The world viewed through glass brick. One of the many little things that I love about the Forever Home.
Having an alternative view of the world can be extremely useful.
There’s a figure vaugely seen in this one, which is odd since I was alone when I took the picture, and I’m pretty sure that it’s not me. Probably just one of those pareidolia things.
Oh, and goodbye, July! I guess it’s good that you didn’t suck as much as you could have, but still… August, you’re up!
Filed under Art, Forever Home, Photography
Since we bought the place and moved in there have always been lights on the pergola. I’ve just never bothered to plug them in more than once or twice, because when I go out in back I generally want it to be as dark as possible so that I can see the stars better. But tonight I forgot to refill the birdseed feeders until it was dark, so on they went!
With the Full Moon rising above it all, it looked lovely! If/when we have a party (our big Super Bowl bash will be GREAT out here!) and BBQ, this is going to be spectacular!
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography
The almost, kinda, sorta Full Moon (it’s actually early Wednesday morning officially) as seen through the support rafters for the pergola, complete with the three empty birdseed feeder on the table and the bag of seed.
Even though it’s been really stinkin’ hot (and the end of the week and most of next week will be far worse), by this time after sundown it was lovely out.
Desert skies, man! When there are clouds they tend to lean toward the spectacular, and even when it’s clear as a bell there’s that little bit of dust to simply give every molecule of the atmosphere some texture.
And the mountains… There are plenty of trails and parks up in there. I need to get some exploring done, it’s been a year!
But not this weekend. Holy shit it’s going to be hot!
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets
I love it when the Watch Duty app (get it for free if you haven’t already, it’s fantastic) goes off and shows you a new brush fire that’s practically just down the block…
That might be two miles, it might not be. Down in the Cajon Pass, over the edge of The Mesa. (It should be pretty obvious where that edge is…)
I was not worried. Anything near homes they jump on pretty fast. Worst case scenario was that it might burn up as far as Summit Valley Road, which would wreak havoc on traffic along there, as well as along the BNSF train tracks that run next to Summit Valley Road. I didn’t see much chance for it to spread up to the edge of The Mesa, let alone beyond.
A quick peek over the wall in that direction showed no sign of a smoke column, although there was a quite noticeable smell of smoke. When I had first seen the Watch Duty image above there had been no aircraft on the job (the app shows them in real time) but now there were a couple of helicopters and a pair of “water bombers,” the smaller scout or guide plane and the bigger bomber.
The “threat” was over in a half hour and the fire only grew from two to five acres. Thanks, CalFire!
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Video
As usual, around susnset, I was out in the back yard refilling the birdseed feeders. The sunset was pleasant, but not spectacular. But “pleasant” was quite good enough for the moment.
It was still about 88 degrees out after pushing triple digits. But there was a brisk breeze and it was quite comfortable.
Off in the distance where the Mesa drops off into Cajon Pass, I could hear a train horn wailing as it came over the summit of the Pass and into the valley. Gotta love that sound.
After the feeders were refilled and rehung, I got on my little stepladder (I’m short!) and looked over the back yard cinder block wall for about ten minutes. There were crows screaming across the vacant lots and a coyote howling somewhere off in the distance.
I have nothing against spectacular, red-letter moments. But that’s a tough standard to keep up 24/7/365. Knowing how to appreciated these common, simple, little moments is critical. I don’t always do it well, but I’m learning!
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets
One year ago, we closed escow and started moving into our “Forever Home.” No more moving, this is it, we only leave here in the coroner’s wagon.
It’s been wonderful! We are every bit as amazed and happy that we found this place as we were when we first saw it.
It’s not 100% EXACTLY the way we ultimately want it – for example, we need a nice 25′ flagpole in the front yard still, among other things.
I will never, EVER complain about the view at sunset, which only varies from gorgeous to stunning to spectacular. And the views of the mountains, particularly Old Baldy off to the southwest when it’s covered in snow? Just amazing.
The long road to getting everything unpacked and stored and sorted continues, even now. Stuff that we use every day has, of course (for the most part), been taken care of and we’ve been completely functional for many, many, many months. There are exceptions. For example, I still haven’t found my tie rack and all of my good, silk ties. I also have only needed to wear one once in the last year, so the priority level is not real high.
This last weekend I found a stash of a bunch of original paintings that I’ve bought at SF conventions over the years (as well as some souveniers and special gifts I’ve received) and got them all up on the walls. The office is looking nice.
We have our wildlife menagerie in the back yard, and our Corvid Gods in the front. We (mostly) know our neighbors, and we enjoy our community. There is still a long list of new things to see and places to go, but we’ll get there.
