Dandelion Daisy

All the dandelions in all the parks around the city have all gone to seed in the past couple of days. They bloomed yellow for two whole weeks this year, competely untouched by municipal grooming machinery. It may be finances or something dreary like that, but I like to think that the city just decided that the dandelions blooming in the grass of the playing fields and along the park boulevards were just too darn pretty to mow down. Then this weekend every single one of them went to seed. Even I was shocked at the billowing clouds of dandelion fluff a small dog like Daisy managed to kick up just tromping through the grass on a normal walk.

Lifted from Cuteoverload.com. Happy Sunday!

( I've been gone so long--it just happens sometimes, I guess. But you are here-- thanks! )

I found this photo on the front page of the Washington Post today and it made me laugh out loud. The child pictured is apparently at a spa getting her hair done and undergoing various other relaxing and beautifying techniques. Ever seen anyone look so very not relaxed? And that chair...is it a chair? It looks like a character from some science fiction fantasy --oh, wait, I just realized it must be a bear--look, I bet there is a happy ursine face behind our blinded-by-cucumber-slices-little girl.

I've always thought that beauty salons and spas are not the place for children. There is no way in hell that Cucumber Girl here needs to be treated for imminent lines or bags around her eyes. Ditto with manicures or pedicures for nails the size of chipmunk eyeballs. Unnecessary and misguided. (Hey--just like my blog! Hee hee.)

Cue the bongos!

While in La Jolla, we stayed at a tiny house about a block away from a beach called Windansea. According to local lore, Windansea is a very famous surf locale, and has been in its share of surfer movies. Although fairly rocky in my non-surfer's estimation, there were always one or two surfers trying to catch a wave, no matter what time of day. Many of them were like this guy--can you sense the surf addiction vibe? He's gray-haired, his wetsuit is riddled with holes, the waves are stage one and the water temperature of the Pacific is probably in the sixties. No matter. He caught some, dude!

Say No More!

It frustrates me no end that I don't have the full story of how this family came to have two monkeys as part of their putative "coat of arms" bas relief tableaux. It's all just so improbable! I mean, I'm not sure monkeys had even been invented back in the days when knights roamed the woods and forests, plucking low-hanging plumes to stick in their helmets and dickering with large songbirds about the cost of appearing on their knightly shields.

Then I remember that this cosy cottage is in California, people. California. Innovators, all!Meaning they were waaaaay out in front of the rest of the country in everything, including the pot smoking/stoned architect department.

You dig?

Tidepool Seagrowth, Pink

What IS it with these photos of purple-y natural phenomena? First the frost photo (below)that has lingered at the top of the post list for weeks and weeks. And now--this thing (above). This is my favorite of all the three hundred pictures I shot while on a week's vacation in La Jolla. And it's true, one-third of those photos were of beached seals, mostly racked out in a truly impressive display of basking and lolling. And as such, most of those photos are amazingly boring. But this! This strange flower of the ocean! This crazy tidepool creature-harboring growth! This is pure excitement for a landlocked dweller like me. Check out the bubbles obligingly stationed at all four corners. Proof that this thing is really underwater.

Small Consolation for Atmospheric Brutality

This is one of my upstairs windows, the most artistic one of the bunch in my opinion. Whenever the temperature falls way down in the single digits (Fahrenheit) the various window panes respond by covering themselves with captivating patterns of frost. I have noticed that irregularities in old glass tend to create certain themes in the frost design. This particular window pane usually builds a wintery scene centering around a pine tree of ice crystals. So I was stunned the other morning to find this delightful ice mural of waves cascading beneath a stormy sunrise. (If you turn the photo upside down I think you'll see a pile of gingko leaves floating above some...some...yeah, I don't know what the rest of the image could be. Let's stick with the wave theory.)