Here in Malibu
 
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May 31, 2013

The intern

intern

The unpaid intern up at the barn, on her afternoon break.

May 30, 2013

Ducklingslets!

Remember how these tiny guys:

ducklings grow (and vanish)


...became these little guys?

the ducklings grow

Well, now they're these big guys. Ducklets.


ducklets

May 29, 2013

Silvery start

wednesday morning

It's blue right now, blue and warm, but this morning, early, alone on the sand (well, except for a Tiny Labrador) it was cool and silvery and oh-so-very, very quiet.

May 28, 2013

The view from here this morning

Marine layer to the south of us but to the north, blue blue skies.

good morning, Malibu

May 27, 2013

And so it begins

foggy and rocky

Cloudy at the beach this morning, the marine layer doing it's annual May Gray thing.

It's the unofficial start of summer, and if Saturday and Sunday were any indicators, be prepared for plenty of traffic and lots of cops.

May 26, 2013

Baby coot

This is how it looks a lot of the time, the mother coot swimming, the baby racing along in her wake:

baby coot tries to keep up


But then she'll stop and do a bit of foraging:

mama coot and her baby


And with the baby's red-rimmed face the perfect target (to say nothing of that wide-open mouth), breakfast is served.

baby coot being fed

May 25, 2013

Signs of Saturday: Freezer cap

ball jar

I like to think about the previous life of this Ball jar, where it was first bought, what it held, how it was stored before it came to live in the many kitchens of a serial sea glass collector/mobile home remodeler.

May 24, 2013

Hello, coyote

Ever since the Springs Fire earlier this month, we've been seeing more coyotes.

coyote on mulholland highway


It could be the drought driving them down from the hills to drink from lakes and ponds and sprinklers (and to dine on well-fed cats and toy poodles) but it's also 28,000 acres worth of scorched habitat that has displaced who knows how many wild animals.

hello, coyote

Not an easy life.


May 23, 2013

Untouched

untouched

This one's from the archives, the beach at Paradise Cove.

May 22, 2013

This morning at in the lake

I'm not a fish person so to me, this is a little gross, but yeah, also amazing -- thousands of tiny catfish who just nibbled their way out of their sac and now have free run of the lake.

swirl of newborn catfish

Somewhere nearby is the papa catfish, who's the one who dug the nest, lured the female, then fertilized her eggs. AND, after all that, hung around as the eggs hatched, fanning them with his fins and tail to keep the sediment away and the oxygen flowing.

baby catfish


Who knew?


baby catfish, just born


newborn catfish, just hatched

May 21, 2013

Duckling update

These guys:

ducklings grow (and vanish)


Are now these guys.

What a difference a few weeks make.

the ducklings grow

May 20, 2013

At the lake today

First, a tiny nest of tiny birds inside the split of this tree. Finches, says the friend who found them. You can see the mother dart in and out with food, a streak seen from the corner of your eye. Get too close and stepawaystepaway -- an irresistible order issued from a branch above.

tiny birds nest in the tree


Next, this crazy mushroom, as big as a dinner plate, that grew overnight.

mushroom


And my favorite (well, until the nestlings show their little faces), a kayak at the lake, putting the scale of the slope behind it into perspective.

kayak at the lake


May 19, 2013

Feels like summer

HOT!

Hot for some today, breezy for others. Either way, we're lucky to live in California.

May 18, 2013

Signs of Saturday: Psychic reader

psychic reader

It looks as though the guy just paid the psychic reader on the Santa Monica pier for a peek into his future, right? But if you happened to wander close enough, what you'd have heard was the psychic reader complaining about traffic on the 405.

If that's the topic, then we're all psychics.

May 17, 2013

How about an update?

So I know it's been a bit terse around the blog lately, with shorter-than-usual (and that's really saying something) posts arriving late in the day. It's because of work, of course, and remodeling. Spring fever has a lot to do with it, as does an ailing 18-year-old cat.

This week, though, the blogular brevity is because of a landscaping project that's thisclose to being finished, and which I can't wait to show you (and yes, Melissa, there will be photos, LOTS of photos, and probably even another slide show) but for now, let's look at what happened almost the very instant the bed in front of the house was finished, a moment that made the whole long and sweaty job worth it.

