John Burridge

 Here's some more photos from the Rainbow Falls Overlook.  The area was actually pretty rocky once you dug down a little.  The tenacity of the plants struck me.  Once some moss or lichen got established on a big basalt boulder, there would be a place for the roots of other plants to grow.

This particular succulent caught my eye.  I think it's related to something called "Hens and Chicks."  We've something similar growing around our house, but I hadn't noticed the five-fold symmetry before.

The last few days I've been tired.  Some of it is a result of inconsistent sleep schedules, which I'll have to fix.  I think some of it may be pollen:  it's that time of year when I wake up with eye boogers.

Writing:  I got a quick rejection on the latest manuscript.  Sigh.  This seems like a good point to survey the various projects and manuscripts needing a little bit of polish before I send things out.  Thinking about the last few manuscripts, I'm wondering if I might be spending too much time on setting detail at the expense of plot and character development -- then again, on the other hand, a frequent critique I get is that readers don't understand how the world works.

Working Out:  Monday was a workout day.  I took it slowly.  Monday I was exhausted; Mark opined it was from climbing sand dunes Sunday, but I'm not so sure. My hands and feet just ached, and I'm blaming the barometric pressure.

 Mother's Day Weekend, we hiked to the Rainbow Falls Viewpoint, near the McKenzie River Bridge.  The trees were mostly cedars or pines, with a smattering of vine maples and madrone.  The viewpoint itself is a rock outcropping, and it would be just the place for a NeoPagan ritual.

What struck me was how one tree was growing out of a rock.  It had had its main trunk damaged, with much of the bark missing, and yet it still managed to snake its way across a rock face and sprout leaves on the other end.  It was very much a natural bonsai.

The madrone tree growing on the outcropping contrasted the other trees around it.  I tried to get a good picture of it, because the under-bark was a kind of greenish pistachio color.

Hiking in, the most prominent noises were the sounds of our feet and the breeze moving through the trees. Only when we got to the outcropping did we hear the falls.  At one point, we thought we heard some strange croaking-growling noise, as if there were a large amphibian concealed in the treetops; this turned out to be water in Mark's thermos glugging as he moved.

We had a good laugh after we'd been standing still to try to figure out what strange animal was calling to us.