Enunciate

Okay! I'm back!

I know that I said not to expect that we'd go off on any big adventure. We sure weren't expecting to, but as it turns out, we did get away for some camping and scrambling. After talking about it for years, we finally visited Joshua Tree National Park. Since the park is easily the closest to us (2 hours), you'd think we'd have gone eons ago. The best J had been able to describe it is that there are 'piles of rocks that you can climb'. I don't know what exactly I was imagining, but by 'climbing', I was expecting, you know, technical climbing. There was this place, he says, called Jumble Rocks, and even that, in my very visual imagination, did not sound all so impressive. It might as well be MishMash Rocks, jagged rocks strewn randomly here and there. Never mind that I never did research on the internet to get a better description. Silly me.

Still, we had a few days off at the same time, so we figured, what the heck.

Hey! There are Joshua Tree forests! Hence the name of the park! (y'think?) After seeing so many scrawny joshua trees all across the U.S. Southwest, how amazing is it to see them, all so healthy; trees in fields all the way to the mountains? Joshua Tree forests! Don't they look happy?!



We got into the park and got our map and guide. I searched the map for the campground we were headed to and discovered that the name is JUMBO Rocks, not Jumble.

Oooooooh. JUMBO.



That's where we want to be, J says. Yes, I can see why. The rock formations are much more orderly than 'jumbled'. And there's lots of scrambling to be done. And look at how round they all are!

We later overheard that that weekend was the busiest for the park, but we managed to secure a campsite. We survived the crazy strong gusts that threatened to blown down our canopy and buffeted our tent all the first night, survived the hot days (90F), and cold high-desert mornings (down to about 34F). We were there for the full moon. We'd hoped to hear coyotes, but as it turned out, not even the neighbors were howling at the moon. We drove through 29 Palms, Morongo and Yucca Valleys and scrambled across lots and lots of rock formations.

Lots of fun. What an important reminder to always get an accurate understanding of a destination you've been avoiding. Or to take better care to enunciate. Or to do your own research.
Sometimes you really should just go.

 
Can't see the slide show? Click here to see it over at Flickr.

Hawaii, up and around

You know how they call them 'red-eye' flights? Yeah, well, so much for just the 'red-eye' part. It took us a good 36 hours to recover from the sleep-deprived fog that followed our red-eye flight from Honolulu to LAX.


Kicking back, waiting for our 11pm flight.

We've finished doing laundry, restocked our fridge, reacquainting ourselves with English/European soccer (football) standings, are getting in a huge fix of football (U.S. variety) bowl games, and are checking, editing and uploading photos. Here are some of the 'up and around' snapshots:

Lots of opportunities for great photos at my parents' place.



And orchids, from my aunt/uncle's place, next door.





I joined the 'From Where I Stand' group on Flickr a few months back, in case you're wondering about all the photos with me and my hiking sandals/feet.


At the North Shore, checking out what I think are really small opihi

and cooling off our toes. Like my hiking tan lines?



After driving further north around the island, chips and margaritas at Cholos in Haleiwa, Oahu. Nom!


During our stay, I managed to get in a couple good runs, plus a few walks, for about 17 miles total. Since we normally walk – but NEVER run – I consider this to be quite the accomplishment. I went for runs right out the front door, which pretty much left my parents speechless. Seriously. They were thinking, “Who knew?!”.

Kahalu'u fishpond, from my last run there.

 

Drive up the Coast, part 3: North to the Redwoods!

As much as we wanted to stay in lovely Carmel Valley, we needed to time our travel so that we'd be able to secure a campsite over the Fourth of July weekend.  We pulled up out stakes, had one last breakfast of chocolate and almond pastries, and headed North.

Somewhere along Coastal Highway 1, I wrote: 'Miles and miles of crops', and I know I sighed, “I just love California”. 

No, in all that dreamy sighing, I didn't think to stop to take photos of all that farmland.

[sigh]

We stopped to take photos of Pigeon Point Lighthouse, just south of Pescadero, California, then drove up to the lighthouse and stopped to walk around and take more photos.





From the California State Parks website:
Perched on a cliff on the central California coast, 50 miles south of San Francisco, the 115-foot Pigeon Point Lighthouse, one of the tallest lighthouses in America, has been guiding mariners since 1872. Its five-wick lard oil lamp, and first-order Fresnel lens, comprised of 1,008 prisms, was first lit at sunset, November 15, 1872. The lens stands 16 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, and weighs 8,000 pounds. It sits in a lantern room that had been constructed at the Lighthouse Service's general depot in New York before being shipped around the Horn. Although the original Fresnel lens is no longer in use, the lighthouse is still an active U.S. Coast Guard aid to navigation using a 24 inch Aero Beacon.



