In case I can't get to my computer in the busyness of Easter, I wanted to post these photos. I took these standing at my back gate, the top looking to the southwest, and the other to the north where the fires of three years ago stayed for two days before turning further north when the wind changed. The grayer mountains to the right were burned; the purpler ones to the left were not.
This gorgeous meadow has been sold recently to someone who desires to build 20 homes in this wildlife area. Here a blue heron stalks all winter. Here rabbits and ground squirrels scamper. Here crows congregate and red-tailed hawks glide overhead. Here one can hear coyotes howl and, if one looks carefully, one may be fortunate enough to find mountain lion tracks.
This is the meadow at its best: green and lovely. Admittedly, it gets brown and not-so-beautiful in the summer and fall, but loveliness returns with winter snowfalls and the misty swish of falling snowflakes. Here my kids ride their bikes. Here I walk to the post office, the brown-roofed building at the end of the road. Here is quiet and peace, silence and stillness, and the occasional hum of nature. I pray it will remain this way, belonging to the animals and the stray hiker, but in case it doesn't, I want to capture it before it is sectioned off into lots and 20 homes put up, and we have to move away.
