Raising a Stink

Omens, warnings, signs — we usually sense them by sight or sound. I suppose you can taste something and know it’s a sign of trouble (what else kept the king’s taste-tester employed, right up to a potential untimely demise?), but do you think signs can be olfactory?

To Longer Days

and shorter nights.

Musings while stumbling along in the winter darkness

After all of our rain Sunday night, from dusk until the wee hours, it was cold Monday morning, in the bay area. The news programs spoke of snow at the higher elevations.

Edie the Berserker

Science has measured and discussed the positive and negative effects of ions for years. I’ve heard that the ocean shore carries a different ionic charge, which can be energizing for many critters, and as proof  I give you our Edie girl:

A Long Weekend Getaway

It was good to get out of the city and away to west Marin. Those familiar with the bay area know of Marin as a wealthy county north of San Francisco,  across the Golden Gate Bridge.  That’s eastern Marin–drive west a ways, past Muir Woods, a park of redwoods, and it opens up to dairy farms and windswept beaches. It feels so different from east Marin (and the rest of the bay area), you could be hundreds of miles away.

Emma

 Have you ever felt like you were headed down the road in one direction only to see a number of signs luring you a different way?

Fog and the Flock

The dogs and I were out recently, a pleasantly foggy dawn, enjoying the new day.  When we got out to the misty campground, looking over to the boat ramp, the sky looked like this:

Unvoluntarily “Green” Commuting

We had a little hassle with the SF Bay Bridge recently, closing it down. You may have heard about it.

Scorched Flora & Snatched Fauna

 I seem to have developed a thing for trying to save scrawny trees. When I had such a notion last spring, near where I work at SF’s Civic Center, it met an ignoble end. 

 Sometime earlier this summer there was a fire in the old campground out on the former naval air station, where I walk the pups. The kids sometimes party out there at night, and occasionally the homeless spend a night there; it isn’t hard to guess how it started. Most of the burn evidence is gone and green was sprouting again by autumn, but you can still see some evidence of the fire.

A Big Blow

Mrs. Ombud and I were watching a movie (Little Fish, I think) when the phone rang. We don’t always pick up during a movie, figuring they’ll leave a message if it’s important, but when I heard my next door neighbor’s voice I hit pause and got the phone. He was talking about some large branch that fell in our yard, across the fence into his.