Thoughts in the USA

Breaking news: sun came out this weekend!

I know y'all are thinking why would anyone from California even bother to mention the weather - but we did have our share of cold gray wet windy bleak wet rainy and rainier spell in the past couple of weeks. Did i mention it was wet?

So, after several weekends of staying at home like grumpy hermits, socializing with our many many pet ants, we finally went out, blinking against the sun.

Yesterday we went to an exhibit where WackieM, StampieJ and some other artists were showing their artwork. As many others, I have seen a lot of WackieM's creations on her blog. Which is why it was so very cool to see them face to face, in real life! Much, MUCH more impressive and inspiring. Da woman rocks! Add to that her bubbly cheery unassuming personality, and you'd undertstand why is was such pure fun. The JohnnyB, as usual, was painfully honest in expressing his opinion about her work. Don't get me wrong - he likes her work quite a bit, but he did have his share of comments which he did not hesitate to share with her. I wonder if he was getting back at her for the famous sentence of the month. I am starting to suspect The JohnnyB is much more into what we call happy safe art, and not so much into art loaded with emotion which I tend to adore (and sometimes manage to create).

We enjoyed the other artists' work as well, only eventually The JohnnyB has reached the limit of the amount of the artistic patience that was bestowed upon him, and so we had to leave very early (from my point of view!), had an alfresco lunch at the only restaurant that bothered to put tables outside in the midst of February (best hamburger in a long, long time!) , and went back home.

And yet, I wanted more sun, more fresh air, less walls.

So today, we went to a nearby county park, located 15 minutes drive from our house. In the (soon-to-be-6-years!) time that I am here, we've never ever went to that park. Outrageous, right? Well, The JohnnyB lives in this area 15 years and has never been there either.

Took us forever to find a parking spot. I think everyone was celebrating what felt like the first day of spring. It was soooooooooooo beautiful, so warm, so sunny, so blueskyish - would have been a shame to spend such a gorgeous day indoors.

We found out this is one great park, full of majestic oak trees and trails galore that combine uphill sections with a blessed majority of flat strolling. We are painfully aware of how much we suck when it comes to being in shape - and today we kept getting constant reminders of that each and every time we passed many a joggers whose breath was not nearly as heavy as ours after a 30-second slight-slope... Shame on us!

It ended up being one of those nothing-to-write-home-about days. Just a hike in the park, looking at the animals at the "model farm" they have there with chicken and napping pigs and curly sheep and a nice little vegetable garden and lots of happy people walking around with hats, providing me with some cool reference photos. Oh yes, and some very cool shadows.

See, I am learning to highly appreciate and cherish the dull moments.

What is that you're asking? Ants?

Oh, they kept popping for visits, and we think we've finally found their entry way into the shower. But why ruin a perfect day discussing them creatures?

Labels: Nature, Photohgraphy, Time Out

# posted by Nava @ 6:04 PM