Sunset Sky and Mt. Diablo Double Rainbow

Perhaps the terrible fire near Yosemite is altering our weather. It's been humid here, which is unusual for NorCal. And lots of smudgy clouds. Last night they were fiery red, and me without my camera. Tonight they were brilliant pink and I made sure to grab some shots. How to pick a sunset shot for posting—I couldn't do it. Here's a series. As always, click for bigger images.

If you notice any black blurs in the sky, those are swifts. They swoop in configurations at dusk—filling up on tasty mosquitoes and other flying creatures before retiring for the night under the walking bridge nearby.

While I was marveling at the sunset, Keith was doing his usual weekend bike ride to the Mt. Diablo summit. And there was a double rainbow, without rain, just a lot of moisture in the air and on the ground. Mt. Diablo has its own weather.

Mt. Diablo by bike

Keith took these nice shots with his camera-phone on his weekly late-afternoon ride up Mt. Diablo. It's very special to live at the base of a big mountain.

Boulder Beach - Lords Point, Stonington, CT

Well-named.

Night Flowers

White flowers can be part of the background during the day, but at night... pow!

Spooky Tree at the Lafayette Community Park, California

Of course this tree looked ten times spookier yesterday when I discovered it rising within the thick cloud cover of a cool, foggy day. But I didn't have my camera with me yesterday, did I?

Heather Farm Park at dusk

A walk around the park and its various gardens just before this week's heat-wave set in. The Gardens at Heather Farm have sprung for a deer fence this year. Apparently deer were eating a lot of the plants, including the celebrated Rose Garden. I have noticed a big difference in the flowering plants since the fence went in. They're flowering in abundance. Everywhere you go, there's something blooming. The park looks stunning.

I started at the nature pond where I spotted a Great Egret, some Grebes, and a Forster's Tern, diving for food.

Part of the Butterfly Garden in full bloom.

A type of Manzanita at the Diablo Ascent Garden.

Echinacea at the Heritage Garden.

The roses are going gangbusters at the Crowden Rose Garden.

Back through the Nature Pond area at sunset to watch the tern do its thing.

Miniature Forest for State Parade Float

We made a representation of Connecticut in miniature for Jackson's wagon for the school parade. We focused on Stonington, but also visible is the USS Nautilus, which you can visit at the Submarine Museum in Groton.

Iron Tunnel - Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Berkeley

Part of the large and lovely vegetable garden founded by Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard project at MLK Middle School.

Zoom-in San Francisco

View from the Oakland Firestorm Memorial. San Francisco looks otherworldly in the haze and fog.

Bottle Rocket in the Park

water + air pressure = whoosh!

Patterns in Nature

Rehearsal Space

welcome to rehearsal space
invitation only
a square a circle
a basic sound unit
made skewed
by those who skew
and we've all seen
what there is to be seen
but know there's
always more
welcome to rehearsal space
did someone lock the door?


Poem #21 - NaPoWriMo

Water and Light

If I'd never met you
I'd still miss you


Poem #18 - NaPoWriMo

Dinosaur Skeleton - Burke Museum, Seattle, Washington

I was in liquid, salten and blue
I was the monster that lives in your mind
I had a call that nobody knew
only the monsters of my own kind
I am a mobile, dangling on the ceiling
I am a portend of my doom
I don't know what you may be feeling
I am the dinosaur, alone in the room


Burke Museum, Seattle, WA

Poem #17 - NaPoWriMo

Latourell Falls - Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

when the world ends
I come here


Poem #16 - NaPoWriMo

Lan Su Chinese Garden - Portland, Oregon

I take my son to the Lan Su Garden
on a city block in Portland
we frame our views
through multiple windows
watery leafy bridges surround
mountains the size of my son
this doesn't have to be here, I think
yet here it is


Poem #15 - NaPoWriMo

Mt. Diablo State Park - Summit Trail

poison oak and stones
never hindered us on our
accidental hike


Poem #14 - NaPoWriMo

Dome Movie Theater, Pleasant Hill, California

the Dome Theater
will be torn down to make way
for Dick's Sporting Goods
46 years of movies
matter less than mall culture