A fun classical music video.

Artful driftwood art at the beach this last weekend.

Hanging out here with the cats and listening to Fresh Air from last week.

There is something unusual about this picture of Haystack rock near the Pelican Brew Pub in Pacific City Oregon that I took this morning. :)

It is that partial blue sky and the blue blue water. We go there off season and it is usually gray. Beautiful but gray. This morning Most Honorable and I had a lovely fast walk down the long empty beach with a very low tide.

Yesterday right straight out from where I took this picture there were brown pelicans diving for fish and being mobbed by gulls. The pelicans are magnificent. Somewhat prehistoric looking but magnificent all the same.

It was a truly lovely long weekend away. Happy girl.

My guess is that this house was originally an anchor farm house on a block that is now jammed full of small houses and apartments. Imagine the stories it has to tell? That glowering sky in the shot I took just this time last week over near the yoga studio is just like the sky we have had all day here. Then it was a more changeable day.  Today it has been consistently dark and damp. Sigh.

I have two links today. The first is a progress report on the independent documentary being made about W.S. Merwin. The gardens in the clips are worth taking a gander at.

The second link is a short essay about how bird watchers are at the leading edge of climate change and why.

The rhododendrons are coming on. This afternoon was warmish with the clouds pushed back to the sides of the valley.

I had three new students in yoga today. We celebrated our shins and thought about those folks who woke up this morning without their legs and feet in Boston.

The wife  of one of the guys that was laid off yesterday was laid off two weeks ago. I can only imagine the stress in that household.

It is like something out of Gone Girl.

In ten days Kes and Most Honorable and I are making our annual spring pilgrimage to the Oregon coast. I am so looking forward to it this year.

I took this over in inner SE yesterday just after a rain squall. I do love the light. It is worth clicking on to see full sized.

So sad and disturbing about the marathon bombing. My heart aches for all who are injured and the families of those who lost their lives.

Crazy day at work. Quite stressful. Any day that involves layoffs in one's work group is always stressful. My heart aches for the four folks who will be leaving us on the 1st of May.

My link today is about yoga and allergies.

Yeah, yeah you are saying, I get that it is spring there. But when it is spring here, it is really spring. It is unequivocally spring. The iris, the lilac, the bleeding hearts are all in bloom and a wonder to behold between rain squalls.

Sammy is hanging in there. Right now he is the power spot on the polar tech blanket on top of the heated cat bed in a patch of sun. I took the day off from work so I could finally finish my yoga graduation assignments and he is so much calmer when I am not working.

Hmmm. I wonder why that is?

Kes bought me a couple of pairs of sweat pants about three years ago sized medium and I was so sad to realize I couldn't fit in them with the creeping weight gain from dealing with Mr. Finch's illness. I found them last night and they now fit perfectly!

I'd say it is spring around here in many more ways than just seasonal.

Because I have found myself wandering around in my pajamas (covered in a raincoat) and sneakers after dark to get my Activity points I have been thinking how beautiful spring is, even after the sun goes down. This blooming pear tree is an example. I love the almost Japanese feel to this.

My links today are columns about falling. I think the person in that column is pretty crazy to take her big dog out in the ice and snow without being more geared up. The comments are as interesting as the column.

This other column is a bit more medically based and kind of interesting. Everyone who knows me knows I have a pathological fear of falling on ice in the street even though I still, blessedly, have excellent balance. I like the idea of a yoga teacher teaching folks how to fall properly.

I'm not sure that is in the Sutras, but still I like the idea.

This is an experiment. I took this shot yesterday evening with my phone over near the yoga studio and to me is so pretty but when I copy it to iPhoto it is all blurry.

The transfer process must be compressing it or something. Good to know.

Olga, my yoga teacher, told me last week that working with couples as private yoga clients is challenging. More so than working one on one. I did experience that last night. I think we will all end up getting great benefit out of the process but we will all three learn stuff about ourselves in the meantime. The meeting last night gave me much to ponder.

One thing I know for sure, that if they actually do the work they will benefit so I need to keep that in mind.

Even with over an hour of walking in my day I only made it to 96% of my activity target last night. Sigh. As with food, advance planning appears to be in order to hit one's goals.

I took this on the 8th of April last year. It was dry. It is not dry now. This is the street in front of where I live and the tree in bloom to the left is the same tree in vivid fall color on my December 12th shot. Looking at this last night I was seeing the red tree off in the distance and when I was out midday I saw it was even fuller and more gorgeous this year. Even in the drizzly gloom.

First ever private yoga clients tonight (a couple) over at the studio. I am excited.

Not the best picture because the light is a little too bright but still what a wonderful visage to take in on an ordinary walk in a not exactly ordinary neighborhood on a ridiculously beautiful Saturday.

Long work day today. Got useful things done in the morning. My cat sitter is back from vacation and we had a nice chat while giving Sammy his fluids just after. As it all becomes more of a routine and I relax more, Sammy does too.

Now if I could just get the technique for giving oral meds down so it is a little less messy...

Many many meetings at work tomorrow. Serial meetings. I was thinking today while washing grapes, glorious dark red grapes, that I need to become the queen of single-tasking. Doing one thing and one thing only and doing it well.

Here is the Fresh Air Interview with Mary Roach about her new book Gulp . I haven't listened to it yet but I bet it is great. Her Science Times podcast interview last week was a hoot.