Sky High Wonder

The Sunday Scribblings prompt is WONDER. And I may just get under the wire, since daughter Candace and I took advantage of this glorious warm day for a wheelchair trip (Candy pushing, me riding)around the Marina paths through the territory where folk were flying kites, walking dogs, picnicking, and shedding their winter wear.

Candy with kites just showing over hilltop.

Fathers were launching kites with the "help" of excited children.

Big Dog.

And what child's sense of wonder could fail him at the sight of this humongous dog floating above him or her? They ran back and forth beneath him shouuting with laughter, trying to catch a giant paw. While this is literally a kite filled only with breezes from the bay through that flapping slit between his eyes, it's greater weight required a booster kite, at a much greater height, buoying it up.

Booster Kite,

Nor were children the only ones taking part in the joy and wonder of kites! Here are a few other kite photos taken today. Many may be practicing for the renowned Berkeley Kite Festival, which takes place in July.

Here are a few more kites sighted today:

Airplane kite

There were many rotating kites.

Dragon rising.

And then there were the ground squirrels everywhere. A sign at the entrance to the walks warns "Please don't feed the squirrels." It seems that the park is suffering from squirrel over-population. Well, here are a few of the little varmints:

One squirrel...

Two squirrels...

And so it goes. And the squirrel population grows and grows. For some other blogs participating in Sunday Scribblings (probably not submitted as late as this one) click on links or banner.

M is Mythic Beasts

M is the letter to which Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday round 6 has advanced. To enjoy other posts of M, follow the above link or click on the banner.

OF MYTHIC BEASTS

I’ve never tried to trap a unicorn.
It’s not more graceful, say, than a gazelle,
an earthly beast I’m sure would do as well;
and what’s so great about a single horn?
Nor have I tried to snare a horse with wings.
I’ve flown across the sky, but in a jet.
I see no earthly use for such a pet;
I’ll save my sugar cubes to sweeten things.

But dragons! Ah, now that’s a different story:
great flailing tails that slither, thrash, and crash,
tough armored scales to hide the wicked core,
the iridescent wings a blue-black glory,
the knobbly claws whose talons rake and slash!
My favored mythic beasts breathe fire, and roar!

Just in case you don't believe me, above is one proof of my loyalty to dragons.

Below, however, is my favorite dragon.
I have done animations of him, but
have not found a way to upload animations to blogspot.

Of course he flies by day and night and once had a home in a cave with other dragons.

He also has a wife named Trog. Here is a picture of her on her wedding day.

As I was just saying...

The prompt for Sunday Scribblings is "deadline".


Really! I am visiting in Port Townsend, where, in Otto and Kristin's house (not the separate building with music studio and Otto's office), there is no printer. Kristin is trying to put together a box of gifties to send to Johnny and Pookie in Thailand, and only my gift is lacking its tag. Otto is out in his office, so I e-mailed the design below for him to print, then cell-phoned him to tell him it was on his e-mail. But he, too, has a time problem in that he is in the midst of down-loading some programs!


I am notoriously late with birthday greetings, even though they are printed right there on my calendar. I missed your birthday yesterday, granddaughter Ruthie. Happy belated birthday! The next gift I send will be a wedding gift! I am determined to remember that granddaughters Anna and Gwen have April birthdays. Or have I already missed yours, Gwen?

A happy deadline is May 15 when the tenant in the little house across from the Otto Smiths will have vacated it and I can begin moving my "new" (acquired at Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity thrift stores) furniture into what will be my part-time home. I will still keep my Berkeley house, at least for the near future.

The prompt today could not have been more relevant! For more responses to it, go to Sunday Scribblings.