Going Solo

So I have some really good news I’ve been sitting on for a few days, just letting it percolate. I’ve been invited to have a solo show in the VALYA gallery at Visions Art Museum next July. It’s the smaller gallery space in the back and there will be another show (which sounds cool too) in the front. I will be making some new work and using some already-made work as well…as I get closer to the date, I’ll hopefully figure out what that might look like! As I’m sitting here with three quilts ahead of anything for that…

But I’m excited! My first solo show and in Visions…it’s a good thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood in that gallery and imagined my work up on the walls (and I’ve had plenty of pieces in there, but never more than one at a time). So expect to see some work coming for that…and because of the timing with Comi-Con, you might see some of this…

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Or this, minus the lame costume. Really I just want to use Bif, Bam, and Pow in a quilt or two.

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With my own take on superheroes maybe. We’ll see. I’ve got months to think about it.

Meanwhile, yesterday was no art, just work…and then a hike that seriously kicked my butt. We did Mt. Woodson, but went up the back way, via the Fry-Koegel trail. We picked it because we knew it was going to be hot most of the week, and the kids are working Friday, and this has mostly shade going for the first two miles. We left around 6:15 PM and the heat was intense for me. I don’t do heat well, being pale-faced Northern European, and my legs were like wooden blocks for miles 3 and 4. But I did it.

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We missed sunset on top…we were about 20-30 minutes too early, but that was better than hiking down in the dark. I think. Maybe.

It was still beautiful, even if it kicked my ass. I taped up the blister really well and it didn’t get worse (it’s not healing particularly quickly, but probably hiking before it healed was not the best thing for it!). We won’t hike again probably until next week…maybe a short one with the dogs…but that’s not too bad.

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This is finally on the way down the front of the mountain. There were about 17 lizards on this rock, so the girlchild was checking the warmth…

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Yup. She’s a lizard-in-training.

OK, back to copyediting so I can get this chapter out of my hair and continue with ironing and maybe drawing for the next one. Ha! Crazy. It’s because as July approaches, I feel school looming…especially this year, it seems an incredibly early start. Trying not to think about it. Too much to do…

Today’s Word: Iron

I’m barely functional this morning. The dogs were up early and hyper, ready to play before 6 AM. I’m never ready to play that early. I’m not playing until they learn to bring me a cup of tea and let me sleep a full 6 hours at least. Not happening.

So now I’m sitting here nursing a headache and my first cup of tea after trying to go back to sleep and flailing massively. Birds are too damn loud, dogs barking, Kitten trying to headbutt her way into getting me up to feed her. I did feed the dogs. I’m sure it seems unfair.

I did get to the ironing stage yesterday though…I cleaned up, put all the fabric away, and hung up the giant-ass drawing so I could see what I was ironing.

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It’s people-sized. Seriously. It’s 64″ tall…and so am I…on a good day.

Here’s all the stupid fusible web that released. Yes. I am a little OCD about my pieces…

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You can see all the shapes this way. It makes it easy to figure out what’s what. For instance, I know that the piece that is 4 from the right side, up three pieces, is in the 1600s. I can’t remember what they are, but they’re all in the 1600s. Ahh…this is what the drawing is for…it’s part of the snake wrapped around her arm.

Then I laid out the first 100 pieces, which are mostly big because they’re part of the earth at the bottom of the drawing…

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I ironed some and then (ironically) we went and hiked Iron Mountain.

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Really, that wasn’t on purpose. And no, I didn’t try to put the mountain in the sign on top of the real mountain, because if I’d waited any longer to take the photo, you’d have the version where my son is flipping me off because he doesn’t like his photo taken. And it’s been much cooler the last two days…so the high-heat advisory? Maybe over.

We aimed to get to the top by sunset, but we also forgot the headlamps. You know, the ones we checked earlier in the afternoon to make sure the batteries were OK. So that was kinda stupid.

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The purple flowers were beautiful. Julie will know what they are.

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Sunset was a little marine-layer-affected, but it was nice anyway.

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Then we headed back down in the dark and didn’t have dinner until 10 PM. Not necessarily the best plan, but whatever. It was a good hike, although for the first time in 3 months, my boots gave me heel blisters. I don’t know why. Annoying.

