In honor of my last post, I am proud to say that my legs are sore after doing approximately 10 miles of hiking today at Nisene Marks state park in Aptos CA.

Armed with my camera, a yummy sandwich from New Leaf, and water, I enjoyed an afternoon of winding through lush forest. The West Ridge Trail runs along the Aptos river and through amazing tall circles of trees.

It was truly great exercise for my body and mind after a long lull in my routine.

It’s been more than a week and I’m finally just beginning to get over a cold. Before this, I went a full year or so without getting seriously ill. In fact I was starting to think that I had mastered sensing when I was about to get sick and then doing a series of things to tackle it before it got worse.

After spending three days between my bed and the bathroom, I started to get really bored. I had no energy and I couldn’t do anything other than lay there, wallowing in congestion and head ache. All I could do was sit and think.

Of course I went over my life thoroughly. But what also happened was that I felt an overwhelming sense of sympathy and empathy for people whose lives change due to an illness.

I know I only had a mere cold, nothing to cry about. But my routine changed. Everything came to a halt. I couldn’t go running with the dog. I couldn’t go out to the garden to dig or plant. I couldn’t lift anything heavy and I had barley enough energy to read.

These things are things I do every day and I suddenly couldn’t do them.

If I felt frustrated, I can’t imagine the frustration one feels when they are diagnosed with fibromyalga and every day is about managing pain. Or someone with cancer, who spends more time in hospitals rather than outside enjoying the day.

I feel humbled to know that I have an able body and my biggest complaint is getting a cold. We tend to take our health for granted. Maybe we should really celebrate our mobility and our strength while we have it. Run more, go hiking, swim, dance, sing, paint, build, laugh, jump and stretch with thanks. Thank the body you have and then love and care for those that have to work extra hard to get through the day.

On April 14th I took part in the Jepson Prairie Transect Monitoring. I didn’t really know what I was signing up for when I volunteered. Basically I spent a good five hours with a group of people shouting out different plant names as we walked a specific section of the Jepson Prairie (near Davis CA) while our team leader recorded our findings. Every year a team of people record and analyze how well native plants in the prairie are surviving amongst the invasive non native species. I learned some new plants and met some interesting people who knew way too much about them.

It’s good practice to volunteer or participate in things that may be new or foreign to us. It is also good practice to read the paper. That is where I found out about this prairie. Aside from the overwhelming availability of digital media, I feel that reading the paper is relaxing and informative, not to mention so much more fun then staring at a screen. Plus who doesn’t love the funnies!

Maybe next year I’ll turn up again to see how the Goldfields are doing.

The newest culinary attraction in my kitchen is the leafy green sorrel. It looks a little bit like dandelion greens but tastes tart like a mix of lemon and bitter wild strawberries. As a member of the rhubarb family, it also has a level of toxicity if consumed in large quantities (just like rhubarb leaves do). But it is said to help with inflammation and as an antibacterial. Because of its unique taste, eating sorrel raw can be too intense. But Potato Leek Sorrel Soup is delicious!

Here is a basic recipe that my family and I put together. You can add or adjust as you see fit and according to how many people you intend to feed.

vegetable stock (1-2 cups of broth per person)
1 leek chopped
onion (half per person)
potato (1-2 per person)
1 bunch of sorrel (handful per person)
salt
pepper
olive oil
cream (I like it with a dollop of yogurt instead)
parsley for garnish
grated Parmesan cheese
Crystal (favorite brand) cayenne hot sauce (if you like some heat!)

In a large pot saute onion and leek in olive oil. Add stock and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and spices. When potatoes are just about done add sorrel (it will turn a darker muddier green, its normal). Serve with a dollop of yogurt and garnish with parsley. Add grated Parmesan and hot sauce if desired.

Enjoy!

If only I had spent as much time on school work as I did on documenting every second of my life.

Having recently come across FIVE boxes in the garage from my teenage years, I decided it was time to consolidate and reduce. The amount of pictures in those boxes was overwhelming. It is apparent from the photos that I became obsessed with capturing everything, an obsession that kept up through the early years of college.

It makes sense now that I call myself a photographer and enjoy taking documentary style images. After the third or fourth hour of ripping and dumping images though, I began to feel a little disturbed. What was the point of all my efforts to capture on film my “fun and happy” life, to now be throwing it all away? Besides the fact that my life will now be contributing to the pollution that is the Dump, another sense of waste came over me. I felt the waste of time I could have channeled into other things. Could it be that I actually never really enjoyed the moments I was so diligent in capturing? Could it be that I lived for the photo and how it would make me look, rather than really just living for me?

Although Id like to think I’m past taking a million pictures of myself, this cleaning up project is really teaching me a thing or two about who I am and who I want to be. That sounds cheesy, but its true.

It seems to ring true to me now that one awesome image is more important that 100 alright ones.

After attending a skunk rehabbing class at the Sierra Wildlife Rescue in Placerville Ca, I have a new found interest and soft spot for skunks.

For starters, the number one killer of skunks are automobiles. To make things worse, skunks have horrible eye sight. So when someone sees a skunk on the road, they assume the skunk will move when the car approaches. Unfortunately its usually too late.

I’m starting to learn that us humans misunderstand most animals that we coexist with. We carry and pass on the stereotypes that society assigns to them.

Skunks only spray as an absolute last resort AND they are extremely beneficial(95%) to gardens and agricultural fields, eating poisonous spiders and pesty insects and rodents.

Now when I see a dead skunk on the road, my heart sinks.

Please, slow for skunks on the road.

Lately Ive been condensing, cleaning, and organizing my life. Mostly it involves moving and going through boxes. Because of the last couple years of constant moving, I have learned that less is more. So today involved inhaling dust, moving boxes, and cleaning things. After some time in a dark garage I opened the door to a nice surprise. The clouds were amazing and the sun was brilliant! It’s things like this that make all your hard work seem worth it. Once my life is in order, I can go out and play worry free.

I gave you the best
house that I could

So you can run free
once again

Because I have recently made the decision to leave the Santa Cruz area, Bradley and I have been doing some last minute exploring. Yesterday we hit up Big Basin. Although I have camped there before, I have yet to see much of the park. We walked the short Redwood Trail, and part of the Skyline to Sea Trail, vowing to make a special trip soon to get all the way to the coast.

It was a moist, rainy day, and all the plants and trees around us radiated with life and energy. It truly is an amazing place. As twilight set in, so did the misty fog, giving a surreal mystical feel to the evening.

I shot some 64T(xpro) slide film, playing with double exposures. This is a fun one of Bradley looking up in awe at the Mother Tree, the tallest tree in the park.