December Views

Solstice hike - four large, very fresh, coyote poops on upper trail 3. Too fresh to be called scat. Fresh enough to make me look up and about, expecting to connect with eyes asking "Hey, what are you poking my poop for?"

One cedar sage still blooming.

December 31st hike - Drizzle overnight has made the lichens, moss, fungus and cyanobacteria come to life. These normally crispy dry things are fat with water and slippery. I swear I can see them jiggle with joy like tribbles or Santa's belly.

Nostoc -aka Gorilla Snot

Star-shaped fungus(?)

And then there are the mysteries - things gloriously appearing on the path, making me stop in my tracks and see things in a new light, like the beauty of light bent through the rain captured by agarita:

Or the intricacies of plumbing, brought on by this rare toiletflex sighting:

(Now how the hell did it get there?)

January 1 Haiku - my first haiku since 5th grade, I think. Brought on by reading a biography of Rumi and listening to the wind in the bare trees this morning, after a night of rain with not a breath of wind.
11 days after the solstice - 13 seconds longer each day.  I swear I can tell already.

wind whistling the trees
days longer now, but colder
already: promise