SHADOW PLAY and DOES THIS SURPRISE YOU?

SHADOW PLAY

     Wherein a recent walk over a bridge spanning a now dry wash offered a chance at a dimensional portrait.

    You can see the effect of the now historic drought along the central coast.  We need rain.

IS ANYONE REALLY SURPRISED?

    In reviewing data from four states, the Associated Press has learned you can't trust what the oil and gas industry says about ground water contamination.

     Records from Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia find many more problems with well water contamination than what industry sources say, that such problems are rare. 

     There are serious problems and they are spreading as gas and oil drilling and fracking spread.  Too bad there isn't a law to crack down on lying corporations and public relations officials. Too bad too that Dick Cheney got away with his criminal conspiracy to allow the lying corporations to skirt clean air and water standards.  And while we are lamenting, too bad the justice department hasn't gone after crooked Dick for any number of his corrupt practices, many of which are now documented by authors, historians and the Inspector General's office.  

     Cheney has lived long enough to see the truth made public about how even George W banned him from the oval office and close contact. I hope he lives long enough to see criminal charges brought against him.  He can totter off into the sunset assured that historians will rip his heart out-that would be his original heart, mechanical heart and the one he got when others, more critical and more in the target profile, continued to wait.  Too bad no one has investigated how the old buzzard got that new heart.

     See you down the trail.

CATS IN BOX, PENTATONIX, ARTS BUILDING MEMORIES & A BEACH WARM UP-THE WEEKENDER

THIS IS MORE THAN CURIOSITY

    Hemingway and Joy love boxes. A container from a trip to our "big box" store was temporarily put in the garage, pending it's filling with Christmas lights.  We didn't move quickly enough.These two rascals decided to encamp there, together! Put a box in the garage and immediately a curious cat is inspecting it from the inside.

DAYS OF MEMORY

    Our friend Lew sent along a summer scene of the Arts Building Terrace at Ball State University. It's a place of special significance to Lana and me.  Her art classes were in this hall as were my political science courses. I addressed a

throng of students who filled the lawn at an early Earth Day celebration and spoke to another crowd while running as a class officer candidate.  

    This was also a green that filled with sun and nap takers, lunch breakers, and romance makers.  It is also a gorgeous building and sits as a boundary to what was once the center of the campus. Could it really have been that long ago?!

                             A PARTING MELODY

   Charles Dickens was right.  Regardless of faith or belief, we should keep Christmas in our heart all year.  Here's a unique take on a seasonal classic.  Enjoy

Cheers!
A TRIP TO SHAMEL BEACH

    As many of you suffer through winter's icy blast, we offer

a few moments of light and sea from California's central coast at Cambria's Shamel Park beach.

   Hope this warmed you a bit and perhaps evoked memories of land without snow and ice.

    See you down the trail.

PUZZLING AND PLAYING

LEFT OVERS

   It's become a self imposed ritual to begin a new year by cleaning out something.  In recent years it seems to be computer or photo files.  This year I unloaded and deleted a lot of stuff from computer and phone and feel better now!

IT IS NOT TEDIOUS

   When we arrived to visit friends they were in the final stages of finishing a puzzle, but finding the going very slow because they were dealing with a section of sky and the pieces were similar.  Lana is a dedicated puzzler so she, Marcos and Bill, put an end to the challenge.

   Were it up to me, I might have framed that puzzle or laminated it so that it's completeness could be kept and celebrated forever.  But it was not up to me and all too soon I thought, they were off on another challenge.

 There appears to be a kind of mania that seizes puzzle workers in the grips of a new 1000 piece challenge.

 So many pieces this time, they had to be spread around the room.

 The theme was comedy and as I started looking at some of the jigsaws I was captivated by old TV and movie memories.
Soon I was doing my best to add an ear, or eye, or hat or some such.  I'd hit a dead end and go back to reading, saying that is tedious work. 
  "It is not tedious to someone who enjoys it" Marcos observed, "it is part of the challenge."
   I took note that part of the challenge is also working up an appetite for sweet, or a drink.
   Eventually, again, with assistance from Norma Jean, not pictured here, our champs, solved another one.

 A SO CAL TOAST

The mid west is so deeply imbedded in Lana and me that we excite, like a kid on his or her first trip to Disneyland, when we are around fresh fruit trees.  Especially so for Lana who loves fresh OJ.