Then I eventually got my tired butt up off the couch and ironed some more…while watching Longmire. Those are the fabrics I’ve used so far…

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I did the earth and the mountains, but not the volcano. I didn’t even get 100 pieces ironed…

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Which is fine. I’ll get more done today. Although I have to go to a meeting first. And to the gym at some point, probably later. I do better at the gym at night. Anyway, I’m getting art stuff done…that’s a good thing.

Weighing in…on…

So I’ve had a few days to process all the crazy around the shooting in Orlando. I think it’s true that we have now seen so much gun violence and gender and racial hatred, and we’ve seen so little change in our policies, that it’s hard to even say anything, to even think…well what DOES need to change and HOW do we make it change, when we so obviously can’t even agree that a huge part of the problem is the gun itself and access to it, and the other huge problem is how much hate there is in our country. And there’s one presidential candidate who seems to be making that intensely worse. It’s hard to have any hope when you’re staring at all of that. My students were asking me who I voted for in the primaries, and I won’t tell them, but I do tell them that if Trump is elected, me and all my smart women friends will be in an internment camp (I read that somewhere)…because the likes of the Donald doesn’t like women who say no or argue. Hell, I’ve been around men like that in my life. One was a boss. That was a hard few years.

Anyway. It’s weighing on me, as I’m sure it’s weighing on many of you. I don’t see an easy solution as long as people are convinced weapons are necessary to their safety. And that a religion they don’t understand is at fault…I am amused at the anti-Muslim sentiment from people who are also anti-gay. You hate both? And yet you use the deaths of one group to try to oust the other? Fear is such an ugly stupid thing.

So yeah. Trying to survive the last few days of school with all that…and yeah, we will be talking about that and Brock the Rapist and consent during sex ed this week.

Meanwhile, hiking seems a good solution to the feeling and stress parts…we’re down to one car and it’s not particularly large, but we piled three dogs and three adults into it…then Simba tried to tie up the boychild.

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This is one I haven’t done in a while, Old Sweetwater Bridge…because I think of it as a mostly flat and not very long trail.

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There’s been a lot of water this year, so there are new plants…

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And eventually, they showed me the hilly part, which I didn’t know was there. We came in through that river valley. So now I have another hike to add to the local within-a-5-minute-drive options…

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They’ve gone in and fixed trails and added signage in the last year or so, which is why it’s easier to find existing real trails that don’t just wander off into the side of a hill.

Coming back, dogs were tired and hot…so were we…

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But it really does help clear the brain.

Grades were apparently due yesterday (it’s always Tuesday except when it’s not!)…and everything is done except for one kid, who may show up with stuff today. This morning hopefully…

I traced the small owl onto Wonder Under…

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Then I cut out Wonder Under pieces for the big quilt while we watched Deadpool as a family. It was just as good the second time around.

Simba as a neck warmer…

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He is a very lovey dog, when he’s not trying to bite you. Still working on that part of the training.

OK. Maybe a drawing will come out of the other stuff…not that it solves anything except the chaos in my brain. Still working on the other part of the solution. Because Australia’s version isn’t staring us in the face or anything. Sigh.

I Need a Demonologist

I needed to get outside and walk hard, hike fast yesterday. So I did. With the dog. I had to wait for temperatures to go down below 90 first though, but it’s a crapshoot, because some hikes I don’t want to finish after dark. I wanted to be out out out, nowhere near houses if I could pull it off, far away from people. We had to drive a little, but then it was three miles with only one old guy and his old dog, who wanted to beat us up but couldn’t move fast enough to pull it off (arthritis), and then an old guy on a bike. And a dead snake…in pieces. But otherwise, nothing but bugs and plants and birds and clearing your mind and breathing in the dust and walking it off. Cuz you can walk a whole day off, you know. Harder to walk a whole week off, but a day? No problem.

Wilderness refuge near my house. It was still warm out, 86 degrees at 6 PM, but there was a nice breeze. Good pace. Tired the dog out too.

Then I made dinner, spaced out for a bit with a book, graded some assignments I needed to get out of the way, and then communed a bit with animals. They all followed me into the living room. Mommy! Mommy!

Pet the dog and the cats. Kitten settles down into her favorite place. On the drawing.

