welcome to the beach

Photos above taken at AVP Long Beach 2007 - by Chuck Graham

1) digging 2 & 3) serving 4& 5) hitting

That's my boy.

Welcome to the Beach.

And the AVP Santa Barbara Open Volleyball Tournament

Early last week my eldest son, Kyle, called me and said he would be playing. Kyle, now a "former pro" would be coming home to Santa Barbara to be in this tournament, although he hasn't been on the tour for a couple years now.

We were thrilled at the news.

That would sound funny to some who know me (my kids included) since the last 30 years of my life have been all about volleyball, many times too much volleyball. It began with their Dad, a pro player. As each one of my babies were born (with a volleyball in their hands) our commitment and participation grew and grew. It was definitely not an all love relationship.

But if you were to ask any of my kids I think they would say it's all been worth it and then some. Volleyball has taught them many lessons and opened many doors. School scholarships, travel experiences, life lessons I could never have given them.

Kyle didn't qualify and was out on Thursday, but we spent some time at the beach anyway cheering on some of his friends. If your interested in learning more about the AVP , Association of Volleyball Professionals , here is their website. (there are some great videos and photos). And an interview with my son Kyle (which he forgot to tell me about).

When he asked if he could come up and stay he brought five others with him (he asked). There were three large AVP guys and three AVP loving girls. We don't have a very big house and only one spare bedroom, can you imagine the mayhem (fun) here for five days??

little owen finally met his match.

♥ lori

*It's hard to write a post like this, I debated whether to keep it in in my private journal, but my mothering pride won out. I hope Kyle will understand, and you will too :)

postcards from here

tucked into a teeny tiny motel, three hours north of home, my oldest daughter kimberly and i are spending some mother~daughter time alone together. for me it's just fun, but for her it's a much needed break. this last week alone she moved, went to school, worked, single parented her two children + her friends two for the week. she was so tired last night she fell asleep mid sentence. this morning she said to me, mama, i didn't even say goodnight! while we are here we plan to do alot of nothing along with walks on the beach, antiquing, eating seafood and sleeping. when i get back home i'll do my best to catch up in my journal here, i've got some exciting things to write!

wish you were here!

♥ lori & kimberly

a day to remember

morning:

we went for a run on the beach and found the most amazing thing. the super high and low tide that's been occurring lately dropped several piles of pebbles along the shore. and they were littered with sea glass! we collected until our pockets could hold no more and then we ran cradling our treasure all the way home.

afternoon:

we went for a hike in the front country, in the mountains here that face the sea. chuck had gone the day before and wanted to show me something. i knew i was in for a workout when he said "take your poles" (leki trekking poles, good for steep trails). there was a wildflower we hadn't seen before, it was covering the hillside. it was gorgeous. and the best part, it was covering the burn area, where there had been a devastating wildfire last summer. we saw bees humming, and butterflies fluttering, we saw ladybugs mating and gnats annoying (what do they do besides that?) and we said isn't it wonderful??

and then he took me to dinner because i was pooped. :)

♥ lori

wise owl

photo by Chuck Graham, taken last year, same spot

while camping in the carrizo plain last week, chuck and owen (our puppy) came across this great horned owl ! this darling guy is just a chick, no wonder owen was so interested in him, it must have been a very milo and otis moment! these two youngsters wanting to play together! (i know i know, owlet probably really just wanted to eat owen!)

there were a couple questions in the last comments about the rattlesnake they came across, and how owen reacted. chuck said they were walking along (puppy on a short leash, just too many dangers out) when owen suddenly stopped and became still and then very agitated. luckily chuck looked around before going any further. they heard the hissing first, there, in the long grass, was the rattler. they moved away without disturbing it (owen already backing up), but not of course before chuck took some photos....

photo by Chuck Graham

western pacific rattlesnake
(yes, he was close!)

back to owls, i pulled out my bird books and made an attempt at painting my own owl. HELP! this is the first time i've tried oil paints and i think i did it all wrong. what do i do now? i am stuck. i think the background should have been painted first? i like the little eyes and his talons but the rest looks, terrible. this isn't at all like watercolor. :(



not really meaning for this to be an owl post but i couldn't seem to stop myself ( i have more, did i mention i have a collection of owls too?) these are vintage bookplates a friend gave to me. i thought you might be able to print them out and have your own. if you like owls and bookplates. they are really very lovely i think.


and last, if you'd like to see a live owl in a nest box , go here to meet molly, a wild female barn owl, and her husband mcgee. her chicks were laid in february, and hatched in march. don't forget to turn up the sound to hear the cheep cheep cheep.

♥ lori

it's possible

here is a postcard i found, it's almost one hundred years old! (i don't know if the postmark shows up clearly, it's dated 1913) don't you love that some things never go out of style? doesn't everyone like to be treated nice? can you see someone wrote in the bottom right hand corner? "so do i".

~be kind whenever possible. it is always possible.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama.~

have a great (kind) week ahead everyone!

♥ lori

p.s. owen was a camping champion! he saw his first owls and even a rattlesnake! he had so much fun it took two full shampoos to get him clean again. oh owen.

in the field

1.

2.

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4.

1. my husband's most recent cover shot. (great honey!)

2. poppies are in town!

3. where owen likes to go for walks.

4. as soon as the walk is over.

chuck went back out to carrizo today. we could see that new blooms were on the way when we were there last week. and the newest rains may have helped, he had to go find out. owen got to go too, his first big adventure.

:)

♥ lori

wild california ~ the carrizo plain

"Welcome to the Carrizo Plain National Monument; a powerful yet peaceful landscape of sky and earth in a pattern seen nowhere else. As you explore this living museum, remember the closer you look, the more you see."

Goodwin Education Center

California Valley, California

a friend of mine called and said "hey flower child, how was it?"

(for anyone new here we have been following the wildflower bloom here in California),

i could only say one word to her,

E P I C

i hope these pictures say more...

we were giddy, the flowers in the Carrizo were impossibly pretty, there were carpets of them everywhere. we gasped, we sighed, we were without words. we drove and drove and looked and looked before taking out our cameras.

my husband said it was like we were drunk on the sight and scent of wildflowers. we sat in a lake of Phacelia (the purple one), we layed on our stomachs in meadows of Owl's clover (the pink one), we mostly looked in quiet reverence.

that's when the critters start appearing too, meadowlarks, and larksparrows, kangaroo rats and the san joaquin antelope ground squirrel (such a big name for a tiny little guy, they are pictured above). we saw pronghorn antelope and raptors. those were too far away for any photos, the deer pictured were out side of the monument.

there were many discoveries that we couldn't identify. we'll look them up later. in the meantime, i'm ending with my favorite flower (i began this post with it too), that i've called

Wachiwi, which is Sioux for "dancer" or "dancing girl." i wonder what the Native Americans, the Chumash, the Yokuts and others that used to inhabit this area would have called it. maybe smilingwavingfriendlylookstowardsthesundancinggirl.

But i always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

~Vincent Van Gogh

thank you for coming along.

♥ lori