PARTY DAY IN AMERICA

QUICKLY, BEFORE THE COMMERCIALS

    Some thoughts on Egypt, intelligence and media coming up, but first.....

I've got barbecue sauces to finish for the wings and jalapeno jelly to put on cheese before friends pick us up for the drive to the SB Party.  Even the President takes some down time right?

    Enjoy.  

THE WEEKENDER :) A LOVE AFFAIR

THE SEX LIFE OF GRAPES

     Just being in wine country, in this case the Paso Robles appellation, evokes a litany of feeling.  I begin to imagine aroma and the treasure chest of tastes, varied and rich in diversity.  There are days when those primer responses trigger companions like perhaps the fragrance of tomatoes and garlic in olive oil, or fennel and lemon sauteed in truffle oil.

    Isn't it a bit like the endorphins that fire when you think of your lover, or take flight in your mind to moments of passion.  The body follows the mind. 

Seeing the fruit on the vine simply intensifies it all.  Taste becomes luscious and from somewhere in the cosmos rushes in feelings of clear California light, Pacific breezes filtered by the mountain valleys of the Templeton Gap.  It is ephemera, but it is vibrant and joyous.  Like the hint of your mate's body revealed by a loose garment, or imprinted  by a physique revealed by the way a shirt or pants fit or cling.  Libido begins to smile.

     So, this is going somewhere.  By the time the fruit cluster meets the harvesting crew

ancient days and sexual ways have met.  There has been a cosmic romance that has danced through soil, sun, vine, leaf and grape.    

WELL, ON THE OTHER HANDS, MAYBE GRAPES HAVE BECOME, DEPRIVED. LINK HERE FOR THE SAD TALE   

I NEVER KNEW.

IF THIS IS SO, PITY THEN THE POOR RAISIN!

SO DELIGHT IN BEING HUMAN, WITH URGES.

CHEERS!

SEE YOU DOWN THE TRAIL

BEAUTIFUL WOMEN ON THE ROAD

AN ECLECTIC VILLAGE LOCAL EDITION

A WALK FOR HEART HEALTH

Linda Walker, Victoria Whelchel, Lana Cochrun, Maryann Grau

     They called it a "challenge walk."  It was a challenge they met, easily and with purpose.

      The four Cambria women are part of a group of friends who meet for a walk and then coffee twice a week.  They began to discuss a walk from from Cambria to San Simeon during lunch last Friday. Today, they set off from Leffingwell Landing on the north end of Moonstone Beach at  9:00 AM.  Their friends who gathered at Lilly's Coffee deck speculated as to how the walkers were doing on their almost 7 mile journey.

     They followed the famous Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway.  The temperature started in the 50's and warmed into the low 60's as they made the 6.8 mile walk.

Victoria, Maryann, Lana, Linda

     The women opted to wear red, to signify Women's Heart Health Day.  Nature also provided color and beauty.

     As their coffee drinking pals speculated about when they would arrive in San Simeon,

 Linda, Victoria, Maryann and Lana made rapid progress. 

     The foursome arrived at the Sebastien Store at 10:55, even before Abby had opened the deck for lunch.

      Yvonne and Mark Kantor, who joined the trek along the route, and Jim Bergren joined us for lunch.  We were soon joined by more of our Cambria "Friday lunch flash mob" for our usual palaver and good cheer.  

     As the walkers were driven home, south along the coast, they commented, variously, on sore gluts, upper thighs or bottom of the feet, but were already discussing the next challenge walk.  Another one that ends near a restaurant. Village life is good.

COMING TOMORROW TO THE WEEKENDER :)

THE SEX LIFE OF GRAPES

See you down the trail.

FREEDOM CAN BE THIN

ON THE EDGE

Photo by Scott Nelson for the New York Times

     Continuing disorder and social meltdown in Cairo raises the strength of variable influences. The Muslim Brotherhood had been on the periphery of Egyptian politics.  But violence, anger, suggestions of government backed mobs and disorder only serve to strengthen the potential role of the Brotherhood or radical Islamist elements. When anger seethes it creates a need for leaders.  What began as personal discontent, grows like a stream into a river of combined fury and it is at these times when unanticipated outcomes occur, like the rise of a leader or the direction of a movement.  Symbols and martyrs can arise.

Photo by Ed Ou for the New York Times

      In the beginning it looked as if the Mubarak government was willing to hear from opposition elements, to even negotiate a possible settlement.  That changed when the violence occurred. 

    Situations like Cairo serve to remind us how fragile is our line of civility.  Mob mentality, thuggery and violence returned for violence upends social order.  Journalists

working in such environments do so at great peril.  They strive to keep information flowing.  Left to their own, governments under siege seek to shut off the free flow of information.

                      Gangs Hunt Journalists and Rights Workers-link to story here

CELEBRATING AN OLD FIGHTING SYMBOL

     One hundred years ago today, Governor Hiram Johnson made the "bear flag" the official flag of California.

     The bear flew for the first time in 1846 in Sonoma, raised by American rebels who staged the Bear Flag Revolt. 

      The US tried to negotiate to buy California and New Mexico from the Mexican government.  The Mexicans said no, so the US, under President James Polk, declared war in the spring of 1846.  In June, a group of Americans captured Sonoma and took a leading Mexican General, Mariano Vallejo, captive. They lowered the Mexican flag and sent up the first incarnation of the Bear Flag.

