Very

First of all...to all of my people up towards Northern CA, I'm thinking of you and as I just learned about these earthquakes today...I hope you are all well and as unaffected as possible. Stay Safe Out There Folks!

 No short walk on this path today as the County was dredging the riverbed. I'm pretty sure they have their reasons and routines, but we felt bad for all of the wildlife that makes that space their home. We spoke about the duck we'd seen there recently and the frogs/toads we've heard. I suppose this is a prudent move pre-rainy season, but still. This is actually the Very First Time that we've seen some of the ever-present locks in use to stop people. If you've been on the Trail with me, you'll remember all of my locks photos. Here's one for today...

We did a tiny spin around City Park instead (part of that was blocked off too - what's going on today?!! lol). It was 80° on this December day. Wild.

It was surprising to see some very green leaves still on the trees. And some odd things on a tree as well, Go figure.

Close to home at a local park, very heavy duty tree trimming was going on yesterday. By today we noticed that most of the trees in the park were being cut down. A small amount of searching and I think the park is getting some very big upgrades. I'll be watching...in the meantime, watch this!

The Ross Sisters - Solid Potato Salad (DVD Quality) Full Video

LINK 5:13 minutes

I'm pretty sure I'd seen this video long ago...but fell upon it again this week and well...why not? In these trying times, I'm game to try a wide variety of escape, relief, self-care - you name it. So, this song and dance...wow! I may have winced in pain just watching them bend their bodies into impossible positions. Crazy. 

There was a lot of sidewalk chalk play at City Park. This is but one of them. One of us tried out this Hopscotch game. Hint: It wasn't me! You can't see well in this photo, but at the top of the last square, it says "POP" with a small grouping of bubbles. Very adorable.

A very good reminder to engage in some kind of "play" every day. Besides the little jaunt in the park, my play will be to continue stitching the name of the arriving soon baby!

What kind of play have you engaged in today?

