Good People

 

More photo-play today. All photos are from the carwash, where they have some very pretty roses and an interesting little tree.

The video below popped up today and I wanted to share it with y'all, another way to say, yep...earth day is every day.

Dr. Jane Goodall's Message for Earth Day 2025

LINK 5:27 minutes

I was absolutely looking for contrasting, well-defined edges on these flowers. I thought about the curves and the outlines against the leaves.

I found it interesting how the shading  and shapes looked so different with the color gone. In fact, as I altered them, I discovered how much I could play with the tones to get such varied looks from one photo. This time around though, I just picked one that I liked to save and share.

Herb Alpert celebrates 90 years and a return to the stage with the Tijuana Brass

LINK 8:36 minutes

The palm trees and the little evergreen tree provided great lines against the sky.

I took my gift of "The Serviceberry" by: Robin Wall Kimmerer with me to read while I waited, but to be honest the speakers were sending out such great 1970's tunes, that I got fairly distracted and had to quietly sing along. Ha.

Kung Fu Fighting...Chicago - Just You and Me...Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner...Elton John - Daniel

What music brings you back to your sweet spot? 

May you look through

May you sing along

May you see the details

...and May you remember even the small things we do for the earth and each other really matter...and so do more of those things.

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2025 

#goodenough

Looking Down & Out

 ~~~~~~↘

A crow landed at my place recently. He held a magic key and brought treasures along with him.

We traveled off to the "Mother's Day" spot for a brief exploration, time spent in nature. The breeze held a sharp chill and delicious scents of earth and wild growth. 

Purple and green seemed to be the color scheme for the day, along with earthy brown.

Beautiful!

Recent rains left their stories behind. Crunchy! Oozy!

Until next time...

May you appreciate even the small events

May you marvel

May you embrace beauty

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

One Fine Day #22

 

One Fine Thing...

 Memories

...embracing memories of yesterday's big drive.

  ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔

In honor of earth day, I'm extending today's post as I reflect on yesterday's drive.

It was an unexpected surprise to go so far, to be gone so long.

What a delight the day became! It was a day spent appreciating the vast differences in the landscape.  We traveled from city to town to California scrub brush to pines to farmland to deep tangled canyons...back through small town -to cattle ranches and orchards (growing oranges and almonds)...to the streets of our neighborhood. 5 hours of viewing and considering and feeling the mountain air blow through my hair. Magic.

Highest elevation: 5160 ft

Lowest elevation: 279 ft

Coldest temperature: 49 degrees

Warmest temperature: 68 degrees 

It was a day of wide vistas and tall canyon walls or drop-offs on my side of the road. Yikes! It was a day of quick little ground squirrels, soaring hawks, crows and turkey vultures, along with cows, quail and a road runner!

 ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔

m

We headed North, turned off the main highway towards Frazier Park,

through Pine Mountain Club, a place I'd heard of for years and never been and home to the trees above. I have a fuzzy memory of a friend having a piece of land up there, but I never knew it was so...um..."organized". It's not a place I'd want to live for a variety of reasons.

We traveled in & out, round about, up and down and eventually landed ourselves on 

 

 Highway 33

 

A long twisty-turny highway, filled with a large number of interesting things to look at.

There was an old forgotten ranch sitting on some of the  

Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge. 

 

A huge piece of land, a refuge for the California Condor.

Bitter Creek was closed and we did not spot any on our drive, but now we know where to go! 

The cows were quite curious with a few of them coming right to the fence to have a look-see!

There were points where we had no idea where we were, but we had a full tank of gas, the car has a compass & The 33 will get us back to areas we've traveled many, many times over the years. Besides, we had no particular time frame, no place in particular to be. How nice.

Bitter Creek had one fine lock and then there was one fine tree, one fine road and one fine view! It's amazing what you see when looking with a certain frame of mind.

