CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY 2020 - FEBRUARY 2021

In the aftermath of the Ranch Fire, ground cover and wild flowers reclaimed the Mayacamas Range.

Standing timber was charred, but sprouts shot up vigorously from the roots.

Mount Konocti from the stock tank.

Valley Oak canopy.

Skies of Spring.

St. John's wort.

Springtime, Summer and Fall 2020 at the ranch - a time of retreat during the pandemic

If we tried, we could probably live off the products of the ranch.

Many-centuries-old Valley Oaks met their end as wildfire scorched them and road crews cut them down.

Immersed in nature, one can be enraptured by the beauty - an experience of profound pleasure and also of poignancy. As one accumulates a deeper knowledge of the way natural systems operate, the sense of finely balanced interdependence feels just this side of miraculous. This is the sacred. 

Feather of a red shouldered hawk.

Night visitor.

California quail

Acorn woodpecker tending its granary.

Western gray squirrel.

black tailed jackrabbit

White crowned sparrow.

red shouldered hawk.

Goshawk etching by Brian Long.

This Western pond turtle shell was left behind at Boggs lake by a hungry raccoon.

 

GOING TO GROUND

The cover of poet Tobey Hiller's new book, Crow Mind, features a detail of my watercolor, Judicial Proceeding.

The jack rabbits take some pretty cute self portraits on the trail cameras.

Out buildings as seen through oak limbs on the old ranch.

The annual pruning of the Bartlett pear orchards is half done by late this month.

February days, of late, have been partaking of the "New Normal" temperatures in the 70s. Insects are hatching. Birds are responding. The tree swallows and blue birds are staking their claims to the nest boxes. The ospreys have already returned from Mexico, cheeping as they circle high above the creek.

It has been another winter of very little rain and only trace amounts of greening. Yesterday, brown smoke from a large wildfire to the northwest spread into the Clearlake Basin.  

Walnut crates continue to weather at least these last seventeen years in the packing yard.

THE WILDS OF BOGGS LAKE

BOGGS LAKE in Summer resembles Tuolumne Meadows in the Yosemite High Country.

It is surrounded by ponderosa pine, black oak and madrone forests. The pines were hard hit by the drought years. It is a wild land supporting bobcats, black tail deer, coyotes, bald eagles, pileated woodpeckers, Pacific pond turtles, Northern Pacific rattlesnakes, California king snakes, Pacific chorus frogs, mountain lions and black bears. 

 Madrone with Ponderosa Pine.

 Great mullein.

Black bear at Boggs Lake.

FROM THE HAMMOCK

On the ranch, verbena blooms attract butterflies and bees.

Stephen's dogs express perfect joy exploring the territory.

The nine great oaks which embower the ranch house form the heart of a grove of thirteen, two of which are just across the road and two at Shady Rock Ranch next door. They are a world unto themselves supporting an array of life including cynipid wasps and more than two hundred other types of insects, which cause the tree to form galls in reaction to the insects' egg-laying in the tissues of the tree. The great trees are patrolled by swarms of  guardian ants. Acorn woodpeckers, scrub jays, oak tit mice, white breasted nuthatches, California quail, Bullock's orioles, black headed grosbeaks,  California towhees, spotted towhees, ravens, crows, red shouldered hawks, barn owls, wood ducks, European starlings and Western gray squirrels are among the nesters in the grove.

The oaks.

"Thrones have crumbled and new empires arisen; great ideas have been born and great pictures painted, and the world revolutionized by science and invention; and still no man can say how many centuries this oak will endure or what nations and creeds it may outlive..."

Peattie's Natural Histories 

 Pear ladder and Mount Konocti.

 Fence lizard, like a griffon from a medieval bestiary.

 White peaches on July 21.

 Stock tank with decoys.

Wild grape.

THE CREEK & THE TOWN

I walked along the creek to town. Still flowing in mid-July, the lingering waters have enabled hitch fry and tadpoles to flourish. Toadlets and froglets hop in the grassy verge.

Hitch fry in shallow water.

 The view north with vineyard, packing shed, and buckeye.

The one mile stretch between the ranch and Main Street is lined with vineyards

A street in town in the morning light.