Somewhat to our dismay after years and years of looking and hoping, we’ve found our home. Here’s to one year down and a gazillion more to come!
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets
One of the things about the Forever Home is that it’s well over twice the size of the rental home we had in West Hills for the previous seven years. One immediate effect was that, even after pulling a lot of old furniture out of storage, there were (and still are) spots and even whole rooms where we need to get some new furniture.
For example, the kitchen has this spectacularly huge island, but needed bar stools.
The breakfast nook off of the kitchen, up until yesterday, had a broken treadmill in it. (To be fair, it’s being repaired, I have the parts, and this was a nice, open space to work on it.) This really nice table and chairs, resplendant with the monthly decorations from The Long-Suffering Wife, is a huge upgrade.
The bar stools swivel, and I tested all four. Most will do two and a half to three full revolutions with one good push, but the one on the far left did 4+! I had to stop it before it finished on its own since diziness and sever nausea were about to cause a mess that I would be just as happy to not clean up. (You might be thinking something like, “He’s an adult, right? Why is he spinning around on a bar stool until he makes himself puke? Is he really that stupid?” For the record, I’m pretty sure The Long-Suffering Wife was thinking the exact, same thing…)
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Ronnie
Yesterday I was walking through the kitchen as I usually do and I thought it was odd that there were no small birds visible near the feeders, no squirrels or pigeons on the ground – but there was a large bird on the back wall, over in the corner. Not a raven, but maybe…
I knew it would be gone if I opened the door, so I walked over to the breakfast nook windows while pulling out my phone and thumbing it on. Those windows have plantation shutters on them, but they were mostly tilted open, so I didn’t try to swing the shutters open or otherwise open them. I got the camera app open on the phone and saw the bird launch just as I got to the window.
QUICK! Through the shutters, one shot, hoping I got lucky. I got a good look at the bird, definately a red-tailed hawk – and it was back this afternoon circling low over the dirt lots behind our house. (No pictures today.)
But yesterday…
Confirmed!
Be ready. Shoot quick. You might get lucky and hit something.
Filed under Birds, Forever Home, Photography
Out on the pergola I have a lounge chair to plotz in. It’s fairly heavy, and it’s normally a foot or so from the edge with the back against the cinder blocks and one of the support posts for the pergola to block it from sliding. Plus, the floor isn’t smooth, it’s ribbed with the planks that make up the floor. The short version is that it’s not that easy to move, even when I want to move it.
This morning everything was normal at 9:00-ish when I went out for breakfast. But about 10:45, it was cattywampus.
No harm, but my brain immediately went to, “What moved it?” Up here the wind is always a suspect, but the winds were calm. I hadn’t heard any of the wind chimes going off, and none of the other lawn chairs or anything else in the back yard had been disturbed.
No way that the squirrels could have pushed it or moved it, even if all dozen of them had pushed at once. And they were out there looking at it like they were wondering what was going on also.
Birds? The biggest we normally see are the pigeons, but they’re always on the turf, not on the chairs. What’s on the chairs are the sparrows and wrens, but they’re all way too small.
I guess it might have been one of the ravens, if it was on the back or the arm and pushed off hard to get airborne. Or a big hawk. An eagle? I haven’t seen them, but I know they’re in the area.
An earthquake will eventually toss everything around, and probably topple the pergola and break all of our windows and worse, but that obviously didn’t happen.
One of these days we’ll probably have a Great Dane and they’re quite capable, but we don’t have one yet. There’s a stray cat that is seen now and then, but again, they’re not that big.
Remember the potential triffid growing about ten feet away on the left? So far it’s my most likely candidate, if it IS a triffid and not an onion of some sort. It’s exercising its mobility and muscles and tossing furniture about willy nilly.
Or maybe we have a back yard poltergeist.
It’s a mystery.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography
This odd plant (and another that’s fallen over behind it, or been knocked down by squirrels) has popped up in the back yard.
Maybe a leaf or two at the base, but nothing on this big, curvy, thick stalk, topped by this fuzzy ball.
The ball turns out to be made up of a bunch of small flowers.
I don’t really think it’s a triffid but you can’t be too careful when you’re dealing with an alien invasion…
I’m guessing some sort of rugged, drought resistant, desert plant that found a friendly spot in our gravel.
(My plant ID app on my iPhone has a best guess of a “wild leek” or “wild onion” – another says it’s a “chapparel yucca.” Intereting! I know that the yucca trees are protected, we had to sign a document when we bought the house acknowledging that we are aware of that and we agreed not to cut down any yucca trees. So for now, this little guy is safe from us, but the squirrels are independent agents!)
Filed under Critters, Flowers, Forever Home, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 