cazalea[Seiko Moderator]
19342
It's not over 'til the fat lady sings, Part 1
This quote from the mid-1970's is attributed to a sports writer describing a basketball game. He's saying, "Don't give up on your team until the final whistle". He refers to the character of Brunnhilde in a Wagner Opera, who starts a long aria just when you are hoping the opera is over.

I used this quote to illlustrate how I view our walks. What!? you say?
A decade ago, I was obsessed with whale watching, and went out on the ocean hundreds of times. Invariably, something interesting would happen as we pulled into the bay, or just after the majority of the passengers had given up and gone inside or to the bar. We coined our own phase for this (none of us whale watchers being opera fans) “Never stop looking!”
We told newcomers: Don't turn off your camera or review your photos until we are at the dock. Bring an extra battery (or roll of film), More times than I can recall, we saw things we didn't expect, like a whale inside the harbor, and everyone scrambled but cameras take time to fire up, pull off the lens cap, etc. The whale is long gone by then.
OK, enough introduction.
Yesterday we walked on a sunny afternoon, in a quiet canyon, just to stretch our legs, not expecting anything to see special. I'll give the photos in the exact order they were taken and you will see how the title fits.
Winter in San Diego's Mediterranean climate isn't like most places.

There were far more flowers than we expected.

Bees hard at work too.

My wife heard chickens! We crept up to the fence and got a look before they all ran away to the safety of their pen,

except this one who didn't get the memo.

I found a flower that almost matched my shirt, and was a great compliment to my gas meter dial Rolex aka "watch of the walk".

Look at the size of this cactus! These clusters occur in almost every canyon, always on the sunny side.

This guy probably put his Bug down here while the engine was out, and a few years later this is what we see:

I saw a bird on a wire. He ignored me.

Now for the next 10 minutes, all I saw were birds on wires!

and birds on branches too.

Finally a lizard crawled up the fence and basically said "Take my picture!"

There are two garages in this canyon. One was locked up and the Second's door was open. Here's what I saw:

My wife drew me away from the garage and said, "Check out all those oranges". I went and picked one up but she says it smells like a lemon. I sniff and agree. Mutant citrus? We'll let you know after we taste it.

Above us on the walls of the canyon the sun was shining on these flowering trees.
We came to the end of the wilderness and emerged onto a residential street that's only a few blocks long. We decided to walk down to its end. Nice houses dating back to the Sixties and Seventies.

A handsome dog came over to say hello.

Flowers gleamed out at us from a shady garden.

Hibiscus!

The old "low maintenance" desert front yard strategy. We planted one of those at our house, but the native plants we put in like it so much we now have to maintain them or they will take over the house!

I couldn't resist capturing this matching Camper/House set.

High above us we heard squawking and saw a few crows attacking some baby sea gulls on the roof of a tall building. Their cries got the Big Gulls on alert and the crows scattered. Babies didn't understand the fuss.

The last house on this street before it turns into a commercial zone... apparently occupied by a surfer.

As the street ends, so does Part 1. Please come on along for Part 2.