The Old Man and the Eagle

We headed out to the walking trail along the bay. It was cold and windy, but we really wanted to walk. There were fewer people on the trail for a dry Saturday than we had expected. While we were briskly walking along with our eyes tearing and noses running, a lovely old gentleman approached us, walking stick in hand, and beamed "A fine, fine day, isn't it?" We agreed. Fine it was, if a bit cold. He says, "I love this air as it comes across the water. So clean, so clean." We nodded. He continued,"Our air just blows in across the pacific with nothing between us and Japan."

Papermill walking trail before the clouds blew away

But then he asks, "have you noticed that the paper plant seems to be burning something that makes your eyes tear up and burn." I say yes, because I had noticed that. He tells us that he knows something about paper mills because he had gotten his PhD in pulp and paper chemistry a long time ago. Most people, he says, think the smoke out of those stacks is bad for them, but it's not. It's just sulphur. It's really good for you like garlic and asparagus. He says, "They must be burning something else. Have you seen the eagles that like to perch in the trees along here?" Oh yes. We've seen them and photographed them. We all love to tell our eagle stories.

The seagulls have been flying all along the bluff during the conversation, but something larger catches my eye, and I look up. I see an eagle approaching. It flies along the water.
It flies away toward the cloudy part of the sky, and I snap pictures as quickly as I can. I find it hard to photograph birds when they are flying. They keep moving in and out of focus.
It comes back to the sunny sky, and flies along the top of the bluff. It circle back and flies directly over us.
The pirate, the old man, and I are having the closest encounter we've ever had with an eagle.
I know that the photograph will be blurry. My hands were shaking with excitement. I show the old man the small picture on the digital camera lcd. He looks at it, and says, well maybe you can blow it up and crop it so you can really see that bird.
We walk on and find the eagle perched in the tree we had just been talking about. I take an easy shot. We remember why we are always glad to walk this trail even on a windy, cold day.

Taking the Time to Walk

The day began with a subtle sunrise. We knew we had to go for a walk. (Please click on photos to enlarge)

Looking east at the still foggy sky

Looking west at the crescent moon in a lavendar sky

We walked out the front door, down the road, to the creek. We found the tide going out for one of the first minus tides we've had during daylight in months.
We love looking upcreek at where we've just been walking. The herons and kingfishers had long since fled. Everything flees at the sound of our footfall.
When we reached the mouth of the creek, we found a meal's worth of mussels, and a few oysters. The pirate filled his pockets with the bounty, while I watched an eagle fly directly towards us. You can barely make out Mt. Baker peeking out behind Indian Island.
We hiked back up the bluffs to head home and see Mt. Baker from a much better vantage point.
We planned a hike for the next day when the tide would be even lower. The sunrise was absolutely cloudless, but before we could head out for a walk the clouds poured in quickly and looked as ominous as a twister.
Later in the day, the darkening clouds were all-encompassing, reminding us to grab the sunny moments when we can.

Care Package from Hawaii

my brother and his wife, who live in far hawaii, read our blog and sent us a care package to give us a lift from enduring all this northwest cloudiness and cold. it's really been fairly mild here but weather is relative and they are on kauai, the garden isle.


you may be able to read some of the letter in the picture. the little jar at the top is orange marmalade with vanilla bean. the baggie contains dried banana. the little jar below the bananas is product my brother makes which he calls "feeling good." it is subtitled chocolate-kava-delight and contains organic kava root, organic cocao, hawaiian honey, and vanilla extract. very tasty, and mildly relaxing. the brownish nutlike things are roasted cacoa beans (chocolate) and the dark ones are roasted coffee. the other thing is a little psychedelic fan, with little lights on one vane. there will be a picture below demonstrating it's use.

my amazing brother grew the coffee and the cacao beans. the bananas are from plants that were there when they moved in. he has managed to turn his interest in growing exotic plants into a business. check out kavakauai. go to "services" on their home page and click on "about us" for a picture of our benefactors



here the pirate gazes intently at the whirling lights, while being refreshed by the gentle breeze.


these are cacao pods. they grow right out of the trunk of the tree.


brother's hand holding cacao beans fresh from the pods.

Choice Blend at the BirdFeeder

For some reason watching these birds reminded me of how woefully ineffectual the democrats in Washington have become.

disappointing dems
need lessons from little birds
how to claim their space

such fearless defense
of the precious platform, on
which their ideals lie

standing firm on hope
shouting down on principle
compelled by hunger

utterly engaged
extend pointed arguments
toward soft bellies

We watch these little birds have more fight, drive, passion, and courage than our senators or representatives. We watch them as they evade the nearly ever-present Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks, knowingly intepreting the shadows as they spread across the yard.

Early Tomatoes

love apples!!!!!

this plant was started from seed in early october last year. it caught the last sun to warm the most exposed corner of the greenhouse and we brought it into the house in early november. it's kinda leggy from a lack of sun and only forms flowers after a day or two of all day sun, so there aren't a lot of fruits.

YUM! fresh home grown tomatoes in january. the greenhouse relocation project precluded any lettuce growing, so these greens are from our local coop.


i would take my turn to rant about the dismal state of our country, but huitzil has done such a fine job on chris matthews, while keeping his balance by photographing birds, and cervantes has dared to cite history in an attempt to warn us off a dangerous path, while keeping us well-informed on public health news, so i'll just recommend that you go read what they have to say.

Koufax and an Eagle

Even at this age life can still throw us some fine and funny surprises. Someone sweetly and thoughtfully nominated the Dharma Bums for Best New Blog over at the Koufax awards. It is so flattering and kind to be thought of in that light, we are grateful for that stunning vote of confidence in our work and play. However, it is not in our natures to compete, and in particular something like this where unlike things are compared to each other. I wrote the fine people at Wampum the following email:

Hello Wampum--

Someone very kindly nominated the Dharma Bums for Best New Blog, and while we are surprised and flattered, we would like our name to be removed from the list. If there were a category for Best New Blog for Retired People With Too Much Time on Their Hands, we might have considered competing. But as it is, we are really not so much into competition....

In the immortal words of LBJ-- We shall not seek, and we will not accept the nomination...

Cheers
RD & dpr


So, while I was talking on the telephone yesterday, and staring out the window as I am wont to do, my mind and eyes wandering, I noticed this eagle soaring over our yard. I grabbed the camera and got this one-handed shot. What a beauty.

Eleven Years Later

i found this picture on the county website. i'm assuming that the date on it is a note by the picture taker, perhaps a county assessor. the assessor's database includes pictures of many properties. the people who built our house, and sold it to us 7 years later, built the "shed" as they call it and lived in the one bedroom unit in the end facing us, with the windows and slider, while the actual house was built. the swings are for their grandchildren. the buildings in the background to the left are the neighbor's. the closest is at least fifty feet away from the shed.

so i went out and took a photo of the same scene. we added the wooden fence on the right, and the deer fence just barely visible on the left(well i can see a steel post just left of the fir tree in the foreground). we also extended the rock edged flower beds and added the straw-mulched strawbberry bed in the center. i'm fairly sure that the builders planted the fancy fir tree in the middle and that the trees in the background on both side of the building are natives left after the area was logged maybe twenty years ago. the dark stuff is bark mulch. good. over black plastic. aaaarrrggg!! gazillions of coreopsis do succed to sprout and grow and blossom in the mulch.



health update: my back is almost normal again. i was active in the yard today. thank you all for your kind words and concern. i did it to myself this time. distracted by looking ahead to using the greenhouse while still working on it, i paid no attention to a proper work stance or the little twinges of stress. doh.