This morning's thoughts

This morning while at my kitchen sink I glanced up in time to see a magnificent buck coming towards me.  He had four to five points on each side of his antlers.  He was following a doe, and as I raised my camera to get his picture a car came down the drive and set him to moving off quickly for the shelter of the brush line of Manzanita and Toyon.

I thought how lucky I am to live among nature and have all this in my yard.  Then it occurred to me that I am in THEIR yard.  Animals, nature, go on doing what they do in spite of what us humans have erected in their domain.  They might alter their path or build their nest in a different tree, but always they continue living their lives the best they can.

I then thought of the perfection of a bird nest, or a mantid’s egg casing and how it remains the same year after year.  The design perfect, though the location might change and the twigs, leaves, fibers of the nest differ from year to year.  The deer still graze on what is available, the coyote still hunts, the mountain lion still stalks.  It is the human that gets in the way and finds their valuable plants eaten, their dog or cat a coyote snack , or their sheep a lion treat, which makes us angry at nature. 

Tastes like honey, yum.

The human being is an anomaly on this planet.  The indigenous peoples live the closest to the rhythms of nature, but for the most part humans live here totally out of tune with the planet.  Their only concern is acquiring more of everything.  More space, more rooms, more things, more money and they build bigger, higher, farther, competing with nature, with each other. 

Tearing down the rain forests for grazing land while there is grazing land in other countries sitting unused because of governmental regulations is but one example.  If we looked at every countries strong points and exchanged what we had our world would flourish.  If we didn’t worry about who had more of something, if it wasn't about money, or power the world’s people could work together for sustenance.

I think the happiest people on our planet today are those that live in harmony with nature, not influenced by warring factions, acquiring things or power.  They farm, they manufacture, they exchange, they love and live.  They aren't wasting time watching screens for entertainment and drama. 

Our world has shrunk through our technologies, which is a good thing.  Finding our balance between what we need, what we want and what makes us happy needs to be in better balance with our planet, our home. 

Many people worry about the earth, but I've got news for you, we can decimate every living thing on this planet and the earth will survive as she has done for millions and millions of years.  What lives and flourishes on her surface changes, but she lives on. She too is subject to what happens in the world she spins in and that is what her survival is connected too.  It is all energy.  Maybe in the interest of her survival, keeping the energy balanced, when those upon her surface threaten her balance in her rotations, her place in her universe, she rumbles and thrusts her crust to eliminate the problem. 

I think of all the huge rocks flying about in space and how this ball of “blue” has been missed by the big ones.  Even the space rocks, asteroids, comets, follow paths and patterns; more balance.    

Life is many patterns linked together in a moving fabric, from the teeniest to the mightiest, from the closest to the farthest we are all connected, and affected by every thought and action we take.  For some reason we humans have a consciousness like no other being on this planet, I suspect there are others in the black void of our universe that we are linked to.  It is through our unique consciousness that we have an awareness of the affect we make.  We need to turn up that awareness so we quit building up the toxins that will/could end life on this planet that is “our” home.

Pretty Leaves

My Pilates class was changed so I had time this morning to grab my tripod and catch the sun rising on our maple tree.  It has peaked and I figure they'll start dropping any day now.

That crazy squirrel was back playing with Gracie today.  She miscalculated and the squirrel made it up the pear tree.  Once up there it just stayed there at the top of the tree not moving.  I don't know if it was catching a nap or was playing invisible again out of the fear that Larry or I would go in there and turn the hose on it.  After awhile it started dropping the few pears left in the tree to the ground, once it even appeared to be trying to hit Gracie with one.  Nature is our best entertainment around here!

The squirrel tail is there about a third in and almost
half way down.

Gracie and the Squirrel

Gracie lives for chasing anything that moves.  She doesn't really want to catch it or hurt it, she just lives for the chase.  The lizards are everywhere right now in this lovely weather and oddly there are quite a few babies.  They make a lot of noise in the leaves and boy can they fly.






There has been a gray squirrel that has been getting the asian pears out of our tree.  Last year we cut the oak limb that gave them easy access over the fence.  Now they have to go by ground, through the fence and then up the tree.  Gracie tries to prevent that, but sometimes she misses and barks herself silly.  I went out one afternoon a couple of weeks ago and that squirrel just kept right on eating its pear while Gracie was going bezerk below it.  When it saw me and I shook the limb, it just flattened itself against the pear and branch and made like it was invisible.  I got the hose and shot it with water.  It plunked to the ground and Gracie gave chase, she was surprised when she made contact with its tail as it tried to force itself through the fence.

Last week, the squirrel was at it again and Larry let Gracie out of the garden and she spent a long time barking up the oak tree.  Because that crazy squirrel was messing with Gracie.  It would run down the tree and get nose to nose with her and just hang there head down out of reach.  Then it would turn, she would get a nip on its tail and back up the tree it would go.  This went on for quite awhile.  The squirrel seemed to be playing with Gracie and Gracie could have gotten hold of it a few times but didn't.







We finally brought Gracie inside for a bit, then when we went back outside I was surprised to see the squirrel inside the garden, under one of the chairs.  It seemed to be waiting for Gracie.  She took off running, but it didn't move far, flicked its tail and just stood there.  Gracie could have put her paws on it, (I'm glad she didn't, I was afraid the squirrel would bite her), but she would dig under the squirrel trying to get it to run.  It finally ran out of the garden, but never got very far away.  It was all very strange.  The squirrel  started heading off where we wouldn't let Gracie go, so the games had to end.






On another note, the first day of Autumn was wet from the rains the day before and that morning but I had taken a picture of our maple tree.  It had one leaf that was turning color, the rest were still green.  Over the course of that day I could practically watch the chlorophyll drain from the leaves as it started to turn colors.  Every few days I've taken it's picture, it is amazing how quickly they turn and in a few weeks they'll be gone.  Tonight it was mostly red.






We have had gorgeous fall days.  We have had leisurely breakfasts out in the garden, enjoying these last days of garden dining for the year.  The birds are all very noisy and busy. Many different kinds have been making noise as they migrate south, from ducks to turkey vultures.  There have been quite a few hummingbirds passing through also, the feeder always needs more refills this time of year.  There are still a lot of flowers in the garden for them to feed on, but the locals are very territorial and don't let the visitors enjoy their visit for very long. The roses are blooming big and the bushes have gotten huge, hard to believe I will be cutting them back by two thirds in a short time.  My hydrangea and azalea are blooming too, spring blooming with fall.