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Truly Blessed

This is a magical place, our Mesa, pure California: golden poppies growing wild at our front door, quail families clucking and running all over the spaces, hawks zooming overhead, screaming at each other, fresh offshore breezes from San Luis Bay as it laps Avila Beach and Port San Luis, visible from our fabulous new deck  
We even enjoy the crows and ravens, squacking and purring, clicking and calling each other.
We have views of towering clouds moving in from the North Pacific, bringing squalls and storms in the winter and spring, along with the mustard and lupine painting the hills blue and gold above the bay.
We are truly blessed.  Within yards, not even miles, we see deer and turkeys wandering through pastures and meadows, and the unbelievably beautiful stands of oak tress.  We see the great dunes ever pushing to enter the flat acres of vegetables just below our Mesa, with the surf crashing as it has for millions of years.
Last week we drove out to the Carrizo Plain, that ancient lakebed in the center of California. 


Soda Lake Panorama, Carrizo Plain

(To see the whole 360, de-zoom your browser to 100% or 85%)
The day was sunny, breezy, and warm, perfect for a road trip.  We did see some
wildflowers, but the season was nearly over.  I did get in some shooting, squeezing
off a few rounds of lead free 22 long at an old fencepost.  I have thousands of lead rounds,
but had to buy some lead free to keep from harming the condors...You can tell hunting is
allowed here as the crows are very leery of vehicles and people, unlike the almost
domesticated ones on the Mesa. We brought a picnic but did not have lunch until we
had driven the whole length of the Plain, including 21 miles of hard dirt.  What a kick! 
We had our late picnic in New Cuyama, next to a school baseball game in the city park. 
We are already planning a return trip, to see the things we missed this time. 
We are truly blessed.



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