Audubon heaven, baby

Right outside my window I see hummingbirds flying about the landlady's garden. The hummingbird is so ubiquitous that she bought me a themed mailbox when I moved in. I see them everywhere I go...one trailed me closely as I walked home for lunch one day. Could it have been the Hawaiian shirt I was wearing? The grand flowers on it were pretty darned attractive. It might have been that the bird just had an appreciation for good fabric art!

This morning on the way to work I heard the cooing of doves. I see birds I haven't seen in years here. The doves take me back to my childhood, to visits to my grandparents place in L.A. I would wake in the morning to the sound of those birds outside the window, which matched the beat and cadence of traffic lightly hissing along on Pico. The background beat of early 60's Mexican radio, the patter of Spanish being bantered about in the kitchen, the soft click and clack of dishes, plates and coffee cups close by made those doves an important aural imprint.

Years ago when we met you asked me if I knew about birds or had any favorites. I had been gone so long from the Southland that I forgot about those doves, about the hummingbirds the graced my mom's fushia plants back on Wisteria. I knew about the gulls, had an idea about spotted owls from my Oregon days, could tell a woodpecker from a sparrow but hey, not much else. Never really seemed to find the time or the inclination to label or identify those fowl feathered friends.

You changed that, kiddo. I went from a handful to a full out library's worth of recognition. Got to Portland to see the "bird show". Took in Audubon meetings. Bought the guides. The feeders. Brought it all into my life, colored it beautifully. I'm a happier man for it.

These days I look about me, know that I should break out my Sibley's as I see so many birds that are new to me, that are passing through. My eyes are open. I just need a guidebook.

Thanks for giving me that gift of birdlike flight. My imagination soars, my heart does, too.

Your WHMB

All I really want to do....

I ain't lookin' to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you
Frighten you or tighten you
Drag you down or drain you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

Bob Dylan

Intrepid traveler seeks old flame

Donde estas, mi amiga?

Manila envelope, Come visit Mendocino

Before I send off a somewhat packed treasure chest to you, I figured I would give you a bit of a legend to decipher it all. Not that it really requires it, mind you. It looks an awful lot like a Chamber of Commerce package, something you would get if you sent along a card letting them know you were passing through or getting ready to settle down in the area. Every week I go to the local travel bureaus and gather stuff for the lobby. There is always something happening here, local, regional, holiday events, but the sea is a constant, the vistas and views always intriguing, the wineries, the art galleries always burgeoning with new things to share. I know, as I take advantage of all of it.

 “So, what’s in that envelope you have coming my way?” you might ask. Well, right off a local map of the area. You can see the Mendocino County Library branch that I work at mentioned on the insert map. Fort Bragg is a great walking town, especially when I need to get out of the shop for awhile and schmooze with my patrons. Downtown is only three blocks away from the library, close enough for us to consider being a destination for First Friday Art Walk. On Sunday I talked with one of my volunteers, an artist who regularly shares her work with local galleries, and she put in my head the idea of putting a “pop up” show in the evening during community room during the monthly event. And while we can’t do cheese and wine we can certainly do cookies and coffee!

You'll find that there is also a Rock Walk map in the stack. I use that map regularly on the weekends to find new and exciting places to test my walking skills. A lot of the destinations on that map take you right up to the end of the continent, walking the edges of cliffs that are not always as stable as they should be or seem to be. I love the taking in the vistas, love the proximity to raw wilderness, to open space, to fresh sea air. I never tire of the views, as they are always changing with the seasons. I take in Glass Beach here in town at least once a week, maybe more. No matter how many times I’ve seen the view I feel that I see each time with fresh eyes. The tide changes, the sunsets are constantly renewed, the out-of-towners always thrilled to come home with bits and pieces of the shore line. Love being part of that big thrill quotient!

Film guides are nice to have, as are guides to local building and lighthouses, so  you'll find a few those in the envelope as well. Our stretch of the coast has been filmed and photographed since the turn of the last century and it doesn’t look to be slowing down any. Recently the town was used in a Bank of America commercial. Seems the location scouts, after looking all around the world, thought we looked like a prototypical fishing village, which, after years of being an active fishing port, wasn't much of a stretch. It was a lot fun to watch the pros in action, I even snagged a small part as an extra. I hope that somehow you get to see that when it airs. If you can’t wait to see my network television debut you can watch me do my thing on cable. MCTV did a profile on me back in the fall and it can be found on the internet. Local boy does good, something like that!

In the meantime I’ve been working the ticket counter for the Mendocino Film Fest folks on their random screenings before the big show come May. They recently floated a few upcoming features for me to screen at home, to review for the local paper. Movies are just a big part of being here as I buy them all the time for the library and screen them whenever I can. Music, too, is a big deal, as I've been training for a small “on air” spot with the local micro station, KNYO. Let’s see where that goes!

