Category Archives: California

Trees

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.” – John Steinbeck

I have written about the California coastal redwood forests in prior posts. I keep coming back because I love these trees, I love nature, and I love California. I have visited the redwood forest a couple of times and it is truly awe inspiring. We can visit now with virtual tours, videos, and beautiful images. I hope to go and visit them again after we are released from our ‘ stay at home’ orders. For now I have the trees around my house that provide shade and shelter for the birds and squirrels. Here in my part of Southern California there are a lot of Oak trees. They are protected here and dot the landscape throughout this area and other parts of California.

Drive through Oaks, Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara, California via New York Public Library

Redwood National and State Parks in located in the northernmost coast of California and approximately 50 miles long from Crescent City to south of Oreck, California.

Maybe this ‘Stay at home’ time will inspire me to get out in the world much more than I have been in recent years. We’ve got to embrace life because, as this terrible crisis makes us so acutely aware, we can’t take life for granted.

What Day Is It Anyway? #WDIIA, is hosted by Linda G Hill

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2020

Featured image ‘Ancient Coast Redwoods tower above hikers at Simpson Reed Grove Trail’ courtesy of US National Park Service

Santa Monica Mountains National Park- Mountain Lions

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Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is part of the US National Park system goes from mountains to the sea. The park is home to wildlife including mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, quail, dolphins, and much more. There are many challenges to protecting wildlife surrounding our urban area in Southern California. The beautiful mountain lion in the above video, identified as P-56, had to be killed because he was attacking domestic livestock.

We have a Wildlife Bridge planned to help protect Mountain Lions as many have been killed trying to cross the freeways in Southern California.

Mountain lion kitten, p-6 via NPS

Santa Monica Mountain National Park Poppies and Lupine by NPS

Happy Earth Day! April 22, 2020

‘The Blue Marble: The View From Apollo 17’ Dec 7, 1972 via NASA

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2020

Rivers Oceans Mountains Deserts and My Backyard

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Below are some videos of California nature hosted by Professor Erika Zavaleta, UC Santa Cruz. In the first one she is discussing the Elkhorn Slough ( pronounced like slew, I used to think it was pronounced ‘sluff’). I have driven by the slough in the past while on trips and did not realize there are sea otters hanging out there too. They are so great to watch. In the second video she talks about all the different climates in California from West to East. Some beautiful scenery in these videos. The last one is a relaxing video ‘The gentle sound of a Mountain River and Spring Forest’ by TopRelaxMusic on You Tube.

https://youtu.be/8Smhfgp_Q8s

I was out digging around in the backyard again yesterday and heard a Red-tailed hawk overhead and saw a smaller hawk (Cooper’s hawk?) flying above as well. I have been clearing away leaves and some wood sorrel which is a weed that is trying to take over where my woolly thyme should be growing. The African Fern Pines drop a ton of leaves and little round fruit. Some birds and bats may eat the fruit. The leaves do keep the soil moist but they really pile up pretty thick and block the thyme ground cover. I am getting into yard work more and it is physical exercise too. It gets me outside in nature and fresh air. We are still on ‘stay at home’ orders.

I really do like to stay at home a lot in recent years but this is different because of the threat of infection lurking. It is terrible to know of all the people who are affected and those who have died. It still seems unreal all that has happened. I hope we can get back to normal soon.

Small fruit of the African Fern Pine

Cleared off soil with woolly thyme on left

Wood sorrel

What Day Is It Anyway? #WDIIA, is hosted by Linda G Hill

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2020

Night Will End

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” Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”-Victor Hugo

We can begin to see the glimmer of first light before the dawn. Some countries are beginning to let their people go back to work. We have not finished with this epidemic as yet in the US and people are still suffering from it. We are still having many deaths. But I have read the number of cases have started to decrease in many places around the country. So there is hope that we are seeing the beginning of the end.

My state of California is actively planning for the time when we will be able to end our quarantine. It may not happen for a few months yet. Some states will not be ready at the same time if their infection rates are peaking later. But eventually we will all be ready. We are not sure here in California what this will look like at first. People will probably wear masks in public places and no large gatherings.

From LA Times 4/15/2020:

Easing California’s lockdown

The governor said the stay-at-home mandate can be altered only when the state is able to:
Closely monitor and track potential cases.
Prevent infection of high-risk people.
Prepare hospitals to handle surges.
Develop therapeutics to meet demand.
Ensure schools, businesses and child-care facilities can support social distancing.
Develop guidelines for when to ask Californians to stay home again, if necessary.

I find myself upset by the thought of this changed life and that we could be asked to stay home again. People don’t like change in general and we have been going through major change. I don’t want fear to be in control of my life, however. I must find a way to live with all that may be coming and be able to find peace in my life each day.

While saying this I remember that there are people who had to continue to work during the epidemic and provide critical and essentially needed services to us all. They had to face the risk of infection every day. All the health workers, pharmacy, police, firefighters, truck drivers, grocery, delivery, and trash removal. Los Angeles County has created regulations to protect grocery workers and grocery delivery workers. Masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers must be provided to delivery workers. I counted on the delivery workers to bring my groceries for the past couple of weeks. I always thanked them and gave them a tip. Los Angeles County and my local city has provided assistance to those who need help with grocery and pharmacy pick up and delivery.

We will have to look back at all that happened and continue to grieve as well. We have to look how we handled the epidemic and be sure to learn from it.

