NEIGHBORHOOD GANG?

Neighbor and friend, Jan Stewart is the hostess with the mostess. If anything is going on, it is always at her house. I don't know how she does it. Always throwing a bit of a party together at the last minute, with just the neighborhood "gang" as she refers to us. Never thought I'd be a gang member at this age.


This is the other Jan. A positive thinker and healer, petting Mikey. And I don't think there is a tattoo among us, unless Mikey has one.


Brian, and Becky listening to Jim expound on something. We all live close to each other.


Karen doesn't like her picture taken and kind of hid. But, I got her anyway.


We ate outside because the weather was so beautiful.  I just got a new haircut and got skinned, but the gang saluted my birthday.
Jan has a pond where a mountain lion, the coyotes, raccoons, and foxes come to drink. I'm so grateful to her for supplying water to the wild animals that frequent our neighborhood because the creek isn't flowing.  The power authority has cut off the water that used to flow behind her house. I remember when Big Dick Hogan lived across the street, he used to go up to the flume and kick out a board to keep a small trickle of  water coming down Peppermint Creek. He moved away twenty years ago. So Jan's pond is essential. I heard the lion squalling as we sat. Jan claims it will come and drink with her quietly sitting on the deck, but not when she has a group of noisy people talking. I think the lion wanted us to leave, so we did. It was a beautiful moon and starlit night. Perfect. Thank you Jan.

NO, WATER, WATER, WATER.

This graph comes from Mother Jones Magazine. California is in deep trouble as is Southern Oregon. I opened my accumulated mail and my water usage, while I was gone, with only one person living in my house was over the base amount by a small amount. Our base amount was recently reduced by 20%. No sprinkling system was used during that time. Karen hand watered plants that appeared to be dry. We are both water misers and what bothers me about percentage cuts is that water misers are unfairly penalized. The next cut will be 30% we are warned. We know it has to be done and our water usage must be altered.

I stopped for fresh produce yesterday and paid $38 for a small bag of all organic produce and counted my blessings that I can afford to buy locally grown food that doesn’t have to be hauled across the state in a big gas guzzling truck, and sit for a week in a box in cold storage at the grocers.

It was also interesting to see what fruits and vegetables use the most water. I was surprised that California citrus and avocados and cherries were not on the list. I always consider them major parts of the California economy. It seems useful to me to know what foods are water lovers and which are not. I haven’t planted a garden since my neighbor shares his with me. I have an unused well and I’m looking into activating it but it only gives 9 gallons per minute.  Now I hear, the county has decided to tax people’s wells. I have to wonder whether I will be taxed at the same rate as another neighbor who gets 64 gallons a minute?  I have no ready answers. Karen and I are going to work on a crude water catchment system before our predicted rain on Wednesday. I’ll keep you posted.

MY FIRST DUTY HOME.

I love being on the road. And, I had to come home, but my first duty home was to stop by my local grocery and grab a six-pack of Black Butte Porter. I was only out for a short stay but a girl's gotta have access to a decent dark, chewy, hoppy beer once in awhile.  (Jim calls it motor oil.) Even the stores where we shopped didn't have a decent craft beer I could buy.


Another thing they didn't have was an olive bar. Those little French picholines, dark green, spiced Scicilians, Greek, kalamatas,  Spanish sevillanos, luccas, manzanillos,  yummmy.

My trip home was smooth. My cameras was deep in my carry on and I didn't take pictures from the plane, but the rice fields and canals and flooded fields from the air, gave the impression there is no water shortage in California. All the lakes and reservoirs had yellow soil lines showing how low the levels are. We had never heard of a 500 year drought record until this year. Now we know what it is like. Summer in winter. Not good. So little snow.
 Time to deepen my well.  Get ready to pay higher food prices as the drought continues.
A group of Churches and faith healers are up on a nearby  peak as I write to send up prayers for rain today. I'm not a believer in such things, but I don't oppose the effort. Jim's son is quite willing to send some snow our way, but, as we know that doesn't work either. Time to move to Alaska, but they don't have olive bars or BBP there. Whatsa girl to do?

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MAMMOUTH CAVE, KENTUCKY

Yesterday, we visited and took pictures in Mammouth Cave..


.I mentioned that I took a drop of water on my lens.


The drop of water came early in the cave. Be warned, it is very wet at the traditional entrance. They have 27 entrances now, I cannot speak for the others.


.


A flash photo looking up into a hole from above.


In some pictures, I was able to crop the smudge.


From a long distance and no flash, this is a cluster of bats. The ceiling in one place was bristling with those giant crickets but when the guide would shine the flashlight on them so you could see them, they would immediately scurry into a crack.

.

.
This was a very dark area of the cave. Lighting is very subtle.


This is a closer shot with the flash.  I took three flash pictures. I was amazed at what color came from the light when I unloaded my pictures.

.

.

.


A hole in the ceiling worked through the heavy limestone cover above and water pours through this hole. You can't see the water.  It is a thin but forceful steady stream.


