how to spend the hovering-near-100-degree weekend

UC-Santa Cruz physics, day 2

I got more photos the second day. I love the front of the physics building but I love even more how UC-Santa Cruz groups their science buildings under the umbrella of interdisciplinary studies. The sciences form a semi-circle and you can go from one building to the next with only a few steps.

Inside, a Nobel Prize winner:

And a very very cool double pendulum:

This thing was capable of taking your hand off so I was gentle with it!

I took a walk to another science building but will share that wonderment next!

Back to UC-Santa Cruz

We spent three days here and I have so many photos to share. The library quickly became one of my favorite spaces on campus, though as you have already read, I loved it all.

Here's the walk to the library. The redwoods seem to gather in circles as if they are doing something sacred and important. I spent some time standing in the middle of the circles and soaking in their amazing energy.

These bridges are more beautiful than I have captured. I should have photographed the view off the bridge to reveal the forest floor and the path below. It is almost like there are two levels on this part of the campus - one above the forest floor and one on the floor itself.

The front of the library is stunning. You don't see the trees in this shot but they are everywhere around it, as if a building full of knowledge simply landed here and the trees stepped aside to let it be.

The space inside was the most inviting I've ever seen.

I spent some time here writing and reading and then I headed back to the student center to visit the bookstore. (Which had an entire section of fiction, very well stocked, and a wonderful collection of beautiful notebooks and blank journals - I was totally impressed.)

The student center was undergoing renovation but is very distinctive. I would love to go back and see it when they're done with the work.

Stay tuned for more. 

November Hill farm journal, 12

Three years ago we said goodbye to Salina on the same morning the 11-acre wood next door to us was clear cut. Two years ago we mourned the timbering of a large section of the 100-acre wood behind us.

Now when I hear the scream of the cutting machines I feel the loss like an old bruise that still aches when pressed upon.

I heard those sounds this morning and they have gone on throughout the day.

Friday I found pink tape marking the property line at the back edge of our farm. I contacted the real estate agent who has the listing for the 100-acre wood and said again that we would be interested in acquiring a small parcel that would clean up the property lines and give us a buffer zone and a little additional acreage.

This time they offered to take our interest to the owner. There was no mention of logging so I figured it was the hunters who sub-lease the land who had put up the tape, marking their territory in advance of deer season.

I've emailed again today to check in but meanwhile I'm cringing every time a huge old tree hits the ground.

The land seems so precious to us and the trees equally so. 

This morning one of the red-shouldered hawks who lives at the edge of the 100-acre wood came and sat on a fence post and gazed in my bedroom window. It felt like he was asking me to come handle this travesty and I wish there was something I could do.

They have lowered the price of the 100-acre wood to 900k. I hope they realize that the more trees they cut the less likely it is that anyone wants to buy it.

I'm putting up walls of white light around November Hill, and, in spite of myself, beams of Edward Abbey fury are aimed at those screaming machines. 

We have a birthday on November Hill!

Rafer Johnson is our midsummer night's dream birthday boy and he is 9 years old today. It seems like yesterday that he came to live with us, but he's been with us through many moments of joy, laughter, and a few trials and tribulations as well.

Rafer broke his leg when he was a year and a half old and his speedy and complete recovery here on November Hill taught me so much about how caring for equines to keep them happy so healing is easier.

Rafer was the donkey who would bring the hoof pick to me and request that his hooves be cleaned. He would follow my daughter over jumps on the pony in the arena. He has tried to lunge the pony with the lunge whip, often stands in the middle of the arena and gives me lessons when I ride Keil Bay, sometimes tips my mounting block over while I'm riding as a joke, and turns the lights on in the barn if he gets tired of the dark.

He became Salina's best buddy almost instantly but he's also a good friend to each of our equines. Now that Salina is gone Rafer and the pony have become very close. 

Rafer stood by Salina in her feisty years with us as well as the years she began to slow down and decline. The last year and a half of her life she would sometimes get down and be unable to get up without our help, and Rafer (and Redford too) would stand on either side of her and bray to let us know we needed to come out and help her.

When she needed to stay near the barn he stayed with her. If she called he came. And when she finally went down one final time and we knew she just didn't have it in her to get up again, he touched her nose and then he went with Redford to the front field to join the geldings while we said goodbye.

He came back when she was gone to say goodbye again and then he turned to me and put his head up on my chest and gazed into my eyes. It was the purest expression of grief and love I have ever seen.

Rafer stood by her grave on a regular basis over the next few months. Not so much in mourning but in the way that felt like he was visiting with her for a bit. I let her halter hang on the hook for over a year after she left us. Rafer would on occasion take it down and walk around with it. I know he misses her. 

I always said that Salina was the heartbeat of November Hill and when she passed away I believe Rafer took on that role for her. He's a very special guy and we love him dearly.

Happy birthday, Rafer Johnson! We'll have a party this afternoon and get your birthday portrait then.