Late afternoon on a beautiful day after Thanksgiving, these are my favorite humans standing in the sun-sparkled ocean.
Shades of Gratitude in Monochrome
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Grateful
There’s always, always something to be grateful for, right?
This morning, I’m thankful for the sky’s breathtaking sunrise. What amazing colors!
The fiery intensity is surreal. No filters, no editing; this is exactly how the sky looked at 6 a.m.
Happy Thanksgiving… or as Jon Stewart said, “I celebrated Thanksgiving the old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.“
Small But Colorful
No, I’m not narcissistically describing ME, lol, but this little Thanksgiving cactus (zygocactus) with its dazzling, almost glowing, salmon pink showy blooms, is all dressed up to become the centerpiece at dinner.
Up close.
Pink Symmetry
This is the first bloom from my Marie Bracey camellia japonica. Dozens of buds formed, but this symmetrical, ruffled, peony-like beauty is the first that’s fully open.
The camellia is a flowering evergreen shrub with dark, glossy leaves and large, lush blossoms that appear and bloom for several weeks during the fall through early spring period in warmer regions.
Camellias represent a spirit of depth, self-reflection, and inner strength. This plant will need all of those traits to survive a mostly drought environment.
Camellias also symbolize perfection and excellence due to their symmetry. Soon, I’ll have to plant it in the ground, but for this initial blooming season, I’m going to leave it right where it is, at the front door.
Sunsets on Fire and Devil Winds
Last night’s sunset was spectacular.
We’re in the middle of a moderate Santa Ana weather event with hot, windy, clear skies and such low humidity that my throat is scratchy and my curly hair turned straight-ISH.
It’s also fire season and there were a couple house and vegetation fires in the area, but none close enough for me to worry about evacuating.
When I went for a late afternoon walk, the sky colors were brilliant orange and red, like the world was on fire, and maybe it is.
According to legend, Native Americans associated the strong winds with an evil presence–something fiery and destructive. After Spanish colonization, missionaries altered the term Devil Winds to “Caliente Aliento de Satanas”–the hot breath of Satan. It was subsequently shortened and Americanized to Santa Ana winds.
Next week, the weather forecast calls for rain with a Pacific storm, the first time we’ll have seen sky water in months. Fingers crossed it’ll happen because my garden is PARCHED.
Happy Friday!
Ch-ch-changes | Autumn Colors
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
Ch-ch-changes…
Sing it, David Bowie!
We all fell back last night and gained an hour. For me, It’s always a bit of an unsettling feeling for about a week or so until I get used to it.
More ch-ch-changes…
Did you know that certain trees in Southern California DO change color and lose leaves in autumn?
This is my fruit-bearing mulberry.
The leaves morph into a sunny, vibrant yellow.
Green and yellow against a blue sky.
My garden doesn’t boast any maples that turn red, but these ch-ch-changes mark the hands of time; another autumn, another winter approaching, another year almost over and finished.
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you’re gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can’t trace time
Sunrise | Sunset
I don’t know how it happened since I had all the vaccines; flu, pneumonia, and Covid – but I got sick!
Fever, chills, headache, congestion–all the worst symptoms. I’m feeling better after a few days of antibiotics. When I didn’t have much to do except look through old photos, I found some of my favorites from the Pacific Northwest. I sure wish I was there!
Sunrise through the trees.
Sunset on Shilshole Bay with the beautiful Olympic mountain range in silhouette.
Overlooking the marina.
It doesn’t ALWAYS rain, sometimes the weather is absolutely magnificent.
More Vitamin Sea
Glittery sparkles on the water like a million diamonds.
#Tamarack #PacificOcean #California #PhotoOfTheDay
Hanging By A Thread
“A spider lives inside my head
Who weaves a strange and wondrous web
Of silken threads and silver strings
To catch all sorts of flying things,
Like crumbs of thoughts and bits of smiles
And specks of dried-up tears,
And dust of dreams that catch and cling
For years and years and years…”
― Shel Silverstein
Hanging by a thread is exactly how I feel every once in a while, how about you?
This is the last of my spider posts, I promise!
You’re looking at one of the many orbweaver spiders that make my garden their home. Yes, they’re fairly large but that’s no reason to be scared of them! Orb-weavers, like most spiders, are highly beneficial and eat lots of insects: mosquitoes, bees, wasps, flies, small moths and butterflies, and even grasshoppers.
This guy was attached to an apple tree but I’m not sure of his ultimate destination…
Green MONSTER
Have you ever seen a Green Lynx spider? I hadn’t until this morning when I saw this Godzilla-sized bright green monster watching me through the patio doors.
I took a photo and then calmly moved him to a safer (for him) location. Peucetia viridans, the Green Lynx spider, is bright green and usually found on green plants. That makes sense since he was right next to a young orange tree I have on the deck. It’s the largest North American species in the family Oxyopidae. The body was about and inch in length and the legs were more than THREE inches long. It was HUGE.
Green Lynx spiders are non-poisonous and rarely bite humans but the bite can be painful. Females, when threatened, are known to spit venom from their fangs (up to 8 inches). If venom enters the eye, it may cause irritation.
My DIL is deathly afraid of spiders, more so than anyone I’ve ever known. On a recent visit, my son and I were enjoying a quiet cuppa and some morning chat about the kids when we heard her screaming, I mean like blood-curdling screams, the kind that, if they heard, neighbors would call 911.
My Angel Boy ran up to see what was going on and I followed. Apparently, she had been on a Zoom call in AB 2.0’s bedroom when she noticed a VERY VERY large spider on his bedspread.
After we ushered her to another room so she could calm down and resume her call, we then searched high and low for the offending arachnid and couldn’t find a thing. I thought her screams might have scared him off, but my son said he actually had seen it before scurrying away and it was literally four inches in size.
We needed to keep looking because if there WAS still a spider in the little guy’s room, we needed to find and relocate it before bedtime.
I stripped the sheets off the bed, shook them out, and found nothing. We removed the top mattress and then the box springs and OMG, there it was, trying to make itself as small as possible in the corner of the bed frame. I didn’t have my phone to take a photo but you can trust me that it was one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen.
We ushered it into a box, clamped on the lid, and my son took it outside as far away from the house as he could, while I remade the bed and checked to make sure DIL hadn’t had a heart attack from fright.
I wonder what she would have thought of my Green Lynx with those scary, hairy legs watching her through the window?
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 