make magic even into their late 70's (the bassist on the right is 78! The other guys are all in their sixties)

I'm thankful for the people who get things done even when it's raining or more than a hundred degrees when I can't really function and help out much. In this picture that would be DH and his big front yard project, ongoing, but nearing completion.

I'm thankful to have the privilege of still being in the place where I had the foresight to have planted a tree years ago and then for the joy it brings us when it finally comes into its own and wows us every fall.

I'm thankful for the bluest blue open sunny skies above, and snakes guarding our oldest dashboards.

I'm thankful the trees have finally turned and the tunnel of green has become the tunnel of yellow and to have the luck and privilege to get to live in such a beautiful forest.

I'm thankful for you reading and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving or a terrific Thursday.

Look Up Into Willow

Willow trees have always been one of my favorite trees. They have such a beautiful form and are particularly lovely when you’re under one and you look up.

So next time you’re able to, my advice is to take a second and look up.

 This one wasn’t even enormous like some of them end up, DH shown for scale.

Some day I’ll make a willow quilt.

Mini Flower Break

 Here in the later days of winter, I'm appreciating the blooming of any and all flowers. Like the grape hyacinth (muscari). I've been growing these flowers in this very pot for over 20 years now. Turns out that not having to replant stuff every year is very convenient. I'm amazed that this plastic pot has survived all that time too.

They smell so amazing. Sweet, but not too much, light and fresh. I wonder if there's a perfume using this fragrance.

The bees love them so very much.

I'm glad that I have these old reliables to depend upon every year to remind me that spring is coming.

I also had to do some weeding in our plant containers on the deck. This involves pulling up actual trees. They grow like literal weeds around here.

I like the nearly neon aggressive green color of the sprouts of branches-to-be.

Tree Colors

I love driving around this time of year spotting the many varieties of Japanese Maple trees that people have planted in their yards. The variety of colors is always surprising, deep yellows, brilliant orange, sparkling reds. We find that ours changes a lot from year to year. I guess it depends a lot upon the temperature, the amount of water, and of course the soil composition. Around here, thanks to the redwoods we're usually on the acidic side of things. 

The tree as seen from my studio window (don't mind the dead palm fronds in the way, it just glows, especially in the foggy sun.

I couldn't help compare the color of our tree this year to some of the rusty reds I've dyed lately.

I like how different the tree looks when it's foggy or cloudy.

These fabrics really do echo the colors on the tree.

I tried taking a picture of the tree from the same spot every day or few days and plan to put them together into a little short video. More on that later.

These fabrics really do echo the colors on the tree.

I like this closeup of the wet leaves. Shows the variation of color within each leaf.

 

Sunny Report

I've been spending time outside on the deck this weekend, enjoying the spring blooming that's happening. And reading a gigantic Stephen King library book, Fairy Tale. 

Our olive tree finally got moved. Well, DH and DS dug it up and moved it. The change in location didn't just happen on its own of course. We didn't expect the tree to get so tall, I think it was supposed to be a dwarf version? But it was almost hitting the power lines, so off to the edge of our garden it went. Fingers crossed it survives the transplantation. I think the gray-ish leaves will look nice against the dark redwoods.

The lilacs are going crazy this year, it smells really really amazing.

The cherry tree is in blossom too, and I'm so pleased it didn't fall over in the storms.

One of the dead branches came off of it, but that was fine. It's soaked up all the rain and burst forth. The bees are Very Busy.

Four ravens overhead, silent while they glide the currents.their shadows enough to bring me out of the 600 page book.
 

Magnolia Sunday

We're having a super bloom on the small magnolia tree I planted years and years ago.

The entire tree is absolutely covered in blooms. Normally there aren't so many so it's very striking.

I love how the blooms come first and then the leaves follow afterwards.

They really are extraordinary trees.

This tree hasn't been struggling exactly, but it has been a bit more shaded than it probably should have been as we allowed an enormous butterfly bush to take over the nearby airspace. A lot of that plant has been taken out now, so maybe the magnolia will expand.

I'm really glad that I planted this magnolia, it looks so pretty against the darkness of the redwood grove behind, and the neon green of the new growth on the buckeye to the right.

And a bonus Alex + Meg shot from yesterday at parent's house. We were helping cut up and move a big sycamore branch that had fallen down in the storms. Their fence was being repaired as well, because part of it was blown down in the storm, along with three other homes in the neighborhood. They just hired the dudes that were working on the other fences. 

The Situation

 

So here's a pictorial adventure of our Situation. Over December (19")and January to date (17") we have had a total 36" of rain, That's too much for most mountainside communities. That's a normal amount for an entire rain year. For us personally, all that rain has meant that on our road we have a mudslide.

This is how it looked after our neighbor with a tractor and front scooper cleaned up the slide including downed dead trees. We are lucky that it only partially blocked our small road. And that he had to get to work.

Some organisms are quite happy with all the excess moisture.

There are mushrooms all over the place.

I don't know the names of these, just admiring them from afar, and certainly not foraging and taking the risk of eating them.

Further up the road, we come to the main issue, the reason we've been out of power continuously since 1/4. Trees came down and hit the power lines, snapping them off the power pole. Small dog for scale.

This is on the other side of the crossed trees over the road. You can see the power line coming down diagonally toward the pavement.

The line is being pulled out of the road by the red caution tape so that one car can just pass by.

You can see a small red diagonal line, that's the red caution tape holding back the power line. We've been assured that it's not live, but you never know, especially when they're working on getting the power back on.

The rest of the mountain we live on has had their power restored, but we have not. I guess because it affects so few people on our small road we got prioritized down lower on the list. Understandable, but still very frustrating. We're lucky to have the Powerwalls and a great generator (and lots of extension cords), but it's getting very very old. And still the rain keeps coming.

Sunday Funghi

 

The title kinda rhymes, at least enough for a Sunday morning. This photo was taken on our street on one of our many dog walks this week. I believe this is a Pine Bracket, or something similar. It's not functionally good for the tree, and tends to make a home on older trees. 

The PG&E tree trimmers were on our street, this is the madrone they cut up and left behind. I really like the colors of the bark, and underbark and bright green leaf for comparison.