On left: Rufous-sided Towhee in garden this morning, shot through kitchen window,
Ain’t he handsome?
On right: Deerskin from road-killed fawn I found near Gualala (CA) a few months ago. I skinned it, then cut up the meat and put in the freezer. I stretched and salted down the hide for a week, then sent it via UPS to a tanning place in Pennsylvania; and voila!—6 weeks later the beautifully tanned hide came back (via UPS). What a win-win situation from an animal that would otherwise have rotted on the road.
As I took off on my weekly coastal run last night at 6:30, it was pelting a little rain. I was wearing my Maxit® tights and long-sleeved shirt, and a knitted hemp hat. This outfit has worked for me for years. Even tho it’s cold starting, I always get warm after 10-15 minutes of running. Last night I got up to one of “my spots,” a finger-like ridge of land that you can walk out on; It’s maybe 30′ across, with crashing waves on the rocks 500′ below on both sides. You stand out on the end facing southeast and the Ocean beach side of San Francisco, it’s like being on the prow of a ship. Last night the storm was coming in from the south and the air was perfumed with ozone and ocean essence.
I took off on the rest of the run, climbing up a fire road, light off because moon was full behind clouds. Every so often one of those little mice-hunting owls would float across the road in silent grace. It took about 20 minutes to get to the crest of the hill and I turned around to run back. By now the rain was increasing, and the drops felt just on the verge of being snow. Chilled to the bone. Back at the pub parking lot, changed into clothes in rainstorm, then went in and got a pint with the boys. We were sitting at a candle-lit table, it looked like the middle ages..
I had no idea Bob Hope could dance.
Lesley picked these tomatoes green about a month ago in the greenhouse and, due to the miracle of tomato ripening, they’re now sweet. It’s great to have a little red sunshine in the dark of winter, and they didn’t have to get here on a plane from Mexico. On the right are yerba buena leaves I gathered Sunday, they make delicate mint-like golden tea.
…starts on Feb 14 (Valentine’s day) 2010. Year to kick some ass!
Just so you know how flaky I am (I think a mentioned this a few years back): when I see my first chanterelle in the woods, I get on my knees and do a Buddhist bow to it, and to the earth that produced it. Yep.
The crab season is good this year, so we’ve got local crabs + mushrooms, thanks to the rains. These got distributed to about 6 happy neighbors.
Parked on a street in San Rafael last week. There’s a mother of a thick-plate steel front bumper with neatly-mounted winch (it’s great to be able to pull people’s cars out of ditches). How about taking off for a 6-month trip to Baja, camping for weeks or more at a time? Mileage probably ain’t grand, but how about all resources you’ll save by living in the desert? Just a thought spurred by seeing this competent machine.
“Before industry and technology gave us sawmills and frame houses, this is how the average person lived in much of the world. The dugout or pit house, with sod roof, log walls and earthen floor, is among the most ancient of human dwellings — at some point in history your ancestors lived in one. Especially popular among 19th-century settlers in the Great Plains and deserts of the West and Southwest, where trees and other building materials were scarce, dugouts were warmer in winter and cooler in summer than above-ground structures; just about anywhere in North America the ground temperature three feet down is 55 degrees regardless of the season.”
Photo by Russell Lee
https://www.shorpy.com/node/1536
The earth around here is feeling good after the rains. Such a relief after a few dry years. Also, after 5 years or so of hunting mushrooms I’m starting to understand the fungi world a bit. Here’s yesterday’s haul, a side trip on my Sunday run. The yellow/orange ones at top left are chanterelles; the cinnamon colored ones are candy caps—when dried they smell just like maple syrup. THE book for our area is All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms by David Arora, not only informative, but witty and fun.
