Another Snake in the Grass

This time it IS a rattlesnake. A Western one, appropriately enough. We were walking on the high, rocky trail in the Sonoma Valley Regional Park. The Genus is recognizable by the triangular head and, of course, the rattle on the end of the tail. The species is indicated by the white stripes around the tail. This one seemed quite lethargic and we surmised that it was digesting a meal as the middle section looked quite distended. John made a wide circuit around it with Spike and I lingered to see if I could get a closer look at it.  It finally got tired of me pointing my camera at it and slithered off into the taller grass. 

I finally convinced John that it would be much appreciated if he would stay within eyesight as we picked our way down a steep rocky hill to the main, paved trail. I have discovered that all I need is something to put my hand on as I'm going down steep steps. I can go upstairs like a normal person and usually down as well, but the times when my knee complains about the step down are unpredictable. 

He finally got the message and behaved accordingly. It wade for a much more pleasant drive home through the beautiful Sonoma Valley where the crush is beginning and big trucks full of tons of lugs full of grapes are starting to appear on the highway. They are harvested before dawn by workers with headlamps. 

The grass everywhere is dry and in some well traveled places almost reduced to dust. One fire, I forget which one, caused a lot of damage in this preserve and killed a lot of oak trees . They have stood like skeletons for years and are now beginning to fall over. Some, like the one in extras uproot themselves completely and fall but others begin to lose their branches which fall around the base of the tree like kindling. Efforts are being made to cut some of them up but it looks like they are just going to leave most of them to return to the soil.

I finished what I'm calling my 'prototype' of the Klee quilt. .I can't sew it together without my machine and I can't start on the real thing until my fabric makes its meandering way here from Missouri, but I do have a pretty good idea what I'm going to  do now. I'll post a picture when I get it sewn together. I've never designed a quilt from scratch before, so this is a new adventure....

John has been spending hours fixing irrigation...a never ending task. Some emitters just get plugged but in other cases it turns out that a major pipe has been chewed through by some animal in search of water.

Family dinner tonight at Jim and Dana's. Will has returned from his vacation in Maine with Chloe's family to pick up their cats , Beans and Harley, who have been languishing at Jim and Dana's. Peter will be there too before school starts for the fall semester tomorrow. He's looking forward to teaching an AP (Advanced Placement) class because the students are more motivated than the 9th graders who are taking Basic Math because they have to in order to graduate.

I need to make a salad.