Living the Bohemian experience abroad
That is, abroad from the point of view of Bohemia. I am actually in Berkeley, but I have my laptop with me and I am writing this in a coffee shop using the public wifi. I guess that counts as young and hip these days, although if I were truly young and hip I would have some fancy Macbook instead of stodgy old Vista. Mr. Philena is sitting across from me smiling at all the good news he's reading in the paper: the new budget is reversing income inequality (or trying), the ban on images of coffins returning to the US is being lifted, al-Marri is getting a trial after years of detainment, and a bill allowing federal financing of stem cell research is being introduced in the Senate. And that's just in today's paper. (Fun fact: in today's paper is also the headline: "Professor Allowed in Library." Oh, good, I'm glad to hear it.)
Hey! Did I mention that Mr. Philena and I took an anniversary trip? It was five years this February, so he took me down to Pacific Grove where we looked for monarchs. They flock in the thousands in December, and when he was there for a conference then he was overwhelmed by the trees blanketed in butterflies and wouldn't rest until he had gotten me down there to see them for myself. By February most of the monarchs were gone, but there were still a few there. As it turned out, Pt. Lobos was much more interesting, and we spent most of the day hiking the trails around there. Want to see pictures? Of course you do.
Butterflies in an ornamental flowering fruit tree
Butterflies in a big eucalyptus tree. They're hanging in a big clump from the branch in the center of the image. They look like dead leaves because their wings are closed, and only the undersides, which are much paler than the more recognizable monarch-patterning, are visible.
In Point Lobos, there are trails where the trees are covered with a ghostly combination of white and red stuff, which a ranger told us is in fact algae, thrown up by the sea spray. Here's Mr. Philena posing in front of it.
The surf was extremely rough that day, and crashed against the rocks most impressively. I liked to stand in front of likely spots and summon the seas like Poseidon. Except I'm better at it, because I can do it without a trident.
In fact, I can make them crash without even being there!
Do you remember my description of the orkers from last time we were in Pt. Lobos? They were still there! (Look on the rock. You can really only see silhouettes through the spray.)
Oh, yes. And there was a fuzzy deer.
Hey! Did I mention that Mr. Philena and I took an anniversary trip? It was five years this February, so he took me down to Pacific Grove where we looked for monarchs. They flock in the thousands in December, and when he was there for a conference then he was overwhelmed by the trees blanketed in butterflies and wouldn't rest until he had gotten me down there to see them for myself. By February most of the monarchs were gone, but there were still a few there. As it turned out, Pt. Lobos was much more interesting, and we spent most of the day hiking the trails around there. Want to see pictures? Of course you do.
Butterflies in an ornamental flowering fruit tree
Butterflies in a big eucalyptus tree. They're hanging in a big clump from the branch in the center of the image. They look like dead leaves because their wings are closed, and only the undersides, which are much paler than the more recognizable monarch-patterning, are visible.
In Point Lobos, there are trails where the trees are covered with a ghostly combination of white and red stuff, which a ranger told us is in fact algae, thrown up by the sea spray. Here's Mr. Philena posing in front of it.
The surf was extremely rough that day, and crashed against the rocks most impressively. I liked to stand in front of likely spots and summon the seas like Poseidon. Except I'm better at it, because I can do it without a trident.
In fact, I can make them crash without even being there!
Do you remember my description of the orkers from last time we were in Pt. Lobos? They were still there! (Look on the rock. You can really only see silhouettes through the spray.)
Oh, yes. And there was a fuzzy deer.