WILD Close UP

The 16th Annual Wildflower show, nothing short of spectacular.

Teams began gathering yesterday (Friday 4/26 and finished up this morning)

Somewhere between 400-500 individual specimens, all gathered from this area. 

Enjoy a few of them, thanks to the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve.

 

This is one of the reasons Cambria is a hiker's paradise.

See you down the trail.

A Twilight of Sanity?

 

        It would be easy to make the case we are in decline, slipping into another brutal epoch but that would foreclose on what history tells us about human resilience. I'm betting on recovery, but not ignoring the darkness that shrouds us and deepens its setting.

    As spring reveals itself in California we've turned a few miles and tried to buffer the insanity with open space, and hints of the life we knew before Covid, political pathos and the war madness of Putin. There is evidence of light in the gloom and darkness that our media screens feed us.

        In the heartbreak and devastation wrought by Russian war criminals is extraordinary human excellence and strength. Neighboring nations making space for refuge, the international condemnation and network of sanctions, volunteers in arms and the outpouring of humane support. 

        The people of Ukraine tower as lights. The Ukrainian defiance and defense of democracy encourages, inspires western nations and NATO and, by its dedication, shames the US, or at least a portion of the populace.

        There is legend and lore in the Coachella Valley about the witch of Tahquitz, seen in the shadow above. 

        We saw evidence of a curse of another sort in the US Senate Judiciary Committee's treatment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The behavior of a party was an embarrassing new low. The acting was lame and the ham handed play of their culture war cards bespeaks intellectual and moral bankruptcy. Oh how history will score those cretins. 

        Despite conditions, sometimes severe, California's poppies signal vibrant life and color every spring. They were napping near the Poppy reserve on this day, but they were evidence of rebirth.

        A new and important question in Washington this spring is "What did Justice Thomas know, and when did he know it?" His wife and "best friend" is revealed now in her own words as an enemy of truth, democracy and the republic.

     Truth always comes out. The Justice's bunk mate is a conspirator, and a kook. There is a growing call for the Chief Justice to censure Thomas. This linkage to the plot of insurrection is a new low, a crazy new low. But sober minds  are calling for action.

        The crazy high we all should be working on is inflation. Inflation has a way of wrecking the order of things and becoming THE dominant political concern. No party or politician is responsible this time. Blame the higher prices on pandemic supply spasms, price gouging, the elevating cost of energy because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the tumble down chain reaction. 

        The political poltroons and sluggards will try to fix blame and score points since "deplorables" are real and on the loose.                                              

        Real patriots understand complexity; we will pay a bit more for gas and some items as the world tries to stop the war on democracy. Economic warfare does not come without sacrifice. 

        Senate and house democrats will need republican support to get inflation control legislation passed. Guess what party would prefer to watch inflation rise so they can gripe about it? 

        A spirit lifting adventure was a visit to an art and plant exhibition. People together again, celebrating life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This was our first "cultural event" since March of 2020, and it felt good to see people celebrating life and creativity.

        I was on a Zoom meeting today where a couple of the participants were talking about a wind chill temp of zero. It's been a while since you've been able to enjoy something as simple as this. So, until spring reaches you, enjoy vicariously. 

      It is in such moments we appreciate what is "noble, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy" and a fulfillment of our life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

        I'm reminding myself not to take for granted, the life and the aspirational government structure we enjoy, imperfect as it may be. There are inequities, inequalities, inefficiencies, and corrosive players indeed, but there has been since the birth of the republic. 

        It should be ours to fix, make better, and live into the promise. Like many of you we mourn what happens in Ukraine, and in Russia too. Both nations victimized by a despot and human villainy in ignorance of international and moral law.

 

        There is nothing guaranteed about our freedoms.

As citizens it would be good to invoke to ourselves passages of the oath taken by our military, and our elected representatives.

        "I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..."

        It is the sane thing to believe, say and do.

