my sunny day

come along if you'd like!



i'm walking up the manzanita lookout road - it ends about eight miles up at at the fire lookout. this sign is at the beginning of the road... i passed it for years before i noticed that the letters are reversed in one of the words.



this tree is a powerful scent generator! it stops me in my tracks to breath in pine and lichen... the sky's smokey to the west.



i wander off a little ways to take a pic of this tree flag, which has been out in the elements for a year now. the smudgy black at the bottom is the stabilo water soluble pencil (what was i thinking?). the caran d'ache crayons and pigma marker outline have faded only a little, and neither have run.



back on the road, this bush was positively loaded with bees, butterflys, and miscellaneous flying insects. i could have taken 20 macro shots of cool insects but the wind was blowing too hard. this was the only pic i took, and somehow it turned out. one of the many beautiful creatures feasting on these flowers.



a couple of miles up, i get off the road and head for some shade to eat my lunch. almost immediately i see this big packrat house. i'm a huge fan of packrat architecture, so i go in for a closer look. if you click on the pic you can see it better-- it's very hard to photograph these as they don't show up against a backdrop of trees and ground. it's built against an uprooted tree stump.



their building materials are eclectic. a juniper sprig is tucked in amongst the sticks...



i sit down on the back side of the house -- in packrat terms, it's a mansion. the more i look, the more i marvel at it. if i were a packrat i'd love to live here. look at all of those perches! and there's a stone 'porch' in the lower left. i think those 'porch' rocks, held in place by tree roots, may be the nicest rocks i've ever seen.

i eat, have many brief conversations with a mulitude of bees and flys, then move in for a closer look.



boy, i'd love a stone porch like this... you can see where he comes out to have a look around...



sure enough, he, uh, sits here...



i pack up my stuff and head across the way to look at another packrat house. this one is humble in comparison. maybe a son or daughter moved out?



walking back toward the road, this culvert catches my attention. i think to myself that i've never walked through a culvert, so it seems like it's about time. at this point i stop at the entrance and take the pic in friday's post (actually, i took about 20 pics). then i walk through. pretty crazy walking under a big pile of earth with only an eighth of an inch of steel between it and you. this shot was taken once i got to the other side -- i put the pink line in to show you where the road is.

i keep walking downstream (another dry creek bed). walking slowly, looking around, i spot this...



good heavens! it's the biggest vertebra i've ever seen! i'm not sure what animal it belonged to... cow, horse? after googling cow and horse vertebra, i'm thinking that maybe it was once part of the neck...



the lovely, lovely lines of bones...



another scent generator, this one's a juniper...

i wander around some more and head back to the road. i'm going to walk towards home and look for a nice, shady spot to sit and paint, which i find near another big culvert.



they're so clean inside! does the forest service keep them this clean, or are they somehow self cleaning?! i wonder about this... i don't walk through this one -- just sit in the shade of big trees and paint...



now hanging not too far from the one above, in a stand of giant cedars... they deserve a lot of tree love...



i like that they formally tell you you're at the End. i'm almost home now...



i'll leave you with the sweet marvin gaye singing 'mercy, mercy me'.

i'll be out of town for a few days... thank you so much for coming along, and i'll see you when i get back!