I gasped when I saw this gorgeous wall of rock above.Then we were up in the clouds, surrounded by Spring's brilliant green. Looking down on the road already traveled, I'm stunned to see how far, how high, how many switchbacks...

This is the kind of roadwork, I can do! As we waited for the light to change, I rolled down the window to smell the brush &feel the air, gaze at the flowers...Ahhh...

 

Suddenly, there are two tunnels! What a surprise!

After traveling through 4 counties...Two Ojai horses and we're almost home.

May you find ways to enjoy One Fine Day.

xo

Photographs by NAE ©2021

 

More Shaking

 

-Give me things that don’t get lost…

-Neil Young: Old Man

⇅

Yes, we felt the next, bigger quake last night!
One of the first things out of my mouth was,
"The less you have, the less you have to loose!"

This downsizing continues to feel really good.
I am grateful we've not hung anything large and heavy!
The cloths work.

The dancing men...Danced! 

We really think we will leave well enough alone.
The giant expanses of wall keeps it light and airy and much less closed in!
That feels good in a bottom floor, green enclosed space.

 

⇆

 

Talents are best nurtured in solitude;

Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

-Goethe

  

 We  have considered what we have already here, in case of an emergency,

what we need, what should be organized better...and so on.

This year seems to be that year!  Oy.

I continue to attempt to sell myself on the idea that all of these changes 

are a good thing,

right?!!

Better prepared, organized, planned...

I can't go wrong!

Ha

Putting your life in order.  Sigh.

⥀     ⥁

 

Remember this time.

                    It’s the way life should be.                            

-Martin Waddell
 
May your days prove to be an inspiration.
May you be prepared,
or at least ready to adapt!
xo

Photographs by NAE ©2019 

Rockin' My World

Be the Turtle!

The irony, coincidence, and pure lunacy, humor or whatever

of this morning's earthquake is not lost on me.

For in the past months and weeks most areas of my life have had

some sort of rocking going on.

We are fine

Change

Movement

Crisis

Concern

You know, the usual! ha

We are fine

Those of you who come here, know me.

You know I won't land the gory details here.

But, you also know how to reach me.

So, there's that.

We are fine

As far as this morning's quake, 

we are fine.

I thought I should tell you since it is even being covered on National News.

Happy 4th of July!

Boom!

We are fine

The quake, downgraded to 6.4 had an epicenter in Ridgecrest, CA

which is about 98 miles from me, as the crow flies.

(ASIDE: There are so many crows that live near the new place!)

We felt it!  Strong, but a rocking and rolling kind of motion.

So soft kind of.

The vertical blinds swung, a lot.

Nothing fell, cracked, or moved.

We are fine

However, being in a downstairs unit, with two floors above me,

did give me a pause during the quake.

Where is the safest inside spot?

(Probably not nearby the ceiling fan where I sat! haha)

What about getting out?

And I should not forget keys, so I can get back in!

hahahahaha

This place has lots of keys!

We are fine

As you can probably tell, earthquakes don't worry me too much.

I do like this one was way out and away from us.

Being in a downstairs unit is new for me, so thoughts to process.

However, this place is older than our big 1994 earthquake and still standing.

I think we're fine.

We are fine

↔

As far as being the turtle...

while looking for a recent unused photo for this post,

I saw this one.

If I've posted this in the past, sorry.

A forgetful mind makes life interesting or repetitive and boring.

Oh well.

I bought a book on clearance for my son when he was two. It cost a quarter.

Turtle's Tale (Kindle version)

It very quickly became a favorite, probably for me more than him!

I loved, do love the story line about this turtle moving through his days,

learning when it is best to take cover and when it is okay to take a risk

and how to move in between these two modes of living.

Sometimes you poke your head out,

sometimes you pull it back in.

It is a lesson I learn over and over.

A lesson I try to remember, but don't always.
This book is the reason I have a small collection of turtles ☺

So today, this photo was a serendipitous reminder of that.

We are fine

When you move through your own days,

the days that you are not thriving,

may you be fine.

May you always, always be good enough.

With much love,

xo 

Photographs by NAE ©2019