Throwback: A Winter Walk with Faire & Pansy - QUIL | Queers United for Intersectional Liberation

I’ve got a Throwback Thursday post for y’all from last December.

After the significant rains of November I had decided to take a walk around camp with our Australian Shepard puppy Pansy documenting the changes to the land. I had originally wanted to do a detailed nature observation while walking through camp up to our pond, paying closer attention to life’s more minute details and capturing them in photo and description. Quickly after I began the walk I realized this would not be happening, foiled by the puppy presence.

Pansy was only eleven weeks old then and a ball of pure puppy energy. Whether running too far ahead, tripping me up by deciding that I was the one who needed herding, or clumsily running towards the very edge of steep cliffs, he is quite the distraction.

Accordingly I decided to change my focus and document the state of our land after the twenty inches of rain we had received thus far.

Rancheria Creek after the rains

The creek had seen a fantastic resurgence. At the high point of the rain this portion was about 150 feet wide and, considering that the same point of the creek went underground during the summer, it was quite remarkable.

Madrone tree covered with dew and moss

The trees on the west side of the property seemed to have a constant sheen of moisture since, during the winter months they get little to no sun.

Mossy trunk

All this leads to glorious amounts of the most beautiful moss.

Moss detail

The diversity of moss alone in this region is astounding.

Path up to the pond

Heading further up the path towards the pond, both Pansy and I became aware of the sound of a very distressed animal. We both paused to see where it was coming from and in that moment saw a hawk with a still-alive bird in it talons. (Unfortunately I do not have a good enough camera to capture such moments)

Winter Pond

The return of the rains to our land can definitely be seen at our pond as well, where the level was about four feet higher than it was in the summer. With its overflow, the pond creates one of the many seasonal streams on the land that feeds in to the creek.

Stream of Consciousness close-up

The creek that overflows from the pond is what we like to call the Stream of Consciousness

Canyon of Love

This is the creek that results from the overflow of our artesian springs.

Winter in Northern California is full of life and beauty and we at Groundswell are so thankful that we can steward such a gorgeous slice of it. Pansy certainly seems to love it out here as much as the rest of us do or maybe it’s just his boundless puppy zeal for life… though I’m sure it’s some combination of the two.