The lighthouse is currently closed to the public, but the grounds remain open.

The lighthouse keeper's housing is restored and operated as a Hostel.

We meandered along the boardwalk and breathed in deeply of the ocean air and peace.

Back on the road, our goal was to get past San Francisco and into redwood country.

We stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge and exclaimed, “Fog! Ha! What are the chances?!?!”


We drove and drove and drove, and finally stopped at Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area in Leggett, CA and secured a campsite. Sure enough, the park brochure proclaimed this as “the Gateway to California's Redwood Country”...

Drive up the Coast, part 2

We stayed at the campground at Carmel Valley for two nights and enjoyed having a home base from which to explore Carmel and Monterey. We also enjoyed having showers that didn't require tokens or quarters, or were on a timer, as well. You can imagine. Timed/token showers loomed ahead...

We drove into Monterey, found a wonderful bakery and fueled up with more coffee and chocolate-y almond-y pastries. Heaven! We meandered along the coast, basking in the sun after the fog lifted. So many miles of beach and ocean… We were tempted to go ahead and commit to another night at the site or maybe stay even longer. The original plan was to see the Redwoods, then make it up to Olympic Peninsula, to see Mt Rainier and the fields wildflowers. Or maybe even get to Vancouver, to see the Olympic venues. Getting that far north would mean we couldn't linger for too long in any one place, though. And, however far north we reached, we needed to be able to head back home in time for me to teach on Monday, July 11th. We could make it to Seattle, but would need to pace our way up along the coast, that's for sure. But there in Monterey, we thought, just maybe, we could stay put right there and plan on a long, deep dive into the area … very much tempted by the thought of return visits to Paris Bakery.

We drove along from Monterey then decided to do 17–Mile drive, stopping at all the marked stops: Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Bird Rock, the Lone Cypress, Pescadero Point.

From the Pebble Beach Resorts brochure:
“Before the automobile had become a way of life, 17–Mile Drive was navigated by horse-drawn carriages from the famous Hotel Del Monte, now the site of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. It was 1881 and excursions through Del Monte Forest and along its spectacular coastline often ended up at a picnic spot at Pebble Beach…”



We ogled the views, the big homes with ogle-able private views, paused to whip up lunch (PB&J, fresh fruit and granola bars). We stopped and watched the otters and seals. We made a pit stop at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. In the lobby, there were the most beautiful, huge, paintings that captured the bright sunlight and deep, leggy shadows on pristine white sand beaches. Or, at least that's how I remember them.

Dumbfounded, I ogled those for a while.

But did I get pictures? I was far too spellbound. Alas!

We (I) quickly found that it was hard to choose between being spellbound with enchantment for the beauty of it all and thinking to slip behind the lens of a camera to actually capture it. Sigh.

We came upon Point Pinos Light House and discovered that the park was closed that day! Oh no! We could always come back; or would we? We could certainly improvise and make the best of it. It turned out that we happened upon several other landmarks that we'd normally spend much more time at, only to arrive to closed gates. We are not so easily deterred, as you can see:



Pt Pinos, navigating the closed gate and fence.
The oldest, continuously-operating lighthouse on the West Coast. Lit February 1, 1855.



The Carmel Mission, built in 1771 by Father Junipero Serra. Peering wistfully over the stone wall, after closing.

It was about at this point that it occurred to me that one of us was intent on photographing lighthouses and
bridges and the other of us wanted to paint within the garden walls of all the missions along the way. The lighthouses won; the comprehensive tour of California missions will have to wait for another trip. There were plenty of lighthouses and even more bridges, and plenty of mighty fine places to paint along the way, of course.


Carmel River Lagoon and Wetlands Natural Preserve



We stopped at Julie Pfeiffer State Park and hiked to the falls. We were really struck by all the clover (Redwood sorrel?) all around us. We plucked one and managed to carefully stash it away so that it survived the rest of trip.

At about this point, I realized there was no way I was jotting down the spots we'd stopped at quickly or accurately enough. No way that the Campsites of Southern/Central and Northern California maps that we'd brought along showed enough detail to help me recall our path for each day. I would need much more detailed maps to refer to. I tried to take photos of signs at each spot, but even just two days into our trip, and not even out of 'Central' California, oh my, we had so many pictures and so many more wishes to return to take pictures, but not enough of a photographic memory to remember where to return to.