NPR interview with David Kessler, a grief expert, on the grief associated with Coronavirus pandemic:

What Day Is It Anyway? #WDIIA, is hosted by Linda G Hill.

Blogging for A to Z April Challenge 2020

Featured image ‘Dawn in Joshua Tree, California’ by Jessie Eastland on Wikimedia.org

Missing People

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Yosemite without people has more animal visitors.

A mini-tour via National Geographic on You Tube:

A longer video for some quiet meditation by Milosh Ktchovitch ‘Amazing Places on Our Planet’ on You Tube:

What Day Is It Anyway?, #WDIIA is hosted by Linda G Hill.

Blogging from A to Z april Challenge 2020

Kelp Forrest Meditation

Just One Day At A Time

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Taking it one day at a time and still feeling some disorientation. I am learning to order groceries online and find it is not as easy as it might seem. Have to think more about what I need in the house for more than a week. I don’t know if I will get what I have ordered because there are still shortages. Then it might take another week to get a delivery. We have been advised to stay at home, not even go out for groceries or anything if possible for the next 2 weeks, by our government officials here in Southern California. I did get most of what I ordered yesterday so that is good. I planned to make some homemade chicken soup but realized I forgot to order some of vegetables, parsnips and rutabega. My husband and daughter said the soup was good. I go along during the day and forget what I am doing sometimes from one moment to the next. Good old Corona stress. I am grateful I do have food, a roof over my head, and my family.

Chicken soup with matzo balls

Chicken soup with matzo ball and side of charoset with matzo cracker

Mini Seder

From “MuseumMomentofZen courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art:

‘Tulips in the Sunken Garden’ at Filoli Estate shared on #MuseumMomentofZen

*Re-blogged for April 11,2020 Realized I was off the schedule for A-Z 2020 because I need to skip Sunday. I wondered why Linda G Hill and I were off by one day and she helped me see the light. Speaking of light, the word for today’s Stream of Consciousness is ‘joint.’ I feel AS IF I have been smoking lots of joints lately because of the disorientation of this pandemic crisis. I never smoked marijuana because I did not like the smell of it for one thing but I have heard those marijuana gummy bears are good for pain and sleep. Not ready to try it yet.

#Stream of Consciousness Saturday,#SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill.

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2020

A-Z Challenge 2020

Estimations

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“California continues to see dramatic increases in people hospitalized with the virus, with 2,300 patients in the state. Another 3,267 people hospitalized are suspected of having COVID-19, but are awaiting testing results.

Overnight, the number of coronavirus patients in California’s intensive care unit beds rose nearly 11% to 1,008 people.”

Barbara Ferrer, director of the L A County Department of Public Health “said Friday that L.A. County should expect to see 1,000 new coronavirus cases a day in the coming weeks and that the key to keeping the rate of spread manageable was for the public to stay largely at home.” (April 4, 2020, LA Times)

I have been following the IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) of University of Washington projection graphs for the estimated peaks of cases, compared with available resources. Each day I receive a newsletter from the LA Times that updates the local numbers. Los Angeles county numbers have been rising sharply the past couple of days which could be related to increased testing. It is just hard to see numbers rising even though it is not as severe as New York. But we don’t know the real number of cases because not enough tests have been done yet. I feel the tension rising with the numbers.

Relying on grocery delivery now to avoid going to markets in person. There are several days wait time to get the orders because the stores are having high demand. I am grateful that we can order groceries and have enough food to eat, that my kids are close by, and that we are all well.

What Day Is It Anyway? , #WDIIA, is hosted by Linda G Hill

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2020,

Featured image ‘Storm clouds gathering’ by Zooey on Flickr.com

Go Deep

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I need to reach deep into myself to gather my strength. Part of me wants to turn away, to hide. Is it a defense that automatically turns on to protect my heart from pain? But I feel I must bear witness, to see and hear what others are suffering, to honor their lives. I see you New York, New Jersey, Detroit, New Orleans, Georgia, Washington, my state of California, my country.

We must be in this together.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘deep.’

Featured image by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay.com

Creativity

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I have not been doing creative writing for a while. Not feeling inspired to do it and during these times of crisis it is hard to focus on it. Creativity can take many forms and there can be many expressions of it. I do feel moved to write about these times. I notice people coping creatively in a variety of ways. A lot of baking and gardening. My husband has been wanting to bake bread and there is not yeast to be found online or in stores. Nurseries are doing a good business. It is rewarding to go out and work in my backyard. Sleep has been a problem which affects my energy and functioning during the day. Last night I listened to opera before going to bed and it really helped. I kept the CD player at the bedside if case I woke during the night again. I remembered that listening to soothing music helped me after cancer surgery. It was healing for me. The sun is out and the sky is clear blue here today and that helps.

Feel that my reaction to this pandemic and the suffering is a grief process. Sadness beneath the surface like an underground river of tears. I do not practice a religion but do have spiritual needs for this time. I find it in music or nature and in love and caring. I do not practice Buddhism but find some of the prayers comforting. For all of us and those suffering and those caring for the sick:

“May you be held in compassion. May your pain and sorrow be eased. May you be at peace.”

What Day Is It Anyway? , #WDIIA, is a blogging community hosted by Linda G Hill.

Featured image ‘Barley at Sunrise’by Tsukioka Kogyo (Japan 1869-1927) shared by Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA, #Museum Moment of Zen. Thank you LACMA for a lovely idea of sharing peaceful images.