Summer Joys

 As a kid, I loved running through the sprinkler in the the summer.  Mom or Dad would set it up on the lawn, my friends would come, and we would enjoy the fun.  So on Sunday, I looked out my window and saw the hummingbirds "playing" in my solar fountain.  I grabbed my camera and caught a few examples.

Yeah, enough seasons of being an interpretive guide, I know we should not  anthropomorphize wild animals\fauna.  So, maybe they were getting a drink, or bathing, or cooling off (although this summer has been far cooler than last and Sunday was low 80's and delightful) but it reminded me of my childhood and so I put the camera on burst mode, super high speed, and shot away.

I got so involved that I have been taking photos daily.  It isn't easy to catch the right moment.  When they sit still, on the feeder its easier, but I don't always want the feeder and I love catching them when there is movement.  So, I will keep on experimenting and working at it.  Obviously using "burst" mode, high ISO.  I want to blur the background but most of these were at f8 so I think I will increase that so that I have a bigger range in focus.  Many of these have been cropped significantly which also adds to issues of sharpness, but I love the detail.  A couple are clearly not focused but I loved the motion, the speed of the wings, the almost transparent wings at top speed.  So, those too are here.  They have not been spending as much time in the bird bath or I'll see them in it, grab the camera and by the time I am out the door, they are back to eating or chasing each other off the feeders.  There are times several birds feed at once, but this is very territorial and they would expend a lot less energy, need less food, if they cooperated more.  

Many immature among the ones at the feeders.  I have both Anna's and and Allen's.  

I hope in those studies of how much sugar Americans consume, they have a way to subtract out all the people making hummingbird nectar.  I am hoping the price does not increase much.   Sometimes I think more of my budget goes to feeding cats and birds than me.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

You may need to click on this one for it to fully show on your screen.   I love the motion

Somehow the calendar for the blog and the calendar the rest of us use, are not the same.  This was posted August 6, 2025 just after 7 pm.   
 

Living at Park Sierra

 Each season has its own beauty and special delights.  Here are just a few, random photos from this spring. Spring is a wildflower display.  Early summer means the creek is quiet, peaceful and ducks, turtles, fish, and flora enjoy the worn, granite boulders and holes.   

Another joy is the manzanita\madrone trees as they shed their bark.  But that is another post.

The Peeling Trees

 I am fascinated by the peeling bark of the Madrone trees.  Frequently called Manzanita, and in the same family, but the Madrones are generally bigger and more tree-like while Manzanita is more shrub like.  Each late spring, the bark begins to curl and fall off.  I find myself photographing it each year, intrigued.  The peel seems to be tied to the summer Equinox, lasting from a month before to a month after.

Late sun makes the peel glow.  

I am pulled to the patterns, the colors, and the contrast between the thin, curling bark and the very dense, and colorful tree underneath.

It is believed that the peeling is a defense for the tree.  It has provided the conduit for nutrients for the tree growth earlier, and now sheds the bark to protect against beetles, fungus, and disease.   

Besides the bark, I also love the shape of the older branches, dead and living intertwined, the textures of grey dead wood and shiny mahogany color of living, holes providing storage space for the common acorn woodpeckers of my home, and holes for other birds to nest in.

So, here is a photo essay of these beautiful trees.  Several are on my site.  Others are next door or on the hill below me.  

Hope you find them as fascinating as I do.  And as worthy of photographing.  

Here Comes the Sun

 Park Sierra is going solar.  The project, financed by a company called Sunwealth, will provide power for the park and all its members.  Sunwealth is footing the almost $4 million dollars and getting all kinds of tax write offs and carbon credits.  Park Sierra is providing the land, our not-for profit status, and users.  

Site clearance is complete and we are awaiting grading.  A fence will enclose the site, some native plants will shade the view, but not the panels, from the few sites that can see down that hill.  It is an exciting chapter in this co-ops history and will cap our kilowatt costs at about a third of current PG&E rates.  We won't be totally independent as a battery backup, which the park would have to pay for, isn't in the cards just yet.  But as PG&E is hardening their fire defenses, we are having less power outages and most of us have generators (mine is solar) as part of our RV lifestyle

A lot of people worked thousands of  volunteer hours for this project to happen.  My part is small.  I've written an article for Escapees Magazine, to be published in July\August on the project.  And proceeds of the article will be donated to the landscape committee for the native plants.   Here are a few photos of the site where sloping arrays will be erected.  Sunwealth will maintain this area for 25 years, then sell it to the park for $1.00.   The solar panels should still have 85% efficiency and who knows what new technology will be available by then.  A group of visionaries built this beautiful park 40 plus years ago. This is the legacy of the current members to the future.

