Are You That Woman

Morning meditation

The best part of the day. Morning.

As I take clothes from the line, the moment of simplicity washes over me. Birds sing from hedges. A cool breeze. A plane buzzes overhead. In the distance, even the droning traffic is blissful. Hear the leaves rustle softly. Later in the day, afternoon heat will silence their sweet voices. Bees are humming around blossoms. Parenting scrub jays search for morsels to feed their screeching brood. Pestering cats must be shooed and clapped away. I've already blessed the garden with a morning shower, discovered the first grapes and a smiling Buddha drenched in sunlight.

These peaceful interludes are inspiration. Tapping deep into my soul and pushing me to write. Sit quiet in this garden temple. Sip tea and watch morning unfold. The raucous mockingbird dances above the power pole. One small voice, a hummingbird. I quickly turn my head to see. To hear. The pack of bees is growing. Blue flowered branches bounce under their persistent explorations. A honey bee wards off a much larger carpenter bee. A thirsty scrub jay sips from the water bowl.

A momentary rest, I lift my head from the notebook. Endlessly entertained, that crazy mockingbird calls and leaps. I stretch. My wayward hand elicits gentle notes from the wind chimes.

Each day, rising almost with the sun, I beg myself to stay nestled in sleep. But morning waits! Zzyzx is already catnapping. Nothing about her 17 years, it's #whatcatsdo! I nuzzle her, scratch under her chin and disturb her daily sabbatical. All parts of this hallowed respite. Then she finds me as I end this post as it began -- meditating on my garden view.

 

Fairfield California Is All About Discovery

What You Don't Know About Fairfield California Will Surprise You

A mention of Fairfield, California brings the usual responses, “Oh! That’s where the Jelly Belly factory is!” or, “Sure, the Budweiser plant is over there, right?” Well it’s true! Fairfield is home to the very famous Jelly Belly candy factory, as well as Anheuser-Busch brewing. Proud of these iconic attractions, Fairfield is so much more. Open your eyes and embrace your explorer spirit. You’ll find that Fairfield has enough surprises to fill an overnight or long-weekend escape.

Fairfield, California includes and is surrounded by some of northern California’s most beautiful landscapes.  Well situated, Fairfield is located within the California Coastal Range, centered directly north of Suisun Bay, northeast of San Pablo Bay, east of the Sacramento Valley, and is nearly equidistant from Sacramento and San Francisco. It is approximately 40 miles/64km from both San Francisco and Sacramento, approximately 30 miles/48km from Oakland, and less than 10 miles/16km from the Napa Valley.

Freeway close and urban in nature, many of Fairfield’s greatest attributes embrace its rural and agricultural roots. Nearby shopping, lodging, restaurants, and nightlife transcend the destination’s rural nature.  The region’s Coastal Ranges and canyons create recreational abundance: championship golf, orchards and farms, and scenic back roads. Agricultural riches in the Suisun Valley are protected to south by the Coast Range bordering the Napa Valley, the Vaca Mountains and Mt. George Range to the west, and Suisun Bay to the south.

Many familiar chain hotels are located just off Interstate 80, making Fairfield a convenient overnight and weekend getaway. Fairfield’s Westfield Solano Mall is the largest indoor shopping mall in Solano County, hosting more than one million square feet of retail space including a variety of popular restaurants and clothing boutiques. Just across the way, the 140,000-square-foot Gateway Courtyard Shopping Center rounds out the local retail scene including a popular northern California micro-brewery Blue Frog Brewing Company.  Joining the local craft brew scene, Heretic Brewing is worth discovering.  Tucked away in an industrial park off Clay Bank Road -- seek and ye shall find! The North and West Texas Street business districts for a number of one-of-a-kind shops, and where special events occur annually. 

In 2004, the Fairfield Hotel Association established a Business Improvement District (BID) to increase the awareness of the area’s many attractions and diversions, and encourage visitors to stay overnight.

