My Southern California

My California is not,

the neurotic
augmented
housewives of ___________
living on Disneyland street.

My California i not,

the 11 o'clock
shoot em up
"news."
red
carpet
excess.


My California is,

ridges
steep as
a
cows
face.
covered in
Yucca
purple sage
prickly pear
and
Cholla

My California is,

orchards of
yellow
lemons
and green
avocado.
strawberries
red
in the
fields.

My California is,

Silver sun
on
rolling
waves.
shore birds
wade
in
foam.
kites
in
the wind.


That's my Southern California
The real, Southern California

Me and My good rabbit friend Lisa at the Bakersfield show...

Winning isn't everything.....but it is pretty darn close!

Yesterdays show was Great! Moonstone minis (our rabbitry name) Magellan won best of breed in show A and best opposite sex of breed in show B.

Moonstones Gigi won best opposite sex of breed in show A

DeSurra's Tiffany won best of breed in show B. She is Magellan and Gigi's mom.

Not to bad for my first time out solo. Of course My Daughter, Brenda has been building the heard for 4 years and I am reaping the benefits. I am sending her one of the best opposite sex of breed ribbons and a best of breed pen.

A tentative step in the empty nest direction. My first solo rabbit show.

This is Gigi being judged in December. I am really looking forward to how she and her brothers do at the upcoming show on Saturday. As I said in the title this will be my first show sans kids and/or husband. It is a bitter sweet thing . I loved the time I got to share with my girls driving to and from shows as well as the time there. I was so proud of them when their rabbits did well on the show table. I was proud of their behavior when their rabbits didn't do well on the show table too. That happens in showing animals. Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose.
I am looking forward to seeing my rabbit friends, and seeing some of the 4-H kids I have met over the years at the 4-H show I used to help put on .
I think it will be a good day Saturday. I'll stack my CD deck in the car ,load the bunnies and the rabbit/human support gear, and hit the road at o dark thirty. The training wheels are off!

Sympathy Pains

I know the stereotype, women + phone = talking all the time. My girls and I do not fit it. We don't fit a lot of stereotypes. When the oldest was still at home, the three of us would be in the family room in the after noon, the girls doing homework me in the kitchen. If the phone should ring, a game of chicken would begin. Not who could get to the phone fastest, but who could get to the phone slowest. We finally came up with who ever is closest had to answer.That worked for a while until the girls ran away from the phone as it rang.
So this week when my cell phone rang and my youngest daughters name flashed on the screen, I got that something is wrong feeling in the pit of my stomach.
During an activity in her biology class, my daughter had severely twisted her ankle. She could not stand or walk on it.
Something you need to know about this kid, besides her aversion to talking on the phone she has an extremely high pain threshold. So if she says something hurts, I know it hurts.Oh, and she is also very stubborn. As in, no mom I can just hop, you don't need to help me to the car, out of the car, across the parking lot, into the doctors office, up the stairs etc. She did mention her hopping leg was sort of getting tired and allowed the nurse to wheel her in a wheelchair to x-ray. The doc came into the exam room and told us Kathy had a sever sprain.
Something you need to know about me. I severely sprained my knee in high school. Next to childbirth, it was the worst pain I have had in my life...but then I have a pain threshold like Kathy's. So when the doctor started to palpate around Kathy's swollen ankle, my body tensed up. When she pushed in the middle of the swollen area, she might as well have hit ME with one of those reflex hammers on the knee. My leg shot out and I kicked the doctor in the foot! I couldn't believe it. I remember thinking Hey don't push there that is going to really hurt.
Anyway the kid is in a purple cast for 4 weeks. When the cast comes off, someone will be taking a buzzing saw toward my kid, can you imagine!

Maybe I will wait in the lobby.

The Nose Knows... :)

Destination education....a short poem

Bicycle Ninja
Dart through the park.
Target
Grade school bike rack.

Haiku...two

Trying out Haiku...

Playing with Photo Shop...Crayon Bikes :)

A beautiful morning in the park. I could hear the red shoulder hawks debating with a flock of crows. The crows had surrounded the hawks nest site of last year. Mister hawk sat in a tree about 50 yards away answering their taunts, and fluffing his feathers.
As he took flight , the group of crows followed diving toward him as he sailed across the tree line . He dipped his right wing, lifted his left wing, flashing his talons, the crows backed off , I could almost hear them saying, ok, ya, but...

This is my friend Lisa hopping her rabbit, an English Spot, at a 4-H event today... the kids in her 4-H group put on a demonstration.

Stickey Me

While waiting for the gourd Ladies to reply to her e-mail, Jenean decided to take matters into her own hands. after all how hard could it be to make a bird house????

Black Magic

In the early morning hours a small, round, figure makes her way toward me, the breeze lifting her white hair from her shoulders. I detect a note of an eastern European language in her morning greeting.

In her wake, a vigilant, silent, squad, glides from tree, to fence, to tree, feathers shinning black as coal in the morning sun. Together they make their slow procession along the path.