Low Tide

How great it is to study a subject that you can go out and actually explore with all your senses.  When you can bring all that you've read and learned about to light.  My favorite days in school are when we are out.  Out and about exploring places.  Here we listened to the docent, walked a silent walk through the woods, explored the tide pools, pulled poison hemlock and sketched the shoreline. 

Field Trip

Field trip up north to see the annual convergence of the elephant seals.  Fascinating animals.  This docent led walk takes you right by them.  The masses on the beach don't much notice viewers but you have to walk silently and stealthily past the ones farther up on the beach who are lolling in the pools.  They move quickly and will do so if they feel threatened.   Because it was a gray day it made for a lively day with fighting and scraping.  We saw one baby get rolled right over by a big male defending his terrritory and we saw two females scraping over whose baby was it?  Meanwhile there was an abandoned one a few yards off.  They finally sorted it out and one of them lumbered off to take care of the neglected offspring. 

Rock House

Carmel Point

      The extraordinary patience of things!

      This beautiful place defaced with a crop of surburban houses-

      How beautiful when we first beheld it,

      Unbroken field of poppy and lupin walled with clean cliffs;
      No intrusion but two or three horses pasturing,
      Or a few milch cows rubbing their flanks on the outcrop rockheads-
      Now the spoiler has come: does it care?
      Not faintly. It has all time. It knows the people are a tide
      That swells and in time will ebb, and all
      Their works dissolve. Meanwhile the image of the pristine beauty
      Lives in the very grain of the granite,
      Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff.-As for us:
      We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
      We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
      As the rock and ocean that we were made from. 

      Robinson Jeffers

West Coast

Where land meets the sea.  On this day in January the weather was unseasonably warm as you can see by our clothing.  On this day this place was teeming with life.  We saw whales, dolphins, otters, seals, egrets and pelicans among other things.  A quintessential California day.  A good day to watch the diamonds of light cut across the water.  A good day to soak in before heading back to the east coast. To the snow drifts and winds.  To the papers and books.

   

Seaside Exploring

This warm weather has found us making frequent jaunts down to the ocean.  I had never seen snail trails this distinct.  Slowly, slowly making their way across the tidepool.  We got to jump from pool to pool exclaiming at all the creatures in each of them trying not to step on the carpets of mussels.  I've seen them a lot and am still amazed by the varieties and survival tactics the different creatures have acquired.  From the ethereal sea anenomes to the craggy jewel star we oohed and awed.  Stopping for a climb on the way home.   

Warm Welcome

Here's to a new year celebrated at midnight with a jump in the Pacific Ocean.  Oh so very refreshing.

Here's to lots of hot tea brewed in this cheery yellow teapot.  For all ages and herbal teas only.

Here's to new growth from old bulbs you thought you had discarded.

Here's to lots of adventures on Emily's  new cruiser refrubished by a friend.  So delightful and such a beautiful yellow.

We have been ringing in this new year with unseasonably warm weather and enjoying lots of time outside.  I don't have a lot of  resolutions but am thinking about them.  I helped moved a friend on New Years day to a lovely new house all her own and that was inspiring.  It is fresh and clean and full of bright colors.  That is setting the tone for me.  Freshness and bright colors.  Her word is entitlement.  That doesn't quite fit me but it is energizing to watch her open
her oyster.

Northern Coast

We drove to the Northern Coast.  Way up and out on the Peninsula.  Out by dairy farms and grazing cows and nursing calves and small deer.  The sun shone brillantly and we stayed until the fog rolled in.  Loving the fresh air and warm sunshine, the roar of the ocean and blowing of the light house horn. 

The next day we found ourselves exploring another part of the coast.  We hiked up through a woodland area and as we came out to the sea we found a sturdy rope swing on a huge eucalyptus tree.  After much urging from the rope swing owners some of us gave it a try.  Seemingly swinging out over the Pacific Ocean.  Lovely.  We continued on to spend the day on a long stretch of beach where we watched the sun change colors and the shadows stretch long and we raced the light heading back out of there. 

Urban Forests

Here is a beautiful spot I have found myself in during work hours two different times lately, which has been great.  I went on a field trip with school and got a day out.  So refreshing and really seems like what the classroom really should be-learning  about ecosystems and what we can do as humans to help maintain them.  Then I found myself there again when that beautiful golden fall light was spreading its way across the landscape.  We had just gotten home and were cozy with snack and the marble track when I forced them all to charge out again.  Much to their dismay.  And of course, once we were there they wanted to explore every tree and trail.  And they didn't want to leave.