Some cool things I saw today... (photo-essay)

Hello, my fellow Gatherers... I hope you had (if not a "great" day) a day free of major obstacles and frustrations...

It was a very "ordinary" kind of a day for me... I did have a few more errands to run and chores to do than usual, though, and, in my wanderings today, I saw some kind of cool things... Not what I would call "mouth-gaping amazing" things, really...  Just a few things that I thought were kind of neat...

But, you know, sights that I might think of as "familiar" and "ordinary" might not seem that way to some of YOU -- just as the everyday sights you see where YOU live just might seem amazing and remarkable to ME!

Unlike most of my photo-essays, this one doesn't really have a theme -- unless it's just "some cool things I saw today that I took photos of to share with YOU!" ;o)

It was "pay day" today so Hubby and I had to go down to our bank in Healdsburg (about 10 miles away) early this morning to get money out for groceries, rent and other bills. As we drove down the road, I noticed what looked like a "crack" in the early morning fog with sunlight streaming out of it as it hovered over the eastern hills:

I thought that was kind of cool looking... :o)

Right down the street from our bank in the little "Wine Country" town of Healdsburg, Sonoma County, Northern California is a meandering walkway that goes through the center of town along what used to be the railroad tracks... They're not used anymore but the town has installed quite a few sculptures along the length of the path...

Most of them are brightly colored, modernistic looking, large, "geometric" shapes but my very favorite one isn't like the others at all... It's a statue of a grazing horse that someone made out of all kinds of different pieces of metal "junk":

Can you see that his rib cage is made from the tines of 2 old pitchforks? And his back is actually the fender off an old, vintage truck -- like a Model T or something -- or, perhaps, an old motorcycle! His tail is some kind of wrapped metal cable that has been frayed out on one end to look like hair...

There's all kinds of odds and ends of old metal pieces used to make him... It's uncanny how the artist "captured" the essence of a real horse in the stance and demeanor of this work. Anyway, I think it's just wonderful and I thought you might enjoy seeing it, too! :o)

After I got done with the grocery shopping and some bill-paying errands, came back home and put all the groceries away, I walked down the driveway to do some watering in the vegetable garden...

As soon as I stepped outside my front door, I heard the little Anna's hummingbird making his "cricket-y" sounds at me from a nearby scrub oak tree... He's never very far away when I walk around outside... :o)

To me, his calls sound like "SNICK-er-SNACK! SNICK-er-SNACK!" in kind of "buzzy, cricket-y way... ;o)

I didn't have to wonder very long just WHAT it was that he was looking up at... Here it is:

... A mature red-tail hawk -- one of our resident mated pair, I would guess... (I featured one of their babies in a recent photo-essay...)

Down below the garden, the blackberry patch is just starting to get some ripe berries... I just love the gradients of colors in blackberries -- from the greenish red of the very immature berries to the garnet red of the slightly riper ones -- all the way to the deep, dark purple of the ripe berries...

I've actually used sprigs of ripening blackberries in flower arrangements -- hanging down from the rim of the vase... You can't beat the colors and they seem to lend to the entire arrangement a distinctly "Victorian flavor".  Besides -- nothing says "summer" more than the sight of ripening berries... (Well, not to ME, anyway! ;o) )

As I was walking back up the hill after watering all of the raised beds and the corn patch down at the veggie garden, I had to stop for a few moments to admire the sheer beauty of the sunset through the oak trees:

While most of the fires that were burning all around us here in Cloverdale have been contained over the last couple of days, there is still enough smoke in the atmosphere to lend a dramatic red color to the sunsets and I couldn't resist taking a couple of more shots of it:

Well... I hope I didn't bore you TOO much with my "ordinary, everyday things" today... Thanks for the company -- having friends around makes an "ordinary day" seem pretty special... :o)

luv,

jean