A Much Appreciated Rock

Recently I sent off a photo of this rock to an artist who had painted it after a visit here several years ago. 

She captured the rock in one of its manifestations beautifully.  I mentioned to her that the rock and all the vegetation around it  has changed significantly since she had seen it and she asked me to send her another photo.  I took this one last week for her and then today I scanned my file of some-day-they'll-be-organized photographs and found a few more shots of this narrow rock island in the southern cove. 

Looking south in 2013

Rocks, substantial as they are, change.  Over the last seven years I have watched the wearing down of this crop which sits centered in a tight cove with ocean lapping on both sides.  Tenacious cypress seedlings had worked their roots into fissures in the rock, growing, but miniature versions of the parent tree well rooted in soil on the cliffs above the cove.  Elemental forces, the winds, the rains, the crashing salty waves, the tremors of the earth and the roots of stunted trees erode and weaken rock...and whatever strata is loosened or dislodged eventually slides and tumbles into the sea.

The first picture I ever took of the rock in 2006  looking south west.

In July of 2008 there was a ledge and we sat on it!

It seemed quite stable at the time.

I took this photo in a brief lull in a  storm 2008

The perch and several of the trees are gone. 2012

2013

 One of its faces of beauty was well captured by artist Sunee Jines. 

Carmel Highlands' Mists (c) Sunee Jines
                              

 I have been captured seven years on these cliffs of beauty ever changing. Now a season of change is upon us, and we will soon part company with the rocks of these coves.  I have a trove of photos and memories, some already shared in posts in this blog, but I look forward to more exploring while I gladly carry an inner cache of much appreciated rocks and waters.  

Ever changing Beauty 2013

                                                                 

Kitty in a Basket

It is really kitty in two baskets...

              I had just stacked one flower basket inside the other and set them down  and Phoebe soon found them just in time for a nap.  There's a lot I could learn from this girl.

~~~~~

Every Man...a Piece of the Continent

A few years back we hired an artist and a mason to fix two of the fireplaces in our employer's stone house on the cliffs above the ocean.

 Steve Gally was a friendly and very Central Coast independent kind of a guy whose talk was fast and far ranging, he was interested in the natural world and how to work with and in it, his community and people in general. He got to work when he got here and then he worked hard. He was so hyper-amped, so  excited about everything and so wanted to share, that I found myself somewhat overwhelmed by the boom of his presence, yet I always found him to have the best intentions.   

 After the job was over, he would stop by randomly with some  honey from his bees, or old veggies from the health food store that he would get for his chickens.  When he  ran into us in town he'd treat us as if we were long lost  and blurted out one day that even though we'd been customers, we were different...we were "like friends."


He told us both, more than once, that if  we ever needed any help, ever, ever, any time, to call him.

He had recently stopped by to invite us to walk with him on a ranch south of us.  He said he would be going by at least once a week  and we could come along anytime.  We looked forward to that, but that date won't  happen. We just learned that, Steve, 62 years old, died suddenly on  July 16th of natural causes at home in the garden sanctuary he was building with and for his lady, Jennifer. 

No man is an island,  entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were;  any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.  John Donne

We each have a flashlight he gave us for presents. I hope we shed a little light in his days too.  Man knows not his time.  May he rest in peace.

You can see  a glimpse of some of  the hands on doing and giving Steve was up to on Steve's blog.  

Bad Photos of Beautiful Birds ...Can You Identify this Hawk?

As I sit at my desk the view directly out the window is of a little forest. 

                             On top of a 7.5 foot tree stump we set a bird house that  Mark made for his mother a number of years back.

Thus far, no one has moved into the birdhouse in its new location,  but this squirrel frequently uses the gabled roof to voice his opinions and feelings.  It's his little "blogspot"  whether anyone pays any attention to him or not.  After  his pronouncements and ground inspections, he makes his return trip  up the standing tree,  scrambling and hugging his way straight up well over 100 feet. 

I apologize for the terrible photographic quality...but I had to take these photos through the window or Mr. Squirrel would have abandoned his podium, and cut short his talk to avoid the risk he perceives me to be. There are real risks in his world...and one of them recently came visiting.

This visitor also found the bird house roof a fine place to perch and survey the garden.  Once again I had only moments  to capture a photo through the window...but I tried.  And since then I have been trying to learn more about hawks.

 I am familiar with Red- tail hawks when they look like mature male Red-tails...but  identifying females and youngsters and at different seasons is not something in which I am well versed.  So if you know help me identify this bird.  It is about 18" tall and has yellow feet.  The pattern on the chest struck me as horizontal bars.  Unfortunately I didn't see the tail shape in flight but it appears longer to me than a Red-tail's.

I posted these photos on Facebook and three friends,  all native Californians and lovers of birds themselves, gave me three different opinions.

One friend thinks it is a juvenile female Red-tail Hawk, another suggested Swainson's Hawk, while a third  said it is a Cooper's  Hawk.

The habits of Cooper's Hawks certainly fit this bird showing up above a bird bath in a treed area as they do prey upon smaller birds.  The large head, red eyes and longer tail also fit Cooper's Hawk descriptions.

But I am not sure...are You?

Oh, and as I titled this post "Bad Photos of Beautiful Birds... I better share a few more fuzzy shots.  My excuse this time is that I was early morning barefoot and such and had let out a cat when I noticed a flock of quail that I thought would rather be stalked by me than the kitty... so I ran out and took photos that aren't a lot blurrier than I was in the moment...and the birds are beautiful.

 Quail  always seem to post a lookout...so as soon as the door opened  the flock was on the move.

 I was sure there was a quail or two in this picture...they do hide themselves quickly.

As promised...a bad photo of a beautiful bird.

Thanks for visiting...I'll come back soon if you will too....and while I enjoy all your comments, it will be really fun if someone can please help me identify the hawk.  

The Fragile Fruit of Time

 Rain one day and sun the next... better get out there and check the strawberries.

The fragile fruits in life, like strawberries, are quick to teach lessons...you can't hurry them and they won't wait for you and in their time...oh my they are good.

 And they hide... you have to look from many angles and move the leaves and as often as you congratulate yourself for finding big perfect ripe ones, there are those discoveries of rot, opportunity missed that if left will communicate its loss to the neighboring fruit.  And sometimes, in the eager pick and pull, little green berries get snatched before their time...

It's true.

                                     
All around the raised beds are removable chicken wire walls...to keep this old guy out...he likes strawberries, snap peas and asparagus and will pick at will if he can reach them.

                                         The little fences keep the cats out too...

 Here is  what I brought in today: bolting cilantro, hidcote blue lavender, oregano to dry, French tarragon, a few of the peas I need to pick and all the strawberries I had the patience to find.

 I wonder after words that could convey the mingling fragrances of the sun warmed oils of the herbs, the waft of sweetness of lavender and strawberries.  When the scents are not present, I can barely remember them, and no description of mine calls forth the response that breathing in the mixtures of these mingled molecules does.  The gifts of smell are primal and often laden with memories and emotional meanings.  It is uniquely personal where any particular fragrance takes a person.  Sometimes, in the garden I smell the glory of "this" day,  and sometimes time's mandate of consecutive seconds is breached and time flows together in today's  fleeting sun.

