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| Evening Velvet |
After a harrowing day on Wednesday I figured a bike ride up to Mt. Tam would be good medicine for Thursday. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors, but I still felt a little too raw to fully enjoy it. I'd hoped the shorebirds along Richardson Bay would cheer me up, but I guess they've moved on to their nesting sites. There were just a couple of egrets on the low-tide mud flats on my way up, and they still had the place to themselves when I returned after the tide came in.
I stopped to shoot a selfie and text my wife when I got up to Mt. Tam and was surprised to find I had full bars and even 5G reception. My photo went through in a snap. I stopped at the same place again on my way down and had no cell connection at all. Weird. I wondered if I'd somehow latched onto a special signal related to the fire crew doing a controlled burn along West Ridgecrest Road.
As I continued riding up the mountain I watched a red-tailed hawk glide into view from way up on Bolinas Ridge. It had a small snake in its talons and continued to glide down toward the forest, its wings outstretched, until it dipped out of sight. Farther up the hill I found a dead baby gopher snake in the road. I moved it onto the grassy shoulder so maybe another bird or animal could make use of it.
On the way to the trail camera I spotted quite a few sickle-leaved onions in full bloom, along with many Tamalpais jewelflowers (I'd forgotten how tiny they are in person), and even a few early yellow mariposa lilies. The yerba santa was also in full bloom, and most of the grasses are already turning brown. I picked up the trail cam and took it home, so these will be the last trail cam shots for a while.
I'd stopped at the Good Earth grocery store in Tam Junction on the way up, where I snagged one of their amazing cheese croissants along with a Cosmic Crisp apple to enjoy for lunch at the Rock Spring picnic area. Gazing out over the meadow as I ate, I felt grateful for the time my wife and I got to share with Coco the cat. Here we all are, in a universe where time began about 14 billion years ago, yet time is apportioned in relatively tiny slices to us living creatures. The least I can do in gratitude for my own tiny slice is to savor the beauty in every moment, and even the sadness when it comes, and to love the ones I'm with as we share our tiny slices of time together.
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| Composite of a gray fox crossing the ravine. |
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| The mother, moving with single-minded purpose, didn't look back at all, but something caught the fawn's attention. Was it a bird call, a rustle of grass where a lizard ran through, or some noise from the trail camera that would be imperceptible to human ears? |
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| It looks like this young buck is somewhat right-antlered.... |
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