trips and trees

now that i've gotten my two covid shots, we've ventured out more... well, that's a fib -- bc of our rural life, we have been relatively unimpeded in small travels, lucky bc we don't see many people & therefore haven't had to worry as much about covid contact. at school, my friendboss has been so paranoid about infection that since the kids came back last november we have used triple levels of protection protocols -- i told the kids they've been safer at school than anyplace else bc of all the sanitizing, barriering, social distancing, and etc! we teachers too, then, have been safer, less likely to spread infection.

so the point is, we have gotten to go out here and there.

ok, so these are pix from a recent magical hike up mount pinos and trip to ventura... a moment of silence for all who've lost their lives during this past year-plus, in part bc the orange stain former resident of the u.s. didn't take care of business, to deadly effect.

enough about that creature; here is to the soon-to-occur reopening of our country!

this was about 2 miles up; at the farthest point on the road
is ruby the car, not visible here, of course

 

the road was closed, so the farthest we were able to hike
was to this wild & windswept, gorgeously verdant
campground at chuchupate. the shush of the pines
and smell of the forest was awe-inspiring!

james and the giant rock

in ventura the old main street has been closed off
to traffic, so we were able to walk  alot, discovering
that ventura is re-opening: people strolled the picturesque
street & dined al fresco. at the busy bee cafe, we shared
a banana split with an extra scoop of spumoni.

this is the ancient moreton bay fig tree in downtown

ventura. it is a mighty, majestic beauty, a stunner, a

real reminder of our human tininess both physical

and temporal.

happy at the tree -- not to mention that figs are god's
most wonderful fruit