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Tennessee Valley Trail – A Summery Sunday in January
··· Jan 27 2011 · By ···
After a ton of rain and many cold gray days in November and December, Mother Nature has been shining some powerful golden rays on us lately. Clear, sunny, warm days in January are food for the soul and we’ve been making it a priority to get Out and soak it up every day. Sunday was especially warm and clear-sky’ed so we grabbed Nicole and Sid and headed out to one of our new favorite hiking spots in Marin: Tennessee Valley. Getting to the beach without the twisty-turny kind-of-long drive out to Point Reyes is pretty cool. And it’s just a beautiful place. As the trail curves around and rolls slightly up and down and that first glimpse of the Pacific comes into view, it’s pretty hard not to feel good about life.
The first time we were there, we saw a really Big slug on the ground. Big like a (brown) banana. We also saw what was probably a bobcat but, even with the zoom lens, the pictures aren’t clear – he/she blends into the background. Cool to see new creatures!
Jeph pointed out that the topography of the beach was totally different than just one week before. The extra strong tide of this full moon probably made the changes more substantial than usual. Last week there was a fairly big ridge of sand over to the left which we climbed up to get around the little stream dividing the beach horizontally. This time there was only a small bit of ridge and it was further left, against the back wall of rock. The stream was wider and crossing it meant wet feet (except for long-legged Jeph who jumped it with ease.) After a few minutes of debate, the rest of us wised up and took our dam* shoes off. And boy did that sand feel good on these feet, so tired of wearing shoes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
We played on the beach. Sid dug around in the sand. The sand here is super cool. It’s like miniature pebbles and the color palette is pretty hues of gray-blue, rosy-brown-red, and burnt-orange. I could spend hours just marveling at the rocks and pebbles, and getting inspiration for jewelry pieces.
After awhile we dried off our feet, put the shoes back on and hiked up the side of the hill to an overlook. This is whale migration season (nearing the end) and we hoped to maybe see them heading south. No luck this time – we may need go out to Point Reyes next season. But it was still fun to be up that high, where the crows drop in to ocean winds and float. Watching them from below I observed their graceful balance of effort and going-with-the-flow.
They are focused and present. Their muscles are strong and active. And, at the same time, they are harnessing the power of the universe via the flow of wind – being supported and uplifted.
This reminds me of the practices of qigong, where instead of fighting against opposing energies, you move with them and use them to your advantage. This is wise effort and we humans, as usual, can learn a lot from these creatures. And that is one of the things I enjoy about being out amongst nature – learning in a natural, intuitive way.
The concept of qi as a form of pervasive energy is a fundamental pillar of Chinese Philosophy. This energy is considered to exist in all things including the air, water, food, and sunlight. In the body, qi represents the unseen vital force that sustains life. Qigong practice involves the manipulation and balance of the qi within the practitioner’s body and its interaction with the practitioner’s surroundings.
Compost January 2011
··· Jan 13 2011 · By ···
Since we put in the compost bin, there have been some ups and downs. Let’s see, where to start…
Ups
- It is, in fact, working. We toss stuff in the top, and stir it around a bit, and there is some blackish, dirt(ish) earthy smelling matter.
- Bugs of all kinds seem to like hanging out in there. Most common are the fruit flies and I see ants marching around in there. The ants tried to store some eggs in there, but I thwarted that effort.
- It doesn’t smell horrible, really. There are times, when it has gone too long without turning – resulting in a little ripeness down wind. For the most part it isn’t that bad.
- We put bread and cracker type crumbs on the top of the bin when it’s closed so the birds can have a little place to land and peck around, the squirrels probably dig it up there too.
Downs
- The mealy worms that were in there aren’t in there any longer. This is probably one of the reasons why the breakdown has slowed down.
- Another reason the pile is not running at top capacity is that it is wet in there. This is a combination of not enough ventilation, and too much letting water in, and poor ventilation in the compost as a result of just not enough brown stuff.
- Cheap bin = sharp edges, brittle plastic. You gotta be careful when you reach into a bin like we have. Edged with a sharp, err, edge around the opening, reaching in can result in chunks of the back of your hands and fingers being planed off. I always wear my gloves anyway, but one day I didn’t… The dig out openings at the bottom have removable doors. They are held on with 4 tabs each, one has chipped off already
What’s next?
So the plan for it right now is to work some more dry stuff into the mix. I am going to have to get Dorothy out there one day and help me empty it so we can cut some holes into the bottom so worms can find their way into and out of the pile. I am also keeping my eyes peeled for some worms. I might have a line on some in SF or Oakland, stay tuned.
Our garden tool collection has started to grow again, thanks to an unexpected gift from our friend Todd! We sold our nice clutch of garden tools when we moved a few years back, so we have been needing to get our hands on some tools so we can have fun playing in the dirt. For turning the pile, and other ground work, a pitch fork, and for general digging around, we got a short handle digging shovel. (yay) For our needs this year, that’s a good place to start. (Update: we had to take the original pitchfork back because the fork part wasn’t connected tightly and it twisted on the shaft as I tried to turn the pile.)
We share the pile with our neighbors, and plan to share with them some of the goodness that the nourishing compost helps us grow as we start to get our garden growing in the next few months.
Whatcha reading?
I picked up Easy Compost (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide) (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides)
If a Tree Falls in the City
··· Jan 06 2011 · By ···
The philosophical question “If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around, does it make a sound?” has been riddling philosophers for years. It’s all about perception of an event. Of course this tree in a forest, well outside of an earshot, doesn’t make a sound. But that’s not why I am writing this.
If a tree falls in the city, or in this case is prematurely cut down and fed into the chipper, it makes a lot of noise. But it isn’t the noise that I am writing about either.
We lost a good friend today. A mature, healthy, Coast Live Oak that was the first thing we saw each morning as we opened our sleeping eyes.
This tree, which sat on the property line between our next door neighbor, and the next house down, was sent to the chipper because a couple branches were removed about 6 months earlier. This became a point of contention between our neighbor, who is renovating her new house, and her neighbor. The branches were removed to make room for upcoming renovation work on the house. That’s the background.
Well, because of the size of the branches that were removed, an arborist came out and noted that the tree would most likely die. I really don’t get that one, but it is basically what the tree genius said. I waited to see the tree turn brown, and start to lose leaves. That never happened (keep in mind that coast live oaks are evergreen, so they don’t shed their leaves annually). From my perspective the tree remained healthy, and not endangering any houses around it or anything else.
So this morning, Dorothy looked out the window and said “There’s someone up in the tree!”. Sure enough a guy was climbing all up in this magnificent tree, chainsaw in hand prepping it for its impending demise. KEEP IN MIND, THIS WAS A STILL HEALTHY MATURE TREE!
I quickly ran out with my phone to get some pictures and video of the tree in its final minutes. (it’s kind of noisy)
Just click on the video below.
What possibly angers me the most is the fact that this tree was still healthy, and a favorite perch for birds, squirrels, bugs, spiders, moss, lichen… It was also a very pretty tree, symmetrical, teeming with life, and serving as a screen to the urban hillside in the distance. So now I am forced to look at the homes dotting the hillside which were behind the canopy of the coast live oak.
So today Dorothy and I grieve at the loss of this friend of ours. We are sad that our bird and critter friends no longer have a place to perch, eat, squabble, play. We wish the tree good passage into it’s next life as it’s chipped up remains help nourish the soil where they are deposited.
