Carrots

I kept watering the Weed Patch up until just a couple days ago, and in those couple days since, the Weeds have wilted, along with the few struggling Carrots...picked the Carrots, munched the two largest, the resultance of an extravagant effort!...an effort pleasantly diverted by Maya, but success!...too, the White Truck passed its smog test this afternoon, and funds haven't taken the hit I expected!... so, so, tomorrowmorrow, I'll try to get back to work on the Old House, and the Garden, though not after another travail, going to the vet to have Maya spayed...seems a shame, and seems the right thing to do...hmmph...but Bunny, my Australian Shepard (see pic on mast), wasn't spayed for the eight years or so I had her, and when she was in heat it was trouble...and I didn't breed her...I'm not a dog breeder, and the breeding of dogs best left in the hands of professionals...but the thought here is that dog breeding isn't in the hands of professionals, and the 'too many unwanted dogs' refrain is why the County, the Vets the neighbors, say, spay or neuter your dog...dogs are prolific, and no wild world for them to make a balance...sympathies to anyone, including myself, deciding on spaying and neutering...

Vermilion Flycatcher

yesterday evening

this evening update pic...V. has stick, thought it was bug...

same place both evenings

(updated pics after text)  It was one of those sightings when I left the big lens camera behind, and regretted it!....I'd walked aways with Maya on the dirt jogging path at Mile Square Park, and for a rest, took a seat on a park bench, and looked over at the golf course...the sun was setting behind me, the colors all warmed, and while contemplating the absence of golfers on the golf course, Very Red Little Bird perched on the barb wire atop the chain link fence...'Oh!'...I had the D10 with, so got Vermilion Flycatcher snapshot--a new bird for me!...this yesterday evening...cloudy morning, clearing sunny wispy clouds warm clear evening...day after day weather has been same...and every evening I roll out with Maya to a Park or the Beach...if I don't, she lets me know...and I'm still her chew toy, which makes the walks problematic....and the back of my hands beat up like old folks' in the home...skin gets like tissue with age and tears easy...Beach is the worst...Maya leaves off with the beach wrack, the life guard tower, the fire rings, and finds me...at Irvine Park there is so much to attract her attention, that 'no problem'...one Evening, she looked to be anxious to pee or poo while in Silver, and I pulled onto a side street in the Industrial Park along Harbor...these parks were built with landscaping, and I remember at the time it seemed ostentatious...I mean, most factory districts look like heck...but now with time, all the Pines are grown, and the grass lawns well maintained, and, it's really nice!...with no traffic in the after hours, it's really quiet...and even has a kind of mood, almost forest like...Maya liked it fine, and played with the Pine Cones...and didn't need to pee or poo...but a place to keep in mind for pull overs!...Town is thriving...many improvements in progress along Harbor Blvd....have in mind to do posts taken along the way on Maya walks, but right now a bit much to walk with her on busy City Streets!...oh...here's link to bird sightings listed about Town...time for  Maya's walk...try Mile Square again, this time with the long lens!...success!...same bench, same time...see below pics...Vermilion oblidged, and not surprised, knowing how regular an  evening routine Black Phoebe had at Cottonwood Bend...too, Black Phoebe is often out front of the House each Evening, though to think of it, not so much of late...Flycatchers have set routines I gather...

Irvine Park

Winds of Change

Coast Live Oak

Vellela vellela

Maya had the good sense not to pick up By The Wind Sailors and run off with them, like everything else, and better sense than mine than to let her sniff them...these are really cool, and I hadn't seen one before with the deep lapiz lazuli blue coloring, which is common...pic from yesterday evening...from the every evening rollouts to the Beach, I've gathered pics of Maya's beachcombing finds--a collection...for sometime...some clouds still about after a couple days of great Rain, sunny warm...clippers can do it...if I can get through Upper Blackrock Spire, last night's adventure, they can, I know they can (fingers crossed)!...eesshh...too painful to listen to the last quarter...but gg clips...time for the warriors now!

Fetch?...eh...

Evening before, I clambered up the Lifeguard Tower to get away from Maya nipping my ankles...'no no no'...I try to whine, like the vet suggested, and Maya's ears go up, but she don't let go...this evening, I thought to take a clip of Maya chasing after the new nerf  Frisbee, and she does, sorta...in dog body language she's says, 'eh'...and she'd rather climb up the Tower's Ladder, a hold over memory from yesterday!...see clip...on return from the Second Tower, I sighted a washed up Seal carcass...didn't let Maya get close...sad to see, and some reflective thoughts on the many Seals coming ashore in distress...sunny blue some clouds warm...listening to coast to coast on radio...new Ceres/Dawn pics on their site...