And the brain just spilled. Oh yeah, you’ve seen the eye in the uterus thing before…in the last quilt. The REAL third eye, the all-seeing one. The one that rules the woman’s roost.

I pushed and pulled and the drawing ended up still being under Kitten. I started on trying to fit a crane around an elbow. I look at pictures and try to imagine how to move the wings and feathers around where I need them to be. Kitten starts flicking her tail in the middle of where I’m drawing and that’s it. I poke at her until she leaves. Petulant beast.

I made it work, turn the corner. Then drew the hand and some pine-tree-like things on there. You can see I don’t have much left…just the main torso and it already has a bunch of stuff on it.

Closeup of the arm.

So I need to connect the arm to the shoulder with something and then do the rest of the torso. It’s going well. Peaceful brain.

This is from last night’s grading, where a student suggested a demonologist to test lung function.

I laughed a lot. A LOT. Because you’ll take anything humorous at this time of the year. Anything. Calling a demonologist to take care of my class.

More drawing tonight, although there’s always grading and I think I have to write a test. Not sure what I’m drawing next anyway, so it’s OK to let the brain percolate for a while. Like all day. I didn’t start drawing last night until 10:30 or so. I’m about 8 1/2 hours into this drawing. It’s time-consuming, but good. I write about the hours because I want people to get that it takes a long time to make art and even if some of it is standing around, staring at the piece, it’s still part of the making. I know some people can just whip stuff out, but I’m not one of them. This is big and complicated. But I think it will be worth it.

Running Away to Anza Borrego…

So I’m back. A short trip to the Anza Borrego desert, only one night of camping (honestly, with the wind trying to pick the tent up, I’m glad we only had to deal with it for one night. Vacation shouldn’t be sleep-deprived.). We saw about a million metal sculptures by Ricardo Breceda…OK, there are apparently only 130 of them, but we saw all of them.

I liked the dinosaurs best…especially the ones where you had to drive way the heck out into the desert to see them. This post is photo-heavy…mostly a picture journal of the trip. The wildflowers were apparently “gone”, but there were plenty of things blooming for me…

I took photos of almost every sculpture we saw, but some of them were definitely better than others. I was amused by the eyelashes…Brecedo definitely likes eyelashes…

Harvester ant holes…we didn’t actually see a lot of wildlife. Even birds were absent the first day, mostly probably because of the crazy winds.

The dinos I liked the best were way off the road. We didn’t see many people out here. This is a newer one…he hasn’t rusted much.

After a while, they all look like they’re dancing.

Teeth abound…

It’s actually a little frightening seeing these guys and thinking about them wandering around…

Humans would not have survived, I think.

You look tasty, my dear.

These guys were wobbling in the wind. Then again, the bursts were pretty strong.

Definitely all about the teeth.

More flowers…I missed the pink cactus. Never remembered to stop for those.

The details on the skin/hide were kind of amazing.

And all the pieces of metal. Breceda wasn’t an artist until his daughter asked for a T Rex.

Ocotillos were in bloom all over the place.

This thing had a name. Most of his creatures are prehistoric, although honestly, there’s one group that wasn’t on the maps, and we’re pretty sure they’re made up things.

Yup. I brought someone to conquer the angry beasts.

That cloud stayed until sometime in the middle of the night. The winds above must have been competing for air space.

The scorpion…that reminds me…Yup. Scorpions have two eyes on top and 2-5 pairs along the sides. Yick.

So this thing. Not on the map. Big curved claws. Carries its young. Furry as heck. Looks like a cross between a beaver and…something.

Here’s one who fell over…

Making shit up. Don’t know what that is.

The famous serpent, which goes across the road. Awesome. Need that for my yard.

Llama with serpent in background…

Indian Head right near the opening to Indian Head trail.

The caterpillars were around…some much bigger than others. The wildflowers come, then the caterpillars try to eat them all, and then the Swainson’s hawks migrate here to eat the caterpillars. More on the hawks later…

One of the few furry beasts we saw…HUGE ears. The rest we saw were dogs. On leashes.

I swear they’re dancing…

These guys were up a road that was misnamed on the map…

The tortoises were all a little feisty too…

Peccary with babies…

An entire wash of bighorn sheep…which was nice, because we didn’t see any in real life unfortunately.

The wind is still scattering the clouds.

