WALKING FOR SANITY

It has been hard to start living alone just as this stay at home way of life started.  I know it has been hard for pretty much everyone.  All of us have our different dynamics, challenges and feelings.  The exception has been my youngest daughter.  She has been working non-stop in the food and beverage industry since she was in high school - she was furloughed  and has had the first break in 10 years!  But I digress.

 One of the reasons I decided on the little house I live in now is its proximity to Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.  It has a huge dog park, an Arboretum & Botanical Gardens and covers about 600 acres of space.  I have been going walking through the park several times a week all through the late winter and spring.  

It turns out Reno is really windy.  Did not know that before I moved here.  As a cyclist, I hate the wind - but as a pedestrian, it isn't all that bad. However - gale force winds gusting 30-60 mph is not conducive to a walk in the park.  As a Californian, I am geared for warm weather to start in March. It snowed and hailed and froze the water in my birdbath on June 7 here! 

When I go for a few days making excuses for not walking and then shove myself out the door I am always so happy my better nature took over and sent me out into the fresh air - be it cold and windy or scented with new blossoms.

This past week I discovered that the iris finally bloomed as did the lilacs.  There was a heavenly scent coming from the Mountain Roses. There are little cotton tailed bunnies all over the place and ducklings in a row paddling across the pond.

My sister got me started painting little rocks to be left behind when out and about, and it is always fun to see if my latest rock has been discovered and carried off.  I am no artist - the rock pictured here is my homage to Kandinsky. I made a whole series of them!

I usually walk for 30 to 60 minutes.  I go pretty early and find people are good about distancing and are still friendly.  I bring my mask but have not needed to wear it. 

I have made an effort to reverse my routes and find new paths and to climb at least 1 or 2 hills on each walk.  I don't listen to music on headphones, I listen to the birds and rushing water from the snow run off while it is still melting. I like to walk past the dog park and watch the romping pups.  I usually stop and find a bench and do a brief "meditation." Then head home again glad I made myself go.

POP GO THE PODS

Today was Groundhog Day and the little guy has decreed that Spring is on it's way.  Here in the SF bay area we are (sorry everyone else in the country) having really nice spring-like weather already.  Considering how cool our summer was and how rainy our fall was it is a nice break to have some sun and 65 degree weather.

I am not writing this to boast and make people feel bad about their weather and then move here (it's REALLY expensive and crowded already...) 

The reason I am writing about this is that all day I have been hearing the pop skitter, skitter of the wisteria pods in our backyard.  When the temperature climbs a bit and the sun warms those babies up, the burst open and send their seeds all over he patio.  The hard dry pods fall off, the vines, too.  It is a very noisy process!

I have been out sweeping up the pods and seeds daily.  What I should probably do is trim the vines back but I admit that I just love the flowers in the spring, even though the vines are really fast growing and invasive.

So today I was out sweeping and enjoying the sunny day.  Tomorrow I start something new...which I'll write about once things get going.

NOW IT''S PERSONAL

This year California is experiencing an El Nino weather pattern. This means the ocean water in the southern part of the state is warmer which causes the jet stream to drop south from it's usual haunts up around Oregon and Washington state, down to the San Francisco Bay Area. So we have been having a very cool and rainy spring. By late May were are normally well into the high 70 - low 80 degree days; wearing our flip flops and capris and enjoying our patio time before the heat of the summer days sets in.

Instead, we are having rain, rain, wind, clouds and 60 degree temperatures. I dispare for having any tomatoes this year but I know we need the rain because we have had several seasons of drought. But today - the weather made it personal, and I am really unhappy.

I have my mosaic craft area set up on a outdoor deck. During a short period of milder weather, I untarped part of the work bench so I could grout a pot I finished at the end of the fall. I wanted to plant it because I had already bought the special kind of lavender I like and that's what I wanted to plant in the pot.

So the pot was grouted and sealed and I was just giving it a few days to cure before planting it. The wind must have whipped up the tarp and knocked it off the bench -

To get all those half marbles to set in place on the rounded pot took so much time. It is hard to see in the photo (because it is so darned cloudy) but the marbles are all iridescent and the glass tile is purple with metallic streaks, so it is a very fanciful look, different from anything I have made before.

So, it's feeling very personal, this El Nino.