Observations

[forestofglory]

The hills are now starting to turn golden for the summer, but due to the late rains the green has been lingering for longer than usual. Even though there was lot of late rain we are still in drought and the state is expecting another server fire season.

The days have been getting notably longer, it gets light pretty early and dark late. Which has been making it harder for little people to sleep in. I wake up pretty early and often enjoy some time to myself before everyone else wakes up, but the rest of my household has been getting up pretty early these days.

For me shelter in place is actually meaning that I'm spending more time exploring outdoors. I have been going on walks with the kid. Normally when I do my walks I just stick to the same route all the time, but with the kid we try new things. We found a fish pound in someone's front yard that she loves to got watch.

We have also been exploring some new parks, since we are trying to go some longer expeditions. Yesterday we drove to nice park by the shore of the bay with lots of marshland and some fun bridges. We walked around for about an hour.

One strange thing about being out doors in these times is passing people. When I'm walking around the neighborhood I have to stay six feet away form fellow walkers. So there's like little looking back an forth and then one of us with walk into the street to pass safely. It used to feel wired but now its just the new normal. In some of the regional parks we go to the trails have been too narrow to stay six feet away -- so we just have to do the best we can.

Comments

[lunabee34]

That park sounds so fun, and so does the fish pond.

We saw a teensy frog swimming in the stream today. It was a Highlight. :)

[shadaras]

I'm glad you're getting into nature together!

I miss the bay marshes and the golden hills ;_; Here, it's turning spring and that just means it's usually warm (though, it might snow on Saturday? Weird.) and the trees are almost green again.

[torachan]

Now that the college across the street from us is closed down, our neighborhood is actually a pretty quiet place, so we haven't had any trouble with it being busy when we go out for walks. We usually do encounter people on our way, but maybe one or two on a block and some blocks none at all. There's not much traffic, either, so it's easy to just cross the street or walk out in the street for a bit until we pass. I don't bother wearing a mask for these neighborhood walks, since we're not getting close to anyone. (Only exception is if we plan to stop at the gas station for something on our way, since masks are required for shops.)

[forestofglory]

Aww, teensy frog!

[forestofglory]

Huh. People who didn't grow up here are always saying we don't have seasons, but I think they just don't know what to look for.

I hope you enjoy your green trees!

[forestofglory]

Yeah, my neighborhood is pretty quiet too -- but I notice other people walking more since I have to avoid them. Also there are more people out walking around here.

[shadaras]

Yeah, growing up in CA means that Traditional Seasons are kind of weird but neat? Like, seeing all the hills turn red-and-gold in the autumn is awesome but it doesn't really make up for the six dead months of leafless trees. I'd rather have winter rains and the blue-and-gold summers and the mixed months between that approximate other places' autumns and springs (and definitely exist! acorns fall and flowers bloom and they're real seasons okay!).

:) I am enjoying them very much!

[lunabee34]

It was so wee and awesome!

[jo_lasalle]

Yeah, I know the weird "so who walks where?" dance out on walks. It's a bit awkward, but it's so much weirder and uncomfortable if the other person is giving no indication what they're doing to do (or that they're even aware of the distance thing), and that happens too... *sigh*

Glad you're getting to explore the outdoors in this time!