This Day in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Well, we are all feeling well for the first time in a while. No sniffles,no puking, no fever. Bless the Lord! His mercy endures forever!

Plumber had to come today. I tried and tried with scary chemicals and a drum auger to clear a shower drain but I failed. So the boys and I took it as an excuse for a field trip.

We went to Big Basin State Park and went for a hike. We ID'd some more birds to check off in our field guide, and saw some really cool trees. There was a cross section of tree that had the rings labeled with various events such as the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Columbus's first voyage, The Norman Invasion, Rise of the Mongol Empire, and others great happenings in history. Right at the very center of the the tree it said, "Reign of Emperor Justinian - This Tree Sprouted".

One of the living trees we saw was a several centuries old hollow tree called a "chimeny tree". It had survived several forest fires but the heart would was completely burnt out. It was about 200 feet tall and from the outside it looked like any other tree. But but when one steps into the hollow area in the base of the tree and looks up one sees straight up the inside of the tree and into the blue sky.

After our hike we went to Felton to our fave grocery store for a late lunch and to the Orthodox Bookstore to buy Ascencion and Pentecost presents for my goddaughters. We used to go to the bookstore at Conciliar Press in Ben Lomond, just a couple of miles up the road, but they have scaled back their retail operation. Kind of sad. That bookstore was where I first learned about Holy Orthodoxy.

After that we went to the covered bridge park and to the boarding stables. Basil had a horrifying fall head first from about 5 and a half or 6ft off the ground. As he was falling I really thought he was going to die. But he lived, and as far as I can tell no bones were broken. His face is pretty bruised up though. One hug and a sign of the cross and he was right back at it. Though he did say tonight that his head was hurting.

We came home via Hwy 17 to get a look at the Lexington Resevoir. I've never seen it so low; and it is only May! I predict water rationing in the south bay by the end of June.

Well, my summer session (6 semester units in 6 weeks) started on yesterday so I should better stop this blogging stuff and get to work on school stuff.