Nine selected spring pictures were posted on Wechat Moments on 3/29. I purposely pointed out the striking contrast between the last two pictures: a bare slope taken in this March versus the same slope clustering with vibrantly blooming lupines shot two years ago.
3/27/2021
3/23/2019
A friend of mine living in Florida asked me why there is no flower this year. I explained that unlike many other places where spring may never fail to bring forth new life and abundance, our spring hinges on much last winter’s rainfall. Our mountains are green for about a month or so before the meagerly stored water under the surface ground dries up. The ensuing heat and drought only hastens the return of dull valleys, where only drought resistant plants or deeply-rooted oaks survive the rest of the seasons. When there is a copious rainy winter, the decade-long seeds could be shaken up from their dormancy in the underground, and in turn ushers in a rich spring. 2016 was a good year, as I witnessed, when even the flowers in the desert like Death Valley were in its rare spring super bloom. But more often than not, we are faced with lean years, when the limited rainfall stunts the growth of wild flowers and oats, and to survive they have to race against nature to seed for the next generation. It is a test of resilience.
3/27/2021
对比3/23/2019 同一个山头，远眺同一个山顶
3/27/2021， 当然还是有些草的。
This is the shade we rested under after a sweltering hike in the sun. While we were enjoying the breeze there, from the empty trail appeared a young man and his unleashed dog. The dog was panting hard, its long tongue hanging down outside the mouth. He disobediently walked off the trail towards us, defying his owner's instruction of "no rest". But that resistance only lasted for seconds before the dog trudged back to the sunny trail towards its next stop. Leashed or not, the dog is at its owner's hand. If I were the owner, I would have let the poor dog rest in the shade:))
We met the new neighbor Paul on the driveway last Saturday as we were driving home from the hike. He was on his roller skates, with a helmet and knee pads tightened around his head and knees. As he walked out of the then Tom’s garage and approached us, my guess that he is the husband of C whom I talked to a month ago faltered. Somehow I cannot match his young-looking face with C’s winkled one. He stopped to introduce himself that he is a nurse and that he is C’s husband. Then he tried to explain to us that to be on roller skates is to maintain his brain elasticity, as he is sixty years old this year. We both wowed, and in unison, complimented him for looking so young. But was it the reason he told us his age?
Yesterday afternoon, I got my first shot of Pfizer vaccine at a temporary walk-in site, after waiting in line and going through the process for about two hours. Last night, the left arm was so sore that I cannot lift it to cook or to wash. Luckily the soreness abated after 24 hours with no other immediate side-effects or symptoms.
回复 '7grizzly' 的评论 : Thank you, my friend, for your comments. I like the word "juxtaposition", which my daughter liked to use in her essays at high school. For sure the dog owner loves the dog, and I am just being 妇人之仁：）） Thanks for stopping by, and hope everyone will be inoculated soon.
7grizzly 发表评论于
Thank you for recounting your vaccination experience. 鲁冰花 should help me remember lupine and your juxtapositions of the hills when contrasting rainy and dry winters are very apt. Last, I think everyone needs a good sweat, including Paul and the dog :-)