 The Botanical Gardens I haven’t had a chance to see yet, least ways, not in the tourist sense. I had a chance to participate in their annual Pack Rat sale when I first got here. It was an awfully fun first look at the locals and what they consider cool used stuff to buy and swap. I also had a chance to walk the gardens before my volunteer shift during Winesong, an annual fundraising event. Now that was a mighty fine time! The Friends newsletters will give you a taste of the branch, plus you can see my smiling face! Been here now over eight months and not a day goes by that someone or another tells me how good we’re doing. I’m happy here, that way, but somehow the need, the hard core desire to get the kids closer might sabotage it all. I have been looking up towards Washington once again but we’ll see where that goes. For the time being I’m doing great things here and that should please you to no end. It does me.

So, take a gander, pass those maps and brochures around your library, see if there is any interest with your bunch in my stretch of the coast. If and when you go to San Francisco in the future drop down our way. The wine country is mighty fine, the art galleries will give you reason to pause, the hotels and restaurants are worth the effort to find and relax in. Come down, say hello. It would be great to see you and to show off this grand new place where I live in!

Love always, your WHMB

 

Mendo Coast, March 2013

It's been almost eight months here now and all I have to show for it is an apartment full of paintings. Not my paintings, of course, but found items salvaged from various second hands here on the coast. Grant it, some things have followed me from Washington and Idaho, some pieces, such as the Regulator clock, go back even further than that. Books, knick-knacks, film, music, all that standard stuff of my life, seem to find their way into my home no matter where I go, which is fine and well and good. I have always liked to surround myself with gee-gaws, with the essentials that make my life raft, desert island lifestyle always appealing and welcoming, even to those just passing through.

I've had those passing through moments here in Fort Bragg. Life is what you make of it and it has been busy, no doubt. I volunteer all over the place...Winesong, Coast Clean up, the Noyo Food Forest fund raiser, Whale Days, Mendocino Film Fest, KNYO radio, the local food bank. .I take in Fort Bragg's First Friday art walk and the 2nd Saturday in Mendocino whenever I can. I've cadged tickets to concerts, taken in art house flicks, made myself known at the local brew pub. I've lent my hand to many things, been successful as a manager at the local branch library, had a few dinner parties, made some interesting contacts, even made some friends along the way. Had a good pal, some even might call a lover, pass through my life oh so briefly. She was a basket weaver, a collage artist, a true character, one who burned her wicks at both ends and in the middle, too. She had complications, that gal, had health issues and other complexities that, in the end, took her out. Heart attack. In her own bed. Wonders never cease for me here in this life. Make friends only to have them go away, seriously far away.

But in the end this life, this cast onto the shore of the Pacific life, has been filled with goodness, a ton of  introspection, a bit of harsh loneliness, sometimes too much wine, a tad too much spending and a wee bit too little in the way of income. I make my way to the City only when business beckons. I walk the coast every chance I get. I study the coastal maps, pack snacks and water and try out new places to wander, to beach comb and to empty my mind.

In all of that I still find you. I find you everywhere, from the wildest coastal crags to the aisles of the funkiest thrift stores to the hard bench seats of tacquerias in the smallest of tiendas. What was it recently that triggered thoughts of you? Oh, yes, Seussical Style. I saw a poster for the production while I waiting to do training at the local micro radio station. Walked across Franklin Street to take a better look. I saw what there was to see and immediately I was taken back to a Veteran's Day weekend ages ago. Even at this distance of almost eight hundred miles and many years you manage to sneak in under the wire, come to me sideways, say hello without having to utter a word. I long for it and yet, when it comes, it leaves me breathless.

I am not immune to your charms even from this distance, my dear, I must admit. Even with restrictions such as not  having a computer in my life I manage to peek into your world. I saw new snaps of you on FB the other day and loved seeing them. And then, with the dexterity of a wing walker, I took those images into my heart and walked the seaside cliffs here in town to try to shake them loose. I took that visage of yours right up to the surf, right up to the edge of the water at sunset and thought hard about you, thought hard of all those things that used to bind me to you and then, like casting off a feather into the wind, let that image of your face go.

But then, M, my love, you see, I have a whole pillow case full of feathers here to toss into the wind. Many sunsets yet to come, many second hands yet to troll, many meals and bottles of wine and movies to delight in, many more reasons to think of you.

Here's to water views, to children all around us, to decisions that continue to mar and alter and delight our lives and to old lovers that go on and on and on. Thank the gods for that.

Love always, your WHMB