An ironic metal saguaro in the middle of the desert without saguaro.

We were sure it was a cutout from a distance, but it was in fact 3D when we got there…

A ha! A hawk! So we headed out to one of the hawk counting areas and saw a kettle of hawks scared off the ground by three coyotes. These hawks migrate from Argentina to Canada…

There’s the kettle settling back down after being scared up.

I’d never seen so many hawks in one place…over 60 of them flying together.

Camping in the high winds…the ice chest kept the tent from taking off.

The campground was nice and quiet, despite quite a few children. There are bathrooms and showers and running water, and even shelters over the tables. Definitely a nice place to hang out.

The next morning, we were tired from the windy-night’s sleep (or lack thereof), but planned a hike up into Borrego Palm Canyon.

It wasn’t a long hike, but there was some chance of seeing bighorn sheep, plus it was supposed to be pretty. And it was.

It was a bit warm, but bearable.

A stiff breeze (and sometimes serious wind) dried off the sweat as we hiked.

There were plenty of flowers still around.

But the wash was dry…at least down here it was.

As we went up the canyon, there was water. It must go underground at some point.

Still no sign of sheep, but I caught this guy in a photo…

The palms grow naturally here…

When we got to the oasis, there were about 100 6th graders there eating lunch. Wow. So get the hell outta there before they leave! They probably scared off all the sheep.

We’ll have to come back to see them (the sheep. Not the 6th graders).

We took an alternate route down and promptly got lost and were wandering through the wash.

A quail led us back home (not really).

After a change of clothes, some food and drink, and a relatively easy ride home, I took my second shower of the day and fell promptly asleep on the couch. The dog woke me up for her dinner. Mine was a piece of toast. So not motivated to cook!

I couldn’t find my brain for the rest of the night, so I just messed around with the wool projects I have lying around. Tried to organize them and cut stuff out so that I could sew things down, but never found the energy to actually sew.

It was a good, albeit short trip. Maybe there’s a longer one in my future. Who knows? Meanwhile, I have plenty of work to get done here, if I can just get my brain to come online. I’m in recovery mode…

Mt Woodson: The Fungal Trail

So no art was made yesterday. It happens. About one day every two weeks, I do nothing artistic. No Thing. Yup. Used to be, I’d go weeks without touching art stuff, but I don’t function that way any more. Yesterday I worked and I hung out with friends and I hiked with my kids. That’s not a bad day. If it were just work and nothing else, I’d be upset.

So my vacation is essentially over. I didn’t grade everything. In fact, I need to get one batch of science journals done before Monday no matter what, and I really should finish that assignment that’s kicking my ass. But otherwise, I did pretty well. That said, I am not well-rested and relaxed. It’s been a stressful break…too much to do, too much on my plate, too many things to worry about. But that’s just the way it is sometimes. There are still 8 things on the post-it, but I can’t do anything about many of them. I’m in wait mode. Or I need materials.

I also made some progress on the Grossmont show prep…figured out what quilts needed dowels or slats, made a list…heading over to Home Debit later today. Then I’ll need to start the long process of ironing and dehairing each quilt. Girlchild leaves on Tuesday. Maybe she’ll finish washing her dishes and putting them in the dishwasher by then, but it seems unlikely. I’ve asked three or four times now. So yeah. I love her. I really do. Boychild is stuck here for another two weeks…he’s looking forward to having access to the car and going on longer hikes than we do. Whatever.

So speaking of hikes, I’d never done Mt. Woodson…not sure why, except everyone seemed to say it was hard. And I won’t say parts of it weren’t difficult, because I’m not in good shape at the moment, but I did it. And I was a little nervous about it, but that’s how I get over that. I tell the kids we’re doing it and then we do it and I know I can do it, and that’s the end of it. Easy.

I also wanted to see the infamous Potato Chip Rock after seeing it posted on a million hiking pages. We started on the service road off the 67…one of many places to start this hike (we debated all of them).

The road was relatively well-maintained. There’s Woodson in the background.

The problem with roads is that cars drive them, and cars don’t always need switchbacks. So it was uphill. A lot of uphill. A 1200′ gain in 2 miles, apparently. Somewhat painful for the old lady. But a beautiful day…

Not too hot. A little chilly.

