Built in 1929, the guard house of the historic Adamson House sits just inside the entrance gate. I’d love to have a peek inside, but it’s not open to the public; it’s the private residence of a State Park ranger. Is it full of spectacular tiles, like the main house, I wonder?
I sat in the garden and sketched in the four cardinal directions. Not pictured: the Anna’s hummingbird on the bougainvillea.
I live on USA’s west coast, but the coastline actually runs east-west here, so the ocean is to the south of us. It was interesting how the sky colour was so different in each direction (this was done mid-afternoon.)
In the top image, those are not two electric poles. The one to the left is a raptor pole that K built. It gets good use by owls!
The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the hoot owl, is a large raptor native to the Americas. We often hear them at night, and sometimes see them. They eat “almost any living creature that walks, crawls, flies, or swims, except the large mammals.”1 In fact over 500 species have been identified as great horned owl prey.
1Lee, Carol. “Powerful feet and talons help birds of prey make their living”. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
I recently read this article about the quirky US roadside phenomena generically known as Muffler Men, though any individual giant might advertise something other than car parts. Apparently they are now very rare, but we have one in our town. Malibu’s version, erected in the late 1960s atop Frostie Freeze, originally held a massive burger. He was re-styled in 1988 to be La Salsa Man; you can read more about the conversion here. Now he’s missing his serape and tire sandals, and the store below remains empty because of septic tank issues. I wonder what his next iteration might be? Plumbing Man?
Sitting in the shade of the huge old sycamore tree at Adamson House, looking towards the beach.
This week in the perpetual journal … I’ve been seeing a lot of swallowtails recently — big and beautiful!
Hazy sky blurs into sea
Beyond the sideways tree.
Foggy morning at the park, with the pale coyote statue howling into the mist.
The Black-crowned Night Heron is a medium sized heron with a long head and a funny way of making its neck disappear when at rest. A juvenile was hanging out at Legacy Park this morning. I loved the lime-green legs.
These birds are among the seven heron species observed to engage in tool use. They lure or distract fish by tossing edible or inedible buoyant objects into water within their striking range. Smart!
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