i took that picture wednesday night, when i was in carp for karen's terrific dinner party.
waffles' birthday is in may. i've decided to make it a-waffles-a-day month over
on apad. i took over 300 pictures of the dog wednesday night. i still don't think it's enough to tide me over until october.
the weather was terrific all weekend. jg and i spent all our time on tasks around the house. we finally took some time off for a hike on sunday at 4:15 pm.
seen at trail head
up at "the peak"
unidentified plant
i'm only posting that picture to show you how single-handedly ruined my camera. see all the gray spots toward the bottom of the image? that's what happened when i tried to clean the sensor with a can of compressed air. it has always worked, until yesterday. may be i did it on purpose; i've been thinking about upgrading to the 50d.
california buckwheat
i really like the triton structure of those flowers. i think it's my most favorite native plant.
other people's waffles
that dog scared me a bit. at a distance, it looked deceptively small. when she stopped to greet me, her snout reached above my waist. another reason why waffles is the perfect dog in the whole world for me.
jg and i took advantage of the heat wave yesterday and went for a walk up eucalyptus drive. the waxing gibbous moon was in full view.
half a rabbit
the sky was no where near that dark when i took that picture. i had to crank the shutter speed way up (1/4000) just to get some definition of the craters.
pizza pie
isn't it crazy how the thickness of the blind man's glasses has the power to distort the shape of the moon itself?
7:54 pm
that's the destination of our stroll. it's just a bend in the road with railings that make for good benches. it's a great spot for watching fireworks.
that was the view from our back yard last night. jg got all our backpacking gear laid out, ready to roll. he even had the car pointed out the drive way.
this morning we were very happy to wake up to an overcast sky. it was still raining ash but there wasn't much smoke. the sky cleared up in the afternoon. jg decided that we go for a bike ride.
my dumpy bike
butterfly beach
riding on the sand was not my idea. i like the idea of it, although it felt sort of wrong. plus, the riding is really difficult, even on hard packed sand.
krispy kelp
show off
poodle in the sky
under destruction
where is your helmet?
aggregates
we rode to butterfly beach from cabrillo, ending up at miramar. on the way back, we took coast village road through montecito. rich people look even snootier when you're on a bike.
the awning got jg's attention. poor fool, it turned out to be a "fine objects" store. it figures. glad i waited at the curb.
i discovered msn live search from one of my colleagues two days ago. it saved me from having to make a site visit. i love that it could rotate the bird's eye view. infinitely better than google maps.
anyway, the pink arrow in the image above indicates the location of my office. it's exactly 0.3 mile from the beach.
jg was happier than a gummy bear yesterday after he rode a trail which he rated 8 out of 10. he managed to take dozens of pictures. these are my favorites.
looking north to morro bay
south to spooner's cove
happy camper
view of trail from hazard peak
on the way down
per our usual routine, while jg biked, i hiked. i started with the bluff trail, where it was unusually crowded.
do not touch
secret beach
fat and fearless squirrel
spooner's cove
morro rock
valencia peak
the trail up to valencia peak is one of my all time favorites. it used to be my escape hike while i was in school. anyway, i took that picture after i decided to turn around on the bluff trail. the crowds and the wind were kicking up way too much dust for me. i wandered toward the visitor's center to check out the native plant garden.
giant thistle
gooseberry?
poppies
mystery plant
wild peas
sadly, the native plant garden was totally grown over. there were lots of descriptive labels but the plants had either languished or been taken over by three other plants. the plants that were thriving, of course, had no labels.
our ride
after visiting the native plant garden, i went looking for a new hike. i saw some people wandering around on the dune to the north side of spooner's cove. i went looking for the trail head.
aka the real native plant garden. the trail was lined with all manners of wild flowers. the entire dune was blooming!
before and after
i've never seen that flower before. i need to find a book that identifies all these native plants.
regretfully, i did not hike the entire trail. i wasted so much time taking pictures that i only got about a half mile in before i had to turn around. if the rest of the trail is half as scenic as the segment i hiked, i'd still give it a 10.
jg took that picture while i was replanting the basil for the sixth or seventh time. the sprouts keep disappearing as soon as the leaves poke through the soil. we're having very little success with our planter box in general. at the beginning of the season, it was getting about five hours of sun each day. now, with may gray and the onset of june gloom, it's down to about two hours.
jg declared on may 17th that bbq season has officially begun
"put the camera down and taste this!"
jg at ucsb campbell hall...
to see bill mcdonough
a rather lackluster speaker. he had some good points, but mostly he was peddling his companies and his latest book. he did make one comment that made me laugh aloud: i'm concerned about gravity.
seen on milpas
seen in san jose
that's my sister's dog booboo. every time i let him out for potty break, he would run to the lawn and graze.
how to humiliate one's spouse, part ll
jg and i went to the bay area for memorial day weekend, where we visited our relatives and stuffed our faces.
jg and my brothers grilling 5,000 pounds of rocks oysters
grody
that's my niece playing old macdonald had a farm. she does not want to be a violinist when she grows up.
visitors from bakersfield and beyond
that little girl was adorable in every which way. i was most impressed when she decided to have steamed broccoli with her dinner.
finally, the parting shot:
aka the megalomaniac's times
i hope you had an equally fine may. don't forget to say waffles waffles first thing tomorrow.
