This is my catch up on all my pictures post. Excuse the randomness.

The beach after the heavy rains we had here. See the pack of terns that blended themselves in with the seagulls? They're the "coolest" looking birds in my book.



This was from last week at the beach, a much warmer, nicer day. This lady found this grebe in the water, she thinks it was hit by a wave or sick. She also thought it might have been an immature bird based on its size. It was a rare treat to see it so close and my daughter got to pet it.



This was the sunset that day - Valentine's day. We watched the sun sink all the way into the sea together. Beautiful. And if you look along the horizon you can see Catalina's silhouette. What a blessing to live in this beautiful place.




Here's a dumpy, stinky looking gutter by us. Most times when we poke around in it, people passing by make comments like "Ewww!" or "Yuck!" It is. But it's a treasure to us, a whole world in and of itself.



Look closer, look at what's just hatched! Tiny baby tadpoles :)



And this was the best find of all - a sac of frog eggs! We've raised frogs from tadpoles we caught, but never from this!!



Speaking of frogs, we went to the stream by us last week and the kids found this: A Giant Water Bug! It eats frogs, fish, snakes, snails, insect larvae, etc. It can deliver a pretty painful sting with its beak so it's also known as the "toe-biter" and it flies! To think these were in the stream all those times we walked through there!



Here's some fresh poison oak just sprouting along the side of the stream.

Laguna Caves - Aliso & Wood Canyons

I apologize for the hiatus in the posting, life happens, priorities take over, and the blog gets neglected. You understand :)

Last weekend we took some friends to the caves at Aliso & Woods Canyons. The first mile and a half trek on the paved road to the main trailhead isn't very exciting. We put the kids on bikes to keep them from getting tuckered out early. But the open space, so rare in Orange County, felt amazing.




On our way, my 6yo son took a pit stop to relieve himself. He was barely off the trail when we heard this....




Oh yes, it's that time of year again when it just isn't a good idea to be wandering off into the brush. This is the second rattler we've seen in Aliso & Woods out of the three total we've ever seen.

Here's cave rock. Wind and water erosion has formed many caves like it in Laguna. Unfortunately, most of them can't be conveniently accessed along a trail like this one.




This is dripping cave. Legend goes that stagecoach bandits used it as a hideout. You can still see the holes that they bored into the rock and the heavy soot residue from their fires on the topographically ridged ceiling. This was the first time we went when it was actually "dripping".




This tree and others provide a shady oak canopy as you head towards the cave. There's something magical about walking under the cover of these trees that dot the hillsides in South County. It's a beautiful, welcome respite during a long, hot hike. I just love the character of its branches.

Fort in the Woods

I took the kids to a fort we found out in the woods a few minutes away from here. East Coasters will laugh when I call this the "woods", it's not, but it is for us as close as we'll get to the woods around these parts of Southern California. It's actually a collection of big heaps of dirt someone made along a trail we like to hike. It's hidden, but easily accessible if you know where to find it. The teenagers use it for a hang out as evidenced by the left over carpet, wooden furniture, graffiti and broken bottles. The kids like picking up the little plastic BBs and empty CO2 magazines they leave behind as well.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries weren't charged (some blogger I am!), so these are my ugly cell phone pictures from today. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how much my son complains that he doesn't want to go or how much of a cranky mood we can be before heading out the door, a bit of nature cures it all.

As soon as we get there they start poking around, pulling on this, looking under that, crafting and creating ideas of what to play and do.

They found this dead tree with logs under it. Just a heap of junk, to a child, A FORT!










A snail!





A woman's touch...
(she doesn't realize it's caution tape with radioactive symbols on it - and I wasn't about to tell her it wasn't just pretty ribbon).



Not sure what this is for



A teeter tot of course :)





A door!



Fix the pretty ribbon first :)



It was a fun day - and they made me promise to bring them back asap!

We also noticed all kinds of green and yellow things have sprung up - grasses, weeds, moss, lichen, these spongy looking mushrooms...





is this sulphur shelf? It's a baby one if it is.



Spiraling wild cucumber shoots for bracelets...




Here's a shot I took a couple weeks ago of my daughter in the rain... see how the hills are all turning green? Can't wait for Spring!



Here's a shot from our local beach a couple of days ago.



A beautiful drive down PCH



We found several of these sandworms as we dug holes in the sand.



Well, it's late and I need to get some sleep! I know this blog has been so dull lately, but rest assured, Spring is coming and it's going to be a good one!!