Over Hill....

Started the day sitting idly (as usual) watching the birds feed in Inez's yard. She has a huge flock of Band-tailed Pigeons, she refers to - understandably -as 'Pigs with Wings'. Those pigeons eat your weight in food every day. No lie! No photos!

Mid morning I abandoned Inez to her piano practice to check out the piers and harbors on the Crescent City shores. When I visit the area there are always different seabirds visiting. It's as if they take turns or something. One visit it's Rhinoceros Auklets, the next oodles of Marbled Murrelets off shore with the babies of the year, and the next visit it's Pacific Loons or Harlequin Ducks. This time it was mostly colorful Surf Scoters and a few Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Loons in breeding plumage. My photos are really sucky lately so only managed one or two even vaguely worth sharing.

Male Surf Scooter

While at the pier, I looked in vain for Surfbirds, my Godmother called. Enjoyed a lovely chat with her while watching a flock of Aleutian (Cackling) Geese wing by on their way to the wildlife refuge. My Godmother Bernice is 85 and so help me, in great shape.

Aleutian Geese - photo by Skip Hansen

At the pier: Selfishly Unwilling to Share Crab Breakfast
Saturday afternoon we drove north to Harbor Oregon. We treated ourselves to some great clam chowder, fish n' chips. There was also an unplanned shoe & book shopping opportunity. I got a new pair of walking shoes and a book of New York Times Crosswords (cannot WAIT to dig into those babies!).

Every Bookstore Needs a Resident Kitty
After leaving the shoe store, while strolling past a statue of a ship's captain, we had a surprise. The statue came to life, nearly scaring the pee out of me. The guy -as well as his little Collared Dove were very good at flash-freezing themselves.

Stoic Old Salts of Harbor Oregon
Had fun doing girlie stuff Inez, shopping and all. In the evening we enjoyed a dinner of Thai Soup (my all time favorite soup),Thai veggie rolls and chicken w/pineapple & brown rice and a movie. The movie, Cookie's Fortune is Inez's favorite and I got thought it was fun and surprising in the way things resolved. It's a Robert Altman flick (M.A.S.H., Goshford Park). It was strange seeing classical actress Liv Ulman playing a southern floozy - talk about not choosing a standard casting choice! Anyway, it was a thoroughly fun day in one of my favorite towns on the planet, not to mention my favorite Crescent City naturalist.

I love this photo of Inez. Reminds me of a commercial in which
2 little girls say of their parents, "They're so cute at that age".

Driving Up-Coast

Took a quicky 3 day mini-break, leaving a HUMONGOUS carbon footprint in my wake - sorry Earth Mother. Drove up to Crescent City to visit my friend Inez. I decided to get there by way of Redding, i.e., north on Highway 5.

Since I was passing by anyway, I stopped off for a short drive at Black Butte Lake, where I worked back in the iron-age (i.e., when I ceased ironing my clothing), circa 1979/80. I was there as a wheezie Park Ranger Assistant - my allergies all but killed me in the pollen saturated Central Valley but it was fun anyway. The first thing I saw there was an Osprey on a man-made nesting platform.

No clue if there were babies/eggs or just a little nursery planning
There were loads of Bullock's Orioles which were terribly skittish so no photos of them this time. There were far more cooperative photographic subjects though.

Discovered an interesting wildflower that you will find kinda funky but I think it's cool and will be more cool if I can research where it got it's funky name from.


Strange little flowers: Windmill Pinks, but also called Common Catchfly

Another flower with a weird name: Roundtooth Snake Lily
Further north on Highway 5 I passed some beautiful pockets of vernal pools stoked with gold wildflowers - very pretty for a normally boring stretch of highway.


Vernal Pools edge alongside HWY 50
There were also plenty of snow capped mountains and such to gawk at on.

Snow Capped Mountain on the drive up Hwy 50

Mountain view in Weaverville
I found myself on Hwy 101 mid afternoon. I swear, I'd forgotten driving north on HWY 50 instead of just cutting over to HWY 101 puts a driver north of both Arcata, Eureka and the fabulous Avenue of the Giants. That meant after hitting Hwy 101 it was just another hour north along the coast to Crescent City.

Was, needless to say, after my long day's drive, I was a bit wrung out by the time I got to Inez. She is looking good and happy in her retirment with Smokey her faithful companion kitty. Inez recently treated herself to something I can relate to: a kitchen makeover. She's tickled with her new fridge, microwave, wallpaper and such. We compared notes, on how remodels don't just feel like you got a new room, they feel like you got a while new house! Now that's some genuine non-caloric kitchen magic for you.

This is the first visit to Crescent City in which I stayed, not at the Crescent City Beach Motel, but instead stayed entirely at Inez's place. I am grateful she extended the invitation because though I love staying at the beach motel, after the drastic pay cuts all State workers got, I likely wouldn't have attempted the visit if I had to stay at the beach motel. Thanks Inez!

New Anxiety - Oh Lucky Me

Woke in the witching hours, stunned. Since childhood, whenever I am freaked or worried about something I have had anxiety dreams. As a kid, those dreams were me, trying to find clothing to wear to school. But each outfit I tried on was dirty, torn or too small. Years later, with the joy of having my own set of wheels came a new sort of anxiety dream. I dreamt I had parked somewhere but could not find my car. I'd hike up hill & over dale but no car. The HORROR!

Last night I had an anxiety dream. No surprises there really. At work at an impromptu bitch session we railed on how dismal our employment is these days. There are furloughs that lift thousands of dollars our of our pockets and worse, threat of no furloughs, just a 15% permanent pay cut. These days how could anyone work for State government and not suffer anxiety dreams?

But my dream in the wee hours of this morning was different. In the dream I woke in a bed in a strange & shadowy room. There was a large & dark, cloaked menacing figure at the door - a figure growling mit ein thick Austrian accent. Panicked, I began to fumble, searching for my iPhone. Yes, damn it, I sleep with my iPhone. But I couldn't find it! I tumbled out of bed and tore through dresser drawer after dresser drawer, desk and closet, frantically seeking my dear, my darling iPhone, to no avail. Oh the ungodly AGONY!

So, for what it's worth, I must embrace a new sort of anxiety dream for my anxiety dreams and nightmares: the missing iPhone.