New Trail Review

We have been waiting for this new trail to open up to the public all winter. It is across the street from our favorite library, and we’ve been watching it being built bit by bit over the last few months. And then, a few weeks ago, we noticed the yellow tape was gone, so we ventured out and found this:

It is a trail that runs right alongside a pond! This whole trail starts in an area that is adjacent to the local golf course, which you can see only from the highway, so it is rather hidden away. I had no idea there was water down there! We saw ducks, and water fowl, and other local birds playing in the water. We hadn’t gone very far, though, when we heard a sound that is very familiar to us, because we have lived for a long time next to open space canyon areas. What do you think we heard?
. . .
coyotes!
! ! !
Yes folks, there are wild animals living in suburbia, and they aren’t your neighbors. An ambulance was going past on the surface streets, with it’s siren wailing. It woke them up, we think- it was kinda late in the day when we were there. Not too far ahead of us through the trees past the trail a whole pack of coyotes started barking and baying and yipping and howling. Right in front of us! Hmm… needless to say, it was a quick walk that day. We went back to the car and hightailed it out of there PDQ (that’s pretty-darn-quick for anyone who needs to know!) It will be a lovely walking trail in the months and years to come, but the wild life needs to get used to the idea of humans around, and time to find a new neighborhood for themselves, too!
P.S- We are pro-animal rights in our house, which is why we left the area rather than make a stink about it. The coyotes will find a new home soon enough.

Mother nature’s Furies

The fairies and I had to stay in this week, as Mother nature had a major hissy fit and knocked down some trees:

Our apartment complex is very picturesquely landscaped to look more like a woodland park than a soddy old apartment row. Unfortunately, a lot of the trees used are eucalyptus, which isn’t the most sturdy of trees in the best of situations. Add to that exposed root systems, decades long growth, and the extremely high winds around here wednsday, and well- some of them came crashing down. around my ears-

This one landed right outside my front door- about 10 minutes after I went out to get the mail! It took a while to come down, though, poor thing. Lots of creaking, cracking, groaning, and tearing sounds that had a lot of use peering fearfully out our windows, wondering just where was it going to land? It was a very tall tree that came down. Thankfully, a tree-trimming crew was already on the property. Some smaller branches were being shaken loose along the sidewalk out on the street, and another tree tried to fling its branches at me as I visited the mailbox, but it missed and I got away. I think that was a little pepper tree, it lost half its branches. This one tried for me too! At least, it felt that way when I saw how close it had come to the patio:

It was a sad day in the tree neighborhood, let me tell you. They finally ended up taking the whole tree out, it’s neighbor, and severely trimming three other trees in the area before they were done.

Then they came and ground down all the stumps. With a machine. A very LOUD machine. They were at it for hours. ick. So the fairies and I stayed in and worked on tables, which is lots more fun than dodging flying tree branches.
mini table top- isn’t it cute? I will show you the completed table at a later date- it’s not stained yet. I also think I may try and make it even smaller, the scale is a little off for my –ahem, our, taste. I’ve been informed that it would work maybe as a side table/banquet in the dining room, but it is certainly too big for the kitchen. Oh well, they do say practice makes perfect!