Hookton Slough Canoeing - And Bonus Canoe Trips

Thorne arranged a short-notice canoeing trip for Saturday (yesterday) morning. We were joined on Hookton Slough by John and Pia, Holly, and Michael and his two boys Joe & Jamie. The weather was wonderful: clear and not too cold. The air off Humboldt Bay was only a bit chilly as we neared it.

We saw multitudes of birds, including great and common egrets, great herons, willets, marbled godwits, American avocets, lesser yellowlegs, common and pied-billed grebes, Canada and Aleutian cackling geese, tundra swans, great scaups, buffleheads, green-winged teals, ruddy ducks, northern shovelers, (common?) mergansers, a brown pelican, western and Bonaparte's gulls, common ravens, a peregrine falcon, a northern harrier, turkey vultures and song sparrows.

Out near the mouth of the slough, we disrupted a dozen or so harbor seal sunbathing. Some moved to another locale, and a number watched us from nearby in the water. The seals slid smoothly over the mud after picking up a bit of steam.

This weekend was the Aleutian Goose Fly-off at the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Preserve, which the slough meanders through. We had plans to get up at O-dark thirty on Sunday to see the geese take off, but some of us wimped out after a late movie night. Holly gets a gold star for going out anyway.



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On New Years Day, Thorne and I went canoeing from Woodley Island to Indian Island. The tide was rather low, but we were still able to paddle up a large inlet. Of note was a pied-billed greebe that swam past us underwater, after we disturbed his contemplations.





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We paddled up the Mad River on February 19. There wasn't as much wildlife as yesterday, but we did see a couple of large non-salmonid fish in a backwater pool. We had a few opportunities to paddle like hell in order to make headway against the river flow. On the way back down the river, we interrupted a batch of gun enthusiasts firing across the river. Thank goodness they stopped firing when they noticed us, rather than choosing us as a moving target.

Busy, Busy

Oh my, it was a busy summer and autumn! After our first successful "date" on the Kinetic Sculpture Race weekend (last blog post), Thorne and I decided to keep seeing each other. I don't think I've ever been so busy. We were going to one event or another every week or two, and I had just enough free time to put things away and post photos before the next event came up. So below are slide shows of some events from the last five months. You can follow back to my Picasa site if you really want to see more.

I also got back into haunting cemeteries, stopping at some on my drives home from the Bay Area, or where ever I happened to be. I took piles of photos, and posted them. Not all are especially artsy or significant, but there's some element of interest to me in each one. I love the different marker shapes, symbols and scripts, poems, information - all of it.

While looking up some information on a fraternal order mentioned on one gravestone, I discovered The Association of Graveyard Rabbits. It inspired me to start a blog devoted to my cemetery photos. I'd been thinking about doing that anyway, and the opportunity to become a graveyard rabbit encouraged me to do it. The Samhain season helped. Hopefully I'll keep posting something of interest every now and then. Anyway, there's a link to that blog in my side bar. Enjoy.

Loch Morgan. Please don't offer me any St. Germain for a while, please.


The Art Deco Society of California's Boating Picnic on Lafayette Reservoir. The best bunch of people I've met while crashing a party. I wish I had time to add another century to my playing.


Petaluma Rivertown Revival. Another good time at an event where I knew no one. An impromptu entry into a heat of the Art Boat Races allowed Thorne to show off his rowing prowess. I excelled at cox'ning.


Hiking on the Dollason Prairie Trail. Proving that we can have fun in the 21st Century, too.


Canoeing up Eureka and Freshwater Sloughs. Look ma, no costumes!


TSCA's Marshall Beach campout. Lots of great people I barely got to meet; we were out plating in the boat so much.


Excalibur Medieval Faire. I had fun pouring ale in the tavern, while Thorne stood out front hawking for us.


Hakone Daichakai. OMG, what happened to Thorne??

2011 Kinetic Sculpture Race

Kinetic Kraziness and a lot of fun.

There are lots of videos in the album. Beware of motion sickness with some of those taken on the water.

2011 Big Lagoon MessAbout

Camping and Sailing. What's not to like?

It's Swarming Season Again

I had a "preswarm" yesterday - the bees were bearding & masses were flying in front of the hive. I took a couple of pictures, and then waited. After 10 or 15 minutes they went back in. So I figured I'd better make a split. This hive lost its queen a couple of weeks ago (I'm not sure what happened), and I left a couple of queen cells. So I was pulling frames for the nuc, and checked on the Q cells. One queen was hatching, but was having trouble - the end of her cell was constricted, and she couldn't get through. So I pulled a bit of the cell away, and she emerged very lively, and went down into the nuc. I returned the frame with her sister's cell to the main hive.



While I was doing all that, another hive swarmed. The bees came boiling out of the hive. I wish I'd caught that on video, but was busy with the first hive. As usual, they landed in the apple tree. I did get some photos and video of them flying and alighting - pretty nifty. I set up another nuc and collected them. It was the first time I didn't suit-up, and was bare-handed (I did have my veil on). It was a bit unnerving when I shook the branch, and had a mass of bees fall on my arm, but they were mellow. I did get stung once - maybe one got between my arm and the tree?





I reported on this on FB, and a beek friend who's keeping a split of her own over here said she'd seen bearding on one of my hives the day before. -But it was a different hive. >sigh< I suppose I need to make a split of that one today. Actually, I'm going to Demaree that one. I just hope the queen doesn't decide to swarm anyway. But I have a lure hive up in the apple tree, just in case.

I love my bees, but am starting to wonder about the time I need to spend on them. Another >sigh<.

2011 Actions of the Lowe Countries

This was an Eighty Years War period weekend, full of pike and musket drills. This may have been our last time at Camp Tamorancho, in the hills above San Anselmo. The camp has become more restrictive about black powder use, and may completely ban them by next year. Even though they were not allowed to fire them, John and Tony brought their artillery to show off. Mabel and Mary Ann, the twin cannon, helped create a very nice entry into camp.


The Morgan's Company presence grew to five, as Tony and Harvey joined John, Pia and me. We gained points after a catastrophic break in the tavern tent's ridge pole. Harvey was summoned, and used his sailorly know-how to lash a splint onto the pole, thus saving the day - and night of drinking and gambling. That night we used up our good karma (and possibly the camp's good will) by winning seven of the ten raffle prizes.



This year's new fun was having Spanish spies marauding on Saturday night. The Romero brothers spiced up the night watch by sneaking around and "killing" the unwary with a cry of "Attaque!". On their watch, Tony and John successfully thwarted those Spanish dogs, but great damage had already been done. During earlier watches, the brothers killed many a guard, Colonel Gaul and Captain Siler. They also spiked the artillery and captured our flag.



The wildflowers were gorgeous, and I took a little time from my water-bearing duties to explore and take photos.

Ohanami and Chanoyu Demonstration

For our April Chanoyu demo, we "flash mobbed" the gazebo in Eureka to enjoy tea under the sakura. We had about 15 guests enjoy a chaboko-style (picnic box) Tea with us. We also got into our kimono (not in public) in record time with minimal frustration.