The Art of Appreciation
Our weather cleared up a bit today, we even had moments of sunlight! This is a treat here in the Northwest during the winter months. Bernie and I took a little journey to the Chuckanut Mountains today. We have not been getting outside as much as we enjoy lately, so it was nice to get some fresh air and be immersed in nature. We ended up hiking about 6 miles, which was a good stretch for our legs and souls.
Nature emulates the same form in many different ‘beings’. Here is a tree impersonating an octopus. It looks as if this tree started as a little seedling in a bit of dirt on the top of this rock. As it grew it spread its ‘arms’ to embrace its new home. What a beautiful form it has taken! I love to see the life in plants, they are such amazing beings to me. If you have ever doubted that plants are ‘alive’ and ‘conscious’, take the time to sit in nature and watch the plants around you. Not only might you watch them come to life through the day, they might start to talk to you in their own special way. What do the plants have to teach you?
This moss illustrates how wet it has been around here lately. It has soaked up the rain like a sponge, and is still dripping with it, even though it did not rain a drop today. What amazing form these little plants take. I love to look at the form of these graceful little beings. There is so much detail we can miss in our every day world if we don’t take the time to slow down and enjoy it.
The cedar trees were coated in this beautiful lichen on the lower part of their trunks. It highlighted the amazing patterns that the cedar bark grows in. Each tree had a unique ‘painting’ on it.
It looks as if this tree is stepping into the light, to enjoy the wee bit of sun rays that were shining through the canopy. Are you stepping into your own personal light?
We did a big loop hike that takes us on a beautiful journey through the woods, seeing many amazing different scenes along the way. The light was not plentiful today, thus the slight darkness to many of the photos. But it was a spectacular day to spend outside, enjoying the beauty of nature. And when the sun managed to peek through the clouds and the tree canopy, it was a special treat that made the emerald foliage on the forest floor glow.
What a beautiful day Bernie and I got to spend in the Chuckanuts. If you feel yourself being down, tired, or bored in the winter months; take the time to go outside. Nature has an amazing way of re-setting our souls, helping us come back to our center.
And I received a treat when I got home. A lovely lady I met on Facebook, Peggy Halevi is in the process of publishing her first book. She asked if I would like to review a copy of her not yet released book, and give her my feedback, I was honored! Well, her book arrived today, and I look forward to reading it!! “The Art of Appreciation” by Peggy Halevi will be immerging into the world shortly. This has prompted the title of this post, because I truely appreciate my life in every way!
Daily Outings
Since my photo’s are limited at the moment, perhaps I can convey our adventures with words….. I hope my writing is good enough to express the feeling of our outings.
Yesterdays outing was to the Oakland hills with Bernie’s parents. It was quite a nice walk over all. The route we take is a loop trail that takes you through a shaded redwood and California bay forest. You tread upon an old dirt roadbed, a little creek mianders through the valley you climb, gently babbling and feeding water to the trees that tower over you. Sun rays sneak their way to the forest floor in a few spots, putting natures highlight on little gems here and there. We turn onto another trail, gently climbing up out of this majestic little valley. At the trail junction we are suddenly surrounded by millions of ladies. Lady bugs that is. They are huddled into groups and piles all over the surrounding vegetation. They are mostly close to the ground, little clusters here, large clusters there. When there is sunlight focused on a spot of them, they start to crawl around, you can almost hear them celebrating the warmth. We join in their little community for a few moments, enjoying their company, and watching their habits and interactions.
The higher we climb the redwoods and California bays are slowly replaced by a towering eucalyptus forest, surrounded with various shrubs and trees. This time of year the Eucalyptus don’t seem to have a lot of resins/saps coursing through them, because the area is not permeated with that all too familiar smell. Later in the year their intoxicating scent will fill that area, announcing to each person their presence. As we move into this area more sunlight makes its way in between branches, dancing across your face. We pass a talking tree, holding a gentle conversation with the wind, and the world around it. As it sways its voice creaks, and as it swings back it sighs.
Slowly you notice a new character. Who is this with its little jagged and curly leafs? Ah, we have entered into coast live oak land. These hardy little oaks always amaze me as we walk among them. They create their own special habitat, and seem to thrive where many other plants don’t prefer. Soon these are the main beings that surround us as we move along the trail. What fascinating, sturdy trees these are. We are now getting high enough that the views pop open when there is a little gap between the trees. You can see for great distances, all the homes and cities stretching out below you. You would not believe when you are being embraced by nature up here that there are so many people pulsing through the veins of the city down below.
We all stop at a bench to enjoy a lunch with a view. Our feet rest, our faces soak up the sun, our eyes soak up our surroundings. As we continue on we meet a man with a little dog full of enthusiasm, and a larger dog, calm and wise with age. They all jog by, looking quite content with their outing in nature. Our direction begins down, losing a bit of the elevation we have gained. The man has turned around, and passes us again, with the wise dog, the little one is on an adventure, exploring the brush somewhere. There is trust there, the man continues on, he will show up. We bid him well and turn onto another trail, quickly moving down. But wait, we are now joined by a little dog, his eyes asking us if we have seen his dad. We try to point him the right direction at the intersection of trails, he just does not understand our words. Back and forth he goes, a moment of barks that I understand clearly. “Where are you dad? Which direction do I go?”. So Bernie and I turn around. We try harder to bridge the language barrier, he looks confused, not quite listening to us, what do they know anyway? But then a moment of revelation. Ah ha! Dad must be this way, and he bolts off. We wait, making sure everyone found their way. He doesn’t show up again, and so we make our way down, bidding farewell to the hills and the little dog. In moments we have droped back down to the trailhead. There is the car, and Bernie’s parents waiting for the update. Yes, everything is well, we can now go home.
