Disparates

This word is truly a faux ami, a false friend, English/Spanish. In Spanish it means crazy, outlandish things, while in English it just means things slightly off kilter.

I’m ready for a week of disparates, in either language, as I head off to New York on Sunday. Three days of this will be on my own, satisfying a tiny part of me that is unequivocally urban. I want to walk in crowded streets, smell the New York subway, be hustled and bustled and totally anonymous. Then I will meet up with my sister, who similarly has a tiny urban kernel though she’s a mommy in a small Maine town. We will walk miles and look at 19th century interiors and talk and catch up and be sisters.

There are so many things to do in New York. I will not be taking a camera, mine having disappeared in early January: but I finished binding a journal last night for my trip, a sketchbook in Sundance Felt and Canson Mi-Teintes. I might be looking for disparates (Spanish) to do in order to get some interesting sketching opportunties…

Fogbow

We saw what we think was our first fogbow yesterday morning. We were out walking the cats on the field, and there was a thin tule fog, as there often is after a winter rain. Blue sky overhead, and the sun was rising in the east. The fogbow appeared as a white dome fairly low to the ground, like a rainbow but without any color. The absence of color is because fog droplets are much smaller than raindrops.

Swainson's in the Gale

As I was walking home tonight in the storm, two Swainson’s hawks—the first of the spring—were trying, in vain, to fly south over the creek.

I just got back from picking Numenius up from the airport; he was in Portland for the day. It was a VERY bumpy plane ride. Good to have him home safe and sound…

Leafing Out

The blossoms are almost done with the almond tree in our front yard, and its leaves are just emerging.

No Ducks Up Cold Canyon

We were asked at the last minute to help out on a bird walk for California Duck Days. Since it was up Cold Canyon, where the redbud is just emerging, and since this might be the last chance we get before it starts pouring here, we leapt at the chance.

Jeff Falyn is a docent at Cold Canyon and is recovering from an illness, but had us all do an exercise of finding plants named in a list and then renaming them. I came up with Floating Fern for Maidenhair Fern.

At left is a Henderson’s Shooting Star which someone renamed Purple Comet.

Singing California thrashers and Hutton’s vireos, T-shirts, sunscreen: California in February.

Postscript: Don Gallo met a bad end. He ventured into the yard with the dogs. By the time the commotion was heard, it was too late…

Mount Diablo

Well, we’re back from a day hiking on Mount Diablo and I have NO BLISTERS.

!

This is amazing. I can’t even remember the last time I did a hike of this length without them.

There was snow on the top, and the kids were throwing snowballs.

We drove down the mountain and there, by the side of the road, was a guy playing the bagpipes. Frightening all the wildlife in a 3-mile radius.

Dinner was tortilla soup at the excellent Mariachi. Bed’s a calling me…

Coast Range Snow

There was a dusting of snow this morning on the Blue Ridge Mountains north of Berryessa Gap and Putah Creek. Unfortunately this portion of the ridge is inaccessible, despite there being 9000 acres of public land along the crest of the ridge, so no trips up to the snow for us. Tomorrow we’re going on a hike on Mt. Diablo: I suspect it too had a dusting today but I don’t think there will be much evidence of it when we get there.

Early Morning

If Charlie hadn’t
pounced
on my bladder
at four
[oofff]
I wouldn’t have
had the chance
to go for a walk
after half an hour
of
writing
and another
of
calligraphy
and another
of
blogsandemail

so I’d have missed
the sound the creek
makes
rounding that
willow
and the
pair of
bluebirds
in the sunrise
framed by
the feral almond
and the
seven egrets
that rose
as one
when the wood duck
screamed

or learning
again
that when you walk
in the frost
with the sun
to your east
the left side of
your
face
is less
cold than
the right…

Boots

I’ve been wearing my new hiking boots in the house to try and break them in. I’ve never done this thoroughly before… I think it may have made all the difference in my blisterability.

Yesterday it was gorgeous despite warnings of rain. We hiked up Cold Canyon to sketch Gray Pines. I wore my sister’s old hiking boots, not wanting to push it too hard with the new ones. I have high hopes though.

The shooting stars were in bloom, there was coyote sign everywhere, and the grayghost pines grew out of the hillside at odd angles…

I’ve made some prints of the needles as well as some sketches. I’ll try and upload these tomorrow.

Later: uploading prints of gray pine needles

Why We Like Shopping At The Coop -- Part 2

After returning late this afternoon from a sketching hike up Cold Canyon, we stopped by the coop to pick up salad for dinner, and ran into Fernanda near the checkout stand. We took our groceries out to our car, and saw that there was a silver Honda Element parked next to our green one. The license plate on the silver Element read “CMPGNLO”, and it had a license plate frame labeled “Campagnolo”. On the back window, there was a sticker saying “Aerodynamics is overrated”. Not surprisingly, there was a bike inside.