And beautiful views for miles.

The mountain has boulders all over it, plus lots of instances of nature having its way with big rocks.

Roots traveling all the way down…where there are dirt and water, the trees will find a way.

Lots of butt rocks.

Oh yeah. That’s a butt.

A view of the valley to the east…nice to see blue skies after four days of rain.

And way down there, the road where the car is parked.

More views, this to the northeast.

Interesting rock formations…

And an antenna farm at the top…

Boychild had a doggie friend for a while (his owners were behind us, then in front of us, then behind us).

There were a reasonable number of people going up this route. It was a weekday, but not all of us were back to work.

I’m actually fascinated by towers.

All the weird shapes and protrusions…

Then we headed down the other side, towards the west.

To Potato Chip Rock. It’s been there for years and everyone (except us) gets their picture on it. In fact, one of my teacher friends was there yesterday and had her picture taken with her dog on it. Me and the kids? We agreed there was no way in fucking hell we were standing on that. Because it would break.

There was a line for it…probably the shortest one ever (only 10 or 15 people). But still. Not doing it.

We headed out the ridge towards Poway. There’s another entrance at Lake Poway.

There’s the view to the south, with that tall peak near the middle being Iron Mountain, the one we hiked right before Christmas.

Standing on rocks…

And then we went northeast on the Old Fry-Koegel trail, where we delightfully saw no one the whole way back. We did nickname this section The Fungal Trail though, because of all the fungus we saw. Though this is moss. A plant. In case you didn’t know that.

But damn, that’s some fungus.

There were many yellow and white and brown versions…

Looking back up at Mt. Woodson from the north side.

This trail was nice. Not too up and down, although probably would seem like a lot of up if we went up that way. Can’t decide which would be worse.

More fun fungal things…

And cracked rocks…

Too early in the season for true spring flowers…

Lots of shade and a true trail…not a road. The mud wasn’t too bad, considering the amount of water that fell this week.

Another clump o’ fungi…

I’m not even showing you all of them.

This tree was burned up the middle, but still very much alive.

Signs were helpful. We had a map and a compass and a hiking app, but didn’t really need them for directions.

The fires a few years back definitely left their mark. And there were a few tree parts down over the trail.

We walked through this beautiful oak grove…

Gorgeous trees…and poison oak.

Just under 6 miles with 1200′ of gain. It took us just under 2 1/2 hours. Pretty good for being out of shape. And now I know I can do it. I’d like to try up Fry-Koegel and maybe the Lake Poway version as well. Next time.

I had found some smaller quilts when I was pulling stuff for the Grossmont show. I did the journal quilt thing back in 2005 or so. Got some of them into the book. Not sure where all of them are, but here’s a few things that will probably go up on Etsy in the next few days.

Maybe. And maybe I’ll get ready for school too. And start working on the next quilt, before days have gone by. Aack. Too much to do. Always. Ugh. It’s true I hate being bored, but there’s a fine line between not bored and overwhelmed. This does seem to be my existence. Oh if only I were a normal person who didn’t come home from work every day and try to figure out how to make more art. Just sitting and relaxing does not seem to be in my toolbox. And that’s probably OK.

Hiking for the Holidays…

Officially Christmas Eve here. Still got lots to do, although got through a bunch of cookie making yesterday. Just a little bit left for today, plus a breakfast casserole, but after two grocery stores last night, we’re still short a couple of ingredients. I’ll be leaving here in a bit on a search for those. We also did a 6-mile hike yesterday…with a late start, so a late finish…but Iron Mountain was conquered. I haven’t been hiking much…haven’t been able to find the time and energy, so it was not an easy hike for me, but I did it. Slowly. My fastest time up the mountain was 50 minutes, and it took 70 yesterday, but I did it…with the kids. Boychild out in front, long legs and all.

It was a bit chilly, although I did wear shorts (it’s San Diego in December after all) and stayed warm enough. It had rained the whole day before, so there was mud and water…even streams, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen on this hike.

Girlchild claimed this as her favorite pile of rocks…

The rocks and mud change colors as you move around the mountain. Plenty of puddles to miss…

Lots of long-range views, even with the clouds…this is to the east.

With the west looking much more ominous.

No more rain for a while though, apparently.