Todays outing took us to the Hayward Regional Shoreline. This is an expansive trail along the shore, with many different parking/access points. We started off, the first moment on the trail we are graced with golden showers on both sides of the trail. Some type of Acacia is in full bloom. I take a moment to smell these little wonders, they remind me of something….. I just can’t quite place what it is though.
The trail makes its way to the shoreline, and then we turn left. We walk past a water treatment facility with a large mural painted on one of their buildings of humpback whales. Most of them are swimming under water, but one jumps joyously out of the water. Tidal marshlands are laid out to the left of the trail. There are some shore birds, but the tide is high, so most of them are resting, waiting for the water to recede and reveal the little treats that are hidden within the mud. A few poke around where they can get to a shallow spot, but it is relaxed, they seem to be passing the time.
Gravel crunches under our feet as we walk. Every now and then Bernie stops to snap a shot. Various birds decide that we are not too bad, and they accept us as we stop to watch them, and click away. Who knows what those silly humans are up to with those clicking machines in front of their faces…… but it seems harmless enough.
I have brought a couple of my needle felted acorns and a little note reading “I am a gift to who ever finds me. I am a good luck charm to make all your dreams come true!”. I scan for a place to leave my little treasure. Here comes a bench with a good view…. That will do. I set them down with a couple rocks securing the note from the gentle breeze. I hope they bring someone some joy….
We come across a group of Canada Geese, but they have some interesting visitors. Three snow geese seem to have found themselves in this group. Are they lost? Do they just want different scenery than all the other snow geese? Are they having an identity crisis? Or do they just find those Canadians entertaining to hang out with? What ever the reason, I hope they are enjoying themselves.
We walk, we snap shots, we turn around, we walk, we snap some more shots. This is an interesting place to walk. We are at water level, but there are no obstructions for quite a ways, so you have an expansive view of the area. You can see the city of San Fran in the distance, from here, it looks like a little toy set of buildings all stacked close together. You can see up into the Oakland hills. Little clusters of houses inching up into the hills like fingers. It always amazes me how much green space is up there. When you can see houses and buildings stretching as far as the eye can see, its really nice to see green hills. Mount Diablo stands in the background. A green giant sticking up above the other hills around it. Bridges crossing the bay, here and there. Little toy cars (or so they seem) streaming in lines across them. Jets roar over at carefully timed intervals. FedEx, Southwest, FedEx, Southwest, some other plane….. and so on.
The sun slowly descends into the west. The evening takes on that warm golden glow of late day. The best light for taking photographs. Bernie finds a group of willing subjects, so we linger for a while. The large groups that were resting with the high tide sense the change in direction of water flow. They start to stir. First just a couple take to the air, making the short flight to the other side of the path, landing on the bays edge. Slowly little groups wake up and fly to the feeding grounds. Bernie stands in the middle, capturing their movement as they fly around us. Pretty soon you can see thousands, no millions of little shore birds moving along the shore, poking into the mud and sand, searching for their dinners. As the minutes pass by, the tide slowly recedes, and with it the birds. They follow the edge, each of them working the mud in their own unique ways, with their own unique bills.
It is time to make our way back to the car, the sun is setting. As we come to the end of the trail we are surrounded by the Acacia again. But something is different. The magic twilight has enticed them to release their intoxicating scent. The air is filled with their perfume. What an enjoyable way to end our walk.
Whew, I have not written that much in quite a while. But it’s a wonderful exercise to get me to reflect on the details of the day. We are surrounded with beauty each moment, take the time to enjoy it!
The lady bug photo is courtesy of Bernie from our outing the other day. I played around with some different effects and created the final product.
Along the Forest Path
Yesterday’s adventure was a hiking one. Lately when ever the sun has come out we have either gone to Hovander park, or Boulevard park. Yesterday the sun came out, but I felt like doing something a little bit different. So we made our way to the Chuckanut Hills. There are numerous trails snaking their way through the hills, giving us quite a few options. We started off without a map of the trails, just a general idea of where they went and met up.
Along the trails/paths it was all shade, because of the trees. But you could see the sun streaking along the tops of the trees, and every once in a while there would be a gap large enough for the sun to make it to the forest floor. I love this quality of light. It makes what ever green item it hits glow against the dark background.
The farther back we got on the trail, we found some snow still on the ground. I was quite surprised to see this, as I have not seen any other patches around town for quite a while now. But it gets so little sun back in there between the trees and the hills blocking the sunlight.
Our trail came to an end at Lost Lake. I am not really sure why they call these lakes in this area, they are so shallow they are really more like big ponds….. But it was still fun to come across this, tucked back in the valley. We stood there for a few moments to rest and soak up the scenery. Then we made our way back. When we were almost back to the car we saw a little group of kinglets flitting about the brush, looking for bugs, and we also got to see a couple of winter wrens. I love all these little birds, its amazing how agile they are.
Over all we hiked about 9 miles yesterday. We haven’t done that in a while, so my body is feeling it today. I like that feeling of muscles being used, and stretched in ways they haven’t been for a while. It was a nice outing.
Before and After
It amazes me how things can change, and when you are immersed in the middle of it, sometimes it’s a challenge to remember just how much it has. My parents bought this property about 16 years ago, and I found a picture that is probably about 14 years old, or so. Its funny to look at that picture, and then look at the yard now. The trees look like little sticks stuck in the ground. This place was 10 acres of field with 2 trees on it when we bought it. Now the tree population is quite healthy around here. So I thought I would share a before and after picture, and who knows, in another 15 years I might find both of these pictures and laugh again.
Notice we have the same wooden swing, and the same ford explorer, the only difference being, now the explorer is my car not my moms. The trees are so big now, you cant really see the barn. And now there is a pond to the left of the oak tree.
