Update on Fred

Fred was in the same place this morning that I left him last night.  I was worried that he might fry in the sun on the front steps because he appeared to have no intent of moving.  So first I moved him to a shaded tree: lots of ants for food; surely, he would come alive with that!  (And yes, he was breathing.)  One hour later, he was still there.  And now the branch was in the sun.  Fred didn't want to leave me!  So I moved him to the back patio, in the shade.  This evening when I returned, Fred was gone.  Where are you, Fred?

My New Friend

I found a new friend today.  At first he was scared of me, then he wouldn't leave.  He took a nap on my hand for an hour, then stuck around for a couple more hours inside.  I finally had to coax him back outside to nature.  A half hour later, he was still on the front steps.  I miss him now that he is gone.  I call him Fred.  Maybe I'll see him around sometime.

It's getting me all fired up!

Some of you may remember these photos I posted of one of my first mountain bike rides a month or so ago.  (This still happens to be one of my only mountain bike rides yet, but no matter.)  Crafton Hills during the summer is dry, dry, dry, but still maintains a type of desert beauty that one can enjoy (at least early in the morning before the oven heats up).  There's a beautiful view of the mountains and hills 360 degrees around -- you just have to overlook Yucaipa to keep up the scenic view.  The bushes are dry but with splashes of red, green, white and yellow.  And for me, the wide trail with it's sweeping turns and gentle hills, makes for a fear-free ride.

Well, last night this was my view of Crafton from afar. 

As I got closer, I started to see the ashes fall around me and worry about my health when I started coughing, so I headed the other direction.  Supposedly, lightening, volcanic eruptions, falling rocks, and spontaneous combustion are the main causes of wildfires.  Not so here in Southern California.  Arson, cigarettes, campfires and in essence, careless and/or destructive people.  What is up with our society today?  Since when did this kind of thing become fashionable?   What are we teaching our kids that they grow up to think that this is a form of fun?  What happended to responsibility and consequences?  Lets wake up and cherish the beauty of the world and the people around us, and teach those who follow us that same stewardship.

Crafton today, from a distance, still smoldering, 80% contained.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.

Autumnal Equinox

Apparently, today is deemed the first day of Fall. I've been ruminating on this concept all day, wondering WHO? decided this? The weather seems to be telling us otherwise...

This made me want to be difficult and buck the system. Who is to tell me that I have to head into fall? Come on now, if you're going to tell me it's fall, give me fall weather: cool temperatures, green hills, a little rain.  Is that too much to ask?  But no. So, I made ice tea in my SUMMER container, and I decided to attract some hummingbirds by making them some pretty red food. So there! This is adverse as I can get at bucking the fall system. ;-)

But my inquisitive mind made me look into this a little further and educate myself. Lucky for all of you,  I have decided to educate you too. So, FYI: the September or Autumnal Equinox occurs when the sun crosses the celestial equator and moves southward in the northern hemisphere. "The location on the earth where the sun is directly overhead at solar noon is known as the subsolar point. The subsolar point occurs on the equator during the September equinox and March equinox.  At that time, the earth’s axis of rotation is perpendicular to the line connecting the centers of the earth and the sun."  (http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html)  Wow!  Confused yet?  There's more.  The September equinox occurs this year at exactly 21:19 Coordinated Universal Time (also known as UTC -- Why isn't it CUT?  Beats me!).  For those of us out West, the Pacific standard time zone is UTC-8.  The Eastern standard time zone is UTC-5.  And for those of you in the middle, I'll let you figure it out.  The UTC apparently has something to do with Greenwich and solar time and Leap seconds, but this is where you start to lose interest and my brain has started to hurt, so that's as educated as I'm going to get on the September Equinox.  And if you want to know more, I'll let you look it up!

Regardless, enjoy the coming fall weather and fall colors whereever you might be!  I know I will, when it finally decides to come...

Hold Your Breath

To put it mildly, the air quality in Southern California has not been that great lately.  Now, I know what you are thinking, "Duh!"  But really, when you can chew your air, it probably means that you shouldn't be breathing it in.  I think they should change the Air Quality Index (AQI) to:

Okay, okay, I know that a lot of this has to do with the wild fires, most notably the Station Fire, which if you watched the news you would think has been the only fire out there.  It seems that rich people's houses are more important than anyone elses.  We had a fire not 10 miles away and not once did I hear it mentioned on the news.  We had to return to the dark ages and watch the sky for signs of shifting winds. 

Now that it's September, cooler days are in site and pretty soon our view will be this instead.  And we'll all be able to breathe easy.  Hold on people, it's coming...

Girly girl?

So I'm trying something new. Blogging? Who woulda ever thought? Facebook has run its course, so now for a new (to me) method of keeping up with friends and family.

Not many people would call me a "Girly Girl", but I love flip flops and flowers (more on my amateur photography attempts to come), jewelry (rings!), dressing up, pedicures, shopping, and... So maybe I am a little "girly" after all!

I'm not a writer, so bear with me! But I seem to have a lot of inspiration lately. So here goes!