mother summer:

june is here

a gif titled: eating steel cut oats.

 and i think it's clear that things will be good for a while

look who's learning to use a spoon! (fyi: i don't make these gifs. i upload my photos to google + and they/it make them automatically!)

 to take note of another small beauty: our anniversary is at the end of may. (we both pretty much forgot.)

we've been biking around town all rat-like, i'm loving the heat.

 how long? i couldn't say, oh how i wish june would stay, he's such a handsome fellow that i adore

a beauty in lincoln, ca.

where i found this walnut forest.

our garden is a little nasty right now (neighbor cats). thank goodness for the bounteous baby farms that surround the area. beets with vinegar and olive oil and home-brewed hibiscus kombucha. so fizzy!

 if june were a man, he'd be tall and tan with a golden curl on his brow

sacramento's march against monsanto. it's about liberating our seeds and ourselves.

of the same tribe: i asked her to take my photo and noticed she had the same buddha-head bead that i was wearing....both taken from cheesy decorative candles!

high energy, the chants and cheers were loud and riotous. gotta take it to the streets: they're our streets.

 the son of apollo, the sun god we follow

my favorite local business: beatnik books. old roseville is sanctuary from suburbia. that's my latest haul on the counter, and my friend laura hiding.

red yarrow.

our favorite splash park. the red-tailed hawks and turkeys hang out here too. medicine wheel.

american river, auburn.

 a study of foothill wild flowers:

black hole/calcutta falls, auburn.

 so easy and quick with a smile

we had a going away party for my cousin stephanie. her family is moving to guam! :( i will miss her a lot. she's been my nearest relative since i moved to roseville, and i spent a lot of time with her when i needed a friend. she's the queen of glam.

carl, bonny, me. we get our poor eye sight from our mom. :)

little nieces on the front lawn. generally they include a hen in the party.

 prayer: good, good medicine in yosemite. 


i grew up going with my family every year. my mom would be sitting at the phone in january, on hold, waiting to get a camping reservation. she would give me the job of redialing until we got through (pre-internet days). now when january 14th rolls along something inside of me kicks in, and i wake up early the next morning to reserve online a few sites in the valley to take my own family, dreaming of summer.

 peers of mine have snubbed the park due to the crowds...solitude junkies i suppose.....to beat the crowds all you have to do is gain quite a bit of altitude along the walls of the stone valley and you'll find respite.  nothing could ever keep me away. how is it that i live so close to somewhere so utterly magical? it is my stone temple, the house of waterfalls and trees and granite people.

driving there is also my favorite. the southern foothills are stark, and hot, billowing heat from the golden hills. we drive into their heart, to the cool glacier carved statue of yosemite.

bridalveil falls

"oooooooooooo"

sacred geometry

familiar faces.

oh kiss me, i'd swoon! my dusk loving june, 

 my home. i know this place.

he doesn't recognize how earthy he is.

 the crickets are drunk on the season

a thunder storm rolls in, blowing around the warm air filled with the butterscotch scent of jeffery pines.

 a study of high sierra wildflowers:

sentinel dome to the left.

visiting our favorite tree friends.

the top!

medicine man.

 our littlest camper:

merced river, my favorite green water.

wild azaleas and rhodondren blooming in the valley.

the mother. our lullaby while we drift away to sleep in our tent.

 lovers and farmers rejoice when they hear your voice

 june is so good for all reasons

alive, so good. my folks, teddy, and two nieces headed up to vernal falls. hiking this is counted among my earliest of memories. i took tyler up here when we were falling for each other.

teddy is a billy goat.

a pilgrimage.

they call it the mist trail. falling water hits the house sized boulders below and constant spray hits the rocks. you get soaked. 

what you would look like if you grew beside a waterfall.

the top.

(same place, three years earlier with my bf.)

 a few thoughts on my parents, in 3 pictures:

my dad gets a drink.

my mom points out the spot where she swam across the top of the waterfall, decades earlier. she's quite proud of this tale.

this is how i know them best: hiking, resting.

the water falls, sweeping.

 i only want to say one thing: go and hike to the top of vernal falls. go. and do. and be. do it. be it. i promise you'll understand when you're done.

it feels so good to be here.....battery charger. i imagine muir, scrambling around, sitting with all of these beings without trails to follow. i think of the valley's first people, living in peace in the valley, protected by the granite parents.

steeeeep. my thigh is still crampy!

rollin' back home, stopping to get summer fruit along the way.

 june is here

and to me

it's clear

that things

will be good

for a while.