Off the Beaten Path

Its an overcast morning here in southern California, as it often is, the early morning coastal haze makes the world dark and a little depressing. I so miss waking to sun streaming through my windows.

Each morning we take a different path, through a dried up river bed with errant cacti, sometimes along the beach, or, as we did this morning across the fields on a nearby farm.

This sunflower brightened my path today, sprouting in the most arid of areas it bloomed and spread a little bit of sunshine. I scrambled up a steep rocky incline and took a picture with my phone cam..

oOo

Picture Perfect

What am I?

By now you all know the rules of 'What am I?'

a game which lasts only as long as the first CORRECT answer...

now, gimme your best guesses...

John got it right, it is indeed an antique bellows..which belonged to my grandparents, the art work was done by my eccentric artistic grandfather..

Heres the big picture

( and most of the fun happened HERE)

Shades of Grey

This weeks

PICTURE PERFECT

theme is

Shades of Grey

Early one morning the children and I watched a troop of vervet monkeys cavort and play in the trees near the house . Knowing full well they were the centre of attention, they chattered and screamed and danced on the floor until we were in stitches of laughter. These two however, sat apart, lulled into stillness by their intense grooming...

Wrist Mumps

Ive developed this lump on my wrist over the past week. Its probably a ganglion cyst but Ive had one before and it wasn't as painful as this. My wrist movements are becoming more more difficult and painful and now there is very little I can do without some sort of discomfort, (except being on the computer..which doesn't hurt at all)

I'm so right handed it isn't funny, and I'm finding out how much so every day, even taking this picture was a challenge!

Anyhow the doc has told me to rest it as much as possible (wanted to put it in a splint just to remind me but i freaked at that) and will review it next week, do a needle aspiration and then I will probably have to have it removed. The previous one went after I bashed it with a spoon, (this ruptures the capsule and allows the gelatinous substance to be absorbed..it worked and its never come back.) This one however is bigger and way to painful to even touch, I'm sure its starting to press on nerves and tendons as my hand does feel slow and kinda sluggish...

Pictures to Words # 21

head tilted she pauses

the music floats over her

one last crescendo

oOo

Post your links at:

Pictures to Words

Fire Rainbow

Today the sky looked weird to me, I drove over to Lompoc to do a (rare) day shift and the sky was overcast with heavy fog, so typical here on along the Pacific coastline. At lunchtime I could only see a little bit of blue here and there....but it looked weird, I wondered if we were going to get rain.

I have just finished watching our local weather report and there was apparently a fire rainbow sighted over the Lompoc/Vandenburg area, with some heavy rain and hail up in the mountains. A fire rainbow is an optical phenomenon and rarely seen, and conditions for viewing have to be perfect. In order to be observed, the sun must be very high in the sky, at an elevation of 57.8� (90 -32.2�) or more, and can only occur in the presence of cirrus clouds.

The arc is formed as light rays enter the horizontally-oriented flat hexagon crystals through a vertical side face and exit through the horizontal bottom face. It is the 90� inclination that produces the well-separated rainbow-like colours and, if the crystal alignment is just right, makes the entire cirrus cloud appear to shine like an undulating rainbow.

The scientists call it a circumhorizontal arc ..but I think Fire Rainbow has all the appropriate drama phenomenon deserves

Pictures and info courtesy of Wikipedia

Fire Rainbow

A Page for Pinkie

Pinkie here's a little something to help you get your groove back! We love you and cant bear to see you in pain of any kind. You face all kinds of challenges every single day and you face them with humour and a realness I am in awe of.

much love sweetie...

Picture Perfect ~ Busy

The theme this week is

BUSY

and you can link to Picture Perfect here and view a whole lot of other busy pictures

oOo

My time in South Africa was wonderful and a very busy time indeed! The family generally lead very busy lives, children were at school during the week and with Jess and Alan both working the time together was sparing and precious.

We spent the long weekend at a private game park and saw an amazing amount of animals closeup, in their natural habitat. The one thing though that kept the children and I occupied for absolutely ages, was this little dung beetle we found near our chalet. They are just amazing to watch, as they roll up the dung of large animals and drag it underground to feed and lay their eggs in.

Coming back has been a real struggle on so many levels, so much longing and personal adjustments to make both physically and emotionally, but life goes on..and the busyness of the daily grind soon takes over and we are sucked right back in the normality of our daily routine quicker than we would probably like... maybe that's a good a thing, I'm not sure

and breaking all the rules, here is another

Comedy Hour

Everybody I talk to seems to be struggling, either with money, work, parents, family, illness or homesickness!! Life is full of challenges right now..

So lets spread a bit of Happy Fairy Dust..post your best joke here and lets laugh.. just a little.

Pictures to Words ~ Poetry

Within the blush of a blue moon

a swirling smudge of luminescent and blurry light

I walk with you beneath a neatly ordered sky

restlessly content

Your warm sweet smell is smeared beneath my skin

and mingles with the warm still night

my step soothes your wet cheek

moist against my breast

We turn back slowly towards a sleeping house

where garden trees play silent shadow games

and darkened rooms hide timid moonlight beams

with one light lit

Spooky ~ Picture Perfect

The

Picture Perfect

theme this week is

S P O O K Y

and JohnO is the Host

I took this picture late one afternoon. The sun was setting behind the chandelier on the patio casting an eerie glow on the wall in my sitting room. It reminds me of a Rorschach's image in a way...