Meet Miss Liberty, Guardian, Rebel, Glory and Honor

These are our town's resident bald eagles. Miss Liberty and Guardian. 

Aren't they beautiful? 

They have a nest right off of Highway 44 - on a tree, called the Redwood Roost.  There are 3 trees they like to roost on - The Christmas Tree and the Family Tree - all in the Turtle Bay area, right off the Sacramento River.  There is a webcam and every year we watch them. After their fledglings leave the nest in late summer, they go away but they always return to their nest. We don't know if they "vacation together" or separately. 

 

Photographs are from the Friends of the Redding Eagles. 

Here are the 3 kids - Rebel, Glory, and Honor. Schoolchildren name them every year.  

It takes a few years for them to start looking like bald eagles. 

Here is a webcam photo of the three, being fed by either mom or dad. 

Spooky Mt. Shasta

This should be my Halloween post.

Mount Shasta has always inspired myths and legends that go back to the beginning inhabitant of this region - Native Americans. The more recent ones: 

Ancient lost civilizations 

The mountain harbors an ancient, secret city inhabited by the descendants of the Lemurians, which are the supposedly highly technologically advanced people 

UFO'S

Mount Shasta has always had some strange cloud formations. (Lenticular clouds) 

I wonder, how much of those cloud formations are filters and photoshopped? 

That's just me - I have an inquiring mind. 

Lenticular clouds are unique clouds that typically form around hills

 and mountains, as a result of the way that the air moves. 

Intense UFO activity has been reported on the mountain. Dancing lights, mysterious flashes, orbs, metallic craft, glowing objects, luminous cigar shaped objects, jellyfish-like craft, silent silver airships, and fleets of lights making amazing maneuvers have all been reported from here since long before electricity was even a thing. Some people have put forth the theory that these UFOs have some connection to the Lemurian civilization purported to live within the mountain 

Magic mushrooms anyone?

Bigfoot 

Yep, he's here too. 

I choose to believe BIGFOOT might be there.

To protect us from the Lemurians and to provide hours of campfire fun!

It was once believed that to go up the mountain past the tree-line was to invite doom, as therein was the realm of the dead, the shaman, the damned, and a mystical race of evil dwarves feared by the Wintu tribe. Mt. Shasta was also said to be prowled by numerous spirits and magical beings, not all of them particularly benevolent, and was also the purported location of portals to other realms of existence. 

Dang SPOOKY!

 Mt. Shasta is a mecca for New Agers, spiritualists, Wiccans, cults, and all manner of those seeking some sort of spiritual revelation, who have flocked to Mt. Shasta area in droves. 

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? 

Walking downtown, there is an array of shops catering to tourists

 who are into that sort of thing - 

But we go for the rocks. 

gemstones, minerals -  

Geology which both my husband and I enjoy. 

The artistry of God's creation has to be appreciated. 

My husband has an extensive rock collection, from all over the world and some he inherited from his grandfather. 

And Mount Shasta City had some "out of this world" gas prices.

Okay, that was a stretch - pretty much what gas is going around here. 

We filled up our plug-in-hybrid for the first time since June 5. 

This fill-up should last us till October. 

Mount Shasta City

 

Up the road from my house is Mount Shasta City. The fires and smoke have been bad this summer but we caught a rare day where the air quality was moderate so we jumped at the chance to go for a visit. 

On the road going up to the mountain - I took this photo of a snowless Mt Shasta which is rarely seen. A local told me there is some snow on the eastern side - 

The road was also closed due to mudflows, debris, and rocks, due to hot weather and glaciers melting. 

Surges of mud, rocks, and logs made some roads earlier in the month impassable. 

I love that quote from Joaquin Miller - 

Lonely as God and white as a winter moon. 

One of the pleasures of living in the north state is the towering year-round views of Mt Shasta - seen up to 140 miles away.

That first snowfall;  when Shasta gets dressed in white snow. 

Assurance to me, that summer has lost and autumn is on its way. 

Over the years

I've been living in this house going on 10 years. You don't think, things change much until you look back at photos. My front yard no longer looks like this. Those pesky junipers are out - we put up a wooden picket fence and the trees have grown. I can't wait to get some recent photos, this Fall - with the new "look."

After a very HOT summer, we didn't get to laying the patio, by our pond. We're not giving up. If it doesn't rain, we still have time.

My backyard is a disaster! It's hard for me to live like that. My husband is putting in drains and there is a lot of mud. Then we will patch that one part of the old lawn, with seed and block it off from our dog. The patio by the pond (that my husband fixed this summer) will hopefully be ready in time for our family campfire in October. My brother in Alabama and his family have one in October and I try to hold ours, here in California at the same time.

Are you excited for the Fall and Winter? Living in the far north part of California, I do get to see a good representation of Autumn and Winter (I have to drive to the snow but it's usually 30 minutes away) Every few years, we get a good little snowfall. We love it.

Fire and SMOKE

 

This is not fog, on the Sacramento River

I can always tell Autumn is in the air - Smoke settles in our horseshoe shaped valley and suffocates us for a few weeks. (or until the fires are contained) 

 Yesterday was unreal. The air smelled of wood smoke and just being out a few minutes, gave you a headache.

Not healthful for children or the elderly, yesterday wasn't healthy for anyone of any age - It was THAT bad. Huge fires in the North State are contributing to the unhealthful smoke in the Valley. The nearest fire is in Trinity County - east of us.

The temperatures haven't been as hot as they have been - only reaching into the mid-'90s. You still can't really go outside, when it is that bad - all you can do is stay inside where there is air-conditioning. I do have 3 air purifiers and that makes our living space, more comfortable.

Please if you could, PRAY for OUR FIREFIGHTERS and CAL FIRE. 
PRAY for our communities to be safe. 
PRAY for all the animals that are displaced due to the fires.

It is Home now

Sunset on Whiskeytown Lake

It wasn't always home. For all my life I lived a 30-mile radius from San Francisco. Never wanting to leave - but finding it harder and harder each year to afford the standard of living I was raised in and having always to do without - to just afford the rent! Then an opportunity came to us, and we jumped at it. That was in 2008 and we have not looked back. I love it here.

It was a culture shock, to say the least. Coming from an upwardly mobile area, to a rural part of Northern, Northern California. It was like moving to another state. 250+ miles north from where I was raised. For some areas in the country, that is like moving a state or two away.

Most of the country, when they think of California, they always think of stereotypical California: Hollywood, Disneyland, and Beaches. 

Many, have no idea how far San Francisco is from LA. They are shocked it snows in California. They think just because it's sunny, that it is HOT all the time, and that we don't have deciduous trees and four seasons.

Leaving behind, the hustle and bustle

When I was a child, living in San Francisco, I was taught that I lived in Northern California. Disneyland and Hollywood were south of us, thereby making them Southern California. Okay, that's cool. As I got older and traveled up and down the state, there was Central California. Then there is the central valley, the north coast, the central coast...It gets confusing to an outsider or new transplant.

Low and behold, when you take I-80 out of San Francisco and head toward Sacramento, you head toward the real Northern California. Take 505 from the I-5 to later connect to I-5 going north toward Redding.

Many people are shocked when they finally get off  I-80 - leaving behind the hustle and bustle of traffic, shopping malls, crazy drivers, and fast food.  Just a few miles on 505,  it's country. Farms,  ranches, and really small towns - a totally different part of California, that the rest of the nation does not even know exists. When I now hit the 505, I can finally relax. I put her in cruise control and enjoy the drive home. 

Wordless Wednesday -Autumn in Northern California

Autumn Colors in my front yard 

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn sprinklers

Morning Sprinklers on a Fall morning.