~~~

Friend or Foe and How Do You Know?

A simple spice has reminded me that calling things by their proper names according to their actual properties is important and helpful.  It reminded me of the value of looking into subjects more deeply and unearthing distinctions that might otherwise be blurred.  It made me think about how substances can be related but different, or how even the same substances or actions  can be used to different effects.  I thought about how some consequences are unintended, but there they are anyway and  how much choices can  matter,  and how and why things happen and what can be learned from mistakes.  But for now I'll  just tell you about my botanical investigation and leave you to your own applications in other domains.

There's a Middle Eastern spice combination  that a local restaurant floats in olive oil as a bread dip.  Za'atar is a combination of ingredients mostly very familiar to me, salt, thyme, sesame seeds and oregano,  and one that surprised me, sumac.

Sumac in my mind always has the word poison in front of it; poison sumac, poison ivy and poison oak  are all bushes whose oils can cause  welts of pain and itching to the skin of many people. Unfortunately, as a native  Californian, I have been intimately familiar with poison oak, but I learned quickly as child, how to spot my enemy in all its seasonal guises.  

 Although  I've read that some Native Americans of California nibbled at young poison oak shoots and I know that currently there are homeopathic preparations of titrated poison oak to teach the body to  defend itself against the plant irritants, I wasn't so sure that I wanted to eat sumac on my bread. But then I reminded myself that  I didn't really know for a fact what exactly it was I was eating.  

 I found a small commercially  packaged box of sumac at a store  but the supplier did not identify the substance beyond its common name. The ingredients simply read "ground sumac berries." At least I had learned what part of sumac I'd been eating,  but of what kind of sumac ?  The trees and plants I know by name I know mostly by their common names.  In most realms in life, I often  know just enough to know  that if I would pay a little closer attention, I might actually know just enough to keep myself out of trouble.   I realized I needed the botanical scientific descriptors to find out anymore about  "Sumac."  Latin isn't really,  as some like to say, a dead language, it's just that for the most part it's no longer spoken and therefore doesn't tend to change.  Speakers of all languages the world over can refer to species with the same name by using the Latin botanical descriptors.  

I found help in my  Guide to Field Identification of TREES of North America that I keep handy  in the door pocket of my car.   SUMAC is quite a big family and as I read about the clan I was in for a few surprises.  My tree book reminded me that members of a family  are then grouped into Genus and then further grouped into species.  So Family, Genus ( always capitalized) and then species ( lower case).

"CASHEW (SUMAC) FAMILY  (Anacardiaceae)   This family, represented in temperate and tropical regions, comprises about 600 species of trees, shrubs and vines, with resinous, acrid or caustic juices."  page 202

The Family includes, to name only a few using their common names: 

 Mangos in Florida, 
California Pepper trees, 
Texas Pistachios, Cashews, 
Florida Poisontree,  
Staghorn Sumac, 
Shining Sumac 
and yes, 
Poison-Sumac.

So while  poison sumac is indeed in the same family  as  the sumac used as a spice, it is in a different Genus.  The scientific botanical name of the poison oak that  had caused me so much itching after childhood jaunts in the hills is  Toxicodendron diversilobum, although it used to be referred to as  Rhus toxicodendron.   Poison-sumac is Toxicodendron vernix  and the sumacs that are used  to spice food are Rhus coriaria.

So they are different, but they are related...and I did find some minor cautions and lots of other possible health benefits  when I searched on the internet using the botanical name, Rhus coriaria.   I also learned its common name, Sicillian sumac. 

Parables of poison plants and spices tease my mind as I think about local, national and global stages...but I'll keep my promise and let you apply any analogies you might think of,  and as always,  let me know what you think if you like.

 best wishes!

Jeannette

A moment of silence in the noisy world

Along the Stream

~~~

Along the stream

where no one lives

the silence speaks

in voice of birds,

the rocks command 

the water's song,

the quiet sings here

all day long.

The winds talk in 

the tallest trees,

and leaves give answer

 to the breeze

along the stream

where no one lives .

~~~

May 1, 2013  

(c) Jeannette @ breadonthewater