North Jetty Birding Day

The NoCali Bird Nerds eschewed cleaning up after the earthquake, and headed into the tsunami zone for an afternoon birding trip. The highlights of the day were a burrowing owl, red-necked grebes, black turnstones, surfbirds, surfers, the surf itself, plus sea lions and porpoises.

Birding on the North Spit, Humboldt Bay

Earthquake Jumble

Earthquake Jumble

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Humboldt County on Jan. 9, 2010, around 4:30 p.m. Mostly just tossed books and DVDs around. Our only losses were suicidal tchachkas and a liter of olive oil on the kitchen floor.

The year of Friday Poetry

Skies redden, sun settles
Rain storm puddles on rooftops
The view from the Hall

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With the closing of the year, my Friday Poetry Project is at an end.

My original goal was to post one haiku per week -- not necessarily to compose a poem, just post one. Some of the poems I posted this year were written in years past. Some weeks I wrote several poems, other times were dry spells. And a couple posts weren't my poetry at all, but simply about poetry or haiku.

I find myself taking a mental snapshot of a moment, then later writing about it. Sometimes finding the right words is a struggle, but writing more makes the words come a little more easily. Not always, though, and that's part of the challenge that fuels creativity.