California! Part 3 - Homeward Bound!

Wednesday morning I left for home, arriving 12 hours later. As always, I stopped at my favorite rest areas (the ones on rivers and with lots of birds). In Northern California, Ring-billed Gulls haunt the rest areas hoping for hand outs. In a rest area along the Rogue River of Oregon, an Acorn Woodpecker was gathering, naturally, acorns. Some day I may compile a Fauna and Flora of Interstate 5 Rest Areas Online Guide. I am, after all, quite familiar with I-5 rest areas from Seattle to Sacramento.

As much as I loved seeing both sons and their families, something I've never been able to do before in one trip since they live in opposite directions from us, it was great to come home. The tulips were in full bloom, the birds, like this White-throated Sparrow and the Savannah Sparrow atop our manure pile, were dressed in their colorful breeding plumage.


It was great to see my horses but I must admit they looked nothing like the show horses I'd seen so recently. In the photo Jessie Anne is demonstrating how she got so filthy: find the muddiest place you can and roll over and over.






Being gone for a week made me realize, once again, how much I love this farm and all its inhabitants. The peacock displayed his amazing train. Chipmunks joined the flock of sparrows and quail for the seed I threw out. Even the weather turned sunny and warm. And there was hot water again thanks to Johnny, who I was also very glad to see. (He said he was glad to see me, too, especially, I suspect, because he could now be relieved of morning and night milking and feeding chores.)

Life is good.