Perseids

We spent some time in our meadow last night pursuing the Perseid meteor showers after the moon and Venus set. Got lucky. Great good fortune to live in a setting with no light pollution.

Almost famous

Our town got mentioned on NPR. Not the kind of attention locals celebrate, however.

"Plummeting Marijuana Prices Create A Panic In Calif."
"As recently as last December, things were still pretty upbeat. At Area 101, an events and healing center near Laytonville, local growers gathered to celebrate the Emerald Cup, an annual competition for the season's best pot buds."

Wet & fecund

It's rained a lot this year. In fact, fir trees have begun sprouting in the bed of the pick-up. We used to check ourselves for ticks; now it's for fungus.

8/10/09 Cloud viewing bench

Cloud viewing is somewhat
compromised by our trees
(boo hoo), so I built a cloud-
viewing bench on the hill, out
in the open. No clouds
have yet appeared.

11/18/08 Threatening improvements

We moved to Venice and then, due to gentrification, had to leave.

We moved to New York, and then, due to yuppification, bailed.

We moved to Laytonville. Safe there, huh? Check the pics: new highway, new sidewalks, new roadside trees, new crosswalks and even--sure sign of things to come--new designer street lights. Even Albert's is all cleaned up.

Wadda' we do now?

10/29/08 bear rampage

Well, OK, maybe not that dramatic. About 2:00 AM the neighbors shot their gun 4 or 5 times. We've learned the code: it's scare-off-the-bear time. Minutes later the driveway light went on. I saw nothing thru the bedroom window. A couple of minutes later the outside bedroom light illuminated. I looked out: bear! It sauntered into the shadows, followed by a single crashing sound. Victimized. Photo attached. This same thing occurred about 3 weeks ago, and I'm out of pipe.

10/24/08 Fall

Weather everywhere has been decidedly odd, though here at least we are having a touch of Autumn, tho' without much rain so far. Hope you are all getting some seasonal color. In northern California a car trip is often blinding. Wish you could all stop by!

9/17/08 Fall fog

The first fall day, high of 63, wind blowing fog over the hills. I cleaned the gutters, wind blowing fir needles and dirt into my face and eyes. Chance of rain tomorrow night, increasing on Friday. We hope. It'll distract from presidential politics and--choke!--the economy.

7/9/08 smoky sunsets

On 7/7 air temp hit 106 degrees. The photo is near sunset, pall of
smoke in the distance and the CalFire base camp in the valley at lower
left.

On 7/8 we went to the beach. It was cooler but air quality not much
improved. That white blur right of- and just below center is the sun.


A new road sign near town. Yes, we know...

6/30/06 fire, music

Cal Fire, a state agency, has taken over fire administration. The flats below has turned into a vast encampment (the photo shows a small part) where dozens of bulldozers, water trucks, fire pumpers and other equipment is staged. All around are campers, trailers, and small tents for the fire fighters, with very large tents for administration, cafeteria, etc. This is what parts of Iraq must look like. Smoke has cleared considerably; we can see stars at night, and the hills across the valley. There's is still a threat of new lightning storms and it's cloudy now.

We buried our anxiety in the Kate Wolf Festival with our great kids and their friends. Exhausting but fun: got there at 2:00 yesterday afternoon, left at midnight after a long Ani diFranco set. This was the third such day in a row. We're in recovery. More photos at www.flickr.com/photos/lao_ren100/.

6/27/08 fires

This is the "island" in front of us. 6/27/08, 3:50PM

6/23/08 fires

Maybe you've heard we have fires nearby. True, about 100 in this
county alone and 100's more in surrounding counties. On 6/20 and 6/21
we had thunderstorms and lightning lit the forests. No blazes in our
immediate neighborhood, but we have friends who've had to evacuate,
and others are prepared to. The cloud photo is of some of the storm;
the shot down the valley taken an hour ago. The hills have disappeared
into the smoke. A chopper, loaded with retardant, is passing as I
type. We're OK, cough, choke...