Look -- a butterfly.

butterfly and coreopsis


coreopsis and friend


butterfly

May 16, 2013

Postcard from the edge

oh-malibu-vdt.jpg

Spectacular here yesterday, sea blue, sun gold, wind low and slow, easing through the grasses, part song, part sigh.

May 15, 2013

True confessions

It's painful to look at the garden these days, all weedy and seedy and, thanks to the work happening in the house, neglected.

poor garden


Even worse when you look back at the glory days:

new garden


barn garden


Le sigh.

May 14, 2013

Breakfast

egret

Rummaging in the fridge for a bite to eat.

(Is this turning into the bird blog?)

May 13, 2013

What the thermometer said

it's 90 degrees and Maisie's coping.

No matter how hard you squint, the thermometer here up at the barn reads 91 degrees. This is a little crazy, right?

May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day

If you've ever loved or cherished or protected or cared for another living thing, then Happy Mother's Day.


headed upstream

May 11, 2013

Signs of Saturday: Close call

scofflaw

For a heavenly half hour, the Tiny Labrador reveled in the deep, thick lawn (her favorite thing) of this pretty South Bay park, blissfully ignorant of the fact that not only was she unwelcome, getting caught would have wiped out every last penny of her college fund.

Let's not tell her.

May 10, 2013

Once upon a time...

Mmmmmmmmwah!


frog

May 9, 2013

Blue sky ceiling

For all of you before-and-after junkies who have been mercilessly filling my inbox with demands for even more renovation photos, here:

The bedroom before:

master br (that's eletrical panel in corner)



And during/after:

bedroom after/during

blue

Also, this:

master br door, closet door


closet after/during

Happy now?

May 8, 2013

The ducklings grow

Last week the ducklings looked like this, still small and round and cartoonish:

late last week


This morning they looked somehow more duck-like, their heads more mature, the markings more distinct.

the ducklings grow


And they're clearly getting plenty to eat:

chubby duckling


siblings

May 7, 2013

The beach here this morning

As the sunrise did this:

the sun


..the coastline did this:

smudged sunrise


The last of the storm clouds looked like this:

the beach this morning


And this:

clouds come apart


And my personal favorite -- this:

after the rain

May 6, 2013

The turtle spa

There's a hot spring that flows into the lake here in the hills:

hot springs



And it has an avid fan club:

turtles basking


That is to say, turtles.

the turtle spa


They're smiling, right?

happy turtles

May 5, 2013

It rained!

about to rain

About five minutes after getting this shot of the clouds gathering, it rained. So it was rain clouds that were gathering, and even though the shower lasted mere seconds, it was pretty great.

May 4, 2013

Signs of Saturday: Grand re-opening

The north Malibu Starbucks, housed for a while in a food truck, has moved into its renovated space. (And look -- even more construction tk.)

Starbucks -- re-opened


In other news, the sun rose.

fire sunrise


saturday sunrise


fiery light

May 3, 2013

The view from here

First, good local fire coverage from the Ventura County Star, which has amazing photos. Also, The Malibu Times and our local Patch site are posting frequent updates with breaking news from multiple sources.

Meanwhile, here in Malibu, the sun rose:

Friday sunrise


Hot and still and --

malibu-sunrise-day-two-springs-fire-vdt.jpg

...smokey.

smoky LA skyline


A swell rolled in:

little barrel


And to the north --

PCH closed - Springs Fire


...just beyond the county line:

Springs Fire closes PCH


PCH, shut down.

PCH closed at county line

May 2, 2013

Yep, it's paradise

sunrise

Paradise Cove. Sigh.

May 1, 2013

Duckling update

Of the 13 ducklings that hatched, four remain, a decent survival rate according to the intertubes. I keep hearing people say that snapping turtles eat the tiny birds, but the articles I found count coyotes, hawks, foxes and (sigh) herons as the main predators.

Here's the little family the other morning, doing a bit of cruising:

ducklings grow (and vanish)

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