Abstract Thursday : : Gate and Stone*

While walking at Taylor Mountain with a friend this morning I took a picture which was an overview of the downtown area of Santa Rosa surrounded by hills, but it was overexposed and featured the racetrack front and center, although it is not a very major part of Santa Rosa life, so I decided not to use it.

I took a picture of a very small blond child sitting fetchingly in the grass while his older siblings climbed a nearby oak tree. It seemed a bit trite, so I didn't choose it either. The mother was saying to her friend as we passed, 'He's sitting in poison oak'....uh oh. 

I can't think of anything worse than a small child with a poison oak rash... unless it's me... a grown up person with a severe allergy to the urushiol in the poison oak plant. Those who are allergic to the urushiol in the stems , leaves, and even dormant twigs are afflicted with an utterly miserable itching, burning, blistering rash wherever the oil from the plant touches the skin.  I have even gotten it from the oil on the coat of the dog, although animals aren't susceptible to it themselves. 

The mother in the scenario didn't seem overly concerned. I'll bet she's never had it.

The only drawback to Taylor Mountain for a hike is it's proximity to Target. I went there to stock up on toilet paper and paper towels and wound up spending $110 on stuff.... mostly cleaning products. since I have convinced myself that these are cheaper at Target.  Looking at the miles of aisles full of bottles and boxes and jars of products designed to clean the average American home, I couldn't help thinking about the toxic clean-up which is still happening  here.  Phalanxes of dump trucks carrying debris, and flatbed trucks  carrying bulldozers and burned vehicles, march careen across the county hurtling into each other and passing vehicles with some regularity and wreaking more havoc.  Whilst the hills I had just come from are healing quickly and showing many signs of recovery and new growth, the man made sites do not regenerate nearly as quickly.

Vinegar and water works well in most situations. Why do I need a hundred dollars worth of cleaning products?  It's a first world problem....

*I decided not to take Ozzie to Taylor Mountain because there are often cows there and the standoffs are unpredictable, so I took him on a walk through the fields first. I've always liked the pattern in a chain link fence, even though I don't much like chain link fences. The light on the gate between the arbor and the field behind it caught my eye. I highlighted it even more in Mobile Monet. There were no cows at Taylor  Mountain, but Fran brought Ziggy, an 8 month old German Shorthair-in-training.