Living In The Clouds

We got 8 inches of rain in two days. My cabin is on fairly flat ground (pretty rare around here) and I sit on bedrock (fingers and toes crossed that I'm not jinxing myself) so my biggest danger now is falling trees. Even after the rain stops, the ground is still saturated and prone to slippage. Santa Cruz County has been added to Ah-nolds Emergency Declaration. One of the 17 Santa Cruz homes mentioned in that article (near the bottom) includes a Boulder Creek home less than 1/2 mile from me. This picture, which I copied from Boulder Creek dot com shows the mists and clouds in the trees that are common up here during and after rain.

On days like today, I wonder if this is what it is like to live in the clouds? If so, I do find it pleasing. The creek is lower than it has been for several days. However, the weather dude says showers this afternoon, rain tomorrow afternoon and a cold rain Sunday. I like rain. I love living in a temperate rain forest, surrounded by redwoods, ferns, moss and ducks. I just checked my rain gauge out on the deck. I've gotten 72-3/4 inches so far this year. Last year I got 68-3/4 inches. With more rain to come. More records to be broken; March had more rain days than previous Marchs and April looks to be on the same record-breaking track.

Now that I'm retired, I love the rain. I used to seriously dislike pretending to be a traffic signal, at night, during a power failure, in the rain, standing in a circle of lit flares, hoping the drivers of the cars could see me. Glad those days are behind me. Now, I enjoy the rain, sitting in my little cabin on the creek in the redwoods.

I was standing on my deck this morning, sipping my coffee, watching our local ducks in the creek and river. The she-duck was with just one of her male consorts today. Ms. Duck must be quite a hottie in the duck world as she usually has a following of 3 to 4 males with her. As much as I like watching them swim up or down stream, it is breath-takingly beautiful watching them flying just above the water. I've never seen a duck fly from above until moving here. The ducks like to hang out in the pool beneath the wood bridge. That is also where the steelhead come to spawn. Next winter, I'll try to get pictures of at least one of the spawning steelhead. There was not as many this winter as last. I hope that is not a sign of bad things to come.

Last winter, I walked alongside the creek from the river until our beach ends just before the south end of my deck, keeping pace with a steelhead headed upstream to the bridge to spawn. So determined! Most of the time, the creek flows with a lot less water and there are several ledges of bedrock that create small waterfalls they must jump. Additionally, the creek runs fast due to the degree of slope from the bridge to the river - all uphill to the steelhead.

Found this cute little The Anagam Generator while surfing. It's fun! From the site:

"Did you know that rearranging the letters of "George Bush" gives "He bugs Gore", "Madonna Louise Ciccone" gives "Occasional nude income" and "William Shakespeare", "I am a weakish speller"??! Now you can find what lurks within the letters of YOUR name, and that of your boss, employer or anything else you want! "