Today's walk report: 100222

Trying to read the flight of birds
Low on fuel, getting low on words

For reasons best left undercover, I was proud of myself for getting out for what became a rather ambitious walk. Special thanks to Docken for joining me on the phone.

Weather was gray and a cool 63º for the duration. As I type it's 73º and sunny. I almost feel encouraged to go for another walk. Almost. Here are some pictures...

I decided to post this image because there was some discussion about these pits over the phone. These are pits and debris from a Catalina cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. lyonii) tree. A native tree that grows in Southern and Central California, primarily in the Channel Islands region. I stand partly corrected on part of our conversation. Here's what I should have said... All parts of the plant contain cyanogenic glycosides except the ripe berries. Even though the fruit can be safely consumed by humans, the leaves, shoots, bark and pits of the tree can cause poisonings. My picture seems to indicate that squirrels and/or some bird(s) are immune since those pits have obviously been munched upon.

So ends the botany/biology portion of the walk, let's move along...

The famous male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty was out and about. He was mostly chasing another male Anna's hummingbird but he managed to pause for a few photos.

Typically, I spend a few minutes on this bench but someone left their pears there. Best by August 04, 2024.

Last week's post was all about a water main being left wide open and flooding about 1/2 of the 1.8 acre garden. There was still some evidence of that today.

My take on this warning sign. This is a Jr. College campus, mostly populated by a bunch of suburban kids fresh out of High School. Some kid, perhaps arriving a little on the early side of the day sees a coyote for the first time in his or her life and freaks out, reporting how they were in fear of their life. The campus feels obligated to respond because they know their student body. Coyotes have been on or near this campus for at least 40 years that I know of. They were, in fact, here before humans. They don't want to bother you. They basically just want to get away from you. Rightly so, humans are the most dangerous animal.

Looping around toward the northwest end of the campus I saw the ancient car worshipers were back in force and still pouring in. It seems to me a lot of people are really pushing the margins on the vintage car thing. Case in point...

The Ford Pinto, Production: September 1970–1980 (RIP)

Docken had a Pinto. She loved her little Pinto. She named it Buttercup. 

This is probably a fun car to drive. I suspect I wouldn't fit too well in a Vette and have no interest in finding out. This car just screams, pull me over for speeding.

I did drive a VW for a portion of my life. I didn't fit in that too well either. However I could steer the thing with my knees, you know, in case I was eating a burger and chugging a soda or something. I'm not too sure what's up with the rear wheels here.

I have no idea on this one. Perhaps it's a replica? Maybe atop a VW?

12. Need we say more?

Again, no clue what this is. Orange again too. Quite the paint job. Door dings gotta be a heartache.

Ford Fairlane 500, I'm guessing 1958. Real futuristic, ah.. I dig the fins.

I circled back around to the garden again and visited with Dusty a bit longer.

Next, it was back to the car for a drive up the hill. For a moment I had contemplated taking the stairs. Then I got a grip on myself.

It was still gray and gloomy. In fact it seemed a tad more gray and gloomy on top of the hill. I thought this was a prairie falcon when I was up there based on size. It wasn't until I got home and made some tweaks in Affinity Photo that I realized it was a Cooper's hawk.

Or was it a Pooper's hawk?

Down below I could see the campus was getting ready for Halloween festivities. All of those lights were on, it was 8:09 AM. They have some sort of annual "fright night" thing. I never could understand the attraction to stuff designed to scare the crap out of people. It's bad enough simply turning on the news.

I proceeded to do a lap around the hilltop. This shot gives a good perspective on the weather. That's Elephant Mountain (©, Docken) in the background. You can just barely make it out and this image was slightly enhanced.

 Bauhinia variegata (Orchid Tree).

Here's a male Calypte anna hummingbird in the orchid tree. Maybe this is the one Dusty was chasing away?

The song reference at the beginning of the post, those are lyrics from the Peter Gabriel tune, White Shadow. The guitar solo in that song is by King Crimson's founder, Robert Fripp. It has been one of my all time favorite guitar solos since it was released in 1978. The purpose of my referencing this is because the album had no actual title but became known informally as Scratch, referring to the album's artwork by Hipgnosis. See...

