Hawks, crash, peonies

October 25, 2009

Walked to Putah Creek Reserve with Taj this morning on a blustery warm fall day in Davis. Taj and I aren’t so good at the “loose lead” walking, and the wind was no help. On the way home, I saw soaring red hawks, gliding and diving over the UC Davis vineyards. The first one reminded me of Dad enjoying raptors flying over the farm and Feather River banks. I had a fantasy that the hawk was Dad, but realized it sounded in my head like Neal Thayer’s fake laid-back New Zealand traveler dude voice. So I just enjoyed the hawk. Bird of prey wing tips must be the inspiration for the design of some jet plane wings – the slightly upward tip at the end, the sleek line.

Airplanes at the UC Davis airport bordering the vineyard don’t look sleek; they seem more like chubby cheerful toy planes.

We transplanted the peony root clump I bought from Dianne Madison at the farmers market this afternoon. She reminded me to plant it bud tips up, and to cover it with a maximum of two inches of soil. Six hours of daily sun is best for peonies. Not sure what color these will be; the Madisons sell palest pink, brilliant magenta and white peonies. The flowers are so beautiful; now I understand the inspiration for the Chinese and Japanese ceramics and paintings highlighting their beauty. They really do look too good to be true.

I’m calming down after four days with Mom in Santa Monica. A week ago she was in an automobile accident and broke her left arm/wrist and totaled her car. She was so shocked and angry at first, but by mid-week she was practicing the piano with her left arm in the Velcro cast (my sister April says she played with her right hand alone the day after the crash). She had also come to the conclusion that her driving days are behind her. I am relieved, and interestingly, I think she is relieved, too.

After doing errands in a borrowed car for almost a week for her, I was reminded how hard it is to drive there. Our friend Elizabeth was in Tulsa recently and said that although Tulsa has as many people and as much traffic as Santa Monica, drivers there let others change lanes with a smile, and there isn’t the same cut-throat intensity as on Southern California roads. I saw so many people on cell phones – walkers, drivers; few appeared to be paying attention to the present.

Glad to be home.

[Today's photo is one taken last year of Mom and me when we restored her incredible Chiura Obata painting. We love to remember that day; we all gathered in the Alameda studio of the conservator-restorer Tomakatsu Kawazu.]