After the Rain

I ventured out in a break from the heavy rains and winds we had today.

The water from the hills above us gets channeled down this stone lined gully that opens wider as it drops toward the sea. 

Near sunset the clouds parted briefly then rumbled together in greater darkness.

                            Capturing colors in rain or shine...a large abalone shell 

          

 The low today was only 41 degrees...nothing to winter toughies...but I suppose it is all what you are use to...and when the trees are dripping on me and the wind blows...

it is cold enough to send me back inside, and my little cat too.

A Rose Is a Rose is a Rose...

Consider yourself gifted...

~~~

Out on a Limb

                                      Sometimes people you love get themselves out on a limb...

I mean that figuratively of course. But in the case of my kitty, who is the photographic model for today's  musings on the feelings that can freeze a person in a dilemma thought by thought, limb by limb...

my kitty is literally up a tree.

I know would be rescuers shouldn't really grab their camera, but I couldn't resist.

Maybe this gives a little more perspective...?

Yes, she really is up there and it is steeper than she might have realized when she first clambered up and she must have had some good momentum going to get as high as she did...and now she realizes that coming back down is a different issue and that she has quite a long ways to fall.

But what would the fall really mean? Facts help a lot. Not panicking goes a long way too...and staying in the moment, and breathing.  These are the kinds of things I tell myself when I'm in trouble.   I need to remind myself of these basics and they help me to experience that there is sufficient grace for today...but if you try to remind someone else, even if they know it's true...it sounds so pat. After all, you are down on the ground and they are, in that moment, well, out on a limb.  

 And there are so many awkward feelings, little voices that can distract right when you need all your facilities and focus.  There really is no shame in needing help, in asking for help...anyone of us might have to at anytime...that's how life is.  

Yes, she got down...I barely was able to help her at all...although I like to think that when I leaned on the trunk and stretched my arms up as high as I could, it gave her just enough sense of love and support to apply all her kitty prowess as she skittered back down to the forest floor.

~~~

A Great Blue Heron at the Shopping Center

Some days are filled with lots of tasks that are just what they are...simple things that need to be done and that is that.   Having done a task that was pleasant to be finished with...we realized we should stop at the grocery for a few items needed at home.









The Del Monte Shopping Center has a little berth of trees around it that includes  a runoff creek, which is probably what dictated the need for preserving  this little urban buffer zone.   Four lanes of traffic and freeway exit lie just the other side of this tiny oasis.  As we neared the mall entrance we saw this lovely heron in the narrow strip of undeveloped land.


I have to learn how to size pictures for blogger on my new system, but the bird is just to the left  of the tree and that is a main thoroughfare through the city of  Monterey just behind it.

Even though I approached slowly,  kept a respectful distance and used the trees to make my presence less intrusive,  the Great Blue Heron  was very aware of me.

"Ardea Herodias" is 50"   I suspect this is a fairly young female.

 

"Shh...you'll scare away the mice and gophers I am after."

I've read in Stokes Field Guide to Birds that individual birds may claim temporary feeding territories up to several yards in diameter which they will defend.

   

Watching the bird walk in grace as it hunted for a meal 

was like a dip in a cool pool, a song, starlight, a prayer...

the ordinary is extraordinary, it just needs to be received.

"I am just a bird...out for lunch...nothing to see here...don't you have any people business to attend to?"

Well, I did have other things to attend to, of course, but I went on my way with a lighter step, much refreshed by just one little creature filled up full with being just who it supposed to be. 

~~~

Learning New Things

Please take  "things" in the most literal sense.  I have a new thing on my desk which I am fondly referring to as a BIG MAC.  NO, it is not edible, I don't ever eat at McD's....but I have switched from a PC, personal computer, with windows operating  system and all that to an IMac and I am in a bit of a learning curve!
You can't imagine the fun that I am planning...and I hardly can either.  But, one step at a time I am figuring things out.

                                                  I am not tilting at windmills, I am not....