Simple Sunday ~ Shelter Cove

Different in sameness

Together in busyness

Atop all guano

Go Fly a Kite! Shelter Cove, California

If you feel like you need a little bit of lift to your wings, mental or physical, I suggest you go fly a kite. It's a recipe for spirit soaring that demands very few ingredients. A kite, wind and you. But even watching someone else fly a kite works. Should I qualify that and say, at least it does for me?

Or watching someone else watching someone fly a kite.

Kites are just fun. Ask Charlie Brown, who season after tree-knotted season, continues to bring out the paper, wood and string to try again for that lofty moment of flying freedom.

No kites for sale around you? Make your own. It's a good project, especially if kids are involved. This is a great page to get started. It includes links to free ebooks, videos and instructions for tons of different kites. Ok, not tons. But 27 kinds of kites is a lot. Trust me, she said.

What else was going on in the land of warm days and cool nights where pajamas feel cozy but a fire would be too much? 

The lumber yard here is huge and full of all sorts of unlumberyardish things. Like deer.

And old trucks.

And giant tree stumps (the little girl is not for sale)

There was once a garden nursery here too. This is from those days.
If I liked cold weather, I'd try to get it started again. It's tempting.

The day was warm and the walk to the little cafe in the lumberyard made it warmer. That meant the walk back would include a stop at the river. Shaded by an assortment of tree varieties, the water is stays pretty cold, a weirdly refreshing feeling. Not that I've gone in all the way this year. But I've watched some boys of summer swing out on sturdy ropes from high trees into the deepest parts. They emerge grinning and slightly gasping and usually one time seems to be enough.

We cross land and wade along carefully on mossy rocks

It was pizza night. Down in Shelter Cove there is a pizza place that does it right. Next door is a perfect kite flying field. Or watching the sunset field. Or taking photos that can never entirely, even if I manage to come close, capture what moves my soul field.

A view of the lighthouse and campground from the road above

A Sunrader Toyota motorhome. Yes, I confess, I lusted in my heart.
Please don't tell the Turtle.

It's like the headland at Flamenco x 87%

Nature's doorway

Random wowness

I'm as tall as Elijah!!!

 It seemed like a chance at seeing a Green Flash but there was a cloud layer I'd not really seen earlier. Still, to grouse about that with such a glorious setting, in land and heart people would be ungrateful in the extreme. 

Good night, Shelter Cove. We'll be back.

I noticed I'm starting to write like I talk to The Girl. Oops.

Have a tender Thursday. Do something tradingly.

A Lot of Days and Nights Later...

I don't think I've ever gone so long without posting here since starting this in 2008. As progressive as California is on some fronts, internet and phones, at least in the area I've been in, are about 20 years back in time, existing but not easily. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

For those of you on facebook, you've seen a fair number of these photos (some you haven't), but I know there are readers who don't go there. So it's batch time, you know what to do.

Tomatoes and apples, about as local as it gets

So beautiful and delicious too.

 The tomato plants are all cut down now, as winter creeps over the land. Some days are sunny and brilliant, but nights are really cold, as in ice in the morning cold. Where is that damn fuel tank? It's time for me to be warm again!

A day of beautiful clouds

Even in the cold, the iris are flourishing. They make me feel warmer.

I love these trees! This little area is called the Enchanted Forest, for obvious reasons

Under the peeling bark, the wood is really as smooth as it looks. Must. Be. Touched.

I don't think I've seen a real buttercup in many years.
[edited to note: this is a California poppy, NOT a buttercup.
Thanks for the info! 

This is not an unusual sight anymore.

Such a strange rainbow. It was raining somewhere but nowhere I could really see.

The night after the full moon. That night was cloudheavy.

The Girl being Sarah's hairdresser.

Seasons. I can, almost, understand people who say they love the different seasons or miss them. The way humans are made, where they grow up, how they are formed and how they survive stays in the forefront of my brain these days and nights. There is a lot of history around here and it is celebrated, a lot. Finding arrowheads and old tools is not infrequent, the natives and newcomers formed their alliances but not without early troubles, like everywhere else that has been invaded through war or homesteading. It is a literal open book and I'm only on the preface, with so much more to learn.