May you find an alternate route

May you remain flexible, if only in your imagination

May you play each day

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2024 

Several Miles, Less Than One Hour, 60+ Degrees

~~~~~ ⼮~~~~~

Placerita Canyon Nature Center

 Today the stream...or is it, creek was running. We've only seen this once before, years back. 

I wished I could put a recording of the tinkling music here. I stood, hanging over the bridge, and listened.

⼮

I found some Time Markers 

And some amazing growth

The light stopped me in my tracks again and again.

There were not too many folks there on this Monday, it was quiet. But, I felt a bit watched at the same time!

Smile!

As we sat quietly, these little birds came out, one after another. Maybe Junkos? There were many more than I could capture in one photo. They had such a funny hopping, jumping walk. I felt like we were the young girl in PLAY WITH ME, sitting quietly while the birds explored . That is, until an elder came with her dog...when they all flitted away!

❤️

May you feel the love on Valentine's Day and every day

May you share the love in your heart each day

May you celebrate your love

xo

PS I listened to the love song in this post today. sigh.

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

Playing

 

☁️ ⛅️ ☁️

Today we played around with the PREVIEW program.

Him on his computer and me on mine.

I grabbed an unused (so far) recent photo and fooled around for a bit.

It was the fun kind of learning...no pressure, just playing.

This was my first try.

Handwriting on a computer!

Ha

 ☁️

I've always loved, actually needed

BIG SKY

While I'm not in Montana, their logo phrase always comes to mind

May you play

May you expand your view

May you make things yours

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2022

Reminded

I am reminded of many large rocks I've known by Grace's recent post.

These are not them.

My old photos are not in a photo book or a computer...or easy to lay my hands on. But, in my mind I am seeing very large rocks, surrounded by the green of Spring. Rocks you can climb onto or walk over...rocks that are boulders and live by running water.  I am imagining a large rock, with me perched on top, on Highway 154, near Santa Barbara and open meadow spaces with flat, low boulders near Three Rivers, CA. I've thought of this place a lot recently, since the last Fires there, when the famous General Sherman tree was wrapped in fire retardant foil to save it.

It survived.

Here we are visiting in the early 2000's.

We stayed at the Lazy J Ranch Motel - you can see photos of the green, the sheep and the river, but I'm not seeing the rocks I recall. Things change. It was such a cheery little place.

We met friends for pizza dinner and drove around the town, to get a sense of things. We saw the largest pig (or hog?) I'd ever seen! We saw the sweetest little Post Office. 

I've joked ever since that I could work at that Post Office! My style and speed.

Anyway, I've been having these thoughts since the fires, since Grace posted green and mentions large boulders and Dee had a tree with a story. These photos have been in this new computer for a while now, so I guess this was the time to share them.

Additionally, the rocks & tree lead to thoughts of the road in...

the road in

These photos with these old carved tree stumps are on the road into Three Rivers.

I wonder what stories these trees have to tell?

🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🐑 🐖🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🐦🐦🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲

On another note,

I treated myself to a new deck of cards for my lunch breaks. The old spit cards were so brittle that they became unusable. I'd like to play that hand-held Solitaire as I relax on my lunch break. I've had this deck in my Amazon cart for years. haha Finally, a treat for me. 😊

It arrived today and the deck included a promotional info card, so I went to their website.

I was so excited to see so many wonderful books, especially the children's books and the fact that you can check for books by your state! I looked at CA & MA. Then I did a search for "cards" and lookie, lookie what I found...all sorts of other playing cards...trees, flowers, mammals...even mushrooms for Grace and those of you who love them! There are 'animal tracks' - night skies - dinosaurs - fish! 5 delicious pages of delightful cards. I would order so many of these!

Anyway, J. and I already sat and looked through the whole deck, him thumbing through and announcing the names. Many we did not know. Two I Googled...

They were the ferruginous hawk, which we have possibly seen

and the green jay. Isn't that Green Jay beautiful? They both have such interesting calls. The hawk sounds like someone is getting murdered (or maybe that is too much PBS shows talking! 😉).

This was a fun little adventure into memories and learning things anew!

🧘🏼‍♀️

May you have things to look forward to, no matter how small 

May your days provide a little sweetness

May you find ways to embrace that

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2022

Card Play

This is a really old deck of cards. Seriously.

This deck of playing cards is at least 45 years old!

I call it my "spit cards", the cards we used to play spit...a lot!

These cards are battered, bent, torn...thrashed!

If the game of 'spit' wasn't so fast, they could be considered a 'marked' deck!

I loved this game, really loved it, most likely because I was really good at it. I can literally count on one hand games I was good at in my youth: Spit, Othello, Tether-ball, The Lowbar and The Rings (the kind with several rings around a center pole). That's the extent of my claim to fame :)

The video will explain the game very clearly, better than I could. But, I will add that after we'd played a few rounds, my hands were going faster than the sped up version here! I could almost predict which card would be in which pile. We'd sit on our towels at Free Zuma (beach) and play and play and play...cards flying, young bikini-clad bodies falling over in fits of laughter and shouts of "No way! That wasn't fair! I got there first!"

Those were the days!

Years later I taught my own children how to play. Oh the glee on my daughter's face when she finally won! I was still pretty quick then, so it was a big deal! I may just let that record stand!

All of this reminiscing came about because I was thinking about another card game, wishing to play it for its ability to be played in your lap. A good thing to have at hand these days. I'll explain it here, just for fun. But, don't worry the video below explains it very clearly. 

NOTE: Isn't it nice how you can learn so much online?

I've taught this single handed solitaire to many children over the years, starting with my own. It sure comes in handy on long road trips!

You begin by holding the whole deck (shuffled) in your hand.

You pull four cards from the back, placing them face up on top of the deck.

You work with the top four cards at all times.

TWO THINGS TO LOOK FOR:

If the first and fourth cards are the same suit - pull out the middle two and set them aside.

If the first and fourth cards are the same numeric value - set aside all four of them.

GOAL: The goal of the game is to have the least possible amount of cards left in your hand.

So, that's it. You just keep going - pulling cards from the back...pulling out 2 or 4 cards, to set aside. Every time you are able to pull out cards, it changes the dynamic of what is left in your hand, so you may be able to pull out more sets. Keep going until you are played out, then start pulling cards from the back and begin again. Each time you pull one card from the back, check the 'fan' and pull one by one until you get sets to remove.

I love this game and it sure scratched my itch to play it again! However, these cards are so ruined from the Spit years that they are barely usable! Plus they smell strongly of cedar and have the cedar oils from my old cedar chest all over 'em!

Perhaps it is time for a new deck!!

I had nothing, I pulled over a queen...I've still got nothing.

I pulled over the Nine...I can pull out the two center cards, since the suits of the 1st and 4th cards match.

There is no match between the nine and the red ten of diamonds...so I continue pulling cards from the back.

Time lapse: Two threes showing, so I can pull all four cards...continue.

As you can see, my discarded pile kept growing! However I was still left with many in my hand. Shuffle and play again!!

In past years, I was able to get down to four or even two cards!

I always think of Liz and Marti with their grandchildren, but I also think this one is fun at any age! Give it a try ☺☺

 

Along with these two games and while, looking at new playing cards, I came across these. 

You can make your own cards!

Now wouldn't that be fun?!

 

Whatever you do, may you do it with your heart full of fun!

xo

 Photographs by NAE ©2020