Many new homes on the horizon. So many questions about infrastructure, water availability, traffic or fire danger...and so on. Progress? Huh. Who can afford these new homes? So many questions or concerns. Everywhere.
Country-wide crimes, corruption and conditions become worse at every turn, it seems. I wonder what has become of decent humanity? Was all of this unrest and violence there all along, just going unseen?
These are not easy videos to watch. View or pass by at your own need and/or discretion.
What Happened Inside Delaney Hall Last Night Is Horrifying
How does this information hit you? In a world overrun with traumatic news, where do you put your thoughts and energy? How do you care for yourself at the same time?
If you watch ONE story from America today, let it be this one.
Parkrose Permaculturehas been doing a lot of humanity based political coverage over the past year+, in addition to her usual permaculture and home-centered practices.
Status Coup News has been doing so much on the ground reporting. Really important, difficult work.
I'm sure you have your own resources and can do your own research...your own ways of engaging, acting, supporting...learning. One of my ways has been sharing what I am learning, as I am doing today.
Flying very low, straight towards us: a very large turkey vulture...barely seen.
What have you discovered to be hiding in plain sight?
Tall, blocking the view...almost. Or maybe, just making a new view.
I young(ish) boy stood on the ledge of the bridge, having climbed over the railings. His bike parked nearby. No adults nearby. Greetings given. "Hey buddy"...he says it's a "nice view" - which it is. Why did I feel so unsettled with him on the other side of the railing?
J. & I discussed places we'd gone or climbed at that age. I was fairly fearless in that way as a kid. But still...
This evening we watched an old video (from the 1990's) about this river from its start to this very part of the valley. It continues on to the sea, but the video did not cover that part. One thing I learned is that the bike paths - city trail system began in 1993! I had no idea it was that old. I was a busy mom back then, but we could have explored them if I'd known.
We bird watched and lizard counted (of course) and also watched a coyote walk up a trail to the top of this hill. It blended in with the drying grasses so well. Almost to the the top, it turned and looked back at us.
A little sanding and some super glue or something and he'd added the little compass he found to his cane. Perhaps we all need a compass of some sort, so as to not get lost and to be able to find our true North at all times.
May 17, 2026: 4 young men in the riverbed, making some sort of film. Cameras, a circular screen to reflect the light, tripods...equipment. Commanding shouts ring out. The "actor" in the white shirt and baggy pants digs in the sand, tossing shovelful after shovelful over his shoulder. When directed, he moves to multiple spots on the sand or in the water and digs some more. I try to imagine what this film could be about?
What If Uncertainty Is the Practice: Pema Chödrön on Groundlessness
May 18, 2026: Brush fire in a nearby valley. Phone alerts take turns sounding the alarm. Evacuations and grave concern in the fire zone. The Sandy Fire. Later, another valley nearby, another fire...small 106 acres, 'forward progressed stopped' fairly quickly. sigh.
Two ducks stand placidly on the sandbar, and later in the water. Side-by-side, they stand, ruffling their feathers, pecking at their feathers - but standing in one place. A first time seeing ducks at the river.
The wind was fierce, causing the power lines and poles themselves to sing loudly. Smoke over the mountains, clouds sneaking over the mountains on the other side. I noticed the scalloped edge on the repainted bike path lines. How many times have I walked by these lines and not seen the scallop?
✴️ I began reading the book, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and am enjoying it so far. I really like the format, as I have written a lot of letters in my lifetime. ✓Trigger warning: Very early into the book, the death of her child becomes known. The story is still unraveling, so I don't know any more than that at this point. At any rate, so far, so good.
Away I went, into old photos in search of a few in particular...and what joy in finding the one above. I always liked this shot and the fact that I left the people in, allowing them to add so much to the overall feel. There were so many folks there appreciating the sunset. We did too.
Then I went away on a you tube video trip. This time going someplace I will never see in person. It was beautiful. The cherry trees are something else!
On the other hand, today I went away to take a small walk at the Little Free Library trail. The last time we were there it was filled with goats making an easy task of clearing brush on the hillsides.