Just after the survey stakes were placed, I took this photo of the site where the solar array would be placed.  This is late winter.  The photos, below,  taken after clearing began show the spring green of the site.

 

Clearing shows beyond the trees.

COMPANIONS 

Two years have gone by quickly, but Tagine and Couscous are so ingrained in my daily life, its hard to remember life without them.  I've been negligent keeping up with my blog, so I haven't even introduced them.  So here is a quick look.

Born of a stray cat dropped off in the park, my friend, Linda, fed the mother and knew, when she showed up without a bulging belly on April 1, that they had arrived.  But where?   Several days later, someone readying their boat, found them, set them in a bowl on the ground.  I guess they figured mama cat would come get them.  But Linda was afraid all four would not survive until that job was complete so she moved them into her shed.  Over the next eight weeks, she let mama in and out, fed her, and then the kittens, and together we played with the kittens, socializing them and having fun ourselves. I was going to take one.  Little Tagine with her tortoiseshell coloring appealed to me and with her mix of colors looked like a traditional Moroccan tagine (sweet and savory stew). I think most like a beef and apricot mix, but perhaps camel and prunes, or chicken and prunes.  

Linda, and a woman I greatly respected at church, both encouraged me to get two, so they would be company for each other.  I resisted.  My last cat, who lived to be 24, was a single cat and very affectionate. If I had two cats, would they be as affectionate towards me?  The pressure was high, but the final push was when Linda announced I had to have Couscous with my Tagine.  And with his orange tabby coloring, he does resemble couscous.

I did not need to worry about affection. Even as kittens, these two were close.  They played with the other two, but if mischief was in the making, if an escape was being hatched, if a toy was going to be snatched, these two were behind it.   Between an April Fool's birthday and their behavior as kittens, I had plenty of warning.   I could have opted for the coach potato of the four, the one who loved to curl up.  

They are close to each other but affectionate to a high level with me.  Distinct personalities, but both very loving. They even influenced the feral, Kimchee, who has lived under my RV for years.  He was happy to be fed, but no matter how many treats placed along the ground, next to me, I had never touched him.   He is still a bit skittish but now tolerates me petting him and scratching his ears when I put the food out.  I guess he realized I treated the kittens well so I could not be all bad and scary.  

Besides the changes in his attitude toward me, he took the kittens under his wing.  They were suppose to be indoor cats.  I was overruled and outsmarted.  But Kimchee knew these little ones didn't have outdoor smarts and in the early days he followed them around and kept an eye on them.  Now, like me, arthritis has slowed him down.  He prefers sleeping on my steps and patio most of the time while Couscous and Tagine races down the hill, up the trees into the highest branches, onto the roof of my trailer.  All three catch gophers and I usually have several offerings at the front door during any given week.  Kimchee will finish them off, the young ones are only interested in the hunt.  

So, here are a few photos of the last two years.

Tagine carried this pink ball around with her for weeks.

The innocence is all faked.

Kimchee, still very suspicious of me.  It was okay that my feet are on the top step (picture below) as long as my hands and arms stayed close to my body and didn't move.

Photos below are recent.  Tagine and Couscous are a bit over 2 years old, love to climb trees, race down the hillside, and favorite inside activity, other than eating, is helping me make the bed.  Takes twice as long.

Couscous in first tree, his sister in the tree to the right.

Couscous and Tagine were suppose to be indoor cats.  Couscous has acquired a second name, Houdini.  Early on I put them in a fabric\mesh carrying case to take them to the vet.  Got my stuff ready and turned around to find that they were out.  Couscous Houdini had undone the zipper.  Added carabineers.  Then he figured out how to open the sliding glass door.  He is both clever and very strong.  The only way to keep it closed it to lock it, but after my knee surgery I had neighbors coming in to look after me and locking the door wasn't practical.  Now that they have had a taste of outside, they are not content to be indoors although they spend nights inside and come and go regularly during the day.I worry about outdoor dangers; but after all my years as a nomad, its hard to deny them their independence and adventurous spirits.