No pictures of artmaking. Maybe tomorrow. I have stuff I’m working on…it’s just not in pictures yet. Have to deal with all the family and holiday stuff first. I was actually worried yesterday that this was somehow a strange year, not getting anything done, but then I looked back at previous years (I do this a lot…my blog actually helps me remember that it’s ALWAYS like this) and realized the days between the end of school and Christmas Eve are notoriously bad for artmaking or anything but chaos, so I should stop beating myself up about it. I do often get a lot done on Christmas Eve and Day, though, once everything else is out of the way.

I really just want some quiet time, I think. Ironic since that’s what I hate most of the rest of the year! Ah well. Live and learn. Gonna get my act together and try to survive today. Best wishes to all of you doing the same.

Hiking Crestridge

In keeping with my attempts to hike once a week with the kids, we picked a last-minute evening hike on Monday night at the Crestridge Ecological Reserve, out here in East County. Both kids claim to have been in the main area of the reserve in elementary school, but they didn’t remember much…

And we were fully prepared to identify any badger that presented itself…

There was a little bit of rainfall that hadn’t been checked since our weekend storm…

And the visitor center was open…

Complete with mosaic lizard? Alligator? Lizard is native. Gator is not.

We had a crude map and a warning that the trail was not well marked.

The beginning of the hike is in a beautiful old oak grove…

The fire missed this part…

Girlchild is Queen of the Mountain (of rocks)…

The fire road was easy to follow, but we missed most of the trails shooting off of it.

The surrounding mountains were beautiful as always. It hasn’t been too hot yet this summer, but we’ve had a few storms and all the nasty humidity we Southern Californians can’t stand.

To the right was all private property, mostly avocados…

We left a bit late, so we didn’t have more than two hours.

The walk wasn’t particularly difficult.

And I set my app to keep track of mileage for once.

Anthills…

The kids walk faster than I do usually.

The trail dips down into trees every once in a while and then runs up along a ridge. The crows (ravens?) were stalking us…

Hanging out in murders or alone…

The skies got cloudier and darker…

The kids got further apart…

Here’s Julie’s plant of the week to identify…this is the same one I saw near the water in Hollenbeck Canyon.

More crows…

And poison oak, easy to see when it’s this color…

Girlchild asks why I take so many pictures and I try to explain that I like to document where I’ve been and what I’ve seen…

She has a million posed pictures of her friends and I have trees…and this bird. Either a juvenile hawk or one of the other raptors…

Smaller than the crows though. At some point, the girlchild tried to keep up with the boys’ stride…not really fair since he’s significantly taller.

We kept wondering when it would turn back east…the trail, that is…

There were some rock piles here…

Somewhat obsessively…

A quartz collective…

A sign to nowhere (this is the section that had been through one of the last two fires…

This is about where we decided we might not make it back if we kept going…

So we didn’t do the trail properly…means we’ll have to go back a little earlier in the day…

We went back much quicker…and actually saw other humans on the trail…

And the sun started to go down…

A crow feather issue (could be a raven)…

And the sun went down.

Almost 5 miles in about 2 hr and 45 min. I had all these photos uploaded early Thursday morning, in case I felt well enough yesterday to post from the hospital. But I didn’t. I’m home today and doing OK, despite an allergic reaction to one of the meds. It just adds Benadryl to the spacy mix. I’m not getting much done today except sitting around, half-napping, and doing a tiny bit of sewing wool bits together. Lots of TV. I’m hoping after a day or two of this, standing for some period of time beyond the 4-5 minutes I can handle now will be possible. We’ll see. I don’t know if I’ll be hiking next week though…maybe just in my head.

Relaxation…the Workaholic Way…

So relaxation does not come easy to me. If it’s “vacation,” I tend to be doing just as much if not more than I do during the work year. I’m a workaholic. I do vacation the same way. With the foot injury and recovering from pneumonia way way back in February, I’ve really been trying to get back on track with my exercise plan, which has included trying to hike with the kids once a week and get back into going back to the gym. I’m also continuing to try to make art every day, which is a LOT easier if you don’t have to grade papers every night.

So I managed yesterday morning to clean a floor (kick the dogs out!) and then lay out a quilt on it and pinbaste the beast…

It’s actually quite small for me, supposed to finish at 18×40″. Teensy. I managed the pinbasting before the dogs broke through the screen door to get back in the house, and more importantly, lie all over the floor and detach their hair upon it.