The hills before us on the road were lush, a variety of butterflies and dragonflies were everywhere...a large raven(?) and turkey vultures (above)...warmth on the back of my neck...a place to relax.
The purple sage was in glorious bloom and smelled so good! The evidence of the goat's work was obvious.
Today I think: thank goodness for nature and art. Both have the capacity to soothe and teach, for they both are reliably always there (soothing), but also always changing (teaching). This is a good balance for me.
What things support you when you need it?
May you allow yourself to be taught
May you embrace being soothed when needed
May you hold what is important to you in heart & hand
This is kinda where its at, where I'm at...walking in the building and seeing the above roses out front...I was sent down the thought trail of noticing fading beauty. The pale, yellowing & fading color, the fact that these roses are in some form of dying, decaying...coming to the end of their life cycle...AND are so very beautiful. Gosh I loved falling into this moment. I've long seen the beauty in such lifespans of plants and people. I have photographed dying pomegranates still on the tree and flopped over sunflowers - hanging on to their last moments...dried up thistles, still standing tall. Beautiful.
We finally stopped in time for me to grab a photo of the profusely blooming purple sage on our Thursday short drive. The hills have held so much purple sage recently. On this Thursday, there was a large hawk in a small tree too.
The Siddis of Karnataka and the dying art of making Kawandi quilts | Documentary Film | THE WEEK
The little bridge compass was still there, just over the railing, on the ledge. It still works.
I opted not to photograph the empty nest. But, I also opted to bring the binoculars with me to check the nearby trees for owl relocation. I could not see anything to suggest owl life in the dense oaks and cottonwoods near to their old home. The bridge felt a bit emptier knowing this time is over.
It was also quite empty of people today. We had a lazy stroll to the 'fence change', counting lizards as we went. There were also many swallows, busy ants, crying hawks and a very low flying turkey vulture. The temperature was perfect for a walk.
Here is some owl information I found after Tina suggested that maybe the owls had moved to a new spot.
*Owls generally do not change nests during the same breeding season once eggs are laid, but they often leave or change nests if they are forced out due to safety issues, such as a falling, deteriorated nest. While they typically reuse successful sites over multiple years, they often relocate if the nest falls apart or is destroyed.
*Forced Relocation: Because many owls (like Great Horned Owls) do not build their own nests, they use old, repurposed nests from hawks or crows. If these nests fall due to wind or damage, the parents are forced to abandon them, sometimes requiring human intervention for "re-nesting"
*Fledging Behavior: As owlets grow and become more active, they may "tumble out" of their nests before they can fly, causing them to move from the original nesting spot to branches nearby.
*Yearly Reuse: Owls tend to return to the same successful nesting territory year after year, but not necessarily the exact same nest structure if it has deteriorated.
*Parents often push their young out of the nest through passive neglect after a few weeks, encouraging them to fledge.
~ All sourced from google AI, which links to FB groups or Reddit conversations...because I'm too tired or lazy to do this any better than that today. The same is true of the info below.
I also learned that owls can recognize faces (people), so I thought of Grace's comment that they know me 🙂 Perhaps.
*Yes, owls can recognize individual humans. They are highly perceptive birds that distinguish between trusted people (like regular caretakers or local residents) and strangers. They rely on facial features, posture, voice, and overall silhouette to identify individuals
*Key Details on Owl Recognition
Facial Memory: Owls can memorize specific human faces and associate them with past experiences. If a person is calm and non-threatening, an owl may tolerate their presence or even allow closer approaches.
Visual Triggers: Because their eyes are fixed in their sockets, they rely heavily on the whole picture. Drastic visual changes, like a sudden haircut or a massive change in clothing silhouette, can confuse an owl and make you look like a stranger to them
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Vocal Recognition: Owls can learn and respond to the specific voices of people who interact with them frequently
We saw a very cool old Ford pick up truck. A 1954 or perhaps 1956? I love this color blue! When I was a young mom, we had one from one of those years (I never can remember). It was bare bones, sitting out front in various stages of rusting & refurbishing - that would never be even close to complete. Never. If it had become something, we planned for it to be for our son, who is now 45 and has not known or sat in it since he was 5 months old. Time is like that.