    Historians says William Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln was the artist for the design.

DAY BOOK
BLOOMS

       Flowering trees still have a magic hold on me.  I remember the first year I really noticed the blooms of flowering trees. It was as if I had been awakened or made conscious. The grass was green, luxuriantly green, there was a fragrance in the air, the sun seemed to soak away the gray and grit of a cold winter, full of drabness and a sense of relentlessness.  

      I recall the feeling of the moment.  It was an excitement, a sense of new and a limitlessness.  It was early one morning as I walked to a 6:30 AM track practice.  First there was a quiet and then a harmony of bird song filled the rich mix of a warming morning sun and the scent of trees and flowers in bloom. It was probably my freshman year, but the exhilaration I sensed is like a sample from a museum of life that is felt again by simply bringing it to mind. 

I equate flowering trees with the eternal spring that I glimpsed all those years ago as a boy who suddenly became aware of the power of rebirth.

I've noticed that birds, sea birds and those on land like to meditate in morning sun.

    As turbulent scenes play out elsewhere on the web and television, the best I can leave you with are these few scenes of genuine peace and tranquility. So it should be.
See you down the trail.

Getting the Story out

THE BEST YOU CAN DO, UNDER PRESSURE

     We admire the courage as well as the skill of journalists getting the story out of Egypt.

As a kid I learned that media coverage was not without risk. I watched as reporters covered the beatings, fire hose assaults, dog attacks and other violence by southern lawmen on black Americans, white civil rights activists and the journalists themselves.  

     During my years in journalism I found myself in moments of mayhem, violence and danger.  Something would kick in, perhaps a false illusion, that being in pursuit of a story, or facts would somehow protect you.  I learned that is not the truth.

     I also appreciate the ingenious use of personal technology and social networks in gathering and disseminating news.

      ON THAT POINT, HERE IS AN INTERESTING SKIRMISH-A SIDEBAR TO THE LARGER STORY IN EGYPT

     The story will move and change.  Power and control is at issue, so it will also be complex.  Reporters will do what they can to get as much information out as they can manage. That has also become a story. 

      

THE PLANT POLICE

ON THE BEAT ON THE RANCH

     The Fiscalini Ranch is some four hundred acres of magnificent nature, nestled between Cambria and the Pacific.  Years of effort by visionary residents saved the gem from development.  With a network of hiking trails lacing the rolling hills and bluffs, it is cared for and protected by the Friends of Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, a volunteer and donation funded group.  

The Friends have decided to take it native.

For several years, volunteers have toiled to remove a variety of invasive species.  They can be seen laboring away, digging, cutting and removing plants  

determined to be invasive and damaging.

They toil hard on the expanse

 and attempt to complete their work in an environmentally

sensitive way.

After being cut or dug and hauled to dry, the invaders are 

then taken way.

But not everyone is in complete agreement.  It would not be Cambria

if there were not multiple opinions.

This ice plant is not a native to the area, but has been here for generations.

It provides a beautiful bloom and is fire retardant.  However it is aggressive,

weighs down the cliff sides and some argue it contributes to caving and erosion

while snuffing out native species.

Wild mustard and wild radish provide a beautiful blanket of color,

but they too grow aggressively and choke out, poppies, sea daisies, buckwheat and other

native species.

At least one point of contention is when should the calendar for defining native be started?  At what point can the Eco system be viewed as being pristine or the way it should be?  Some argue that animal migration and seeding is a part of nature.  Good arguments are made from several points of view.  Again not surprising given the reasonably informed,  independent and opinionated citizenry of this part of the middle kingdom.

So the plant police remain on the job doing their backbreaking work while the awesome beauty of nature remains. And people grumble, while others labor

     and some of the native audience may wonder about human ways.  That is if

Egrets are considered native.  One may need  to determine the origins of their arrival here. And it needs to be checked with the "proper" source, naturally.

As Cambrians say "this is not like the rest of the world."

SHELTER FROM THE STORM

WE ARE THE CONTRAST

     Cris, a buddy from Indiana called today as he stood on an inch of ice, in a cold gale at Crown Hill Cemetery.  He awaited the arrival of the funeral procession for IMPD officer David Moore, gunned down in the line of duty.  A howling storm taking aim at the nation from the southwest to the upper north east could not stop tribute and devotion.

       I spoke with David's father yesterday.  Spencer Moore, a retired police officer, is an old friend and former broadcast colleague from yesteryear, when we were both young bucks.  Spencer was  holding up well.  His eulogy today was powerful and riveting. Still the storm's assault was relentless and a drive by David's precinct was dropped for a straight line process, in snow and ice to where cold citizens with warm hearts saluted a hero in an act as steadfast as a mountain.

THE BEST WE CAN DO IS OFFER A ROAD FROM WINTER, YOUR FATIGUE FROM WATCHING EGYPT OR YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE BALL GAME.

MAYBE OUR SCENES WILL PROVIDE WARMTH 

THE PROMISE OF HOPE

OR THOUGHTS OF SPRING

DAY BOOK

THE PROBLEM HERE IS SMALL-

A MATTER OF POLLEN

    The Monterey Pines are "candling," creating pollen saturated cones.

     I shoveled snow for years.  I'd much rather sweep pollen.

For those of you reading at the time of or from the storm we wish you well.

Hope the power stays on and that you stay warm. 

Spring will find you.

 See you down the trail.