Purple! What a color! As it stands alone it is overpowering! As a mixture in rainbows, portraits, landscapes, it's complimentary. So in this blog entry, we'll deal with it, because I'm trying to explore moods and colors as they apply to each other. 6 weeks into a job on a weekly publication, and I'm still learning ... A LOT!!! It's sort of a passive job, and the work environment is good, except for the smoking... which is ... well if you are a non smoker you get it! I am 3 days on the job and 4 days off. YEE HAAA!!! This coming Saturday, I will try something Ve-r-r-r-r-y new and different for me. I've been invited to attend a painting class. h-m-m-m-m-m... I'll see. Who knows, may discover something within I never knew existed. Been FaceBooking lately, connecting with friends and family nationwide! Good to see my sons hooking up with friends from another life too! Makes me think they are realizing the value of life... Life has begun to show me the slower pace of age is a good thing for me. Stepping back from the fast paced aggressive person I have always and only known myself to be. Allow me to introduce me to you... s-l-o-w-l-y over the next months of blogging. This might very well be the vehicle for the Story to come! See you again soon!

Decided to text in green because I'm feeling blue. There is something about fall and winter that take the happy out of me. I have to struggle to see things as I see them in Spring and Summer. I know there is a biological effect from less sunshine, which is a form of vitamin D for us. I wonder if I could use a supplement several times during the day to replenish. h-m-mmm. Anyway, very thankful for the leaves still on trees and the grass still green although it is very slow growing now. Only mowed once since returning and probably won't need to mow again now 'til next spring. Weather forecast for today, after several days of rain and overcast, was sunny. Spell that c-l-o-u-d-y!! I AM solar charged and can do nothing about that! Am trying in every way to determine my future, I'll reveal more when it becomes more clear. I know that up to now, there has been no mention of any Grubulah Adventures. I haven't forgotten, just have difficulty putting it all together. Bear with me, for now, I am lost.

Traveled to Arkansas... leaving Lompoc Monday @ 8:30 pm.  All night drive through the southern California traffic was much easier than daytime... having arrived in Barstow around 2 am.  Sleep for a few than on the road by 8 ish am.  Photos of the trip through the Mojave... and into the Painted Desert in Arizona with a night arrival in Albuquerque @ 9 pm.  As the sights passed in a blur the Nikon caught for ever, the  images and colors gone in a second.  I was like a sponge soaking it in, for later recall.  A reunion with a special friend of the past in Albq. then on to Moriarty where the retouching of lives continued with another.  Stirring reminders of another life and time.   Beautiful women in my life of horrors then.  Ya Ya!!!        Home again...Home again... jiggity jig!   

August... summer's end. Always a touch of melancholy with no known explanation. Yellow Bird, Shakey and Spazz'z traveling companion just discovered he's been in Big Sur!  Insisted on a photo shoot. As it is, he's been seen in Canada and the east coast U.S. and it's only fair to have the photo evidence of Big Sur!  My apologies to him for neglecting his presence these several months. Actually an occasional dusting and relocation in the cottage warrants some recognition too!  Anyway... check out the pics for his sake!

Fire in the Sky

The Meteor Shower. August 11th, the recommended night for viewing was a foggy night in Big Sur. Cool and damp, and no chance of a meteor sighting. BUT! August 12th was a suprise!! Clear, warm and still and a bajillion stars told us we would have a great chance! Small camp firering, loving family, the Pacific shore and The Greatest Show on Earth! What a treat! If you did not get to see this display, I am sorry. As for next August, when we have our next opportunity, make plans NOW to find a seat in your area of the country, take an afternoon or early evening nap if necessary, and be prepared to be wowed!! Sharing the evening with others ads the element of enjoying THEIR expressions! Ex: the one in the crowd who is always looking down or the other way when the brightest and longest tail you've ever seen streaks by.  (No Names mentioned here Grace.)

Since photography was out of the question, I could focus my attention to viewing. And that I did! 

Thursday August 13th brought a viewing treat back down to earth again. The events of the "Concours" in Pebble Beach this year included again a short run down the highway 1 and right past our front door. Check point Big Sur turnaround being 1/2 mile south of us on the highway treated us to the coming and going back traffic of the most incredible vehicles on the road today. Check out the most recent pics on the page for an idea of what I did that morning! In between business and phone calls of course! (in case the boss of me is reading this blog). 

