Today's walk report: 122421

 Merry Christmas. Happy winter 2021-2022.

Another wonderful couple of rainstorms began 12/23/21 at 0140 with rainfall here totaling a whopping 2.42", ending around 10:00 this morning. I left shortly thereafter in search of some picture taking and to get at least a little walking in. Skies were still somewhat foreboding and I happened to get rained on just a tad as I was heading back to my car. That rain apparently wasn't measurable by the campus weather station but it was enough to get me damp and the car wet on the way home. 

I started out looking for birds but I was distracted by pretty colors, sort of rare signs of seasonal change in SoCal, so I made a project of it. Plus everything was so very clean and shiny. This experience was reminiscent of my one and only photo "assignment" here on this blog. That was this. 

It was also a great excuse to show random images without dialogue so here we go...

Colors please grow for me, paint my world rosily,
Keep me just sheltered and warm.
Save my lost blossomy, values I trusted in
Show me ...

Today's walk report: 013014

On assignment: Trees.

The seed was planted and the seed was trees. I decided only one thing and that was to make it so the trees could be anywhere, without evidence of urban landscape. Why? I don't really know. Maybe so they could be your trees. For the most part you can be in your tree.

Orientation is as shot. It was gray, drizzly... proceeding into sprinkles. Once the sprinkles started the camera went into a plastic bag and I simply walked. 7.39 km total. It was peaceful.

Squirrel Nests

Did you know that squirrels build nests? Well they do. I missed out on getting a photo or video of this so you'll just have to imagine. Yesterday I was out on my daily late afternoon walk, most of this occurs at the local Jr. college. There is one point about midway on the average walk, 2.7 miles or so in, where I pass a men's room on the campus. Sometimes I find this to my advantage. Yesterday as I'm approaching the bathroom I see what looks to be a very odd white animal with a long white tail. As I get closer I realize it's a squirrel and this little critter has just robbed the bathroom of a paper toilet seat protective cover (yes, it was clean) and about 6 feet of toilet paper. He scurried into a tree-like manicured bush well before I was in camera range and I wasn't inclined to poke around too much and upset him.

If you look carefully, toward the bottom center of the image you'll see he also has himself a tennis ball. I call him a he merely out of convenience, the only way to distinguish a male from a female squirrel is to hold them upside down and look. Besides, he was in the men's room.

About a mile before this spot (or a couple miles later depending on which way I'm going) there are several Sweetgum trees. The sweetgums are on the property of the elementary school I attended in the 1960s. It's hard to see the squirrels nests amongst the leaves but once fall finishes it's job they become quite apparent. You will frequently find more nests, also called dreys, where there are squirrels than squirrels themselves because if a nest gets infested with fleas or other parasites they will leave and build elsewhere. Squirrels are actually rather clean and rarely carry rabies.

 

Squirrel Joke

An owl and a squirrel are sitting in a tree, watching a farmer go by. The owl turns to the squirrel and says nothing, because owls can't talk.

The owl then eats the squirrel because it's a bird of prey.

(People who majored in sciences find that joke funny.)