Note to self: Take the time to take better notes.

All the photos from the trip are here.

Summer of the Big Trees: Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

Our first trip of the summer was to Kings Canyon / Sequoia National Park. We'd wanted to go to Cedar Grove, but the Kings river was running too high. With the record snow levels during the winter and the warm temps in mid-June, we could only imagine the river running higher during the days. Getting stranded on the other side of the bridge would be an adventure (!), to be sure, but not one that we were real keen on. So we turned back and camped at Grant Grove (flush toilets, running water, but no showers).

We did two hikes during our stay and saw a bunch of bears. Unlike the Yosemite bears, they weren't scrounging around for people food (we've had to scare them away from stealing our breakfast at Yosemite), and seemed pretty content to munch down on bear food in the meadows. All the same, I didn't feel like stopping longer to gawk and take photos of them. They were plenty close enough.

After our dinners, we'd head over the Grants Grove at sunset, to finish off our Heinekens or ice cream and photograph the big, big trees, the giant sequoias. It's hard to imagine how big the trees are, and just as tough to capture their size of the trees in photographs –  –  J and I took quite a few photos, trying to capture the golden rays of sunset bathing these majestic trees. None of mine do them justice. I suggest you go to see them in person!





Knowing we'd be visiting the redwoods in a week afterwards, we decided then and there to dub this our Summer of the Big Trees (SOBT).

The camping trip was a great chance to test out some of our gear for future trips. Right before we left, J splurged on REI 3.5 self-inflating camp beds (air mattresses). The REI product description says: “With an ultra-cushy 3.5-inch thickness and soft-touch stretch fabric upper surface, the REI Camp Bed 3.5 provides plush comfort for base camping.” So the '3.5' stands for thickness! Brilliant! We tested lying on them at the local REI, and yes, the 3.5's were way more comfy than the 2.5's. And, no, we weren't even going to worry about trying the 1.75's. During the trip, they were fantastic. Five stars and two thumbs up from both of us. I'd remark, every night: "Oooo, so comfy! So … zzzzz".

As an extra bonus, squeezing the air out of them when you roll them up gives you a chance to get in some weird yoga-like moves / stretches, if you were worried about not being able to keep up with your practice. Sorry, no pictures of that, either.

Here's TheBigBear, making up dinner:



One of the Pudwill berries we brought along. Little comforts from home:



The view from our hike above Crescent Meadows (Sequoia National Park). Click on it to view it bigger at Flickr! :



A sketch of the meadow at Grant Village:

Out and About / Hawaii, Part 2

No, we didn't to Hawaii again. I'm just a little slow in posting.

So, this trip, J took along his tripod, to spend more serious time taking photos.
Here he is taking a shot at Mokoliʻi , aka 'Chinaman's Hat':


(Why yes, the horizon DOES dip to the right in Hawaii. Didn't you know?)

and world famous Diamond Head



He set up the tripod at took posed family photos at the Christmas potluck as well. There were lots of nice photos of everyone with their families and I sent copies of CDs with the pics back to the gang in Hawaii.

So my mom and dad said they looked at the images on the CD.  I asked if they liked the video.

They go, "Video? You mean the slide show? Yeah, we saw the slide show".
And I go, "No, the video. Of the imu. Like a Movie".
And they go, "Hemm. Moo-oovie. Like a slideshow of all the pictures from the imu? Pictures that move?Yeah. We saw the slideshow".

I think, "Mmmf, that's a 'No' on the video".

My dad gets on the phone: "Yeah, lots of nice pics that Jan took. The upside-down orchid. The anthuriums with raindrops. The coconut. The mosquito punk..."
I go, "Hey, those were my pictures."
Dad: "No, I saw J taking the pictures out in the front with his camera."
Me: "I was taking pictures, too. I have a camera. I'm just more sneaky. Those pictures were in a folder labelled 'Wendees pics'".
Dad, the newfangled computerese thought not processing: "Heh."

I think, "Yeah, that's a 'No', too. I am SO chopped liver".

Dad: "Yeah. Fantastic pics that J took. Whoooo, and lots of 'em. Fantastic."

Me, thinking, "Swell".

Summer Vacation

Lake Tahoe, near Incline Village, CA. August 2010

When you're at home, and you putter around, sleep in, watch TV that you normally don't, make eggs and bacon breakfasts and wander around outside, someone would likely call you lazy.

But, when you putter around, sleep in, watch TV that you normally don't, make eggs and bacon for breakfast and wander around outside looking for pine cones somewhere else, it's a good vacation.