Well the day of work is upon me now... later friends!   

I have returned ... this has been an interesting month gone by... decisions, choices and resolutions. More traveling plans forming, and the next chapter in motion. Coastal caravans, sunset whale watching, old trails and history. All of these cryptic phrases remind me of events... peaceful jellies in the harbor, free from the prism prison. Old ties and promises too.  I hear music!!!  I ponder the wanderlust!  Unexpected encounters, names and faces, moments to be treasured forever.  

      Jack Johnson ... now there's a name many know, and maybe not so many.      But we did!   Thank you Jack for making my day! and then some too!!!         Bo, my soul mate! Traveling companion, humorist, music maker,gentle giant.  You are my hero!  You stood up to the little man!  He's shot down by the Barnicks AGAIN!  Twice in one decade!   oooohhhhh that smarts!  THE BOOK  will be a best seller!!!    Anyway, this has been fun!    

So much for the dedication part... Summer is full on and the 4th of July past ... and I've failed you readers.... so sorry... the dogs are glad for the Big Sur cool temps and so am I ! Keeps the hot flashes at bay!   Anyway.. we travelled the road of decades past last week and found the golden velvet hills, and redwood covered valleys reaching into our souls and authoring new melodies!  THIS is the Big Sur I can feel.  Inspiration!  WHOO HOO !!!  A moment or two over the running Little Sur River with a tin whistle and on to views that halt the breathing!  Fog exploring the inland hills of the coast is touchable... and parts for the intrusion of flesh or fiberglass... rejoining itself  for the visual pleasure of the intruder. Nature tolerates us!!!    Enjoy with me the photographical evidence of this journey... 

Whether by artist's easel with canvas and paints, or the shutter of digital imagery captured and stored, the view of the Highway 1 becomes an historical mark in the memory of hundreds today.  Just three miles from our destination my own camera comes out to photograph an afternoon stroll in the meadow alongside the road.  This proud buck shows no interest in the excited lady skipping along the fence line to keep up with his pace. I never want to take these moments for granted!  Nature's trail and man's, parallel.    

Driving down the Highway 1 on a classic June afternoon, being a "tourist". Condor glide overhead, not hesitating for the camera to focus. Not even AWARE of the camera or its operator. Surfers and sea lions sharing the same waves, voices sounding alike rising the distance 1000 feet above the scene. Warmth of the sunshine blending with the cool ocean breezes, satisfying the flesh and the spirit. The Pacific Ocean is not angry today. It gently rocks and rises beneath the kelp beds. Miles out on the horizon the ocean and sky softly touch each other barely defining their separation.

I realize from this day I am receiving the inspiration, encouragement, and peace I am seeking.  

The coastal, chaotic, violent waves.

Too loud to hear me think! Certainly not serene! Defending my skin from the attacks of the hurling sand! Draw tight the hood of my jacket to contain the flailing lengths of hair and wondering if the knotted ends could ever be convinced to release their grip on each other again!  Just to add insult ... the fog bank so wet, so thick, that the sun seems never to have existed. And me, solar energised! 

Can I possibly get inspiration from this!?...      Had I not journeyed here from there, I'd not know this moment. Artistically attractive, economically challenging. Less than a five minute walk from this is a deafening silence, the omission of all sounds of technology's man made distractions. And the ocean's powerful exhibit. Wildlife with names and species unknown to me, overhead, calling out sounds to each other and then some. Those on the terra firma dare me to come closer. 

Here for "a space in time" describes my life's journey. And so ... I am... and Grubulah, with me since those days in New Mexico.   

Once Upon A Time...

This is the beginning....

Bedtime stories make lifelong memories. Especially the ones which have no ending. And so is the story of  "Grubulah".  You are invited to follow this blog for the journal of the "Adventures of Grubulah"  and his many contrary friends.

Blogs will be entered as routinely as possible in a world filled with too busy days and too short nights. This will be a compound exercise in dedication, my part,

and patience, your part. 

Fear NOT! The "dogs" will play into the "blogs" in time!    

And "aawayyyeee we goooooo!"