Photography, Life, Cats, Travel, Gardening

Tornado Warnings in Minnesota, Extreme Heat in California, Evidence of Fairies, the Garden in the Sky, a Sunset for Emerson, New Routines, Magical Mushrooms, Energy Healings, and Lotuses at the Arboretum

A few weeks in photos

It has been hot, hot, hot in Southern California lately. Some of you might remember a post of mine from last winter featuring these standing stones, which I ride past on my daily mountain bike ride (which I’m not doing right now, for fear of melting — or more likely dessicating). They looked then like they might be straight out of ancient Ireland, surrounded by green hills.

These days, they look more like an abandoned archaelogical site. And yet, someone — I have no idea who does it — keeps creating new arrangements with the rocks. This time, a branch was featured as an arch.

It amazes me that nature finds a way to thrive in the dryness that is Southern California in the summer. And yet, this purple flower is “evidence of life.”

I’ve been continuing to refine the “Garden in the Sky.” I created this little sanctuary for my kitties so that they have a safe place to be out in the fresh air and sunshine.

I can tell that they are just longing for those couple of afternoon hours outside in the garden each day that they used to have. But after the horror of my former best friend locking my baby, Emerson, outside at night, and his death, while we were in Alaska in June, I just can’t bring myself to let them back out.

I really wrestle with it because I have always thought that our fenced in garden was a safe haven in the middle of the day. And the new camera system that we put in has not detected anything dangerous during daylight hours. But we are all so traumatized that, for now, we are adjusting to life inside and on the two balconies.

Yes, those are magical mushrooms behind Freyja. I’ve put in several “scratching stations,” along with catnip and oat grass galore for the babies.

And the raised bed showed up and has been a great hit. I wanted them to have a place to dig and scratch and pee. It seems to be a great hit. And I think that it might have been visited by fairies, who built some houses beneath the mushrooms.

In recent years, extraordinary sunsets have seemed to accompany deaths in our family. I can’t explain it. A couple of nights before my dad died, nature painted the most amazing sunset across the Arizona sky. And then, the night before my husband’s sister’s husband died, we watched the sky light up again. It happened once more when my husband’s mother died last year.

I couldn't understand where Emerson’s sunset was. But, after a very grief-filled day, when I wrote a poem for him through tears which just would not stop, I stepped out onto the balcony in front — where he always used to sit in the evenings to watch the parrots fly by and the hummingbirds have a last frenzy of activity — and I watched this sunset evolve. Thank you, Emerson.

We’re adjusting to new routines around here. I decided to get all new cat beds and discovered that they now make these “kitty cups” in a larger size. Bisou and Freyja heartily approve and have been lounging together by my desk in the afternoons.

And we’ve gotten some new toys. This one has been well-received (the dusting with silvervine and catnip did not hurt).

I’ve been feeling a bit detached from my garden, which has always been such a source of joy for me. I have to say that this death has been the hardest one that I have ever experienced. It really knocked me sideways.

So we decided to do an “energy cleanse” with sage and a candle and water. We also did a “cord-cutting ceremony” to get rid of any bad energetic ties. It was interesting. Bisou followed us all over the house and really seemed to notice a difference.

And, since then, I have been spending a little more time outside, noticing the change of seasons. The bottle brush has bloomed. And the Queen Anne’s lace is already on its way out. I feel like I’ve missed an entire season. But I am consciously searching out those “droplets of nectar” — those little moments of happiness that are always there, even though we might not always notice them.

We went out with our friends who have a boat again. Last time, we saw an incredible dolphin stampede. This time, we were planning to go to Catalina Island. But the weather had different plans for us that day.

There was a hurricane off the coast of Mexico and the waves were huge. Thank heavens for dramamine and those little accupressure wrist bands! We did see a lot of dolphins, but I have no photos because I couldn’t even hold a camera straight enough to focus. But it was still a fun day with amazing friends.

We took the bikes down to Newport Coast for a ride because it was just too hot here. And it was actually sort of cold — 68 degrees when we started — and misty.

And, my sister, my husband and I went to Minnesota to see my mom, who lives in Apple Valley (I have an amazing new professional cat-sitter, who has the babies on “lock-down” while we are away). While we were there, we were caught in a tornado warning. It was crazy! We went from watching the sunset to being herded inside to another table, to rain blowing sideways and lightening strikes every few seconds.

I have to admit that I’ve always been a little obsessed with extreme weather. So this was exciting! We were told that we might have to take refuge in a walk-in refrigerator. That did not sound like a lot of fun, so we were glad when the weather abated. We learned later that five tornados had touched down.

These are a couple of snaps of my mom and my sister (who has lost over 80 pounds in the last year — doesn’t she look fabulous?).

We did a little hike around a lake and saw this Great Blue Heron. And we went to a Van Gogh exhibit, a Japanese textile exhibit and the arboretum (more coming on those later).

Did you know that turtles can swim to heaven? This photo was sort of an optical illusion. You can read about it here.

This is the arboretum and the lotus ponds. I wrote a poem about the lotuses that you can read here.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you all had lovely weeks.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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As always, I thank you Dennett for creating this “week in photos” challenge.

It’s so fun to share about the week and to read about so many other photographers’ weeks around the world.

You might want to check out a few of the others who participate:

Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett/Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages /Shell Parsons/Ivy Shepherd

(if I’ve missed any of the “week in photos” tribe, please let me know!)

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.