It's a little private joke, reflective of my past week. Here's White Shadow.

Today's walk report: 092522

Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

This event certainly put a damper on things. I was on the phone with Docken and soon as I entered the local botanical garden, I exclaimed, uh oh, this isn't good. 

Even male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty seemed a bit perturbed about, well, something.

Docken mentioned calling the campus Sheriff's office which was a good thing because the first idea racing through my head was to walk over there and that's counter to my general state of mind. It was only about 350 yards from where I was standing but that's not the point. Thanks Dockie. So, I hung up with her and called the Sheriff's office. A few minutes later, while I was pursuing a better shot of Dusty, a Sheriff's deputy came walking into the garden. I pointed out the source of the problem and thanked him. I thanked him a couple of times until he thanked me. We're in a serious drought. We're under some rather severe restrictions for water usage. Best I could surmise, this had been going on for hours, perhaps all night.

Here was the problem, about 20 yards from where I took the first image.

Water had pooled up inside the garden and was running off in all directions. I found it difficult to convey the scope of the problem with just having a 70-300mm lens.

It was like a small creek in some areas and I measured it out at least 130 yards from the source.

This shot was taken 100 yards north of the source.

After circling the almost 2 acre garden, about half of which was reasonably flooded, I went back to where I had left the Sheriff's Deputy and saw the water had been shut off. On a Sunday, with no maintenance staff and perhaps few visitors who knows how much more water may have been wasted. 

From here I did my loop west and back to the car. No ancient car worshipers this week. Instead a large crowd of people was accumulating for a vintage fair day. I could turn this house into a vintage fair if I had the wherewithal. Trust me. 

 I drove up to the top of the hill, looking for birds of prey as usual but there was nothing. I added about a half mile to the walk and drove home.

Big brother was watching.

When the flood calls, you have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash, you're a thousand minds within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actor's gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they'll use up what we used to be

Today's walk report: 092413

The short version...

I was looking for a photo I took on another walk which wasn't appropriate to take tonight, partly because it was getting too dark but it also would have meant going onto someone's property in the dark so the flash could fill. I don't do stuff like that. Anyway, I couldn't find it. As much as I think I know where things are photo management has become a bit unwieldy on this computer spread across 8 TB of drive space. I'm sure I could spend several days just organizing images. So, saving the idea for another day. There's not very much going on here which is ever preconceived but I'll tuck the idea away and we'll see.

Meanwhile, music was Peter Gabriel--Greatest Hits.

"Mercy Street" is a song written by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. The song deals with the life and conflicting emotions of the poet Anne Sexton, and makes frequent allusions to incidents from Sexton's life and a number of her poems, in particular the work 45 Mercy Street. Themes touched on in the song include suicide attempts, troubled parental relationships, a desire to become whole, attempting to come to terms with the past, and confessing.
(Wikipedia)

Today's walk report: 071513

Real quick...

That was the walk and so should be my report. I blasted through the 8.25 km southbound neighborhood walk and about the only thing I saw that was interesting was a feral parrot. It was talking to me too. No DSLR, no 300 mm lens and it was only a parrot, you've seen a parrot before, right? Not that trite, lame, boring, stupid shit hasn't stopped me from posting in the past. Anyway, it reminded me of my old neighborhood and my walks there once again. We had lots of feral parrots in Windsor Square. I remember one time this couple, early 30s, dashing about near our house (yes, I was married, with a son, a house and a cat named Mickey) they were gazing up in the trees with a certain earnest panicky look. I asked what was going on and they said their parrot got out and they were trying to find him. I had to snicker, right, freedom or you and his cage, certainly he'll fly right to you when you call. I think all I said though was "good luck."

That's about it for the walk, it simply got done. I also went to the local garden center and picked up some plants today. Most of which have to wait for a cooler morning tomorrow before they go into the ground. I did bring a camera to the nursery however so I may as well brighten up this post...

Also, this was left off my post yesterday. This had been missing an ID in this post from 6/28. This is Gold Star Esperanza (Tecoma stans). I know that now because I bought one. It's the only plant I got in the ground today before the weather got too brutal to be digging in the dirt.

Speaking of digging in the dirt. Back in the days when music videos were made exceptionally well. A few of them were, anyway.