California Newt

This morning we all got up and dressed and out the door at a fairly early hour, and drove up the narrow, winding road to Hood Mountain, which is right above our house. It was a perfect morning for a hike down to the creek where the kids and the dog were all in heaven chasing sticks (Ozzie) and searching for rocks and wildlife.

Tim and Owen scampered like gazelles across the creek on rocks and boulders, followed a bit more cautiously by Maya, while I poked around in the complicated masses of exposed tree roots looking for photo opportunities, and OilMan and Ozzie played with sticks.

Tim is holding a California newt. The picture was the unanimous choice of the kids for today's blip. It's hard to see in this picture, but newts have bright orange undersides. In Tilden Park in Berkeley, one of the main roads through the park is closed from November to April every year so that the newts migrating from the hills to the creeks, don't get run over by cars. Their gait on land is the same as their swimming technique. They alternate bringing the two legs on one side of their body together and then the two legs on the other side. This is quite endearing, and a lot more efficient in the water than it is on land.

Maya and I sat on a rock discussing what characteristics make certain creatures (koalas, babies, giraffes) appealing , while others (bats, snakes, alligators) are considered ugly and sometimes downright creepy. We both felt that while newts don't have any of the characteristics of the former group, they are still, as Maya puts it, "adorable". (Perhaps you need to see them in action….) Despite their slow, unwieldy gait, newts have few predators because their skin emits a powerful neurotoxin. As a puppy, Ozzie quickly learned to leave them alone.

After bacon, tomato and guacamole sandwiches for lunch, I took the kids to the ice cream store, and we sat by the rather sorry looking fountain outside the Safeway. As we sat licking our cones, a sudden strong gust of wind came up, inundating us with spray from the fountain, and knocking over the sandwich boards advertising the UPS store and the Mexican restaurant behind us.

I dropped my phone,, shattering the glass. while trying to take a one handed picture of Maya and Owen with their lurid colored ice creams (purple and aqua "cotton candy" and multicolored "chocolate chip cookie dough"for Maya). The good news is, the phone still works, although one needs to be careful not to leave a trail of glass shards. A trip to the Apple store tomorrow is indicated….