Life's a Beach

It's been a great week so far, at least in terms of my productivity. The landlord put up a fence in the backyard, so we now have complete privacy back there (yippee!), and I have been busy with all sorts of little odds and ends projects. I've done yoga every day this past week except Sunday, and I'm really starting to feel good in my yoga practice again. I even made sourdough pizza dough, sourdough pancakes, and sourdough pastie pot pie this week! Talk about productive.

Sourdough Pastie Pot Pie! A very delicious success!

 On Friday last week I broke my surfboard wiping out in the shallows. :/ It's in the shop getting fixed up right now - hopefully he'll be ready to roll again in a few days. In the meantime, I've been doing a bunch of things around the house, Jack has been trying to get into the habit of going to the gym twice a day, and as a result we didn't walk out to the beach again until today. I decided to bring my camera along and get some shots - it proved to be an epic day for photography out there. (Remember: if you click on the photos, it should make them bigger on your screen so you can get the full effect.)

This is my favorite effect - the crisscross of light and dark in the sand topped by the crisscross of receding water. The foam and bright sun only adds to the awesomeness in this shot.

Looking southeast along South Beach. This is low tide, if you haven't guessed already.

Looking west along South Beach. The sheer layer of water in the wet sand has impressive reflectional qualities.

Jack caught in the crisscross of long, low waves.

This sand dollar broke while alive and healed itself (or so it appeared). In the background, Jack is skipping sand dollars along the surface of the retreating waves.

I hadn't seen a sand dollar with circles in its shell like this until today. Jack went to skip this one but stopped short when he flipped it over and saw all the little hairs still wiggling underneath - a live one! (For now, at least.)

I cut the unpainted section off and put up the painting I'd done of Michigan winter next to my side of the bed. 

This is my attempt to keep me from mixing up the switches in the bathroom. We'll see how well these little watercolors last in that ever-damp room.

I picked up this nifty face plate at the Habitat ReStore a couple months ago at least, so today I painted a design for it and put it up on a waist-level outlet next to our kitchen table.

My calendar, which is being painted as I find the time, is officially ready for February now too, with a Day of the Dead-type painting for that as well. I think my love of that style got reignited when I watched "The Book of Life" on the plane between Chicago and San Francisco.

On a super random note: I picked up one of these awesome wall decorations at the thrift store today for fifty cents. Of course, there's no remote, so it's just stuck in full moon all the time. I've got it on right now to see if it will turn off after 30 minutes without the remote or if it will stay on continually.

Well, the moon just turned off, so I suppose it works, and I suppose that, since it's after 11 o'clock at night over here, that's my cue to sign off and go to bed.

Until next time!

Surf's up!

What a whirlwind it's been since I last posted! In a nutshell, we went down south for the holidays, and I hopped on a plane to surprise my family in Michigan on New Year's Eve! Two weeks and two days of visiting, skiing, purging, and dog-walking (hello, Klaus!) ensued. It was an excellent time, and before I knew it I was back on the plane and returning to Cali, where I was welcomed home with a beautiful torrential downpour. Excellent. I flew into Medford, the idea being that we could take advantage of the big box stores there, although I don't think we really did aside from Jack buying a few salads for us at Trader Joe's and maybe a couple snack things for himself. We were both eager to get home. The rain had brought up the water levels quite a bit, there were waterfalls all over the Smith River Gorge, not to mention it'd drenched everything in vibrancy - my favorite part of the north coast, I think.

Rough and Ready Creek

Madrone tree, happy from the rain.

Miniature fungus growth (note pine needles for size reference) in a broken porcelain bottle at an old dump site.

Now back in Crescent City for half a week, I think I can say that I've gotten back into the swing of things - and perhaps even better than I was last year. Daily exercise, riding my bike for the first time since I moved up here, working on my novel instead of chasing a bunch of short story stuff willy-nilly... all of these have helped me to feel a bit more stable and on-track since I've gotten back. There's the usual, as well, of going to church and reconnecting post-trip, unpacking (more or less complete as of this morning), and the usual housekeeping that seems to be a never-ending part of my life now. But there was one very exciting thing that took place yesterday afternoon, for which I am very, very excited:

I went surfing.

Yes, that wetsuit ninja is me. The cold water requires lots of extra stuff...

... which makes movement a little bit cumbersome, but hopefully I'll get used to it.

The tide has been way out lately.

Surveying the waves before entry.

Hanging out between the breaks.

These guys flew past while I was out, and Jack apparently got to get some close-ups of them. Beautiful black sea birds!

Granted, I wiped out a few times and only rode one wave (on my belly - I didn't even bother trying to stand up) and was only out for probably 30 minutes before my arms felt super tired (which I blame partly on my puny arm strength and partly on the resistance offered by the thick wetsuit). But I had a blast, and I hope it was the first of many surf outings to come. We walked down to the beach twice so far this week, apart from the surfing trip. I'm trying to spend more of my day outside, especially since it's sunny right now. Not to mention I'm airing out the house! Light breezes are drifting through, carrying the sounds of birds and the persistent snip snip of the bay leaf trimmers hard at work across the street, mingling with the near and distant sounds of passing traffic and NPR on the radio in the next room. It's good to be home.

Until next time!