Cue the bongos!

While in La Jolla, we stayed at a tiny house about a block away from a beach called Windansea. According to local lore, Windansea is a very famous surf locale, and has been in its share of surfer movies. Although fairly rocky in my non-surfer's estimation, there were always one or two surfers trying to catch a wave, no matter what time of day. Many of them were like this guy--can you sense the surf addiction vibe? He's gray-haired, his wetsuit is riddled with holes, the waves are stage one and the water temperature of the Pacific is probably in the sixties. No matter. He caught some, dude!

Say No More!

It frustrates me no end that I don't have the full story of how this family came to have two monkeys as part of their putative "coat of arms" bas relief tableaux. It's all just so improbable! I mean, I'm not sure monkeys had even been invented back in the days when knights roamed the woods and forests, plucking low-hanging plumes to stick in their helmets and dickering with large songbirds about the cost of appearing on their knightly shields.

Then I remember that this cosy cottage is in California, people. California. Innovators, all!Meaning they were waaaaay out in front of the rest of the country in everything, including the pot smoking/stoned architect department.

You dig?

Tidepool Seagrowth, Pink

What IS it with these photos of purple-y natural phenomena? First the frost photo (below)that has lingered at the top of the post list for weeks and weeks. And now--this thing (above). This is my favorite of all the three hundred pictures I shot while on a week's vacation in La Jolla. And it's true, one-third of those photos were of beached seals, mostly racked out in a truly impressive display of basking and lolling. And as such, most of those photos are amazingly boring. But this! This strange flower of the ocean! This crazy tidepool creature-harboring growth! This is pure excitement for a landlocked dweller like me. Check out the bubbles obligingly stationed at all four corners. Proof that this thing is really underwater.