Rain, Rain and More Rain

 According to the local paper, the Del Norte Triplicate, we have gotten 9 inches of rain in 4 days, while just a few miles up the hill, they got 18.  Unfortunately their water quickly flooded down hill through us on its mad dash to the sea.  Fortunately this area is good at absorbing water and the salmon and redwoods thrive

 This is really a tiny creek meandering over a sandy beach.

 Here the waves were breaking over Whaler Island, really a peninsula where the Coast Guard are stationed

 This was the soccer field where my boys used to play, funny, we called it flock of seagull soccer because the teams of 4 and 5 year olds ran and turned in unison, rarely following the ball.

 Often this is a beach where you can walk, and where the community sets up camp to watch the 4th of July fireworks from the pier.

 The sad "Star" a sailboat which washed onto the rock retaining wall.  A lot of that wall is chunks of concrete and tile from the old swimming pool, destroyed by the March 28, 1964 tsunami which killed 11 people and tore up the town.

 Every area has dangers which only the locals really understand. Growing up in Yellowstone the "tourons" would stand on a thin crust over boiling hot water, or try to pose their children next to a bear or buffalo. Here they want to get close to a basking sea lion, 1,000 pounds and teeth like a wolf and can move fast on land

or

this is the jetty, a breakwater built after the tsunami in March of 1964 killed 11 people and flattened most of the town. On sunny days its wide concrete top looks like a good place for a walk or even to drive your car out and watch the whales

I've lived here 23 years and lost count of the tragedies, when a pedestrian, or even a volkswagon full of people, are suddenly swept off the wall and onto the rocks by sneaker waves like this, and yet the power and beauty of the sea draws me back over and over

With our intense storms lately, there have been huge waves breaking over the wall continuously for days, and yet, there were two grey bearded windsurfers out just in front of me too.

I mock the stupidity of the tourist, yet in some ways I think better to die in the act of loving life than to die, old and afraid and never having dared the wind and the beasts.

God!
I need coffee and to gat awake enough to do some work, this half dreaming mind of mine is strange this dark, stormy morning

 Seriously, don't drive around the danger sign to park on this jetty.

 I love crabbing on the B street pier, or just talking to people there.

 See the sailboat on the rocks and the windsurfer, an old graybeard, in the mid ground

 after this March 12, 2011 tsunami, our harbor was devastated, but the crabbing has now resumed and there are some places to dock the boats.

 This sea lion can move amazingly fast and his teeth resemble a wolf's, but isn't he cute?

Crabby snowmen waving hello

January in Del Norte

 Sometimes I wonder why I moved away from the mountains and prairie and the rugged loveliness of Wyoming.  I was never one who hated the blizzards, but I was never one who had to get out and work all day in them either.  Then I get out of the house on one of the perfect January days in Del Norte County (remember, here it rhymes with "snort")

 I can drive less than ten minutes and be on the beach, or walk out the door and be in the redwoods, and while I love snow and we have had it less than a handful of times since I moved here in 1989, I can drive  45 minutes and be up 4000 feet and play in the snow to my hearts content.  My heart is contented fairly easily when it comes to snow.

There are always fairly barren spots to enjoy nature from, a lot like Wyoming that way, but there are also a few brave souls dragging their surfboards down even in January, my son among them.  Brrrr.

 The wind sculpted snow drifts are replaced in my sight by wind and water sculpted sand formations and trees carved into bonsai tortured shapes

The sky here is often obscured by fog and clouds and we get close to 7 feet of rain a year instead of the 7 inches I grew up with, but when we do have the sun break through, it is just as lovely.

This day the clouds looked like the water they are made of in a way that they normally do not, and reminded me that there is also an ocean above our heads.

We get the little birds when Wyoming loses them, and out January yard is filled with robins, flickers, woodpeckers, sparrows and an occasional Osprey.

The maple tree always provides red and green for Christmas, and in January is still gorgeous wearing its coat of frost

The house I moved into 15 years ago had white walls and carpet.  I have not done much in the way of maintenance but I have made it look a bit like living in a crayon box, and the ancient linoleum I found under the carpet looks like an old rug but is easy to control the pet hair on it.

 Yesterday the sun came out, and I forced myself to do the dishes and start a load of laundry and write an hour on Duffy Barkley, Seek Well but then I succumbed to the siren call and found myself and my camera enjoying this area.  Then I called my Mom, because of all the parts of Wyoming I do miss - family is first on the list.