We have to juggle two different, non-synchronized school schedules, so we got away for a few days a couple of weeks ago. Since then, school has started for J and I've just finished up summer term. We're back into the ebb and flow of the school year and vacation seems so long ago ...

Twin Lakes, Mammoth Lake area, CA. August 2010

We did far less hiking than we normally do, but we drove around the Mammoth Lake and Lake Tahoe areas, stopping to nap, take photos and sketch. We hit our favorite eating spots in Lake Tahoe (the dinner buffet at Harrah's, the Nestle Cafe at Heavenly Village, and Orchid's Thai). We cooked up some halibut and found some really big pine cones to bring home. I didn't get bitten by any mosquitos. A pretty good vacation, all in all.

Twin Lakes, Mammoth Lake area, CA. August 2010

North Lake Tahoe, Incline Village area. August 2010

My Big Bear ♥ at the Mono Lake Visitor's Center. August 2010.

Yosemite

Mirror Lake Click to see this photo's flickr page

I realize that I’m almost a year behind in posting notes about our trips. Oh well. I'll work in real-time and catch up with older posts as I go along.

With the end of the school year, we (J in particular) start to get wanderlust, our feed itching to get out and onto the trails.

J’s camera stopped working last spring during out Yosemite trip. He was very disappointed and bought another one immediately after we returned home. Our trip this month was his first back to Yosemite with the new camera. After looking over the photos from last summer, he’s taking more time in setting up shots and taking photos at even more multiple settings, to better his chances of capturing the landscapes optimally. This means he takes a little longer at each photo stop, which means I finally have enough time to settle in and do very quick sketches and take notes as well. Our overall pace is slower, but the hikes are far more enjoyable.

With our stops and the spectacle of J’s humongous tripod, we struck up more conversations with other hikers. J, he likes to enjoy people, truth be told. Me, I tend to prefer to be left alone. We chatted with a couple from Europe, on a three-week stay in the US. They were intent on settling in at each place, enough to soak in everything, rather than rushing through to see a list of highlights in a tour book. We agreed that we liked this approach and traded notes on where we’d all visited. J commented that the man’s English (he was German, she was from Italy) was quite good; the man commented that J’s English was quite good, as well! Ha! The woman and I both rolled our eyes: This off-the-wall sense of humor is universal too!

We ran into a geology buff that was quite knowledgeable about the formations of all the features of the park. Lots of history. Me, on the other hand, I’m thinking, “Oh, look at the textures in that big slab of granite!”

The best line I overheard was while we were packing up to head downhill from Vernal Falls. Several groups of hikers had converged and had stopped to checked their respective maps to plan where they were heading next. One jovial group heaved their backpacks back on and headed off. As they were trotting away, I heard, “Oh man, I can’t reach it. Shoot. Can you reach in and grab my banana?” He stopped his hungry train of thought and all we could hear was the crunching of the path as they continued walking. “Oh. Geez. That didn’t sound so good”.

Photos and sketches from Yosemite, here.

Taking more time

More ginger blossoms Click to see this photo's flickr page

Being an introvert simply means that one requires plenty of alone time to recharge after being in the presence of other people. - Emily Maguire

If you are really missing the drawings and photos, you should go to view my Flickr photostream.

Maloof Discovery Gardens

The Wonderful Maloof Gardens Click to see this photo's flickr page

While reading one of Sunset magazine's blogs, Fresh Dirt, I discovered that a wonderful garden was nearby. How 'nearby'? You know, like 10 miles nearby. "Cool", I thought, making a mental note that I'd have to visit it soon.

After doing more research, I discovered that the garden is designed around the Maloof Historic Residence museum. "Who's that?" I thought. Imagine my glee when I discovered that Sam Maloof is a master woodworker, a veritable national treasure, who handcrafts furniture, designed and built (?) the historic Maloof residence and the new one, as well.

When I saw photos of his work, I blinked in disbelief. Did I mention that beyond gardens, that I'm a sucker for garden details, landscape architecture, and Arts and Crafts anything? OMG. And you're telling me this is all 10 miles away from home? Could life get any better? Really, people.

So after a long week full of taxes, design details and professional events, I finally went to the gardens today.

The Maloof Discovery Garden is designed to be water-wise, low-maintenance, AND is a Certified Wildlife Habitat. I turned the corner of the walkway entering into the garden, and stood there, stunned, with my jaw gaping. There are lots of the California native and Mediterranean plants that I love, fantastically in bloom, right now. There's an Arts and Crafts feel to the entire property, of course, with lots of joyful sculptures inhabiting the garden, lots of textures both natural and crafted to please the senses (you know I can't resist petting things like this).

