Arty

Jackson took these on the way home from seeing a movie with friends the other night. New camera, low light, eight-year-old at the helm. I just drove.

Blue. Flowers.

No trees, but nice.

The goslings are growin' up

Look at their long adolescent gosling legs. Very prehistoric looking.

Kaiser Permanente Gardens

I just spent the last two weeks in the hospital with my boy. When he started to get better, his favorite thing to do was walk around the hospital grounds and visit the gardens. Every hospital should have big trees and gardens--we were lucky to be there. Bonus: the pediatric ward is amazing because the people there are amazing.

Sunset

Good Sky

I hope the new digital camera I ordered can handle the specs of my camera-phone. Otherwise, I'll be a disgruntled consumer.

Please Do Not Feed the Goslings

We have lots of ducklings and goslings at Heather Farm Park now and people sometimes bring their big bags of stale bread to feed them. There's a large sign at the lake entrance, outlining all the reasons for not doing so, but people either don't notice it or choose to ignore it (in fairness, the park needs to post more signs, especially because it's an official nature preserve). So when I walk around the lake and I see people with their bread-bags, I mentally wrestle about whether I should inform them of the park rules.

The park doesn't want anyone feeding the birds because they get sick from the human food. Sometimes they die. They're not built to digest bread and it has no nutritional value for them anyway. Feeding wild birds encourages them to stick around the area longer than they should and they over-tax the ecosystem with their needs and waste. The lake water fills with algae, making it difficult for other species to survive.

Sometimes people listen to me and stop feeding them. It's usually moms with little kids. Little kids love feeding birds, but if the no-feeding rules are posted--don't encourage them. Teach them about animal safety and habitats. Kids naturally love saving and caring for animals. They won't want to feed them if you tell them it's not good for them.

The other day I pointed out the sign to a mom and she just kept letting her kids feed the goslings big hunks of bread, which they gobbled up. I told her it could kill them, but she ignored me. I got so angry and repeated the rule. She said something like, "Yeah, I heard you the first time." I told her it was an opportunity to educate her kids, which was my polite way of telling her she's a dummy. I often think being polite is not always the way to go. It's probably too late for her, but not for her toddlers.

From the sign:
-Bread and other snacks cause harmful and potentially fatal health problems such as botulism and duck plague.
-Alters the natural ecosystem balance
-Decreases life expectancy and health
-Pollutes the water and habitat
-Discourages natural and healthy migration habits
-Creates overpopulation
-Causes problems for other native birds

And may I add: The goose-shit situation at Heather Farms is untenable. Please do not encourage more shit.

Smoke Tree

Happy Earth Day - Hug a Tree

Every day.

Double Rainbow

It's there. Look to the left of the main rainbow. Yesterday could only be described as a monsoon. Torrents of rain. Then late-afternoon sun. Then rain with the sun for a couple of hours. Hence: double rainbow.

Tangential thought: there used to be dozens of Double Rainbow ice cream stores all over San Francisco and the Bay Area. Now Double Rainbow ice cream is only available in a limited number of grocery stores. The ice cream has become as elusive as its name.

Avert your eyes!

Or suffer the consequences, all who look upon here. Trees so overly pruned and topped that they're no longer trees, but scary monsters! With spindly growths that desperately try to become tree-shaped again, only to be cruelly lopped off each year, like a kid getting buzzed with dad's clippers. Why don't these homeowners just rip out these stumps-that-used-to-be-trees, and plant some shrubs instead? Then shape them into perfect rectangles, spheres and cubes to their heart's content.

Oh, the humanity.

Oh yes, it's Spring

Some blossoms and an egret at Heather Farm Park.

Indian Creek - Shell Ridge

Can't stop visiting Shell Ridge. This time we took a short walk down to Indian Creek. After this week's rainstorm, she's a-rising. Not really, but the pond was definitely higher than when I last visited two weeks ago. That's the kind of thing you notice out here in the hills -- ponds, creeks, the sounds of frogs...

My shadow looks like a cast member from Family Guy.

Oakland Art Tree

Spotted last November in downtown Oakland, in a store window across the street from the fabulous Fox Theatre. Always meant to post but just kept putting it off. Made of discarded items, which is a big thing in Oakland.

Shell Ridge Open Space Revisited

No rain today. Maybe in a couple more days. No seagulls so I figured it was on hold. Lots of sparrow hawks, regular hawks, ground squirrels. And millions of shell fragments from millions of years ago.

Tree growing out of rocks.

Lots of mushroom activity.

Ancient artifact discovery.

Mt. Diablo, Contra Costa County

There's a one-man movement afoot to try and rename Mt. Diablo after Ronald Reagan. I and close to 75,000 Facebook users are not moved by the argument that Devil Mountain constitutes a force diabolical. In my view, Ronald Reagan Mountain conjures up much more of an image of selfishness, greed and sociopathic tendencies. In contrast Diablo is earthy, majestic, daunting and mysterious--as our natural world tends to be.

From our hike on Sunday. A beautiful day on Devil Mountain.

Shell Ridge, Walnut Creek, CA

I hiked all around Shell Ridge open space today and finally figured out how it got its name. At the top of the ridge is an area embedded with seashell fragments from millions of years ago when the entire valley was covered by ocean. I think you'll agree, that is super cool.

I saw hundreds of ground squirrels, many gliding raptors and what I think was a sparrow hawk, posing vertically in the sky while flapping its wings before diving down for probably a would-be ground-squirrel lunch. Didn't happen though. It's like Watership Down with ground squirrels up there. I had never seen a bird do that--pause in flight a few times to "stand up" in the sky while flapping. Maybe there needs to be some perching areas...? The ground squirrels are rampant and are eating all the native-plant seedlings, including the Oaks. That's why the baby oaks are enclosed in tubes, to keep the squirrels from rooting them out.

Also followed a trio of deer while trying to find my way down to the parking lot again. That was not the best plan, but the deer kept looking back at me like, "C'mon! We know where some delicious gooseberries are planted!" They were not afraid of me at all--just keeping a distance of about 15 feet ahead all the time and checking me out, but that's it. They were like lawn ornaments that eventually took off for better pastures with less enclosures to thwart them. A kindly home owner eventually helped me navigate the twisty streets back to my car.