Today was a great day. Today was one of those days that made me think not of relocation. I have a wonderful job.
Today i spent my day on sonoma creek, quite close to downtown sonoma. It was really amazing. Santa Barbara Sedge was pushing quite hard, to get the green out for summer. Beautiful little tufts of brilliant green hanging on for dear life pushing all the way out to the thalweg, or the part of the stream where water goes first.
The alders were amazing, root-wads half exposed at the toe of the slope, apparently these quickest of trees really like their feet wet. The willows were going at it, sending off their skyward seeds surrounded in tufts of fiber softer than cotton, with only two days to live save for finding a pool of water to settle in. The sky was full of them.
6 mallards setting on a riffle and at the algae that the summer brings, with water temperatures much higher than normal. They scattered at the sound of me, but the silence that was left forced me to focus on how perfect this stretch of stream was. Seldom do you find a series of perfect meanders, pool and riffle stretches, in an urban/agricultural interface. Absolutely the perfect stream for anadromous salmonids. This stream will certainly bring a hearty catch next season.
A trip up the bank brought elderberry smells, stinging nettles and the nests of black flycatchers straight to my senses, only to be interrupted by a murder of crows harrassing a red tailed hawk out of their territory.
The feverfew and owls clover, lotus and wildrye were in their glory today and I am lucky to have been granted sight of their splendor.
It is quite nice to know that my relationship with these things is renewed, and that I have been granted such privilege by so many small things so much more complex than we.
The sight and song I was immersed in today will forever rival any fireworks, music, or other frail mockery constructed by man or woman.
Indeed, Aldo Leopold, only a few of us can really see and hear and smell and taste and touch such glory, and in doing so, become damned to protect it with our lives.
Today i spent my day on sonoma creek, quite close to downtown sonoma. It was really amazing. Santa Barbara Sedge was pushing quite hard, to get the green out for summer. Beautiful little tufts of brilliant green hanging on for dear life pushing all the way out to the thalweg, or the part of the stream where water goes first.
The alders were amazing, root-wads half exposed at the toe of the slope, apparently these quickest of trees really like their feet wet. The willows were going at it, sending off their skyward seeds surrounded in tufts of fiber softer than cotton, with only two days to live save for finding a pool of water to settle in. The sky was full of them.
6 mallards setting on a riffle and at the algae that the summer brings, with water temperatures much higher than normal. They scattered at the sound of me, but the silence that was left forced me to focus on how perfect this stretch of stream was. Seldom do you find a series of perfect meanders, pool and riffle stretches, in an urban/agricultural interface. Absolutely the perfect stream for anadromous salmonids. This stream will certainly bring a hearty catch next season.
A trip up the bank brought elderberry smells, stinging nettles and the nests of black flycatchers straight to my senses, only to be interrupted by a murder of crows harrassing a red tailed hawk out of their territory.
The feverfew and owls clover, lotus and wildrye were in their glory today and I am lucky to have been granted sight of their splendor.
It is quite nice to know that my relationship with these things is renewed, and that I have been granted such privilege by so many small things so much more complex than we.
The sight and song I was immersed in today will forever rival any fireworks, music, or other frail mockery constructed by man or woman.
Indeed, Aldo Leopold, only a few of us can really see and hear and smell and taste and touch such glory, and in doing so, become damned to protect it with our lives.
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[Edited on Jun 15, 2003]
oh and, nice picture...