Thursday, October 30, 2008
Autumnal
Those of you who live in New England can ignore this post.
I live in a part of the country renowned for its lack of seasons. It's sunny and dry until it starts to rain in November, and then the hills turn vivid green, and it rains until March, and then it's sunny and dry again. Except of course in San Francisco, where the ocean air rubs up against the sweltering heat of the central valley, and it is foggy all summer long.
But in my little corner of the bay area, we have these brief glimpses of that illusive season, autumn:
I live in a part of the country renowned for its lack of seasons. It's sunny and dry until it starts to rain in November, and then the hills turn vivid green, and it rains until March, and then it's sunny and dry again. Except of course in San Francisco, where the ocean air rubs up against the sweltering heat of the central valley, and it is foggy all summer long.
But in my little corner of the bay area, we have these brief glimpses of that illusive season, autumn:
Friday, October 24, 2008
Field Trip - Pumpkin Patch
Kate's class went to a Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma, where they dug potatoes, milked a cow, went on a hay ride, and of course, picked pumpkins.
Field Trip- Safari West
Kate's first grade class went on a field trip to "Safari West", in Santa Rosa. It's a combination zoo and resort. These great photo's were taken by Lester Ng, Aidan's dad.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
More Yard Projects
Here's another recent yard project. My yard has become a big creative outlet, and also a source of excercise and angst reduction. Occasionally, the kids even play out there with me!
These are birdhouses that the kids painted sometime last spring at a "birdhouse painting party" that we had, sort-of (there were two other people). They've been scattered around the yard, where Bridget says Fairies live in them, but I finally hung them on the fence. We had a disagreement about whether the Fairies would be mad, would enjoy their better view of Mt. Tam, and would be able to get into them, now that they are not on the ground (I mean, come on, these are special walking Fairies?).
These are just some other views of the yard. My pirate ship is looking a little the worse for wear, so that may need some upgrading next spring. It's a little hard to see, but that white thing in the middle of the deck is the sail, blown over the top of the mast, and the hammock sort of thing that you could sit in fell down, and the ship's wheel fell apart, and Noodle chewed up half of it.
These are birdhouses that the kids painted sometime last spring at a "birdhouse painting party" that we had, sort-of (there were two other people). They've been scattered around the yard, where Bridget says Fairies live in them, but I finally hung them on the fence. We had a disagreement about whether the Fairies would be mad, would enjoy their better view of Mt. Tam, and would be able to get into them, now that they are not on the ground (I mean, come on, these are special walking Fairies?).
These are just some other views of the yard. My pirate ship is looking a little the worse for wear, so that may need some upgrading next spring. It's a little hard to see, but that white thing in the middle of the deck is the sail, blown over the top of the mast, and the hammock sort of thing that you could sit in fell down, and the ship's wheel fell apart, and Noodle chewed up half of it.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Weedy Sea Dragons?
So, perhaps you have been wondering about the title. What is a weedy sea dragon, anyway? Well, when I was a senior in high school, the summer before I went to college, I worked at Books Inc. Which was a bookstore in the pre-computerized instant inventory era, and employed people to write down the title and publisher of every book sold on a little slip of paper. I'm not kidding (this is 1990). When we weren't doing this, I would sit around with my fellow literati wanna-bes, and write little stories, and look at books. In one book we came across photos of weedy sea dragons. I wrote down, on one of those slips of paper, that someday I would write a book, and call it Smoking Weedy Sea Dragons, and Drinking Irish Breakfast Tea. Or maybe it was Drinking Weedy Sea Dragons and Smoking Irish Breakfast Tea. Anyway, these beautiful creatures and my pretentious title have stuck with me.
Sorry for the lack of photo credits. If these are yours, well done!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Yosemite in Autumn
We arrived at Yosemite Friday night, about 8pm, hauled everything into our tent cabin in Curry village, and got pizza at the cafe. The highlight of the evening were the raccoons, who came right up under the cafe tables, looking for something to scrounge.
Saturday morning was drizzly and misty. The walls of Yosemite Valley were barely visible above us. It reminded me of Portland, and I thought- this is beautiful! I could live in Portland again, I could do this...
Kate and Bridget got raccoons, inspired by the previous evening.
Since it was raining, we (and everyone else) spent the morning riding the shuttle bus around to various indoor exhibits, including the museum, visitor center, Ansel Adams gallery, and the Miwok village replica.
Here is Bridget, waiting for the bus.
One great benefit of the rain was that there was actually water in Yosemite Falls. The last time we were here, in August, I kept pointing to a dark spot on the cliff, and saying, see, in winter, there's a huge waterfall there! Although it wasn't huge, it was lovely to see it, and it only lasted the day.
Apparently the waterfall inspired everyone to stick out their tongues.
It began to clear, a little, and we could finally see Half-dome.
Here are Bridget and Kate waiting for the bus outside the Awanhee.
After a cold night, Sunday was clear and glorious. We took the bus to the road to Mirror Lake.
Much time was spent looking up.
Mirror Lake is becoming Mirror Meadow, turns out.
Requisite group fishbowl photo.
The rest of the day was fabulous and sunny, but I ran out of camera batteries. We had lunch on the river at Housekeeping Camp, and then Ice Cream at Yosemite Lodge. We walked over to the Swinging Bridge (which was dissapointingly stable), and played at the beach there, in the golden meadows below Yosemite falls.
Saturday morning was drizzly and misty. The walls of Yosemite Valley were barely visible above us. It reminded me of Portland, and I thought- this is beautiful! I could live in Portland again, I could do this...
Kate and Bridget got raccoons, inspired by the previous evening.
Since it was raining, we (and everyone else) spent the morning riding the shuttle bus around to various indoor exhibits, including the museum, visitor center, Ansel Adams gallery, and the Miwok village replica.
Here is Bridget, waiting for the bus.
One great benefit of the rain was that there was actually water in Yosemite Falls. The last time we were here, in August, I kept pointing to a dark spot on the cliff, and saying, see, in winter, there's a huge waterfall there! Although it wasn't huge, it was lovely to see it, and it only lasted the day.
Apparently the waterfall inspired everyone to stick out their tongues.
It began to clear, a little, and we could finally see Half-dome.
Here are Bridget and Kate waiting for the bus outside the Awanhee.
After a cold night, Sunday was clear and glorious. We took the bus to the road to Mirror Lake.
Much time was spent looking up.
Mirror Lake is becoming Mirror Meadow, turns out.
Requisite group fishbowl photo.
The rest of the day was fabulous and sunny, but I ran out of camera batteries. We had lunch on the river at Housekeeping Camp, and then Ice Cream at Yosemite Lodge. We walked over to the Swinging Bridge (which was dissapointingly stable), and played at the beach there, in the golden meadows below Yosemite falls.
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