The Porch Skunk

The skunk that comes on our porch

Bat013108

A Bat.

A spectacular sunrise

We've been getting some spectacular sunrises due to the high level of particulates in the air due to the fires this year.Here's one from last week. What artwork, what inspiration to see the Master at work.

Dog Days of Summer

It's so fun seeing people have fun, and we can watch animals and realize they are also enjoying themselves. Dogs like going out with their people, out to do the things that people like in the great outdoors. Don't leave 'Mans Best Friend' at home all the time, you are richly rewarded when you bring your buddy to a place you can both have fun.

Shell Beach California

This is a view of a portion of the cliffs. In this case we can see at the bottom, the clay-based shale rock that was laid down probably some 25 million years ago, like much of the shale in this area. After some time that shale was raised up into that extreme angle we can see in the photo. Then the top was worn off (probably by wave action while that area was submerged). The layer above is a thick layer of the same pebbles we see on the beach. This was probably the beach at that time. And above that is a layer of material that seems a clay-based soil, the upper half of that would be considered the topsoil layer. You can see that the topsoil section is a bit darker in color that the rest of the clay material below it. I'd guess this material was laid down while submerged some millions of years ago. Through the millions of years, the Earth's plates moved and pushed this land up above the sea. Now it sits by the beach, with the waves continually eating away at the cliffs, returning to the sea that which was taken from it millions of years ago. But while it is being eroded, the cliff fills the beach below with this beautiful carpet of small stones, that might someday become trapped yet again in soil held stable for millions of years and raised high above the water for some future creature to look at and wonder about. Or, perhaps more likely, the sea might rise, just as it has risen some 300 feet from it's low some twelve thousand years ago when the earth was warming after the last Ice Age ( when the Mammoths started driving SUVs and increasing their carbon footprint, and Mammoths have big footprints). This rising sea will continue eating into the cliff, causing heartache and monetary loss for the people who own homes on the tops of the cliffs. My guess is that these cliffs lose some ten to twenty feet each century. If you build a home here, you might want it fifty feet or more from the cliff, that way your grandkids can also enjoy the view but still have a patio.

Shell Beach is a pretty nice place.
It is a small community on the Central Coast, some 150 miles north of Los Angeles. In this area, the cliffs run to the sea, and you have many small beaches, some of which are a bit hard to get to as you must walk down narrow trails down gullies to the beaches below. The less accessible the beaches are...the fewer people you see. There are many times you can sit on the beach for some time and not have anyone walk by. Another peculiar feature of this beach in particular is the small brown pebbles that form the bed. They are smooth round pebbles eroded from rocks and worn smooth by the waves motion.

Here's a close-up of the pebbles. They can make walking even harder than in sand, you tend to sink into these loose pebbles as the waves come up.

Santa Maria High School

Santa Maria High School

Santa Maria is the largest town in Santa Barbara County. It's a pretty nice town.This town likes to use the local Spanish designs for architecture. It does make for some nice looking buildings with a lot of color and nice architectural design elements.A good design like this gives lots of interest to a building, even the movement of the sun along the building, shadowing some spots while it reveals others to the light gives levels of interest.The contrast of colors, at once jarring and glaring can also be blended together into a palette of colors- arranged as on canvas to form contrast and textural elements into what would otherwise be a boring box structure, suitable only for shielding the body from the elements, and not instead turning shelter into art.There are many creatures that build nests, line holes dug into the sand with grasses, or otherwise construct devious and clever living shelter... but it seems to be Man alone that sees fit to design the utilitarian into a piece of art to live in.

Tranquilion Peak, California

Tranquility
Tao Teh ChingChapter 64Peace and tranquility are easy to hold onto and keep. It is best to deal with matters before they present themselves. What is brittle shatters easily. What is small is easy to disperse. Deal with troubles before they have arisen. Establish order before disorder has reared itself. A large tree grows from a small twig. A terrace nine levels high starts with a clod of earth. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you rush into action heedlessly you will rush to your own failure. If you try to grasp things you will lose your grip. Therefore the sage does not try to rush to completion, and he does not grasp all about for things. In this way he avoids failure and losing. Often people fail in their endeavors on the verge of completion, this is because they exercise care at the beginning, and then slacken near the end. Take as full care of tasks at the end as at the beginning, this will ensure proper completion. Therefore the sage desires nothing so much as to be free from desire. He does not treasure things that are difficult to procure. He learns to not know. He practices a return to the natural origin of all things without a practice to that end.

Tranquilion Peak, in the Lompoc Valley, California.This peak was a very important religious area for the ancient Chumash tribe, and even to this day it functions as an important site for them. It has a small cave near the top through which a shaft of light shines through a crack in the roof on the longest day of the year, as such it served an important astronomical function for the tribe.