weofodthignen

It's basically flat here; streets slope almost imperceptibly towards the Bay. In a demonstration, a guy was inline-skating along the bike path on the street that runs beside the railway line, with an (ice) hockey stick, dribbling a rubber ball. Close enough to a rink.

I was reading yesterday's Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. That's one weird city. They're worried not enough people are using public transit, so they're doing things like having musicians with "strong social media followings" play live on ferries during the evening commute. That would drive me right to an alternative means of transportation. I can imagine people who don't share the booker's taste and who refuse to drive making creative use of drinks. Or blasting something very different. But the reporter acts as though this is a marvellous perk of buying a ferry ticket and says everybody was grooving. San Francisco.

Operation Mow the Meadows was executed. In front, the task was shortened by two huge areas of oxalis. I just went up to the edges.

Today was a pretty day, but with a chill wind. My laundry tossed merrily. Prudence came to cautiously watch me corral leaves, and got fed. Monty was snoozing on a neighbour's roof. The dog was happy to go for a real walkies.

I won't be doing Three for the Memories; didn't take many photos last year. But here are three from 2026.


Last week, Mama Violet resumed using the teddy bear on the porch as a throne.




Today, the library had storytime.




And the neighbours still have their street sapling decorated. Yes, it's growing in a traffic cone.

It was raining seriously when I got up; the newspaper was bagged, but was sitting in water, and when I came back with it, Mama Violet looked up from her scarfing but didn't bother withdrawing off the porch into the wet. It was raining when I took my morning walk: full gutters on every street, and one stretch of pavement/sidewalk was flooded to the point where I had to wade even after taking a couple of detours onto private property. I think the sun came out for 10 minutes. The bucket in the back porch is approaching half full. Last night the moon was shining through the clouds and I went out into the back garden and the tussocks of native grass were looming like islands; one of them looked 2 feet high. They will now be 3 feet.

No rain today until evening; I should have mowed the front meadow, but I did do some sweeping up of leaves (after the wind came up and shifted at least half of them for me). It was dry enough that Monty came out to watch me, and accepted food.

Apparently the storm a week ago was bad enough to do serious damage at the observatory on Mount Hamilton, above San Jose. I had no idea.

Forgot to report that it rained all day yesterday. Lightly, but almost continuously. The bucket got a third full. (I miss being able to see daily and cumulative totals ...) The bluebells are spearing through the soil next to the driveway.

It actually rained a little bit on us as we were walking to the park after lunch—that wasn't supposed to happen till tomorrow. Chilly, too; I think the dog only insisted on going out 4 times. And the mail carrier came by at breakfast time, obviously rushing to get the job over with so he could go home and warm up.

Almost all the tree debris from last week's storms has been cleared. Just a few palm fronds remain on private land, including one I moved so it didn't impinge on some very early narcissi in front of a car repair place.

There was a touch of frost on the clover this morning, but the nasturtiums seem to have been a bit protected by the tall fence. It was sunny most of the day; Monty was back sleeping on the neighbours' sloping roof, Prudence peeped at me from the roof of the other neighbours' shed, where they're trying to lure her into domesticity, and their mother ate all her breakfast and slept in the teddy bear's lap for a while. Meanwhile the dog wanted out again and again ...

Two more oranges fell overnight, one half-eaten and the other split almost in half on the tree. Both went to compost and I chose a replacement to pick.