We drove south last Thursday about 50 miles to see our friend Ian who is waging a fierce battle against melanoma. It was good to sit with him and swap stories about the delectable virtues of Indian food, and be regaled with descriptions of Indian pizza. Yes, it must be true in America we will pizza-fy just about anything. Although a curried pizza on naan does sound particularly delicious. In our house we curry-fy almost anything we have in the fridge. A little of this, a little of that-- some cumin seed, fenugreek, and dried hot red peppers-- always the beginning of many a good meal.
When we left Ian, he was just about to have a very fine and soothing massage. The first 10 miles or so on our way home winds through the canyon from Carmel Valley to the coast. It's expensive and beautiful horse country surrounded by high coastal mountains. You can just tell there's plenty of wildlife there by the ruggedness and challenging geography. I found this photo on the internet, and think it captures the essence of the valley. While we were zooming along at 50 mph, I looked out the passenger window and watched a large raptor flying low and lazy over a fine horse pasture. I turned to tell Roger that there was a giant-sized red-tailed hawk when the sunlight caught a glint of gold in its feathers, and not a hint of red in the tail. We both took a long look, and can say with absolute certainty we saw our first Golden Eagle. There was no way to pull over to sit and appreciate the moment; a particularly disappointing thing because we watched it land just on the other side of the pasture. What a fine sight though. The kind that makes you even more glad that you took the trip and were rewarded so amply with such splenditude.
In the meantime, it's gotten very hot here on the coast. So hot we don't even want to go out for hikes. In the early evening we'll venture out to savor a cooling breeze off the bay. There we can almost always find a Grebe or two in various states of alertness and rest. A whale sprays every now and then. A single loon calls out in that tremulous way that makes us glad every time we hear it. For a day, everyone talks about the weather. 95 degrees in April is definitely news.
There is nothing new to report on the house hunt. To appease our spring-time instincts we do have a little patch of yard here where we're growing carrots, beets, onions, shallots, kale, spinach, tomatoes, and basil. We couldn't let a season pass without the taste of something fresh and homegrown.
So, what are you planting in your garden?
On the way home I kept my eye out for the golden eagle we had seen on one of our earlier trips down to see Ian. I remembered the cow pasture and the far fencing where it had landed. Sure enough, that magnificent creature was there again perched on a fence post. Roger pulled over and stopped so we could take a better look. Oh it was far away, but that didn't stop me from trying.
The cows were rather intrigued and kept their inquisitive eyes on us. Shortly before we drove off, they came down to the fence to see if maybe we might have something delicious for them. We had to apologize and move on. Such is life.
