beach texture

Here are some beach texture photos to end the month by.  I love this one because I think it kind of looks like a map or an aerial photo, but it's just some green algae (moss? other green growing life form?) on the rocks. (Can we invent a delicious and irresistible drink called algae on the rocks? "Algae on the rocks, and make it quick!" it has a ring to it, right?)


driftwood. I think this kind of looks like a train yard, but I had to think about it for a minute. In up to the minute weather reporting, it's raining really hard right now. My Fresno aunt is visiting and I'm sure she'll have complaints about it, somehow. I love her dearly, but she tends to frame everything from a negative perspective. For example: some idiot was setting off fireworks (before it started raining too hard) and she was sure it was gunfire.



This one also seems kind of mappy to me. More of a river map, maybe.

truffle shuffle take the stairs

Hello, lovely people.  I spotted this Goonies graffiti on a concrete barrier (to keep tourists from falling to their death) at the Devil's Churn. (Devil's Churn, Truffle Shuffle - sometimes life brings pleasing phrases all at one time.)  I have no idea how or why it was there, but I love thinking about it. Maybe someone was doing a Goonies pilgrimage - the movie was set in Astoria but it was filmed up and down the north/central coast. I was hoping to see more, but this was the only truffle shuffle I came across.

In an effort to get to my bee pictures, I've been uploading a bunch of stuff that was on my camera before the bee pictures, including a May beach trip, the iris gardens, and much much more! (hee hee. more cats! But I'm trying valiantly not to post 1000 cat pictures.)

Anyway, all this to say bee pictures and pictures of other things shortly, maybe even later today.


Here are some curved stairs that sprouted out of the cliff, seemingly unattached to a beginning or an end.  I saw at least two other examples of these staircases (is it a staircase if it's just out in the open air?) in the lovely beach town of Yachats.

bees

The bees are gone!  I freaked out a little because after I called the bee place* to come get them (I was unable to get ahold of the owner of the hives these bees probably came from), they swarmed and flew away - but they only flew across the yard to a different tree. (phew!)  Matt the bee guy said that they probably would have flown out of the yard completely later today. I would be perfectly happy to have a swarm of bees living in the garden, but since there was no permanent place for them to go (hollow tree, hive, etc.) I worried that they would fly off into someone else's yard - and what if that someone else called the exterminator instead of the bee keeper?!

The bummer news is that of course not all of the bees went into the box (he shook them from the branch and BOOM 12K bees in a box) and I am feeling guilty for the ones that are left. He said that some of them might return to the mother hive (which is nearby), but some of them would just fly around and die. This makes me sad, but nature does what it does.

I've been interested in bees for a long time, but this was my first up close and personal experience with so many at once. I never felt afraid or like they were out to get me and I love that they came to visit.

*I called  Bee Thinking - they called me right back and were very accommodating when I called to cancel (swarm flew away) and when I called to un-cancel (swarm flew to tree on other part of the yard).  Here's an article about Matt and beekeeping in Portland. (it's not as popular as keeping chickens, but it's making gains.)

Photos to follow!

adjust your scope dial

News of the day: BEE SWARM (photos to follow). It looks pretty cool and the bees are not interested in anything but hanging out with their bee pals. I called a bee guy, but had to leave a message. If he doesn't call back by whenever tomorrow, I will call another bee person!

photo: from a trip to the beach about a month ago.

what's the deal with June?

This month! It has been full of aggravating things. When exposed to too many aggravating things in a row, I become hypersensitized to aggravation or maybe aggravating things sense my attention and flock to my vicinity.  

TAKE MY ORDER ALREADY

• Most annoying waiter @ trivia: UGH this guy! He wants to crouch/sit down and have a chat rather than do anything as useful as bring food and drink. Bad news for me and all others at our table: he's even worse at small talk than he is at waiting tables. BAD NEWS. I could go on (and on!), but I'm getting mad all over again and I want to go to sleep pretty soon. I dislike him so much I find myself thinking of Emma from Emma the novel (and movies!) and how she hated Mrs. Elton so much she had to throw a party for her immediately or everyone would know how much she disliked her. I feel like I would have to throw a motherflipping PARADE to disguise my dislike, which makes me feel bad because usually I can get along with people, you know? My job is getting along with people! But I can't do it with this guy -  I'm pretty easy going, but he just rubs me the wrong way in every regard. I can't even describe how he closed out our bill without having a rage blackout. I must assume we were enemies in a previous lifetime. 

PEDANT'S CORNER 

• puce is purple. People want it to be yellow-green (I assume because puce/puke are such close neighbors), but it remains purple. PURPLE!
• smirk. A blog that I enjoy has had the word 'smirk' stuck in its word hopper for a week and it's clear she's thinking of a different (more impish, less asshole) kind of smile but instead  SMIRK keeps jumping out of the paragraph bushes and assaulting me with its wrongness. 

These are no big deal, right? I don't know why they're both getting up my nose so much. Probably because June is turning me into an awful person.  

DO NOT TRY TO HUSTLE ME ON MY DOORSTEP

• I think someone tried to charity scam me last night. It was almost 9pm but still light - there was a knock on the door and when I opened it I found a lady with a clipboard. (This is not unusual in fine weather - tis the pre-election season for door to door do-goodery, which I know I've complained about before.) She was talking about healthcare, which okay! This is an important issue. She said some blah blah blah while I flipped through her signatures. I was willing to sign her thing, but she said she was collecting money and that 'at door donations' were so important. I said I wasn't going to give her any money - she grabbed her clipboard, said thanks for nothing (paraphrase) and was back on the sidewalk before I could put together what happened. What makes me think it's a scam is I can't think of a single legit organization that would leave without my signature or an email address (both of which I was willing to give). Then I realized she had no other literature, it was almost 9PM, and the thing she was talking about wasn't even really a thing, it just sounded like a thing that a lot of people (myself included) care about. So, beware the knock at 8:45.  

flora & fauna

Flora & Fauna | Alynn & Mags from Lea Bruno on Vimeo.

I love this video and would be overcome with delight if I happened upon either mural while out and about in the world. As it is, I'm pretty damn delighted with the video.
via The Hairpin

I have some mega-floral pictures coming up soon - it's that time of year. (I'm sorry to say I don't have mega-fauna pictures to post. My cats being cute don't count -  I think for MEGA-FAUNA you'd need a half-goat/ half-human forest creature who is 7 stories tall and can shoot fire out of her horns or something.)

[unrelated side note: the sidewalk in front of the house is getting replaced today and there's a little boy (about 3) out front with his mom, losing his MIND because of all the heavy equipment. It's pretty cute! The cement truck just got here!]