The Sound of Music

the hills are alive!

It's crazy cold outside and the storms have brought a few of my favorite things: raindrops on roses, hail, snow, wind and even a western bluebird...

I urge you to climb every mountain, ford every stream and even if you don't find your dream, you may see some edelweiss...

How do you solve a problem like Maria? I don't know, but sometimes you gotta stop and catch some of the beauty that surrounds us..

it's like catching moonbeams in a jar...

America

"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

I've got some real estate here in my bag"

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies

And walked off to look for America

What the hell is going on in Santa Barbara??? people getting shot and stabbed day and night yet the City is only interested in killing ice plant by the beach!

Mayor Rowse??? you seem to have lost some of that old mojo..maybe it's time for a "mental competency" test??

well anyway, Happy Presidents Day! (except the buffoon)

You look for your America and I'll look for mine...

in a nice Shelby Mustang, if you don't mind too much...

Heart of Gold

I've been a miner for a Heart of Gold

So what's been happnin lately?  does it make sense to use a $400000 US missile to shoot down a $1000 Chinese balloon? no, not economic sense...just because I have Chinese radios doesn't mean I'm a communist...it doesn't mean I'm not, either

it's Black History month, yet some white folks are trying to take America back the days of segregation and lynchings...Alabama, George Wallace..geez!! I disavow these white people...

The Santa Barbara International Film Fest is going on and I swear I saw actress Helen Hunt (Twister, As Good As It Gets) hanging out by the highway a few weeks ago...looks like her

Helen Hunt???

and Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis are two cool chicks adding some class to the proceedings...

RIP Burt Bacharach..with Hal David created some songs that will live forever in our hearts....

Me and the egrets continue to watch the Bikepath from Hell construction...actually, it's a short, 8-million dollar dog path from Santa Claus Lane to Carp Ave that the City of Carp and the County of SB colluded to build...I sent them all a note wondering why they would spend so much money on a dog path but neglect Via Real, which is filled with potholes and crumbling asphalt and needs to be repaved..I advised them to get their shit together...except Laura Capps, she's innocent 💕

and I'll have something to say about the weed house on Santa Claus Lane they approved..I am getting awfully sick of these gov't mules being owned by the Carpinteria Drug Cartel, the cannabis fucks, the stoners..and they will hear me loud and clear! later...but I bet the flower growers turned drug dealers wish they were back in the flower biz for Valentine's Day!

Speaking of flowers, the California poppies will be covering the hills...Gorman is a good place to see them; Lake Elsinore should have a nice bloom, but if you go, they will arrest you! Too many people trampling the poppies but that is silly...the officials need to get those tourist dollars for the local businesses and turn the event into a celebration..the town's mayor needs to resign because she is insane and the rest is just poppycock!

I'm hearing stories about the big rains pushing gold from the mountains down into the valleys, leading to a bit of a gold rush in California...

there's a few creeks around here, one just up the hill and I might just grab my green pan and see if I can't find a couple ounces of gold...

under all them rocks

Golden Lady

Golden Lady, I'd like to go there

Golden Wattle is a wonderful, green plant with yellow flowers, esp visible on the roadsides... it adds balmy fragrances to the air when you're on your bike...also known as acacia, it's got a short life, but you know spring is right around the corner when you smell it...fennel, too!

a flock of lesser goldfinches!!

now, I see the City of Santa Barbara is on a quest to rid the acacia from the Douglas Preserve as part of the fire prevention/invasive species management program...this is all just total BS!! 

Golden wattle doesn't burn well, is not invasive, and it'll be gone by summer of its own accord...and the winds and rains will ensure it will always be back...so why waste  time and money trying to get rid of it? the nativists in the city gov't and in Parks Dept can't leave well enough alone...and the recent rains washed all their little plant schemes away...

I'll stop my bike or truck to be around the plants and breathe in the sweetness of the coming Spring...

Golden wattle hurts nobody, is used by birds, bees and butterflies, has tons of good karma...if you're walking the Douglas Preserve, the yellow flowering acacia is something you should experience...

When you indiscriminately remove plants, you destroy the beauty of a place...

to the City of Santa Barbara:

Don't Be Ugly

Guinnevere

Had green eyes

Like yours, m'lady like yours

I gotta hand it to these guys from the 1960s who, with loads of  musical talent and drive, went out and relentlessly chased their dreams...of course, every dream has a caveat...

In Illinois, I heard the Byrds doing Mr. Tambourine Man on the radio and I was hooked...the Byrds were cool and I was excited to be moving to California...the music scene was exploding, FM radio was taking off and I was having a blast, trying to be a rock-n-roll star, too...the idea of being young, independent, singing songs about pretty girls and playing cool guitars appealed to me...

I'm not surprised David Crosby died, just that he managed to live so long... but with the Byrds and CSN, he really blazed a musical path few can match, so he deserves a place in the R&R history books...

I was at an Odetta concert at the Lobero in 2008, she was getting on in the years and wheelchair bound, but she was wonderful and a real legend...it was a crowded night and I ran into David Crosby in the lobby...

for a minute, I was running with the pack...

Marie's the Name

of his latest flame

ok then, what's up with the New Year? I watched in horror and glee the Republicans tried to elect a Speaker of the House and it was CRAZY

after 15 votes, Kevin McCarthy, the Bimbo from California, finally wins but he had to bribe his colleagues for votes..then he thanks Trump, a domestic terrorist/traitor for his influence...Trump, the Influencer...ha ha ha

The storms are nice but boy did that rain come down on the 9th...whooosh! Some people say we're still in a drought, but they are full of it...now we got more water than we know what to do with and the roofers are running around patching but they can't keep up!

Deborah Schwartz, daughter of the late, great Naomi is a kleptomaniac it appears...she allegedly lifted a nice Navajo rug from a Santa Barbara business à la David Landecker...never trust a Democrat..

Noozhawk got the scoop..I don't get scoops because it's easier to comment on a reporter's scoop...I'm a scoop-lifter!

But I did think it interesting that in the Naomi Schwartz County building, there are some nice artsy rugs and maybe Deb just wanted to donate her rug to her mom's building!

Jeff Beck was a fantastic guitarist, from the Yardbirds to Truth, and he left us a legacy of great music!!

I had a dream about Lisa Marie Presley: 

The warm January winds were blowing last night and I had a series of rather intense and vivid dreams...

I was at an underpass in Montecito and a girl walks by me wearing a white dress, a veil and no shoes...I yell at a guy in the ice plant and the girl stops, turns around and says "What?"

I tell her I wasn't yelling at her so she keeps walking, then I shout "Hey!" and she turns around and starts laughing and walks towards me. She looks like Lisa Marie...

We head up to the Old Coast Rd and start walking to Santa Barbara, by the golf course...her shoes are back on...she asks if she can hold my hand, so we hold hands and it's a perfect fit...her hands were beautiful and so soft...

the softest hands I've ever held...

Snowbird

So, little snowbird, take me with you when you go

To that land of gentle breezes where the peaceful waters flow

There's a story about a snowy owl hanging out in Cyress, CA and people are flocking there to get pictures:  'Like Seeing Santa Claus on a Beach'

Around Christmas time, I saw this bird on the big tree by the highway...I couldn't quite ID it, it's not the greatest picture but it had an owl-like face and I thought it may be a Northern Harrier.. but now with this story, I wonder if it wasn't the snowy owl before it headed south.

Snowy owls in Southern California are about as rare as snowy owls in Southern California but it's a cold winter and maybe that's the one...

I'd like to think it is