I've never seen so many robins in my life. Flocks of them.
Don't they know it is time to go south? 

This made me feel at home.

On Halloween, we went to the yearly Trade Fair. 

Music, lots of cool items for sale, food and drink. These get up were along the way to the actual site of the fair. There were some others but either we couldn't back up or they weren't as 'wow!'.

Most of the time we were there, the mist was so heavy that the camera was safely tucked into my backpack. Right at the end, as people were packing up to go - rain was coming - I got a shot of these folks. I can't say who the carver is but Whimsical was definitely the theme.

Right before the man took this away, he gave us a silly moment. Thanks, guy!

The proceeds for some of the items were going directly to benefit the Whale Gulch fire department. Firemen and women are deeply appreciated around here, as they should be. This was a tough year for them as well as homeowners who lost everything in the fires. 

There is a Farmer's Market in Garberville on Saturday's, though I think this Saturday or next will be the last one. A lot of the regular vendors have already packed it up for the winter but there were still some great selections of local, organic meat and veggies, breads and cheeses. 

One woman we met made goat cheese spreads, from her goat farm called Cannibal Island Creamery. She had an ariel photo of her place, it is so close to the ocean that you can easily see it. I thought...if I had something like that? I could be cold awhile. Maybe. Nothing like putting it into a context impossible to happen!

Elijah and The Girl sorting out her new tool box. She wants to help.

I love the kitchen roof!

I really hadn't had any one on one time with my son. We headed to Shelter Cove, with the air being more clear than I've ever seen it. Clear of fog that is. He says that's not quite true and he's probably right. Maybe it's the chilled air that brought a purity to everything that was different. All I know is, it was clear enough to see the real horizon.

There is a bar that has re-opened that was always closed before, at least the days we were there. Now it is a warm and friendly place, not too big and not too small. There is a back deck area and it was there we were watching the sun go down. "Elijah, I think there could be a green flash, let's go closer (to the beach, not the sun)!" And it happened. 

On going back inside, a woman who had hugged me earlier on finding out I was Elijah's Mom (does a mom heart good), asked what we'd gone out for. I told her about the green flash and she said, 'I've been waiting 20 years to see that here!' When I showed her the picture she said 'I LOVE you!!'. It was exactly what such a wonderfully rare event inspires in some, though when she had me show it to her friend later, I could easily see she failed to understand the hoopla. And that's okay too. It was enough to be here, on the West Coast of the US, seeing this sight with my son (good omens!) and having someone I never met thinking it was as cool as it was. Hopefully she won't have to wait 20 more years...

A perfect sunset

I've taken and posted a photo of this before but I'm doing it again.
Think oysters (or of course, anything else, but think oysters)

There are four or five dwellings down at this part of the Cove.
One place is apparently the home of another carver.

After a day of rain and cold and another of partial sun, yesterday was full on bright and warm. I was looking at the trees over the cabin and they were so green, it was almost a tastable sensation. Layer after layer of clothing came off and it was actually hot. We soaked it in until all the layers were back on and Mr. Sun went to warm other places on the planet. 

This is the stove that just moved into the not quite finished kitchen. I love it!
Already set up for propane, the far right side can be used with wood as well.

And that brings us to right now, where my hands are being warmed by a cup of peppermint tea while still tucked up in my sleeping bag with blankets and a lovely comforter (thanks, Joanie!!) keeping me toasty warm. 

Eventually the fuel tank will get here and get installed and then I'll head home. If there is anything I've (re)learned, it's that trying to force the plan never ever works and it usually turns out pretty fine. That's enough to know for now.

Have a tongue twister Thursday. Do something teachable.

p.s. To all who wrote checking to see if all was well and where is the blog, thank you! Sorry it took so long, all IS well and I hope the same for each of you, gentle readers. If it will let me post this...breathe in breathe out.