blue trees, green grass, yellow mustard, elusive dragons

[gurdonark]

(field of mustard flowers, Malibu Creek State Park, California)

When the Spring comes, I do feel a sort of epiphany of renewal. Suddenly, things seem to burst forward, then float gently, and then bloom.





So many times my business trips involve movement from one conference or courthouse to another--the endless repetition of conference room decor. This week's trip to California, however, brought me not one but two opportunities to enjoy nature on the fringes of the day, after the business was done. I'd like to just revel a bit in nature, whether in Texas, in California, or, really, anywhere pleasant--literally anywhere.








I never visited California prior to 1987, nor did I have any desire to do so. A large case I began handling then, followed by many other cases over the years, began to take me to Los Angeles quite often.
We ended up living there for the better part of a decade, after years in which I commuted between Texas and California a lot.

At first, I did not understand the flora and fauna at all. Gradually, though, I came to love the elfin forest and the somewhat elfin culture that accompanies it.

California has this image, largely media created, of having some inner mystical streak. While it's true that religious exploration is part of the California landscape, one can trace about as many new religions being founded in "show me" Missouri as in southern California. Yet, new visitors, including myself, always hunt for that elusive, mystical California--that Huxley California, that exotic ferns California, that California of mist and dream. They often find instead a crowded region, often parched, characterized by extremes. But beneath the kelp of complexity that afflicts southern California, there's a real surge of beauty--not that faux palm-tree, plastic surgery beauty, but a chapparal beauty--wild, unfettered, so very exotic, so very free. It is that California, unhip and yet complete, to which I instinctively gravitate.

The Santa Monica Mountains are just inland of Malibu, rolling, short mountains filled with gorgeous chapparal. Malibu Creek State Park is perhaps 15 minutes from the ocean to the west, and an hour and a half from the desert to the east. It has very temperate weather, although it can often be a bit dry. It features many extremes, though, and the floods in one part of the cycle will be superseded by fires in another. The whole ecology is built on those two things--flood and fire.







The winter time, and in particular January through April, are the times when the grass is green, the wildflowers bloom, and the animal life is abundant. Summer, by contrast, serves as a dormant season, much as Winter does elsewhere. When I hiked this week at Malibu Creek State Park, many things remained in bloom, including this ceanothus tree, with its blue flowers:








I love hiking like this, in great weather in the hills and chapparal.

Friday my court hearing and meeting ended in time for me to just miss my early plane and catch another later plane. I took a taxi over to the Long Beach Aquarium. I love this place, with its bright colors and many facts about the Pacific Ocean. I spent an avid ninety minutes wandering from tank to tank, soaking up and learning and just enjoying a marine reverie.









I wanted to get a throwaway camera shot of a leafy sea dragon, but they eluded me. There is some metaphor for how that misty, secret California eludes me, yet I find it hidden in chapparal. But I'll ignore metaphor, and close with a small shot of the related weedy sea dragon, which the Long Beach Aquarium is one of the few to have successfully bred.












I love California, but it is not the only place that I enjoy. Here's a Spring shot of our local "historical landmark", the 19th Century creek dam used by the railroad line that gave birth to our little town:



I love to hike through creekside woods to this little dam, insignificant though it might be.

Along the same creek, Spring gradually is making green headway. Here's a shot from a few weeks ago--it would be greener now:






For some reason, only the kite comes out at the size I wish it to display, and so the weedy sea dragons, like their leafy cousins, must remain elusive.

North Texas and Southern California are very different places, but I love them both. I also loved my native Arkansas. I must be fortunate, for most places I've lived are places I enjoyed living.

Comments

[laruth.livejournal.com]

Nice pictures. The colours are beautiful! The kite looks very free.

By the way, are these pictures taken with a digital camera, or a non digital then scanned into the computer?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Thank you. These pictures were taken with a five dollar single-use "throwaway" camera. When the film was developed, I asked the photo shop to put the film on a 3 1/2 inch computer disk. I need to use a digicam, but for now this has to do.

It took me a while to maneuver my kite some weeks ago to get the kite shot. That kite was free! It cost only 1 dollar, and it came out of the package with a backing stick missing. I had to use a wooden stick from a fallen tree branch.

[chevrefeuilles.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing this. I've never been west of Bloomington, IN. The kite picture is beautiful and has some of my favorite colors.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked the post. Somehow I uploaded the pix in the wrong size, or LJ truncated them, which disappoints me, because I'd have liked a few of them to be full size.

I think you'd like California, and I think you'd probably like Texas, too. They are a bit different than Indiana :).

[chevrefeuilles.livejournal.com]

I hated Indiana!

Yes, I hope to make it to Arizona and Texas sometime within the next year or so... And eventually to California.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The part of Indiana that is rolling hills next to Kentucky has some nice parts.

Arizona is wonderful, especially in Tuscon or in particular the rural areas. We have some nice parts here in TX, and CA can also be magical.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

this is wonderful! thank you for all the photos. i've only been to L.A., never the rest of the state, so it's good to read about beauties i didn't see. (btw, i think bloomington IN is paradise. [g])

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

you do portray the beauty of southern california foothills well

i'm no whiz but i use a size parameter in my lj pic code....before the closing > i include width=300 to maintain conformity

maybe that will work for you

i'm sure there's plenty more others could tell you