Didn't have time to do a tour of the historic residence today, but, gee, I'm certainly not going to wait long.

The garden and residence are open Saturday and Thursday afternoons (as the Maloofs, after all, still live and work there ...). The foundation welcomes plein air artists to work in the garden every 2nd Thursday and Saturday, 12 Noon-4:00 pm (and a few extra dates). Hello? "Plein air painting in the garden"? Are you thinking what I'm thinking? We should go!

Click here to see the whole Flickr set from today's meanderings. :)

Time flies

Two years ago I met the most delightful man. And look at us now!


After sunrise at Grand Canyon Click to see this photo's flickr page

You'd think we could pose for more photos together, and eventually get one that's actually really nice. But we're havin' too much fun rambling about...

Rainbow over Palm Springs

Rainbow over Palm Springs Click to see this photo's flickr page

It's been a very long week for both me and my boo. I don't remember having much of a weekend last week, either. And there's still today left, too. I'm behind on sketching, all sorts of work, garden-tending, cooking, working out, missed yoga this week, behind on getting down thoughts for school and for fun, and behind on sending thoughts to my bloggy buddies. [sigh] I think sometimes that I should rate my posts with the number of times that I sigh.

I'm going to dash out for another appointment, but wanted to leave you with this -
We went out to the desert last Saturday and took some time to get in another long hike, to balance the sense of being there out of obligation with getting something relaxing and rewarding out of it, as well.

We got to see the beginning of what is probably a short blooming season out in Palm Springs - little wildflowers and grasses. I saw one cactus in bloom, as well, and moss. Moss. In Palm Springs. Looked like healthy moss, at that.

More clouds rolled in and it threatened to rain, but we were close enough to a peak that we figured we'd keep going. It never really let loose, and we got to see the rainbow that appeared.



Palm Springs hike Click to see this photo's flickr page

I guess there's plenty to catch up with, but all the same, I'm looking forward to a lazy couple of days (or at least slower) and hope you all have a great weekend.

Dreamy gardens

I walk in the garden, I look at the flowers and shrubs and trees and discover in them an exquisiteness of contour, a vitality of edge, or a vigor of spring, as well as an infinite variety of color that no artifact I have seen in the last sixty years can rival... each day, as I look, I wonder where my eyes were yesterday. -Bernard Berenson

I spent some time in the library this week to look for books with good reference images of plants, trees, shrubbery ("Bring me a shwubbery!"). To daydream about a future garden. Or to paint. But mostly to daydream (you can imagine this, yes?). Flipping through, I realized that I have gardening books with great photos. And then I realized that I have plenty of really super images (or, nice images of super memories) from a class I took in school. It was an elective, The History of Gardens. There were lectures, but the field trips were the real treat. We toured a number of local Southern California gardens, both private and public. It was just fantastic.

The Lummis Home / El Alisal
The Getty
Huntington Library
Norton Simon
Descanso
Lotusland
Hannah Carter Japanese Garden

One assignment of the class was to keep a garden notebook, with images, trimmings, thoughts from the gardens and notes on several of our design assignments. I found my notebook and flipped through the pictures, thinking, daydreamily, "Oh, now these are what I should paint."

I managed to find and salvage the digital photo files from archive CDs and lookit, it’s just so much fun and so much from a bright sunny Southern California summer, that I had to share.


Click here for the Flickr photo set.

Sending dreamy thoughts of the first bursts of color of spring and the warmth of summer to you all. Have a great weekend. xox -w

Eaton Canyon Gnarly Trees

20080215_eatoncyn2 Click to see this photo's flickr page

Last week I met my art buddy Karen to trade some arty stuff and to get out, take photos and paint. We met at Eaton Canyon, lured by the thought of seeing the stream running and some new growth from the rains the week or two before. We decided, quite daringly (cough), to cross the stream and settled in after that treacherous adventure in a shady grove and painted. The trees were all so very lovely in that gnarly-tree sort of way. And, of course, you know how I love drawing gnarly trees.

