Coyote Hills

"the" monarch

 I spent a lovely Sunday noontime up at Coyote Hills Regional Park. I hadn't been up there, I think, since Jeffrey's fourth grade field trip! It was the day after the first big rain of the season.
Noelle, Matt, Channah, Nathan and I went to the Visitor Center (a spot of great significance in Noelle's family history), the Butterfly Garden (where Nathan reunited with a butterfly he swore was the caterpillar he'd seen on his last visit) and we also watched swarming winged ants lose their wings and run around in little tandem pairs.

a monarch caterpillar

I've forgotten the name of this plant already -- it's a relative of milkweed, the monarchs' favorite.

Then we participated in the Stone Age Olympics: fire starting by twirling a stick (no success) flint-knapping (just watched) spearing targets and mammoth using an atlatl, flinging a bola, and playing throw the spear through the hoop -- all skills that early Native tribes needed to survive. 

The only one of us who wouldn't have starved to death was Noelle -- her 1/8? native blood and years of experience helped her! 

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Matt retrieves spears from mammoth hunt

Channah lets loose the spear!

Noelle poses next to her spear through the mammoth's heart (Matt hit its hoof)

Meanwhile, back in the twenty-first century, I'm getting ready for my trip to the ancient pueblo ruins in Arizona and New Mexico -- so all this Indian lore is very a propos.

Assorted sunsets

 I've always loved sunsets, but it's really hard to capture the moments in photos: I guess because it's dynamic, changing so subtly but relentlessly, and also because it's a surround-experience, not just one-directional.  The eye is so much more than a camera!

Usually I think I need to be at a beautiful place to see a beautiful sunset -- the beach, of course! or the mountains, but these pictures show that the spectacle is lovely from my own neighborhood, in the case of the first two photos, my own backyard. It's an effort to get out of my recliner and find my i-phone, and go outside.

Taking a sunset walk is another option, although these hot days it doesn't really get cool enough until it's too late. These virga-like streaks were almost impossible to capture. I wished I could levitate into them!
Usually an hour or so before sunset you can tell by the clouds that  it's going to be a good one, but then the breeze blows the clouds away, or the fog sets in. Or I lose track of time!

The silhouettes of the trees are another factor.
Seasonal changes and angles make a big difference in the photos. I don't take nearly enough shots. I haven't gotten used to the idea that digital photography never runs out of film! (Of course, I do have to keep my batteries charged, and I just broke another camera by dropping it one too many times).

This is my street -- the cypresses on the left side are my trees, and the light pole is in front of my house.  If I live to be 90, I'll see around 8000 more sunsets. WATCH THIS SPACE!

Another Funeral

Another funeral today. For a member of our Dementia support group (the caregiver, not the spouse). 
This man had several siblings, seven kids, 20 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, none of whom I knew. But having such a large family seemed to me a kind of legacy I'll never have. That made me sadder for myself than for him.

The music was lovely -- gorgeous soprano pianist/singer. The priest was Asian, and his voice was soft and difficult to comprehend -- of course it could be my hearing is going downhill -- but I didn't feel he had anything uplifting to say outside of the Catholic ritual itself. I guess what I like to hear at such services is more about the person himself. Perhaps that was done at the rosary last night, I don't know. My faith in an afterlife is pretty dim, and I believe memories are the main way we live on. I need to get out there and make more memories!

Last week's funeral/memorial service, for the mom of one of my fellow teachers, was held in a Quaker Meeting House. We sang music the woman loved, and her family and friends shared memories of her. There was lots of potluck food afterwards. I felt flashbacks of when my mom died, 15 years ago now. This woman was the same age as my mom would have been, yet she had 15 more years of life and love. I wish she and my kids and I could have had that time.

A few months ago there was another funeral. This one was for the husband of one of the caregivers support group members. It was held at the Santa Clara Mission Church where Greg and I were married, and the reception was in the Faculty Club, where our reception was. It felt like a big spiral was whirling through my life. The widow has already found a new male friend, which seems to me to be an act of amazing courage and optimism. I can't imagine it. I can't even imagine wanting to.