No sad sunflowers, please!

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Today Zing! and I went hunting for sunflowers, and we found them on a quiet road outside Winters, CA. Yes, there is a sunflower field across from Pedrick’s nut store, but those flowers looked sad. You do not celebrate in a field of sad sunflowers. So Zing! and I drove a little farther. We were looking for a field where we felt safe to stop. We found one buzzing with bees.

Love,

k

Those white boxes are full of bees

For the love of pink and blue

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Here are some flowers I’m painting. Looks like I’m favoring pink and blue!

Love,
k

11" x 14"
acrylic on canvas

16" x 20"

acrylic on canvas

9" x 12"

acrylic on canvas board

Sunday wanderings

Written last night:

Dear Friends,
1. Today I got lost coming home from the winery. 
Heringer’s, on the other side of the river.
I wandered back home the long way.

2. Then I sat reading (about bridges) outside on a bench
with Zing! sunning beside me.
We had several conversations with friends who passed by --,
about good hiking near Auburn
and cooperative living in West Sacramento
and the charm of dogs who can’t jump.

3. At the winery a woman named Toni introduced her husband.
He said he goes to Miami on movie business.
He laughs at all the fancy cars there.
He tells the parking attendant to be careful with his plain truck.
It's full of equipment
worth more than many Lamborghinis.

“I pray we’ll meet again,” Toni said as we left. 
It’s a good reason to go back and buy wine.

That was my Sunday.
Love,
k

California wetlands

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

The Yolo Basin - Davis Wetlands reminds me slightly of the Florida Everglades. It’s flat, wet, and grassy. So of course I have wanted to explore it. You zip through this area on I-5 to San Francisco, but it looks inaccessible from the freeway. Finally today I got to see the place.  About 40 people showed up for a wildlife tour sponsored by the city of Davis,  including a bored teenager visiting from Switzerland and many photographers with giant lenses.  I enjoyed just  finally being there.

Love,

k

This is Tule grass, native to the area

Tule and a cormorant in the tree

Home to someone

Lots of the crowd carried photo gear

I wasn't swaying -- the bookshelves were

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

I have decided to relax and treat this like a real four-day weekend.

This morning Zing! and I drove 20 minutes away to the Davis Water Treatment Facility. It’s in the middle of a field outside the city. A wildlife tour begins there tomorrow, and I might go. I like to check out places ahead of time because the secondary roads are still new to me. 

Back home, I read for probably two hours — a book about water management in California. (Clark would chuckle at the thought, but water is such a vital force here that I want to know a little about it.)

Then I looked at trees and drew some flowers.

Then, after dinner, when I was at the table coloring the flowers, I felt my first earthquake. Just a little shake. It was unsettling, like maybe I was going to faint, but it wasn’t me that was swaying — the bookshelves were. Just slightly. I thought I was imagining it. Then Zing! looked up in alarm from his pillow on the floor. And then the pendulum on the brass clock went knocking wildly side to side. Then it stopped. 

I can’t imagine getting used to it.

I called Steph and Patrick. Steph said it made sense — she’d just heard their house creak, and it doesn’t normally do that. 

It was real — here’s the Sacramento Bee headline just now:

Magnitude-6.9 earthquake strikes Ridgecrest, California; felt as far north as Sacramento

Glad to say all is back to normal.

Love,

k

I love bridges -- I love books about bridges

A Tale of Two Bridges: The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridges of 1936 and 2013 by Stephen D. Mikesell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to know more about my new state of California, and one way to learn is through its bridges. This book is about the Bay Bridge
I learned
• it is actually two spans -- one from San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island and another from the island to Oakland. Together they are the Bay Bridge.
•the Bay Bridge was completed in 1936.
•There was a reconstruction in 1963, when the rail line was removed.
•There are two levels on the bridge -- top deck westbound and bottom is eastbound.
•The bridge was damaged at Pier E-9 by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.
•One person was killed on the bridge when she drove the wrong way after the earthquake. (The book suggests she did not follow directions of a Caltrans worker, but her family was awarded more than $1 million in 1991-- the LA Times said officers failed to properly control traffic. Mikesell does not cover this aspect.)
This book is about the differences in the initial Bay Bridge construction and the rebuilding of the Yerba Buena-Oakland span after the earthquake. It's rather dry, but I loved reading all that detail.


View all my reviews

Just showing up

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Today I went to the gym and then to a — what do you call it? meeting? rally? demonstration? — those things that happened around the country to protest the treatment of people in detention at the southern border. It was at the U.S. Courthouse. I went just to be another person there. I didn’t shout or carry a sign or anything. I didn’t even really hear what the speakers said. I stood in the shade beside a fountain, which dulled the sound, and anyway the audio was terrible. But I didn’t care because if we’ve watched the news we all know what the speakers said. There was a bigger crowd than I expected; it filled the patio at the entrance to the courthouse, and there was also a crowd along I Street, holding signs so drivers passing by could see.* Lots of cars honked in agreement, and big trucks sounded their horns often too. 

Dignitaries talked. I was standing at the back edge, next to a man in a suit, wearing sunglasses. He carried his iPhone oddly — under his armpit, kind of like a pistol. When someone important — you could tell by the louder applause — began to speak I asked the man, “Who’s that?” he looked straight ahead and didn’t respond. So I guess he was security for that person, whoever it was. There was also a strategist from the governor’s office standing nearby. He did smile hello. 

Earlier this morning I went searching for fields of sunflowers. I don’t want to miss their big bloom this year, like I did last year. I found some in Yolo County, but they were on a busy road. I want to stop safely and draw them. I’m going to search for a more rural field later this week.

Love,

k

* Move on email this morning said "400 people showed up on their lunch hour today to say CLOSE. THE. CAMPS!" 

Zing! prefers poetry in the park

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Zing! loves poetry. He listens when I read to him. But he doesn’t go to poetry events — until this evening. On summer Mondays the Poetry Center has poetry in the park, and that means dogs are welcome. After dinner today Zing! and I walked over to Fremont Park and sat on the grass. We heard spoken word — a loose term that tonight meant words as entertainment, storytelling and a bit of call and response with the audience. The poet was Jenny Lynn, who has a “Dare me to say it again” attitude. She was followed by Jeanette Sem, but Zing! said one poet was enough for tonight.

He did nod that we should go again.

Love,

k