We were on the beach at the mouth of Big River and came upon these gulls making a big fuss about one of the gulls having a fish and the other gulls not having a fish. We didn’t see who caught the fish, and it may have been that the gull with the fish stole it from the gull who caught the fish. In any case, when the gull with the fish started eating the fish, two ravens arrived, more gulls came, chaos ensued, and we didn’t stay to see what happened because it was cold despite being a sunny morning and I hadn’t worn a jacket.
At dusk of late, a skunk comes walking across the deck, has a long drink from the white bowl full of water near our stone statue of Ganesh, and then he or she jumps into the trough in which I grow pink and yellow roses. Generally speaking, I don’t want skunks in my troughs and tubs where I grow things because they tend to dig things up in search of worms and make a mess. And in the case of my tubs and troughs where I grow vegetables, they dig up the plants. But in this case, the skunk eats sow bugs that proliferate in this particular tub, and I appreciate the excellent job he or she does ridding me and my roses of these voracious pests.
Every year for just a few weeks on one little section of cliff on the headlands south of the town of Mendocino, these magenta flowers appear. This is their actual color, and unlike the invasive ice plant that spreads everywhere and is an ecological scourge up and down the California coast, this variety hasn’t spread beyond this little section of cliff in the twenty years I’ve been walking here and actually keeps the cliff from eroding.
We’ve lived in our house on two acres near the town of Mendocino for thirteen or fourteen years now. For our first eight or nine years here we did not have any nasturtiums growing anywhere on the property. Then one day my friend JB sent me a little packet of nasturtium seeds from his nasturtiums and I planted them in my tubs and pots in which I grow roses, and I also planted a few seeds in one of my orchard tubs where I grow lettuce and radishes and sometimes potatoes. Now nasturtiums grow here year round, planting themselves exactly wherever they want to be.
I believe ravens enjoy posing for pictures.
Inside and outside, things happen.
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