For the Record

I didn't think it had been that long since we walked on this street, so my jaw dropped when I went by today and saw that this entire house had risen since we were last up this way. It is a very short walk from our house at the top of a trail down into a canyon walk we still like, but not in summer when it is overgrown and undermaintained...not a great combination for a blind dog, especially a spaniel whose ears attract all manner of stickers and burrs like magnets.

I had begun to think that Lindsey, a Pilates acquaintance, wasn't going to rebuild as it was proving to be very expensive and took such a long time, so I was pleased to see the new house almost finished...on the outside at least. It looks different and bigger than her old house, but I think that is partly an optical illusion caused by the lack of bushes and the white paint. The solar panels are above the garage and it looks like they have added an extra room above the garage and perhaps another next to it.

I planned  to go up there after class to take a picture of the clouds which were building thunderheads, but by the time I got there they had largely dissipated, and there is nothing particularly 'quirky' about this picture but it looked better in mono so that the bright orange porta-potty didn't stand out quite so much. 

The news, like the building thunderheads, is making me uneasy. The pending lawsuits and investigations are building, but threatening to dissipate like the clouds did. My rational self tells me that the man is clearly a criminal and should be brought to justice sooner rather than later, but the investigations drag on, and we have seen what a master of stonewalling he is. If he is convicted of a felony, he can never run for office again but hard as it is to believe, it is not a foregone conclusion.

It's beginning to seem like a scene from Hitchcock's classic movie 'The Birds' around here. There have always been a lot of them and we enjoy watching them at the feeders or taking baths in the fountain. The loss of so many houses around here and probably a lot of natural habitat in the nearby hills has brought them flocking here. John still keeps the feeders full all the time but they are now sampling the figs and the tomatoes, not to mention the leaves of the newish fruit trees planted a couple of years ago. The fig tree is now  covered with bird netting which seems to be working, but it is devilishly hard to pick the ripe fruit!

I am about to go and wipe the handrail next to the front steps as it has become a popular place to perch rendering it less attractive as a place to hold onto when climbing the stairs....