Moon set over Noe Valley. Even two amateur astronomers I asked didn’t know that every month when the moon is the full it rises at sunset. How far removed we are from nature. Now that it’s spring, go outside!
Furry Wisteria pods
March 25, 2009 – 2:21 pm
These gray pods hanging alone in a winter garden were like sleeping animals waiting for the sun. I had to touch them, so velvety soft.
Floating into Fall
October 13, 2008 – 1:21 pm
Happy Fall! It’s cold and windy but surely Indian Summer will return. What’s happened to our hot October days? Arashiyama, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Kyoto, has a rural feel and is full of Autumn color, the momiji maple trees. As I was wandering around looking for old Japan, falling into the past, I saw this. The husband at the ryokan had kindly driven me to the area so I would arrive before it filled up with Japanese enjoying the sunny season. As Maraini, an Italian, observed in his great work Meeting With Japan how different to approach winter through a warm sunny season. I ordered that beautiful old book from http://www.alibris.com.
It’s a treatise on Japan and autobiography of Maraini’s years in Japan, ending in the mid 50s. The book is full of rich black and white photos, deep, the way b&w used to be.
At the Rrazz Room
September 13, 2008 – 12:50 pm
Incredible singer Dame Cleo Laine performed a two week run this September at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko. Wow! Can she dig in and deliver a song! Most nights it was sold out. I guess fans took to heart what Sir John said, that their last gig in SF was 10 or 15 years ago, don’t let it go another 15 years to come see them again (they’re 80). The Rrazz Room is intimate with great raised seating where I was able to position myself. With Cleo were her husband, saxophonist-arranger Sir John Dankworth, and their West Coast band, pianist Larry Dunlap, trombonist Ed Neumeister, bassist Seward McCain, and drummer Jim Zimmerman. More info on Cleo & John at http://www.quarternotes.com.
Summer- bluebird nest
August 13, 2008 – 12:49 pm
A brown speckled cowbird egg in a blue bird nest. An interloper! Early in the morning when the bluebirds fly around looking for bugs, the cowbird comes to the nest and lays its egg. Then it removes the blue egg. It must think the parents are color blind! It leaves the same number hoping the bluebird won’t notice the difference (so said a wild bird expert). Two broken blue eggs lay on the ground below this nesting box. I interfered with nature and removed the brown egg. Days later the cowbird had not laid any more. Blue birds seem ok with some human proximity. I’ve read they won’t nest closer to each other that 100 yards, but young siblings help raise successive fledglings. Flying blue streaks, the most intense glimpse of one of the greatest blues. More info in the Audubon Handbook on Western Birds.