        Stay well. Live strong.

        See you down the trail.

 

    

"Love In The Age Of Virus..."

Tracking North and West from Top of the World Cambria

time to think

    Exile at home. With your calendar mostly scrubbed, have  you had more time to think? That could mean worry, dread, maybe compassion, thankfulness, love, or that you want a new couch, to paint the wall, or rearrange something. Things are different and changing out there, so is our perspective.

     Planet earth is breathing easier, and groaning less. Civilization has slowed and is on the verge of changes, the shape of which we can only imagine. Another nudge in our evolutionary trip. Our minds have been contorted and our thinking pushed to permutations. We have questions, the answers are missing in action.

     Philosophers, never over employed and who make a practice of thinking, that is what they trained to do, will tell you this is a time of inspiration, discovery, emergence. 

     I tell you it is time to pay attention to a tree, this tree.

San Simeon Creek Road, San Luis Obispo County, Ca

tolerance 

or 

endurance

     Not sure which is most appropriate. I think of this tree as a teacher of Tolerance and Endurance.

     Every breathing soul on this planet knows more about tolerance and endurance than we did a month ago. We've watched unimaginable scenes in hospitals, death without family, overworked and under protected medical teams, a system unprepared and overwhelmed. We've been anxious and witnessed fear, loss, new stretches of grief and have seen an heroic sense of duty and selflessness, every day.

     We've also witnessed stupidity, deception, and the perfect illustration of wretched classlessness and incompetence.

 So, this old tree can teach us a thing or two.

              Look at what it has experienced in its lifetime.

    Landowners frequently run barbed wire fences near young trees, and nature runs its course. The wire imbeds in the growing tree.

  If the cosmic recycler tells me I'm not ready for heaven and have another lap to do on the blue planet, I might ask to come back as a tree or elephant. So, I'm one of those who think this must have hurt. This is a living thing, ingesting torturous and never ending barbs, almost to the core.

  The tree grew and stands tall and strong.

  

    For this fine tree, the "new normal must" have taken some getting used to, don't you think?

     

how will change look

    How do you think things will look and work on the other side of this planet closing virus?  No one has been here, so every expectation is valid. Still, there are some who study and calculate the imponderables.  

    Small business owners, working people, school children, and all of us are right to hope a "strong economy" can be reengaged. We are right to expect the federal government to make things better. 

    On the other side of Covid-19, supply chains and dependent retail operators may evolve how they function. Shoppers likely will behave differently.

     Sports, big venue events, concerts, travel, and education will adapt, shudder, and perhaps even shutter. 
     Extended care facilities and nursing homes face hard challenges. 
     Faith groups have adapted with video technology, holding together, while isolated. Zoom, Facebook, YouTube and other streaming could foreshadow a future where maintaining buildings and campuses is costly and a growing challenge.
     A new business sector is likely, specializing in sanitation, storage, and disinfecting. Fashion may respond with safe wear masks, cover ups and the like.

     Creatures of habit, we will accommodate what is required, grump and whine about some of it, but quickly try to find a groove and maybe even a rut again. 

     I'd like to see a change in politics, the disappearance of the professional. As we look for treatment or vaccine, we could look to "heal" politics. 
     If we take money out of the election calculus, some will leave the business and perhaps drag the money hustle of elections with them. Campaigns cost millions, annoy like hell, do little to enlighten, appeal to childish or brutish cues, and we don't need that. We also don't need the ideologues, one issue zealots, business lackeys, or egoists. 
     I'd like people to demand public servants, emphasis on servant, instead of most of what we've got now.

looking around outside

 Iris in Lana's garden, Cambria

 Poppies on the back hill

    Something that has not slowed nor isolated are the hummingbirds, almost drunken with frenzy around the Echium or Pride of Madeira.

     I hope you've had time to think and to pay attention to the signals from nature in the spring. Life returns.
     And pay attention to the trees in your life. 

     See you down the trail.