I hadn't been on the trails at Eaton Canyon before, so was curious about them. And the weather was just too pleasant to pass up a return trip. So, a few days later, my guy and I went back to hike. No strolling around in the park, uh-uh! We took the trail that looked most like it would head UP and HIGHER (For the record, this would not normally be my first choice. I'd be all, "Whew! Hey, look at these gnarly trees! Why don't you go up, and I'll sit here and draw!"). I think it was the Walnut Canyon trail. The painted text on the signs have all worn off. The description on the website ("...This is the "equestrian trail" notorious for its steep, narrow, dusty, shadeless, winding path...") sounds like what we hiked. It was over an hour round-trip; we stopped at a somewhat unexpected grassy picnic area just below where the Toll Road starts and decided that was plenty ambitious for the first hike of the spring. The nice thing about steep hikes is that you gain altitude so much faster and get quicker rewards in the views, as you go higher [Right. That made sense]. And of course, now, all sorts of parts of our legs are feeling so much more toned than before.

Geh!

Along with the really great trees, there's lots of foliage and shades of green goin' on right now. When the blossoms start, it'll be worth another trip back.

Another gnarly tree:

20080215_eatoncyn1 Click to see this photo's flickr page

and more photos here.

Santa Barbara

There's supposed to be a storm rolling in on Monday, a cold one. They're saying snow levels might dip down to about the 2000ft level. The weather guys are telling us to take along mittens and scarves! OMG! ... We'll believe it when we see it.

So, before any of that hits, we decided to enjoy whatever nice weather we might have for the long holiday weekend and drove up to Santa Barbara. We have the best luck - the views of the Channel Islands were just great. We walked from way past the pier up to Shoreline Park, and down the stairs to the beach. The tide was out, and we wandered along all these funky rock formations that we hadn't seen before, picking up pebbles and stones and sea shells.


Santa Barbara shore
Click to see the whole flickr set

So, these are all these cool things we picked up today. Nice flat rocks, long skinny ones (one will make a great "worry" stone, it fits so securely in my hand), sea shells, one really nice round one. I mean look at it, isn't it nice and round? I've been picking up one or two rocks from most of our trips to the different beaches, but today, we were both finding quite a few. As we walked back to our car to head to Tupelo Junction for lunch, I was imagining ways to organize my not-so-little rock collection. Or maybe I should go with catch-and-relocate/release. I mean, these are the ones just from today.


tumbled rocks and a sea shell from Santa Barbara

I recalled my move last April and imagined the next move, when J exclaims, "What the heck is in this little box that is so @#%&* heavy? What are we moving, ROCKS?!". And I'll have to go, very sheepishly, (say it with me) ... "Rocks. Hmmmm. Well, actually, yeeeeessss..."

More from Hawaii

The two of us at Mokolii Click to see this photo's flickr page

I was up late last night and thought to look through J's photos from Hawaii again. He didn't want to use this photo for our Christmas cards, but I like it. We're a bit pudgy, but very content. It's all that good living, I s'pose. Dunno why it's so hard to get a nice photo of us, that we're both willing to share. [sigh]

I've added some of his photos to the existing Flickr set

With each sunrise,

... We start anew.


One last one on Moving day, last spring

Last week, we drove up the coast, spent a few hours walking along Zuma Beach and Point Dume and drove through some of my old neighborhood. I miss it. I miss the long walks on the beach and past the park and stream. I sort of miss the howl of the coyotes and the frogs at night. I miss my Ikea kitchen table. It had become a real security blanket for me, encouraging me to paint. I miss sitting with my breakfast, watching the sun rise over the Santa Monica Mountains, the park below emerging from the early morning fog. It was just so serenely beautiful, and I was at least aware enough of it then to breathe it all in.

This morning, I found myself sighing about how I have to watch the sunrise over the condo complex rooftop. So not ideal. I guess my old neighbor was a curmudgeon, but the neighbors across the alley here seem to be determined to antagonize my J. They’ll think I’m spying on them as I dreamily consider the sunrise… and just cop more attitude at him. Sigh.

I haven’t felt like drawing or painting in several weeks. I figure if I can take photos, I can at least stop long enough to really see the interesting patterns around me, the beauty that everyone, including myself, just walks past, every day, and try to jiggle some of this funk loose.

So I open up a space between the blinds, steady my camera and notice that the rooftops, in the viewfinder, are only so big. And, the sunrise and the rest of the sky … go on forever.

Duh!

And the other side of the window doesn’t have a screen covering it, so I can get nicer photos of it all.


I can still see the sun rise from where I'm working.


Poofy clouds after a week of cold and clouds and rain.

"There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope." - Bern Williams

"What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?" - E. M. Forster

"The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." - John Muir

"Rise early. It is the early bird that catches the worm. Don't be fooled by this absurd saw; I once knew a man who tried it. He got up at sunrise and a horse bit him." - Mark Twain