Next Blog and The Algorithms of Fate

To the North of Balboa Pier, where the Parking Lot ends, the Beach is very wide, and even has some small 'dunes' where Ice Plants and some other sand tolerant plants grow...it's not Ten Mile Dunes, but in the evenings, before the Summer begins, I can walk Maya there, and it's not crowded...it's been a challenge to traverse to the second Life Guard Tower and return...Maya will walk and trot and run here and there, sniffing and digging and picking up everything, and in the routine we go near the waves, but I wont let her swim yet...the Beach is steep, and the water deepens quick, so I'm hesitant...and then on the return, the challenge begins...Maya goes into 'chew on my shoe laces' mode, then my pants cuff, then me...and I reach down, with a 'no no no', and more me...of late, at this point, I gather her up in a bear hug, and find something, a treat, my handkerchief, to distract her, and get her back into walking nice mode...yesterday we went out and back just fine...success!...for one evening!...it's an every evening routine now to roll out to the Ocean...and the wide beach is a good place not just to walk, but to teach Maya good habits...soon I'll take along a Frisbee, and try a toss or two...on occasion, I drop the leash when no one is about, and Maya is fine, hardly taking notice...a caution though is if someone, or another dog, is about, as Maya will make a beeline for them...I trust her not to nip...that seems reserved for me!...but nonetheless like to keep her on leash when others and their dogs about...oh!...between the Parking lot and the Waves, the Earthmovers have pushed the Sand up into a Berm...this happened back when the surf was up at the Wedge during the down Mexico way hurricane...high tide and high surf during the Full Moon was the caution...waves did make it up onto the wide beach, almost to the Balboans' homes...the Ocean coming over the Beaches isn't something new, I remember it happening back in the Sixties, but the possibility of rising Ocean level from Global Warming I suspect has the Balboans' attention!...sunny warm blue today...back when I first made the blog, I took note that on the blog menu bar is a 'next blog' selection, and on occasion I would click on this, and go from random blog to random blog...I didn't take much interest, as many were commercial, and just a random selection of blogs didn't hold any interest to me...I used to use 'blogger search' to look for Valley blogs, but now 'blogger search' is gone, sorta, one can still use it but it's complicated...but the other day, I clicked on 'next blog', and blog after blog turned up about gardening...I thought on this, and speculate that blogger is 'reading' my gardening posts of late, and 'leaning' the next blog selections to blogs about gardening...that may or may not be what happened, but it is what can happen when the web computers use algorithms to shape searches and what we get when we slect things on the web...here's wiki's take on algorithms...Facebook does use algorithms, and I've taken note how at the beginning when I log on with my iphone, the possible new  friend pics are seemingly related to my age!...anyway, how the web uses algos can be something to carp about, a kinda algo in and of itself!, but I realize, I can't complain, I use, do, algos all the time, both consciously and unconsciously...after a bit reading wikis take on algos, my eyes glazed over, and I said to myself, 'okay, I get the ghist', and left off...there's a technical complexity out there, for everyone, that we just don't take in...it's too much stuff!...though I'm much impressed that there are those who manage all that stuff!...so, I have my own set of algos that take me through the day to day, we each do, and I suspect how the algos shape our choices underpins the philosophers notions of fate, which I'll not delve into, wiki does, but rather go work on getting my wow Hunter, Tukut, to level 100 today!

Sea Hare

I thought Puppy Maya had found a kid's football, but, Sea Hare was upside right then, and I pretty much knew right then Sea Hare wasn't anything else, but to be certain, I gave a poke, and wanted to pick Sea Hare up for pic, but Maya on leash made that problematic, and rather than risk Sea Hare harm, beckoned a beachgoer wading in the waves to take Sea Hare out aways...'give Sea Hare a chance'...I've never seen Sea Hare on a Sandy Beach...maybe that's usual...rolled out to Newport Beach by the Jetty...ok for leashed dogs after 4:30, but the Jetty outlet is such, fencing dogs in, that many were off leash, and no harm...and a fine group!...many complimented Maya...and the prettiest dog, 'oh, they're all pretty', was a Burnese Mountain Dog Puppy...Maya and Mountain rubbed necks, just a delight...wish I had pics...left behind the D10, and the iphone wouldn't take video...if one wants to take still pics, and has one hand busy with other things,  do video, and later one can cull still pics from the video...all are okay for the web...sunny some clouds, low ones on Beach Horizon....clips win...clippers win...Clippers Win....CLIPPERS WIN!!!...I was nearly in tears before the game, Clippers having been a star crossed team...Maya brought them luck I think...each Beach rollout they won...onward!...