The solar eclipse...and this late spring flowering

Click on the image above to visit Kodiak's website.Eclipse from the Big Sur coastline by Kodiak Greenwood.

Photo by Hayley Marie Photography. Click on either the photo above or below to see more of Hayley's photographs.Morro Rock at the eclipse.

Photo by Hayley Marie Photography

Further north along the coast, eclipse crescents appear through madrone foliage on a deadfall madrone trunk.

Click on the image above to visit Melissa's website.And on artist Melissa Lofton's hardwood floor.

One striking thing was how much more flat and bluish the sunlight suddenly had become. The eclipse pulled so much goldenness out of the air while it lasted.

But afterwards the gloaming light immediately returned.

And the eclipse came in the midst of such exuberant late-spring flowering. Here in upper Rocky Creek this is the time when the mountainsides fill with Douglas Iris.

Xasáuan Today has been posting his "Wildflower of the Week." His three most recent choices appear in this post as well, including the Scarlet Bugler above.

And Silver Lupine. And the Douglas Iris that already appeared even further above.

California wild roseGlobe lily

And all these flowering waist-high grasses whose names I do not know. Is this purple needlegrass curling around someone else?

The leopard lilies by the creek won't blossom for a little while yet. But they are more than worth the wait.

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http://www.kodiakgreenwood.com/

http://www.hayleymariephotography.com/Hayley_Marie_Photography/Welcome.html

http://mlofton.com/

Besides the photographs by Kodiak Greenwood, Hayley Marie, and Melissa Lofton, the other photos are by Debi.

The Third Space

Even if you haven't heard the term the third space used formally, undoubtedtly you already understand it.

Kreuzberg Café, San Luis ObispoWe need something more than a first space (our home) and a second space (our workplace) in order for our communities to really thrive.

Blue Bottle, Mint Plaza, San FranciscoIn The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg...

"...identifies third places, or 'great good places,' as the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact. In contrast to first places (home) and second places (work), third places allow people to put aside their concerns and simply enjoy the company and conversation around them. Third places 'host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.' Oldenburg suggests that beer gardens, main streets, pubs, cafés, coffeehouses, post offices, and other third places are the heart of a community’s social vitality and the foundation of a functioning democracy. They promote social equality by leveling the status of guests, provide a setting for grassroots politics, create habits of public association, and offer psychological support to individuals and communities."

Sally Loo's, San Luis ObispoKreuzbergOr in a third space, you can maintain your own cool quasi-anonymous distance instead — and observe the people and scene around you...

Sally Loo's...even as you get a little of your own work done at the same time.

Bello Mundo, San Luis ObispoBut keep your cool. Maintain your cool.

And display a little elegance.

Post No BillsOne of my favorite third spaces is Post No Bills in Sand City. I'm typing this journal here right now. Not only does Post No Bills feature a remarkable rotating lineup of beer taps — and artisan bottled beers in a wall-to-wall cooler — but it's consciously composed as a place where friends and "familiar stangers" can meet and interact.

This Thursday, April 5, a remarkable event will be occuring here. Post No Bills is located on the ground floor of The Independent.

No, the Red Hot Chili Peppers won't necessarily be appearing.

Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big SurBut on Thursday, April 5, the Henry Miller Memorial Library will be migrating northwards nonetheless. And they'll be packing alot of magic tricks in their carpetbag — books, food, drink, song, art...and some of the best films from the past six years of the Big Sur International Short Film Festival.

This means that two of the best places on the central coast are somehow converging — just for this one night.

"The world globes itself in a drop of dew."

Xasáuan Today has chosen silver lupine as its wildflower of this week. As usual, XT's photos and account are an education in themselves.

Here are a few more photos to add to that account — from upper Rocky Creek in our recent rains. All the photos are Debi's. Notice how beautiful the abstracted backgrounds to the lupines also are.

And as Emerson writes:

"The world globes itself in a drop of dew. The microscope cannot find the animalcule which is less perfect for being little. Eyes, ears, taste, smell, motion, resistance, appetite, and organs of reproduction that take hold on eternity — all find room to consist in the small creature. So do we put our life into every act. The true doctrine of omnipresence is that God reappears with all his parts in every moss and cobweb. The value of the universe contrives to throw itself into every point. If the good is there, so is the evil; if the affinity, so the repulsion; if the force, so the limitation."

And such a globe of dew feels alot like home, doesn't it?

Moonrise over Mt. Carmel

Photographs courtesy of Debi Lorenc.

Keystone pipeline sent to proper environmental review

The good news — the best news in ages — is that Obama's ordering that the Keystone pipeline project actually be sent into legitimate environmental review, which many experts are predicting will kill the project (not just push the issue past election time).

Leadership on Obama's part? Hardly.

This environmental review — and the timing of it — is a direct response to the heartening "surround the White House" action on Sunday led by Bill McKibben and 350.org. Direct action that was deliberately timed to take place exactly one year from next year's presidential election. Obama doesn't just need votes. He needs enthusiasm. And he must be learning that if he remains tepid ad infinitum he will be wholesale abandoned by exactly the wave that elected him in 2008 — and whom he's betrayed since then. Betrayed is a strong word. Supply another in its place if you'd like.

Here's the NY Times' report.