I also stitched down the handy boob from last night…need to figure out what next on it.

Then the boychild and I set out upon a hike…It was supposed to be about 6 miles, but I think the boychild added a mile and a half onto it. The first part was what I expected…this is Hollenbeck Canyon Trail out near Jamul…

Although I’d never seen these flowers before…

There was still a little water left in the canyon…

And the only geocache I can keep in my memory banks was still there…

But then we had a divergence of opinion (I was right). Boychild wanted to take this path, which is not actually the trail that’s on the official map. OK. I’ve done this trail before. I remember the bitchy hill at the end of it.

Here’s the beginning of it. No matter what on this trail, there is a bitchy hill…

You can choose this one or the other one. This path is longer, but I don’t think the hill is worse.

Notice he’s way ahead of me. Mom gets tired on the hills. Can’t breathe. So I stop and look back and take photos of the looming thunder clouds (no rain for us).

And he waits for me at the top. I actually picked this trail because there wasn’t a lot of having to wait for mom. So normally, we would now take THIS trail…down. Into the back end of the hike. But no…

He wants to take that one. Hell. That’s not on the map at all, dear heart. It’s not.

But I’m a good sport and he seems to think he’s done this before (he has).

But instead of heading north and then west to catch up with the other trail, it seems to be heading northeast. Like away. Hmnn. There’s a bird nest up in there.

Probably hawk or turkey vulture. So below, way far in the distance, is the trail we should be on. I just printed the map and I think we did an extra two miles on that section…

He’s going to argue it was less. Oh well. Eventually, after traipsing through poison oak and shady groves, we met up with the normal trail, a lovely walk through oak groves.

And this. Fenced off…marked with signs that it’s a wildlife special place (I’m sure there were more official words than that)…

And I’m betting this is a motion-sensor camera (which recorded me and the boychild making faces at it)…planted right in front of the water.

Very strange. More walking, as we consider when the sun will go down and whether boychild allotted time for his mother’s tiredness and short legs (he did it in 3 hours with a few walkbacks)…

Bug analysis…

Lots and lots of ants and their holes…I’m sure I killed hundreds of them by walking on them.

Long vistas with the marine layer coming in (a sign that night is near)…

These funky dead flowers…

And vistas worthy of a little home on a prairie apparently…

It was beautiful, and this little old lady did it (whatever IT is, 7 miles? 8?) in 2 hours and 40 minutes. With an ankle brace. Suck THAT.

Yeah. I know. I have issues.

So then I came home and actually was able to quilt after that…

No, I don’t know how. I just did. I didn’t do a whole lot, but I got started on the quilting, on the outlining. I think I’m up to the torso at this point. I might have part of a leg to do. Honestly, I got tired. Plus, I knew I needed to get up in the morning for THIS…

Oh yeah baby. Wet butt, probably sore neck and shoulders later tonight…kayaking on Mission Bay. A real joy. Mostly calm (some speedboats teaching kids how to ski), a seal ahead of us. I really enjoyed it. Not so long that I was in pain, although I’m tired right now…but totally long enough to know I did a mental and physical workout.

I need to do some more quilting now, because it looks like I might have an editing job coming in tomorrow. AACK! It really gets crazy now, doesn’t it? How many different ways can I have to earn money at once? As many as it takes. So quilting, editing, the odd writing job might pop up, a commission, some small art quilts. The boychild’s financial aid came in finally, and it was better than last year, but not as good as I wanted it to be, so I’m short money…I knew I would be. Just not how much. So I take deep breaths and figure out how to get it all done.

But apparently the relaxing part means running around outside in the natural world…which is the best thing for us hermits to be doing anyway. Tomorrow? I might just go to the gym instead. Just for a change.

Sycamore Canyon (aka Brush in My Underpants)

I finished a quilt last night, finished the binding. I’ve been calling it Bathtub 2 because it’s the second drawing I did of the apparent bathtub series. Even though I don’t think Bathtub 1 will ever be a finished quilt. But when I was getting ready to measure it this morning, it named itself…finally.