Read more about the history, recreation, and beauty of Fairfield California....

It's all about the bats in the Yolo Basin

Most people run screaming in terror at the site or thought of a bat. Visions of Vincent Price and Count Dracula horror films quickly come to mind. The movies and stories of old have convinced us that bats -- all bats -- are blood-sucking vermin. Nothing could be further from the truth. A recent visit to the Yolo Basin Foundation chased away any fears and squelched the myths and lore of vampire-ish behavior.

Every summer, the Yolo Basin Foundation and NorCalBats, dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of bats throughout Northern California, conduct educational seminars about local bat colonies, their ecological importance, and efforts to conserve California bats. Specifically, Mexican free-tailed bats in   the Sacramento region.

Bats are not flying rodents. The truth is, bats are more like humans then you probably realize or care to know. Bats are mammals. They are warm-blooded and have fur. Bat babies are live births and they drink milk. Most bats only have one baby at a time, though occasionally they have multiple births. Sound familiar?

The majority of bats eat bugs. Some eat fruit. And of the 1,100 species worldwide, only THREE species actually "drink" blood! Of those, two species drink the blood of birds and one actually drinks the blood of mammals -- though mostly cattle and not that of beautiful young maidens. Now don't get too nervous. Unless you're traveling to Central or South America, you aren't likely to encounter any of these three blood-hungry creatures.

Another myth eliminated on this trip: Bats are not blind! In fact, they see in black and white and use echolocation to find their prey in the dark. It's a remarkable navigation system. What I'd really like to know is how someone figured out the B/W thing!

The bat presentation was fascinating and lasted about an hour. But then the big excitement and the thing we were all waiting for: the bats! Public tours can be packed and usually sell out, but we were a small group of maybe 7 or 8 being guided by Corky Quirk who is a lover of bats and expert in the field. We piled into a van and bumped along the dirt roads into the Yolo Basin, a flood plain between Davis and Sacramento. The land is farmed during the dry months and flooded in the rainy season. Bodies of water (some natural and some manmade) attract a bevy of wildlife year-round. During drier months, you can actually drive into the basin but for most people it's viewed from Interstate 80/The Yolo Causeway which crosses the basin for almost three miles between Sacramento and Yolo counties.

Little did they know that constructing the "Causeway" created the most perfect of bat habitats in the form of expansion joints under the bridge. How perfect? Well, how about 200,000 - 250,000 bats perfect! This is actually a maternal colony. Females only! (The guys hang-out in another location. Hmmm, not such a bad idea!) When the females give birth in early July the colony will more than double. I don't know about you, but that's a lot a bats!

Along about sundown we traveled approximately three miles into the Basin to the portion of the bridge where the bats colonize. Along the way we saw great egrets, snowy egrets, and night heron. Avocets tip-toed through shallow rice paddies and great blue heron strutted slowly, gracefully across the field. The dots of red on black bird shoulders bounced and bobbed among the tule and rushes. And the flash of one lone yellow-headed black bird elicited a gasp from me. A clutch of baby ducks skittered away as we passed and three young Canada geese ran comically down the road in search of their parents.

We arrived at our destination and waited for the big moment…the bat “fly out!” It comes just around sundown and on this particular evening, somewhere around 8:35 p.m. And just as promised and on cue tens of thousands of female bats poured – in a steady stream – out from under the bridge. Strangely there is one exit point. They fly out over one particular tree. Up into the sky and then begin to disperse into smaller groups, heading off for an evening of bug gorging. There’s one major exodus followed by several smaller groups.

It was out of this world! And just another in a long list of California ’s most amazing natural wonders.

For more information on the Bat Talk & Walk, visit the Yolo Basin Foundation website: www.YoloBasin.org and NorCalBats at www.NorCalBats.org.

NorCalBats is funded through donations and presentations. No money is received from California Department of Fish & Widllife, U.S. Department of Agriculture, any state or federal agency, or major corporation. Tours are $12 each; children 15 and under are free.