Impressions On A Spring Afternoon

Mines Road, 17 miles south of Livermore. a short decompression drive. To "The Turnout" next to Big Meadow, stopped and put the chair together. Up the road, pushing slowly...wind sounds like cars driving on the road a half mile away...wind gets louder blowing through the grey pines and blue oaks, a Civil War of trees in elevated ranchland...noise finally becomes alive when gust makes it through the forest to be at my side...goldfields in full bloom, can hardly see the green for the gold, birds announcing "we're here!" - quail by the hundreds, red winged blackbirds, hummers and kites...a flock of squawk as grounded birds take flight, one was too slow as Kite vs Red Winged Blackbird ends quickly and poorly for the smaller of the two...up the road, pushing hard and moving quickly, horses in meadow take note....one walks to fence, I meet him there, he nuzzles looking for an apple or carrot, none found he wanders back to the rest of his equine bridge club... Kites flying, no strings attached but sporting long white tails, riding the breeze into dead oaks, calling kite calls as she leaves her perch; squirrels yell, and as a lower mammal might not realize their shriek is simply a hawk magnet, "Prey Made Easy", right from the infomercial, all the raptors are flying in 'n buying in...past the meadow, the ringing noise of phones, computer generated complication and the workplace left in a field, now 18 miles south of Livermore on Mines...blue oaks going green, leafing out in a sporty blaze of magnificence...back past the horses, met once more at the fence for a few strokes of a large snout...stopping at an overlook, creek below, bullfrogs leap in when I rustle the gravel...."Bob!" the passing bike rider yells, "climb any mountains lately?"....on toward the car but not getting in...hills green and trying to imagine being the first to explore, where I'd go, how I'd manage, where the home would be set up...sun behind the western hills now, still warm, first loggerhead shrike of the season on the branch of a dead oak...time spent but hardly wasted; feeling sorry for all who place so much importance on technology and doodads of modern life, where THIS is where we have to learn our balance points....no, Herb, Three Dot Journalism will never die!...Happy Earth Day / Week - make your mark out there, take a raptor to lunch....these are the days that will shape our children's futures - use them wisely and to our collective benefit, please!