I've cleaned out and shredded some old paperwork, installed a new shower liner curtain and done more work in the new glue book...I've been listening to music of the 1970's which makes me want to weep with the memories of days gone by.
These are just a few pages. I'm not ready to post the others yet. Each of them has a story. A good, or at least decent enough story. I'm enjoying finding them.
I'm just finding my way this week. Good enough. How was your week?
We went to the bridge...well, sorta. Let me explain. "The bridge" goes over the river and there is a path on both the North and the South sides of the river. We always take the path on the North side. I've explored the path on the South side once, but did not care for it as much. It is closer to the main road (much louder with car traffic) and runs behind apartments and condos, instead of having the river on one side and nature on the other. You feel closer to all of those power lines. It feels very different.
But, today, after figuring out where we could park and start way down the path, we did that. This put us on the South side, about 1-2 miles (perhaps) from the bridge. We planned to walk as far as I was able towards the bridge.
It did not tick off any boxes for us. Not only for the reasons mentioned above, but because it was less clean, the scent from the McDonalds was over-powering (not in a good way) and there was a lot of plant/tree life between us and the river- but, I still couldn't catch the scent of my favorite plants. For a very short distance, we tried the dirt path that runs right along side of the bike/walking path. That did not change our minds. The one plus we experienced, was that we could really hear and see (closer) the hawk(s) that were at that end. That was cool.
So, the jury says we won't go this way again. We have the option to take the main road down there to cross over to the North side of the river and walk back towards the bridge on that side. We may try that.
It was 87° today.
Oooh...Look What I Found...
Cornell Red-tailed Hawks Live Cam - #CornellHawks | Cornell Lab
In Making News: This past week I had signed up for Making Zen, online art (cloth) workshops. The next one is in September 2026. It was free, but you could to pay for the VIP upgrade, if desired. I did the free part and I participated in each workshop I watched very loosey-goosey. I watched what I wanted in the way that worked for me. I did not stitch a stitch...but, I enjoyed what I watched very much and learned about some new artists.
Here are some of the ones that sparked something for me. I've included their main website page, but they have blogs, galleries, books and other channels or formats to explore. Fun to poke around a bit.
After our walk at the other end of this section of trail, we stopped by the bridge to take bridge photos and to see the owls. After all, it was Mother's Day for this mama owl! This is not a day I enjoy, so I thought the visit would put a softer edge on it for me, which it did. But, boy, was I surprised!
When we arrived, the Camp Kinneret scent greeted me and my whole body relaxed. Then we rounded the bend and...why do the owls look so different? The mama was not sitting tall in the nest and the whole scene was confusing. It looked like two young owls and no mama in sight. Mmmm?
We also stopped to take photos of the bridge, from different viewpoints. Grace had asked for a photo and I was happy to oblige. I took a bunch, which you will see here. As usual, we looked beneath the owl nest for feathers and maybe other debris, to no avail. We talked about how low the water was, but how dense the brush was and how the other nest still does not look lived in. The Pooh Stick got stuck.
I think I took the last pic by accident, but it does kinda tell a story, eh? I also walked past the bridge on each end to try and get photos from those sides. The two, past the rock circle look almost he same, just a slight angle shift. The bottom pic is from the entrance side. That side has a path down to the water. Today we saw a man and woman and two big black dogs, who were loving the water!
The river is leaving new trails while drying up.
Right before we left, a hawk came a calling on the owls. It was circling close by...checking them out? My photos aren't great and it was really much closer in real life...but the bridge angles are cool, so there's that! haha
I hope the owls are okay.
Later at home, I was inspired by Grace to once again try my hand at drawing the bridge. You get what you get with me. haha Do you see the two juvenile owls tucked in there? They look like ghosts! lol But, I wanted to remember this time, so I drew. The drawings on these pages are dated from 12/2023 - 5/2026. I'm almost out of room, especially since I had added the shimmering power lines back in 2024.
How do you evaluate what to do again or where to go again?
