Bold and Shy have a new home

Last night we had a picking party as in playing music with guitars/ukuleles/violins/bass and mandolin.  My  5 year old granddaughter was right in there with her ukulele- singing along.  A fine time was had by all!  It was a get together to celebrate surviving 2017.  Our bass player lost his house in the Mt. Veeder fire.  Our guitar player had her house partially burn down.  Our former neighbors on Mt. Veeder just got to move back into their house now since they finally got the power restored to their home.  They lost their studio and winemaking facility in the fire.  It has been a hard year all the way around.  The good news of the night is that Bold and Shy raven are still alive and have taken up residence in the redwood trees near our friend John's house up on Lokoya Road.  By a miracle or a shift in the wind John's house did not burn down.  He says the raven pair appear to be nesting up in a tree near his house.  This was wonderful news for me.  When he left the party last night I gave him a box of eggs and asked him to put them out for Bold and Shy.  They LOVE eggs.  The ravens here at my current house- not so much.  Strange isn't it?  The ravens of Crystal Court prefer MEAT not eggs.
They show up every morning at 9:30 to see what is in the offering for the day.  The other day I looked out to see if they were eating the chicken meat and fat I had put out and what did I see.  A crow was eating most of the food and the raven was watching!  WHAT!!! Bold and Shy would have run that crow out of town!!!!  These ravens here are very shy and reserved.  They are not honky/tonky strutting birds like Bold and Shy!  I wonder what the difference is???  When I lived on Mt. Veeder the ravens could see me sleeping in my bed.  If I did not get up in time to FEED them they would bang on the windows until I got up.  I would never expect to see this type of behavior from my shy and retiring pair where I live now.  Such a difference, it is hard to explain.  Well I love them all those saucy black birds!

RAVENS OF MT. VEEDER ARE ALIVE!

I have it on good authority that Bold and Shy ravens of Mt. Veeder survived the fire that overtook the mountain in early October.  I am so happy that they must have been able to fly away from the fire fast enough to survive.  I have yet to go up to Mt. Veeder to survey the damage.  I just cannot make myself go up there to see what is left.  I am told that all that is left of our beautiful house is the chimney.  I just cannot believe it and I do not want to see it.  Lokoya Lodge which was located behind our former home was destroyed.  All the cabins burned down.  I have rented one of these cabins in previous years during the summer.  I would go up there for the day and paint and play with Bold and Shy.  They loved to play the EGG game.  I would put an egg in an unusual spot- like inside the cavity of a tree stump and they would find it. They would then pick it up and fly off with it.  What fun that was!  I feel so bad for the owners of the lodge.  It was their home and livelihood.

Everything is in great disarray right now.  PG&E is being blamed for the fires because they did not keep the trees trimmed away from the power lines.  So in response PG&E has contract crews up on Mt. Veeder cutting down trees left and right.  The biggest problem is that they are cutting down huge redwood trees that survive fires just fine and are not going to fall on the power lines. There were redwood trees on our property up there that bore burn marks from the last forest fire in the 1940s. 
They survived and continued to grow. This wanton destruction is getting people up there hopping mad.  Mt. Veeder is the most eastern stand of redwoods.  It take years to replace a giant redwood tree.

It is around 9:15 and this is the time my raven pair come to see what is on offer for breakfast at my house.  We went to a chicken dinner at the Native Sons of the Golden West the other night.  There were lots of chicken scraps left which I gathered up.  I just went outside to put the food out and my raven pair had just alighted in my neighbors deodar cedar tree.  So all is well with the ravens here.

We went to Berkeley the other week to 4th Street to visit the shops.  I came across a shop called Castles in the Air.  What a fabulous place.  They have very unusual items and hold classes on all sorts of crafts.  What did I see in the window but the most fabulous raven mask!!!  I inquired and they had a class on raven mask construction coming up.  Unfortunately it was a date that our band was performing so I could not attend- however they let me buy a mask constructed by the teacher of the class!  It is a wonderful contrivance of paper, feathers, beads and ribbons all in raven black of course.  I have it on display in my living/craft/music room for all to admire.  And so life goes, some happiness, some tragedy  and the days keep on rolling on until our end.  I read a book recently about Nepal where they lay out the dead on a mountain side so the ravens and others can eat- not a bad idea in my opinion.  I do not think I could get my body laid out on Mt. Veeder but my ashes will be stashed in a hole in the ground in Dixon.  Such a waste of potential raven food.  Ah well- the sun is shining and it is time to go get a Christmas tree and get decorating for the season.  Cheers!