This particular tour is named for this formation called Frozen Niagara Falls. To the left you can see railings where those who can go down 49 steps and back up can look up at the falls.


This is a view down into the "fall room" from the top of the steps.

.

.


The falls is the end of this tour, then you can photograph what you missed on the way back.


These last two photos are repeats from a different angle. I don't miss much.


I enjoyed this cave. I don't fear the dark or unknown or earthquakes or rocks falling  that others on the tour expressed. But there are some people who absolutely love them and can't wait to get back under. They can easily spend weeks in a cave. I heard people say, all caves are alike, and I can certainly acknowledge their similarity. But, there is something unique about each one, too.


When I got out of the cave, it was the strangest feeling, like this sunny world is unnatural  and less rich compared to what we had just seen. It only lasted for seconds. I guess the eyes couldn't make the switch quickly enough. Fleetingly, it occurred to me, the feeling of let down people get when they come up, may be what inspires those to become addicted to caving.


We lunched at their cafeteria. Great vegetarian choices made it tough to choose. I'm now hungering for the spicy black bean burger I didn't choose over this spinach wrap humus and veggies with mango and passion fruit dressing.  Yum!

FAIR WEATHER WALK.

Yesterday was a beautiful weather day. Jim fixed a blown fuse on the back-up camera, and a few other little chores. I lost my mobile home to an indoor flood and dealt with the related issues much of the morning and late in the day. Jim received news that Aaron Canvasser, a good friend of his died and he was feeling blue.



This is Aaron giving me a haircut on the first day that we met in 2010.  He came to visit us where we were staying in Yuma. Then I gave him a haircut. He was so much fun to be around. It is a haircut I’ll never forget.


We didn’t feel like doing much so we drove around the park, took more swamp pictures. The swamp was  gray and cheerless. I kept trying to find color.


Moving water and shadows produced an abstract.


This one tree near the boardwalk had three different pieces of tackle stuck in it.


This piece was hanging in the wind. The third piece was one of those yo-yos.


I talked to five fishermen on the board walk. This guy was using a baby crawfish for bait. He said he usually gets perch in this lake, and an occasional bass. None of them had fish yet. He told us about an alligator farm nearby.


The boardwalk here is lengthy and makes a pretty pattern.


A clump of iris. The green just emphasizes the gray of the cypress.


But, spring is just around the corner. I expect to see  green leaves soon. We spent the late part of the day sitting outside for the second time this winter. It was comfortable enough to read our books and enjoy the fresh air right up to supper time. Life is good.

GETTING BEAUTIFUL.

This little doe comes to visit me each morning. She seems to know when I have the camera aimed at her and hides from me. My yard is Certified Wildlife Habitat, and between Karen and I, we’ve  seen every animal except a possum and a bear come to drink water. Cougars, bobcats, foxes, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, coyotes, dogs, cats, birds. Even bats and lizards. This low water year, the water in my pond, and other vessels,  needs to be replenished every other day, which Karen does.

I’m coming at my subject a bit sideways, here, but Jim brought this beautiful hammock all the way from Central America. It has hung between a couple of trees for the last two summers and a squirrel came down the tree and chewed part of the threads. Sorry, Jim. I was pretty amazed at that. She  chewed some of the support strings as well. I don’t blame the squirrel. I’m sure she is nest-building.  Red tail hawks decimated my squirrel population a while back and this one has moved in to begin a new generation.

I’m always bragging about Murphys being such a nice place to live, with its beautiful park with a creek running through it. But, San Andreas has a beautiful Turner Park too, with multiple entrances and areas to enjoy because it runs along a small creek. I met friends yesterday, with whom I worked at the Calaveras Enterprise in the 1980′s  and was reminded of the wholesome community we share. Dedicated park volunteers were blowing debris and picking up stuff people leave behind when I got there. How cool is that?

This cute elephant bridge leads to a playground for the kids. Part of why this is such a great place to live is the huge body of volunteerism that makes places  like this possible for everyone.

Sue Walker has a new last name since we met at this same spot last year. I was surprised my friends knew about my accident on May 27th.  We spent an hour playing catch-up while we ate our bag lunch.

We manage our visit in an hour since Deborah Mullen comes from work during her lunch time.  I heard that our former editor, Sandy Lema died while I was on the road, and I forgot to ask them if that was correct?

That hour went by way too fast!  I’m going to make an effort to get home earlier next year to attend the main event. We grabbed one of the friendly park volunteers to take our picture before we parted.

This is a group photo of Enterprise staffers from Reunion 2011.
After leaving the park, I had some blood work done and then went to the beauty shop to get my hair cut. I reminded Sue, who was cutting my hair, that the purpose of a beauty salon is make people beautiful.

I thought she did a pretty good job, don’t you?

Then I stopped in Angels Camp to visit my friend Linda Foster. She is painting her house and needs help deciding what color to choose.

The picture doesn’t show all of her possible choices.  But, I think it was more than nine.  Decisions, decisions. And you know?  She didn’t even notice my beautiful new look? The older we get, the harder it is to get beautiful.