Hillbilly Wally: Fishing clouds out of water

This post covers two different weekends I was up at the SSP. One weekend I went up with Jorgy and his girlfriend Riley. She's a cute taco-terrier who just loves to kiss everybody and insists on sitting on your lap. Anyway, on the way up we stopped in Arvin as I always do to buy some fruits and vegetables from Abel. He's a very nice man, always smiling, and he always gives me extra items after I pay him. Last time he gave me nopales which Ernie and I grilled. They tasted mighty good. You can't beat his prices either. Here's Abel.

I had read there's a church in Arvin with a landmark commemorating Father Garces' stay in the area at the end of April of 1776. He was the first white man to come around these parts. Here's a small statue that was erected in the courtyard of the Saint Thomas the Apostle Church on April 30, 1944.

Once we got up to the cabin, I decided the doggies needed a good walk so we went to the property by the creek on our way to the pond. Snows are still melting from Piute Mountain so the creek was flowing. I was happy to see a family enjoying the cool running water. Children just know how to have fun with anything. It inspired me to take off my boots and socks and dip my feet in the water. Yes, it was very cold but I got used to it and it was fun feeling the sand between my toes. It reminded me of Steinbeck in "Travels with Charley" when he stopped to dip his feet in a creek to help him think better. And of course, Thomas Jefferson said that one should soak one's feet in cold water for half an hour every day to stay in health.

Here we are on a drier part of the creek. I tried and tried to have the doggies look at the camera and smile...

We walked around the pond which was starting to look a bit more alive. Local residents have been working hard to bring water from the creek to the pond. A bunch of sand came down with last summer's flash floods and plugged the natural course of the creek so sand and boulders had to be moved, sandbags added here and there, culverts cleaned out. A huge job but as you will see later in this post, it paid off.

We had a quiet evening. I watched a film and Jorgy and Riley just snuggled.

The following photos are from a later weekend I went up in mid March. It rained enough this year to give a good bloom of wild flowers. It's not enough rain to get us out of a drought but at least, we got lots of flowers! This is going up the road on the side of Bear Mountain, just out of Arvin. Lovely isns't it?

Getting off the 58 at the Caliente offramp, here's the view looking down the tiny. beautiful valley. To think I'm still in Southern California...

Once we got to the cabin, I was curious to see how full the pond (aka Lena Lake) was. Surprise! The pond was full to the max, so much so that water overflowed into the secondary pond. I knew it wasn't a miracle because I had seen the guys working hard at it but boy, what a beauty. Last summer it almost looked like a puddle after the fire department used it to put out the fire on Piute. Locals had gotten together for a fund raiser to buy an industrial water pump to keep the pond alive but pumps are expensive and times are tough. The lack of money didn't stop them though. Hats off.

I came across a family (neighbors of mine) fishing and I'm pretty sure this little boy was trying to catch a cloud out of the water. As matter of fact he did and he gave it me. I'm keeping it in my heart where it twirls and twirls and tickles. This summer we'll be able to go fishing and swimming locally.

Here's the secondary pond which had been completely dry for 2-3 years.

I had come up with the mission to scrape and paint the decks. The sandpaper and metal brush I had wouldn't do it. I needed a scraper but didn't have one so I had no choice but to do nothing and simply relax. I sat on the porch and just admired the mountains and the different varieties of birds. Tough life... Later on, Ernie and I got together for dinner and barbecued some mighty filet mignon steaks and Abel's nopales. He brought out his guitar, played a few songs and then it was bed time. Walking back home, the sky was glowing with millions of stars.

I'm glad I didn't paint because the next day, well, it snowed!

It started with rain in the middle of the night, then hail early in the morning and finally puffy white snow. What a treat! I can't remember the last time I saw snow fall. And again, this right here in Southern California.

It stopped by mid afternoon and of course the mountains all around were beautifully clothed in white.

By late afternoon, the sky was mostly clear with big, odd-shaped puffy clouds. The clouds come down close in the basin, like if they wanted to kiss the earth. I saw one playing around by my neighbor's house, a few feet above the ground. It was twirling and twirling slowly but not going anywhere.

I decided to stay the night and leave early the next day to be on time for work. On the way out, I saw more lazy, playful clouds close to the ground just having fun changing shape slowly and twirling on itself. Yes, this place is magical. I am blessed to have been invited into its heart.