Birding on the Lower Klamath Lake

Lower Klamath Lake #3

Originally uploaded by heavdog.

What a beautiful day to be outside…I went birdwatching with a group of friends on this lovely, almost warm winter day. We saw dozens and dozens of wonderful birds: hawks, eagles, swans, cranes…what a day!
This was a rare shot of a very calm lake, and not a bird is in sight. Not the way the rest of the day unfolded…

Emigrant Lake

Emigrant Lake

Originally uploaded by heavdog.

Just one of the reasons I love this valley so…it really doesn’t matter which season we’re in, it’s always lovely. I took this photo just after the new year began, on a blustery hike around the lake. Make that MUDDY hike around the lake. We were lucky and managed to not get ourselves too bogged down – on foot – but there were a couple of four-wheelers who got stuck in the mud.
It really did feel like being in Scotland

May I be excused? My brain is full!

Or maybe I should say it’s empty – whatever…I just spent the evening with a group of middle-school kids, making a guest appearance as a songwriter. In real life, I teach many of these kids, but not anything remotely connected to music. Oh, I bill my 8th grade health class as “sex, drugs and rock and roll”, but we don’t get to do as much of the “rock and roll” as I’d like

So anyway, this group of budding authors/poets/songwriters was participating in a young writers’ retreat up in the nearby mountains. They had written some poetry/lyrics, and my job was to help them put their words to  music. Over the course of a few hours, I managed to help create five pretty solid songs, from rap to folk to a pseudo-B52’s piece. One song, the last one we worked on, was a sweet ballad, and ended up being a collaborative effort between a former student who was volunteering at the retreat, and myself. By the time we finished that one, we were both done. I forgot how exhausting creativity can be.

Exhausting or not, it was just what the doctor ordered. I’ve been trying to get back into writing music, something I’ve dabbled in over the years, and this gave me a kick in the butt in the right direction

Heatwave – but at least the smoke has cleared!

Forecast for today: 106 degrees…actual high temp? Over a hundred, but not sure how much over. But really, once it gets that hot, who cares about a degree or two? Let’s just say it was hot…

The good thing is, the smoke has cleared. We’d been getting a valley full of smoke from the fires in northern California. For close to a week, you could barely see any of the mountains surrounding us. They just disappeared from view.

But on the morning of the 4th, once the cloud cover lifted, there was this odd sight in the sky: blue. It was an awesome way to celebrate Independence Day, on a morning walk under cloudy skies yielding to blue. 

The next few days were wonderful, temps in the 80’s, no crap in the air. And now- over 100 – but clear. As long as I can breathe, I guess I can handle the heat. And if not? There’s always a quick trip to the mountains…a river…a lake…the coast…that’s what I love about this place, not only is it beautiful in its own right, but we’re not more than an hour of two away from any sort of outdoor environment or activity a girl could wish for

Geek parade…or, I can do ANYTHING with my iPhone!

Yes, anything! Including blogging, easily, with the help of the BlogIt web app for the iPhone. This entry is really just a testdrive of BlogIt..so far it looks really promising – I'll let you know how it goes!