i'm walkin' here *

here is another self portrait. i didn't take the picture, but it was done at my direction so that's self-ish enow. this self portrait thing is an interesting challenge. many of the folks participating have posted drawings of themselves. i gave it a shot. a small shot. a little sketch. i'll stick with photos and photoshop. the photo below shows me in one of my favorite places.
my dear robin and i walked monday morning along chimacum creek estuary. this is not a civilized trail. it is narrow and there are steep, slippery sections. it is a decent short workout. we walk here often. the combination of walking along a trail that requires real attention to avoid a fall and the experience of a beautiful estuary, heavily forested on both sides, with great blue herons, kingfishers, crows, hummingbirds, and myriad other birds flying about tweeting, cawing, and chittering calms the mind and offers respite from the harsh realities of living in interesting times.

out beyond me is the mouth of the creek, where there be clams, and port townsend bay. in the distance across the bay is indian island, the ever present reminder of our military might. the entire island is owned by the us navy. bombs are shipped to the island to be loaded onto navy supply ships to be delivered to, well, wherever the navy is using bombs.

below is a view from the mouth of the creek back into the estuary

a belated thank you to all who offered praise and encouragement in comments on our first self portrait post. tho i did a bit of photoshop self image blurring, and offered the list of icons, robin deserves all credit for her masterful manipulation of images and effects in photoshop to produce my image and hers. my name is dread pirate roberts (not really) and i approve this message (really).
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* thank you, ratso rizzo.

"D" Words

Have you noticed how we've had nothing to say since our trip? It's true. I'm not sure why this is. The weather has been so gray and cool, we even took a sauna on Sunday. We've been weeding the yard, pulling all the tansy ragwort and dandelions we can find. We've been thinking about everything. It's not even necessary to list the things that happened last week that seriously made us question why we stay in this country. You know what they are. I look out in the yard where the poppies' petals fall to the afternoon winds, the hummingbirds duke it out on the bird feeder, the last and only light of the day shines on the furthest trees on the horizon. I'm looking for inspiration, but these things leave me without even a spark of an idea.

All my words begin with D: despair, dispirited, disquieted, distress, despondent, disconsolate, discouraged, disheartened, Democrat.

Self Portrait Marathon

Several of our blogging buddies have been participating in a self-portrait marathon. So we photoshopped our photos to play along.


Have a great weekend, friends. If something unexpectedly amazing happens, we'll post it, otherwise see you Monday.

The Familiar and The Unexpected

We know we are home when we go for one of our walks and see the things we expect to see. Expectation is not diminished by the comfort of the familiar. To the contrary, that fulfillment is essential to place and grounding.

We skipped a -3.1 tide on Tuesday. It's practically a heresy for us to do that. A minus tide is like a moon-earth-tide sanctuary of ordinary revelation. We were just too exhausted to expend the necessary energy. But on Wednesday we took a long minus-tide walk. We saw what we expected.

An eagle flew from a hidden tree and watched us as we peered up at its nest. We were longing for a glimpse of her shaggy gray babies on the nest edge, practicing with their new wings. Not yet. The eaglets are not ready for that exercise.
We saw a common seagull on the beach, its beak opened wider than our imaginations could conjure. I definitely thought of my mother admonishing her children not to have eyes bigger than our stomachs.
But all walks, and this is also why we take them, reward us with the unexpected. For most of the journey two otters followed along in the bay watching us. I could only photograph a bit of their antics.
They were quite a bit offshore, but their presence was absolutely palpable. dpr watched them through the binoculars and could see that one otter was feasting on large silvery fish, one after another.
The otters seemed to confer with each other, and simultaneously split for parts unknown.
Then, something at the shoreline caught my eye. There was a creature on four-legs and definitely scavenging. My heart skipped a beat thinking it might be one of the otters, but when dpr looked through the binoculars, he said, nope, that's a raccoon in the water. Neither of us had ever seen such a thing, but there it was.
After a few minutes it ran out of the water and hid in some fallen trees at the base of the hillside where it meets the beach. Suddenly it was quiet all around.

We continued walking down the beach. Clam siphons retreated beneath the sand and shot streams of water up our pant legs. We laughed. The clams are like little bi-valve Old Faithfuls, they spout reliably and randomly whenever we walk this beach. It has become familiar, but still that spray of cold water is always a surprise.

Day-Glo Yellow

We were treated to a flash of yellow streaking across my brother's backyard. Its intended target was the Western Scrub Jay that was eating almonds out of my SIL's outstretched palm. The Hooded Oriole (Icterus cucullatus) was having none of that. Not the almonds, nor the jay, nor the hand. The jay flew off in a blur of blue before we had any idea what was going on.
It's nesting season for the Oriole, and this behavior was all about territory. They do not want to share the yard with the Jays or Mockingbirds. Several Orioles gathered, males and females, and flapped around making quite a ruckus. They were claiming territory, and all the other other birds yielded to their insistence.
We had an opportunity to see these birds fairly closely as they flew from tree to tree. They were a flashing yellow light show. Straight out of a day-glo paint swatch.

Nourishment

After eight days and seven nights on the road, I can safely say for us, life is all about food. In that time we only went out to eat once, and that was to have dinner with dpr's mom, so we could spend some alone time with her. Except for that one meal, we ate home-cooked food every night. And here's what seems particularly interesting to us, we cooked all of those meals.
We cooked for my brother and his wife on Tuesday night, the night we arrived in Santa Cruz. We made a local Santa Cruz favorite Tempeh La La (we have the secret recipe) with Indian spiced green beans and tomatoes, over rice. We even brought our rice cooker with us to make this meal! We cooked for dpr's brother and his wife on Wednesday. We sauteed onion, garlic, red peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, chicken and fresh italian herbs over pasta. We cooked for the big dinner (16 people) on Friday night. dpr did most of the cooking for this. He barbecued a whole salmon. It was served with salad, baked potato and francese bread. On Saturday we made homemade pizza for my family. We buy fresh pizza dough, which dpr rolls out while I saute the veggies. We like pizza without tomato sauce, so when the dough is rolled out, I brush olive oil on it, then layer fresh tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and the veggies which have been sauteed lightly with pesto. Pop it in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, and voila, dinner! We cooked our butts off!

RA's and dpr's family gathering

So, it makes us wonder: Why, do you suppose, we do this? Could it be that hanging out in the kitchen crushing garlic and slicing vegetables is a small reminder of home? Or is it that there's some emotional grounding in being in any kitchen cooking up a favorite meal? Or is it a way to stay creative when you're away from home? Or is it just safe to be in the kitchen while everyone else is talking and socializing, a way to stay apart while pretending to be part of the party? Or are we (really I mean "am I") simply paranoid and wary of road food and restaurant cooking? Whatever the reason, we fed and nourished our families for the past few days, and we truly loved every minute of it.

When you are on the road what food do you miss most? What do you cook when you come home that says, "Ahh, I'm home."

Long Ride Home

We're going to try to keep our eyes open for the journey home. We're as bone-weary tired as we can be. Oy. Our stop tonight is Grants Pass, Oregon. Half-way point between Santa Cruz and home. It's been a wonderful journey. Lots of photos to post over the next few days.

Today, just a pelican gliding over Monterey Bay.


See you tomorrow, whatever day that is.