Best Store Hours Sign

I love the way people in small communities express themselves.  I wonder if Macy's or Starbucks or any other store could be bold enough and confident enough to use this kind of signage.  This reminds me of a few of the bait stores, which I have seen over the years, that post "Gone fishing," whenever the mood strikes them.  How wonderful that someone actually does what one is inspired to do in the moment.  I like it!

Yesterday was another hang the sheets out to dry day.  Thank you, Universe!  I spent a good portion of that time chatting with another traveler who was getting ready to move on and wanted to get everything clean before leaving.  Apparently this was laundry day for several others as people kept showing up with their laundry baskets.  I don't have one.  I use a pillow case.  We apparently had all heard the same rain prediction for Thursday and several more days and decided to best get it done before it started.  As far as I know, everyone was successful.  Since I was the first to start (at 5:30 a.m.), I finished getting everything out on the line by 7 a.m.  The nice thing about hanging clothes out on the line to dry, once they are there, one can go off and do other things.  When I arrived back from my walk around 12:30 p.m., everything was dry and ready to return to the motor home.  

It is amazing to me that I could take the same walk everyday and it would be a completely different experience.  Everything is changed and new.  Especially here since there is so much varied wildlife and many migratory visitors.  This was the first day since arriving that I actually saw the migratory white pelicans.  They are quite a bit larger than the brown pelicans that are considered local residents.  As you can seem I was in the harbor area again and the infamous rock is in the upper right of the background again.  It is rather hard to avoid this from happening.

It is really sweet to watch them feed.  It is very rhythmic.  They form a circle with their large bills in toward the center of the circle.  They are very close together.  Then they all lean into the center while their bottoms go up.  And they all do it at the same time .  They repeat this rhythmic feeding several times within a minute. I was here several years ago with my Mom and we watched as about eight of them performed this way of eating.  It is so graceful and fascinating that they were all in sync.  It is fairly rare to seen them in this part of the harbor's back bay.  I was very thrilled.

As I was walking past the boat docks and piers I saw a dead brown pelican at the waters edge.  I was close to the Harbor Patrol Office so went in and let them know where to find it.  In our discussion I learned that many of the young pelicans are dying because of a lack of bait fish in the bay.  The parents are having to travel long distances to get food for their young and then eventually stop coming back and the young pelicans, who are not yet proficient at gathering their own food, die of starvation.  I was told they had removed about thirty over the past weekend.  So sad.  It makes me want to go out and feed the young ones, though I understand the cycle of nature must be honored.  Tough to watch though.

My niece, in England, posted a picture of a baby hippo with the cation: "I want one."  Hope she has a big bathtub.  The last I heard from her she was still working on dogs and horses in her vet training.  It is unclear if they have progressed to hippos or not.  In England?  Hope she doesn't want me to pet sit.  

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth

 find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."

- Rachel Carson

Enjoy your reserves of strength!