Walking on the path from my sisters home back to mine. I’m really lucky to live where I do.
Valley Walking Path
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Rain On The Roof
It’s not often that I lay in my bed at night in southern California and hear rain falling on the roof. But it does happen. And when it does, my thoughts go to the majority of years of my life, spent in the rainy southeast. I remember all the nights of falling asleep with rain pounding on the roof. The far off sound of thunder and lightning providing accompaniment, puncturing the rhythm of the storm.
I miss that sound of thunder. A lot. I miss the heavy downpours where you can’t even see the other side of the lake. And storm water runoff so heavy with green pollen that it appeared the street gutters were running with paint. Every car is some shade of green. Pine trees puffing clouds of green pollen smoke when the wind blows. You can almost hear all the plants moaning in pleasure from the luxury of free water falling from the sky. And how crystal clear the atmosphere is after the storm has washed all the particulate matter out of it.
Enough. Time to let this rain lull me to sleep.
2 Cats
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Only after assuring himself that the cat on the pillow is not real, Miles settles down in his chair.
Sunlight on the Deck
What is it that makes something that you have seen every day for 10 years suddenly interest you photographically? Is it a different texture of light, or maybe a particular angle of the sunlight striking? Maybe you have some emotional attachment to the sight, and today your emotions get control, making the ordinary seem extraordinary? Or some new brain chemistry just happens, and you see something in a way you’ve never seen it before? Can you capture that? Will others see it as you did?
Sunlight on Side of Deck
On The Curb: New Beginnings?
Is this the picture of a family having been evicted from their home, possibly a casualty of the ‘great recession’? Have the children been forced to uproot their friendships and attend a new school where they know not a single person yet? Will their pets be allowed to live in the new residence, or must they give them up? Can the marriage survive the strains that financial insecurity and change place upon it? What psychological scars will be etched on both the young and the old from this wretching experience? How long will those scars last before they eventually fade away to the effects of time?
Or maybe this is the portrait of a family moving up the ladder as growth and financial security return to a hopeful and waiting United States? Are they leaving this rented residence on the way to a new house of their own that they were finally able to purchase? Maybe there’s a new car in the budget now too, or even a second car? A bigger back yard, better schools, safer neighborhood, quieter surroundings? Perhaps a little less time available for Dad to be around the house, but then there’s always some price to pay.
There’s a story behind this. I wonder what it is?
Trees Deciding They’ve Had Enough
So it’s all awesome and wonderful living under the big, shady, green trees on the edge of the lake. Or, it is until they come down. In the lake. And you have to get them out.
It’s a perfectly clear afternoon (albeit there had been heavy rain on the previous day), blue sky, no wind, quiet and peaceful. Then 2 large pine tree trunks, without any warning, begin falling toward the lake. The tree is what is called a combinant tree. It has two trunks coming out of the same root body.
At first there was hardly any noise. Then gunshot loud cracking sounds as the falling pines land on and take with them a beautiful 10″ Maple.
Now I don’t mind too much losing the 2 pine tree trunks, other than the expense involved to get them out of the lake. But the loss of that gorgeous hardwood Maple tree just breaks my heart. The violence and volume of the cracking noises it made as those 2 pine tree trunks took it down is something you can’t un-hear. The poor thing was fighting hard for it’s life all the way down, as it was nevertheless relentlessly broken.
That’s enough drama for a while, Mother Nature.
Nobody Eludes Me for Nine Years!
Easily the most skittish of the animals on the lake, this guy will flee in panic if a human comes outside, even on the far side of the lake. Up until now the only shots I have been able to get of him have been thru window glass from inside the house.
But no more! I got him! I saw him coming and managed to sneak into hiding and wait until he stalked by right in front of me.
He is a Great Blue Heron (Wikipedia) and frequently hunts around the edge of our lake. I have been trying to get an up-close out of doors shot of this guy for like 9 years now. With an average life span of 15 years in the wild, it’s possible that this could be the very same guy who has been frustrating me all of this time.
Redemption.
