First, the sun is out and it’s morning. We’ve had two months of fog, maybe clearing in the afternoon. But now with the slightly harsher colors of fall in the air, it’s a sunny morning and the blackberries are ripening. Second, the entire California coast is surf city right now. Big south swell. Third, bi-coastal exchange: we are actually getting theNew York Times delivered in our driveway on this dirt road. A miracle! What a relief from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder on Boing Boing, Friday, Aug 26th:
Video of effective sea lamprey repellant: (made from sea lampreys!). It does the trick.
Godfrey Stephens and his wife Megan on the Mungo II, rounding Clover Point on Vancouver Island, BC, on their way to Lesquiti Island
Photo by Heather Jones, August 14, 2011
After being thwarted in our canyon descent, Tomas and I drove into the hills to an isolated dammed-up pond. A week before I’d made a path through the cattails to the water. (I waded out and when it got too deep, just lay on the cattails and they bent over to make a path.) We went swimming, it was very beautiful, pond ringed by cattails, swallows dipping to nab water-skimming insects… At left, I’m coming back in; that’s my bald head a little above the middle, pulling myself along. I felt like a muskrat.
Gathered nori fresh off rocks at low tide. Washed it, dried it, now to roast it. Can’t believe I haven’t done this before. Essence of the sea, you know it’s good for you.
Two photos from the beach, below the turkey buzzard posing artistically, such a choice of perch, such style! When still, these guys aren’t handsome devils like the hawks, but when airborne, they’re magnificent, floating on air currents, tuning direction by adjusting wing ailerons, soaring, floating…A few years ago I had a series of dreams where I was flying. I wasn’t just up in the air, I had to take off. I’d run along, flapping my arms and pretty soon I’d be airborne. It really felt, well…real. Still gives me a thrill to remember how it felt to fly.
Below a dead pelican. Another magnificent bird. Surfers all have watched them skimming waves, seemingly never flapping wings, just gliding along on the wave updraft, in group formation. I’m gonna leave this on the (remote) beach for another few months, so all the flesh is gone, and I’ll take the head and bleach it out for my collection of bird and mammal skulls.
Update, December 11, 2011: Thanks largely to the Environmental Action Committee, a well-funded “environmental” group, all trailers have to be gone from Lawson’s in 5 years. Score a win for trust fund activists (anyone check the income level and sources thereof of the activists?), a loss for Californians of moderate means.
I consider myself an environmentalist. And for this reason I’m alarmed by a new and very strong movement among people who call themselves “environmentalists.” If I may generalize, these are people who do not hunt or fish or make their living from the land. They often have not grown up in the areas where they are active. They want everything to return to an imaginary pristine state. They tend to be from families of wealth, have college degrees, can raise money for their non-profit groups, and know their way around in the political and media worlds.
This something I wrote on behalf of a gem of a local community that is now being persecuted. It’s for people of Marin County, and for Californians in general.
Read More …
The 4th annual Shore-to-Shore paddle race, sponsored by Live Water Surf Shop of Stinson Beach, was here Saturday. Two courses: 2.8 miles, and 7-1/2 miles. There’s a bigger turnout every year. Paddling is catching on in Northern California. It’s huge in Southern California and more recently, Santa Cruz. New technology (as in skateboarding) has revolutionized the sport in the last ten or so years. I’ve always loved paddling, and a few years ago, I got a 12′ Joe Bark Surftech racing paddleboard. It weighs 32 lbs and skims across the water like a water skeeter. If I paddle in the lagoon going with an incoming tide, I’m flying, with a v-shaped wake off the bow. Fun!
What I love about these events (there’s a very large kayak/outrigger race in Sausalito in October) is seeing not just the various types of paddleboards, but the kayaks and especially the outrigger canoes. I have to admit to lusting after one of these outriggers since my friend Tom Mebi, who lives on a beach in Hawaii, told me about his outrigger. 20′ long, weighing 23 lbs. Man!
These ones yesterday were real beauties. Featherlight (and expensive — $3-5000). I’m trying to find one I can try out in these waters, and if it performs well in the ocean, I’ll look out for a used one.
I did the short course. Ocean was choppy, weather foggy, but I love being in the water (prone paddleboard). I was tired, but not wiped out. A good vibes event, great lunch in the park afterwords. Great to see my old beachbum/lifeguard friends. We all love the ocean.
Outrigger canoes: https://occonnection.ipower.com/ , https://www.huki.com/
There are about 4 waterfalls on the stretch of beach I’ve been walking on these days. The rain was just stopping Sunday when I got started, and water was heading out to sea via every arroyo and crevice. Wind came up, sun came out, the ocean was choppy but with a nice swell.
Negative ionized, energy-generating air…
Here was an engine block, had to be off a ship because there’s no way a car could get within miles of the cliffs. Ocean life creeping over it, looks like fossilized ghost.
About a 3½ hour roundtrip. I got to a rocky point, took off my backpack and just looked out at the reef and waves. I felt an overwhelming sense of love for the ocean, Jesus, it’s so beautiful and rich and wonderful, an everyday miracle in our lives. And it’s just there.
Today it’s a Spring sunny morning, mmm-mmm! To boot, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith is singing Muddy Waters’ song, “World Is In An Uproar.” Ain’t it?
Boy is this beautiful!
Be sure to click on the 4 little arrows at lower right side of screen to enlarge. This is just magnificent.
Discovered by Lew Lewandowski
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HiUMlOz4UQ
Tags: animals, birds, building, farming, fishing, gardening, homes, nature, ocean, people, surfing I tell ya, when I get on my new bike, it feels like I’m on a motorcycle. Each time I take the first couple of cranks going down the road, I can’t believe how good it feels. Here we go! Yesterday I headed up the coast off-road. The bike with its air shocks takes potholes and rocks with ease. Surf was up, tide low, air filled with sweet negative-ion-charged sea air.
Then I rode out to a secret pond in the hills, where swimming is great in the Spring:
On the way home as sun was setting, here was a herd of 14 deer. Never seen a flock like this.
Each day of my life right now seems so filled with interesting stuff I can only get a fraction of it down.
Beautiful sunny day after a lot of rain and cold. I got up early and worked until 1 PM on the tiny houses book, then went to beach. Look at these shells. The beauty out there in the world sometimes staggers me. Years ago, when the kid in American Beauty said the below, it resonated:
“…when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude…”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/quotes
