happy birthday, staal

if i could give you anything today...

i love you, staal.  happy birthday.

a bear

i saw a bear for the first time.  i've seen bears in zoos but i'd never seen a wild bear, a real bear.  we were driving and at first i wasn't sure what i was looking at.  it was on the opposite side of the road up ahead of us just at the edge of the brush.  it's funny the way the mind works when it has something new and unexpected to process---it went something like this:  
not brush...furry...animal...bear-shaped...bear-shaped animal...bear?...a bear?...oh wow, a bear!
as we drove nearer the bear turned and disappeared into the brush.  it was such a brief experience it seemed more like a daydream---just some flash of images constructed by my mind.  like seeing something ancient and mythical.  maybe that's what a bear is in a way---some fading remnant of the past that, by the time i reach the end of my days, will only exist in myths and daydreams. 

refrigerator art

Bucculatrix albertiella

Bucculatrix albertiella, the oak-ribbed skeletonizer, a moth whose larvae feed on the leaves of valley oaks/california lobed oaks, Quercus lobata.  generally considered a pest.

Bucculatrix albertiella, oak-ribbed skeletonizer, hanging out on the inside of the living room window

i consider him more an artist than a pest.

skeletonized leaf of Quercus lobata

 

i picked the first of the snow peas this morning.

here's what staal did with them...

           snow peas, squash and pork...have i mentioned that man can cook?!           delicious

three spoons

the birds have begun the day
with morning light still blue
we three lie nestled like spoons
man, woman, dog
warm and close
half awake
faces to the south
soft, earthy fur a tickle in my nose
warm breath and gentle stubble on the back of my neck
and a cool breeze drifting over us from the open window
let the birds take the morning

doubt's darkness

some hours of the night are darker than others 
longer and lonelier
this is doubt's darkness
startling the restless bird from his roost
and sending him flitting into a starless sky on tattered feathers
but he will soon light again
and once settled
find himself in the warmth
of love's golden dawn

snow peas

the snow peas are blossoming and...uh...pea-ing.