Cheers! 

Happy New Year.

I feel good about getting these snaps off my phone.

And I'm happy for the great memories.

See you down the trail.

THE WAY IT LOOKS-THE WEEKENDER

WAITING & HAPPY

    It is a bitter sweet time of year isn't it, this emotional roller coaster of late December?  The end of the year comes as a definitive statement of either gains or losses, joys or regrets, but it runs directly into that grand and waiting portal of hope, the new year, where and when all things are again possible. Dreams and aspirations are birthed when we arbitrarily mark the turn of the calendar. Happy beginning indeed.

      Noted below in a powerful video is the chronicle of California people just an hour north of us in Big Sur. They enter this new year with an urgent need.

WINTER

CENTRAL COAST STYLE

   Stolo Winery-Cambria

   Mission Plaza-San Luis Obispo

                      Fiscalini Ranch-Cambria

    Such things are unofficial of course, but these may be the first of the California poppies of the season, and it is not yet spring.  Nor has it been wet, but here they are, on the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve in Cambria.

    Katherine and Lana-Bluff Trail-Cambria

AFTER THE FIRE
Heart felt video of Pfeiffer Big Sur fire

See you down the trail.

ABOUT A WOMAN AND WOMEN

HE SPOKE WISDOM

     Pay attention to the women in your life. Treat them with kindness, tenderness and affection. That in essence was an early lesson from my father.  He is the man who always made a point of kissing my mom when he returned home from a day at work, and always before leaving.  Not just a peck, a real kiss. There were times in my life when I was embarrassed by it.  I grew out of that.

     He was always quick to compliment my mother on her appearance, the meal she had prepared or something she may have said or done in a group or professional setting. He always had a good word for his mother or her sisters, all of whom were English, properly presented and sticklers on good manners.

     So now I brag for a moment about Lana, who's art and gardening have been the subject of previous posts.  This is a more seasonal praise.  She has been baking bread for some 40 years and in that time has become a true master.  But this holiday time of the year, she hears an even different call.

A BUSY KITCHEN

     Here is a representative sample of her efforts a couple of days ago.  There was more of everything, but these were captured before they too were boxed or gift wrapped. Biscotti, cranberry bread and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Nice to look at, but even better to taste. An incredible output you may think?  Well, on this day she also baked her regular bread and made pasta! 
     There are also chocolate covered orange peels, spicy almonds and sugared pecans, come to life on a different day.
     It is amazing that in all the effort, and there is a lot involved, she is humming or singing and operates with the efficiency a finely tuned factory. I get tired simply watching her, but she moves like an athlete.  I do my part my sampling.  And there is a later shoulder massage, well earned.

REEL THOUGHTS

     American Hustle is a brilliant film adventure and it is no wonder it's gotten a lot of buzz.  The acting is the brilliance! 

     It is a "somewhat truthful" retelling of an odd moment in American history, ABSCAM, thus a good story. It is well directed by David Russell and made entertaining by its capture of time by wardrobe and bad haircuts and amusing. But the acting sells the deal.

      Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner are all-have I used the word-BRILLIANT. Louis CK is perfect in his supporting role and Robert DeNiro turns in a short but stunningly haunting role.

      This is a fun and captivating entertainment and I suspect you'll leave the theater talking about how good the cast was. 
       If you are interested in such facts, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence are dazzling beauties. I notice these things. Again it goes back to my dad, who while always an English gentleman-he was raised that way-truly enjoyed the company of women and they were comfortable with him.
      He was chivalrous and sensitive. My memory is somewhat hazy, but it was fortified by mom's recounting. When I was a wee one, dad taught me how to wink, using the women of his office as my training partners.  Never a full wink, like a blink.  No, as he was in teaching me basketball skills, he was specific.  A real wink needs to be subtle, a gentle motion to be seen only by the recipient. 
       As I recall a wink toward a blond coed led to something that more than 40 years later leaves me with a partner I gladly kiss on arriving and departing. And who does things in the kitchen for which there are not enough compliments.
      Maybe you are shopping for a new year's resolution-pay attention-work on your wink and as Otis Redding sang "Try a little tenderness...."
      See you down the trail