This is In Deep. Yeah, there will be official pictures taken eventually…like when I get the other one done that’s supposed to be finished in July. It’s cheaper to do two photos at once. Money is tight.

Then I cut out Wonder Under for a while…I think this one is actually going to be pretty quick.

It better be. I don’t have much time. I was watching Helix while cutting. Still trying to figure out what the freak is happening in the second season. I should pay closer attention. Or not.

I have a list of tasks today, but mostly want to finish the Wonder Under and start picking fabrics, since I’m going to lose most of tomorrow to driving to LA for the Diverted Destruction 8 opening at The Loft at Liz’s.

The opening reception is tomorrow night from 7-10 PM. The exhibit is open through September 5, 453 S. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036.

So yesterday we hiked in the middle of the day. Kinda crazy, although today it would have been awesome, because NOW there are clouds everywhere dammit. So I’m sunburnt even though I put sunscreen on twice. Bastard sun.

We went out to Sycamore Canyon…it’s been on my list for a while, but never got out there or it was too hot or it closes too early. There were lots of people there…

As you can see (that is my car). Very busy on a Thursday.

It was warm…we analyzed this sign and saw no evidence of anyone but us and the park ranger, who apparently lives on the property.

This is on the ridgeline trail, looking back at the lonely car in the parking lot.

Most of the ridge trail was very rocky, to the point that having poles going up and down the hills would have been helpful. You can see part of the trail going up the hill to the left.

This is looking down towards the valley we might eventually get to…it was warm, over 90 degrees by the time we got back to the car.

Boychild found this on the trail.

There were many signs of the Cedar Fire that came through here in 2003…the lower plants have come back, but a lot of tree damage.

Well, honestly, not a lot of trees at all. There was this crazy chainsaw bug that annoyed the crap out of us.

The trail continues (kids had ditched me by now).

Evidence of the fire at one of the trail intersections…

Here we headed down into the valley.

It wasn’t a super-steep descent…but again, poles would have been helpful because of all the rocks on the trail.

Down there, you can see where we’re headed…into that valley.

The area has a lot of colorful rocks.

And a very very dry river bed…

We found this sign amusing. I don’t think I could have gotten to 5 mph even if I started running downhill (obviously for the bikers).

We got down into the valley and told girlchild there was a windmill, and she took off skipping. She likes destination hikes.

But not poison oak. Not a lot of it (too dry up top), but down in the riverbed area, definitely saw it.

The random, creepy-sounding windmill…it creaks really scarily.

The meadow of the valley…

The original Goodan ranch house built in the 1930s…

Burnt in 2003…

Sad to see…but this is desert…we forget as we water everything that it’s supposed to burn…

Apparently we were on a special trail (it did not feel special)…

OK. Julie. I know you’re reading. What the hell are these? Wells? We saw about 6 or 7 of them, all different heights, with elevation on them and some codes. These two were making clanking sounds, like chains were in there banging around. Girlchild actually said “hello” like there was something alive in there…

What? We never saw evidence of this…but this was the start of the service road that climbed back up to the car. Because when you go down? You have to go back up.

It was not as bad of a climb as the other direction would have been (notice no rocks), but it was a mile long and HOT.

Another one of those weird concrete baby bunkers…

The kids got way ahead of me…well, the girlchild waited for me at one point. I don’t do heat well…

Looking back at the valley…

And again…as we climb higher…

Up the hill…on the top, is my car. Really. I know it’s there.

From the top. One thing you can say…even the desert view…it’s beautiful.

Gorgeous summer blue sky and mountains across the whole horizon. I don’t think I could live somewhere else.

That said, we’re sticking to night hikes if it’s warm from here on out…until? I don’t know, maybe October (both kids will be gone then). The hike only took about 2 hours, although the heat made it feel like longer. It’s about 4 miles with a 600-foot descent, apparently. Not sure if I believe that. The trail info is here. Oh NOW I look at the map and find that the last section is called Cardiac Hill. Nice. Oh, and there’s a porta-potty at the trailhead off State Route 67. Me? I peed off the trail behind the bush. There’s also a nice bathroom down in the valley near the ranger house. For future reference…you don’t have to have pieces of brush in your underwear like I do.

Yeah. You wonder why you don’t have as much fun as I do (sunburn, brushy underpants, and recovering from heat exhaustion)…