The Backyard

#56 - thinking how hard it would be to just sit out in the backyard and do nothing

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The Backyard 

I can remember thinking how hard it would be to just sit out in the backyard and just relax, maybe read a book. Maybe even do nothing. A measure of self-control against my do-something-itis. 

There was so much I wanted to do. I would have to be old to want to do nothing. 

Now, here I am, hanging out in the backyard, and liking it. A lot. 

Our front yard is kept up and looking good with a mowed lawn, flowers, and trees. But for the lawn mowing, my better half tends to her garden diligently. It’s very nice.  

The backyard – not so much. What grows here is pretty much on its own. Low maintenance and drought resistant come to mind. I get out the weed whacker when I have to after the rains stop, but now, even the weeds are having a hard time. We might get some rain before November, but I wouldn’t bet on it.  

I guess just having a fence around it makes it a yard. I call it rural. Very rural. If we were out in the country, it might be called “the woods”. 

I find a certain kind of peace out here that I hadn’t before. But try as I might, I don’t get away with just doing nothing. There are distractions. 

* 

I have a lot of sky available in the backyard. Many airliners ply the skies to and from all points. We are northeast of the San Francisco and Oakland International airports and north of the San Jose International. There is a lot of air traffic.

We are close to Buchanan Airfield. Smaller private propeller driven aircraft and corporate jets keep the airfield busy. It has one small passenger airline. There is also a heliport. They perform a lot of search and rescue. 

The airliners are usually a few thousand feet high by the time I see them. Binoculars come in handy. These planes are usually departing. Arriving planes come in from another direction too low on my horizon. This changes in winter when storms can affect the landing patterns. 

Around 7:30 am, weekdays, a string of FedEx and UPS 737s depart SFO and OAK for their hubs in Memphis and Louisville. 

Late mornings, nonstop high-flyers from points east make their way to Hawaii.  

Some mornings, I catch The King of the Skies, the Airbus A380, flying north from L.A. headed to Dubai, or Abu Dhabi. It is already at cruising altitude and will fly almost over the North Pole as it tracks The Great Circle, the shortest route between the cities.  

The Boeing 747s, The Queen of the Skies, fly to and from the west coast to the east coast and Europe and north and south from L.A. to Alaska and Asia. They are common but have recently been phased out of passenger service and are now cargo vessels.  

Both Airbus and Boeing are opting for the efficiency of the smaller, but still sizable jets. The Airbus A340 and 350, and the Boeing 757, 767, 777, and 787 (the Dreamliner), do most long-distance coast to coast and transcontinental flights. 

These jets are now flying the longer non-stop flights, the longest being from New York’s JFK to Singapore, a nineteen-hour flight. It also flies over the pole. 

The A320s and 737s handle most of the inter-regional flights. They are plentiful.   

The big jets from Asia fly south along the California coastline at 38,000 - 40,000’ and are already descending to land in L.A. as they fly over the San Francisco area. They’ll land in about an hour. I see them low on the southwestern horizon. 

The livery, the airline logo design and colors that adorn the planes, have become an artform. More often nowadays, they are a vinyl wrap or a decal, instead of a much heavier paintjob.  

Flightrader24.com is great for plane IDs, timelines, and destinations. The sheer number of planes in the world-wide sky is hard to believe.  

Years ago, I took a few flying lessons. They weren’t cheap. 

And a few days each month before dawn, or after sunset, the International Space Station treks across the sky, high enough to reflect the sun’s light even though the sun is below the horizon. I get notifications from spotthestation.nasa.gov for when it is visible in my area. 

Planespotting is a popular hobby for many world over. See here, and here, for example. I find it entertaining. 

 * 

At its best the backyard is a bird habitat. We have birds. Tall thick privet bush overgrown with star jasmine make a fine hedge and good nesting.  

No real exotics have visited the feeders or birdbath. The ubiquitous sparrow and a few red finches (with the prettiest songs) get the bulk of the seed. 

I have yet to identify many of the LGBs (little gray birds) and LBBs (little brown birds). There are a few springtime warblers, California towhees, mockingbirds, and doves. Jays occasionally come in and make a lot of noise while raiding the birdseed. 

The tallest tree around, a California Redwood, hosts crows, a couple of ravens at times, hawks, and white-tailed kites that settle on the bent-over top branch to check out the goings on. 

The white-tailed kites, raptors, have a black patch on their wings. When hovering, the black patches against the white body as the wings flap, produce a flashing, strobe light effect. 

We also have chicken hawks, or AKA Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks. They are similar in appearance. 

Two times I’ve seen them dive into the jasmine and come out with a sparrow. I just happened to be looking in the right direction on one occasion. It came in low along the fence line, up and over the fence, and just before hitting the jasmine, it flared its wings, threw its body back, and entered the jasmine talons first. A flurry of activity ensued, and it flew off with a sparrow in its grasp. It took only a few seconds, if that. 

Red-tailed hawks are common, as are turkey vultures, as they are known in the PC world. I call them buzzards. They glide in circles in the air currents both high and low.  

We hear owls, their hoots sounding through the still of the night. 

The most entertaining are the hummingbirds. Anna’s hummingbirds. They stay year-round. I’ve seen what might be a Rufus, or an Allen’s hummingbird. They are similar, but migrants, and are just passing through. They don’t stay long. 

They spend a lot of time chasing each other away from the (highly diluted) sugar water feeder. I say chasing, but perhaps they are pursuing.

During the spring courting season, and at other times what appears to be just for the fun of it, the male flies up high, almost out of sight. Then he plummets towards the ground and as he pulls up out of the dive at the last moment, the wings produce a mini sonic boom - a popping shrill ping-like sound as the pullout endures many times the force of gravity.  

Several times after such a dive, the hummer has appeared a few feet in front of me, hovering for a second or two, giving me “the look” before flying off. It’s telling me something. I get a kick out of that. 

Other than the planes, or the birdlife, I’m doing pretty much nothing. 

* 

Well, there are the lizards. They are Blue-belly, AKA Western fence lizards around here. They have the run of the yard.  

They are plentiful, as the cat can attest. She brings them into the house. She does the same with birds and mice. They are usually dead, but the lizards are often not.  

I can hear her, from another room, in her hunt and chase mode as the lizard runs from under the chair to under the sofa to under the bookcase. They can drop their tails as a diversion to escape their pursuer. The tails will grow back.  

I catch a number of them and take them outside. The cat looks at me like I’ve ruined her day. 

Or I can see just the tail and know the rest of it is around somewhere. The lizards often escape the cat, but rescue also, and are found later under the furniture, usually by my wife with an accompanying scream, way too late. 

The lizards do a lot of posturing. They do a pushup type thing on the log pile, fire pit, fence, or any high place with a view of its territory.  

There are two larger lizards. They are the head honchos. They sidle up next to each other, do the pushup thing and pose and posture some kind of dance. I’ve never seen them fight.  

They, like the hummers, spend a lot of time chasing away males or pursuing females. I can’t tell which is which. Or they’re making a quick dash over to some hapless insect for a quick meal. Then back up to their lookout point to do their pushups.  

They lay low in the winter months. And in the heat of a summer day, I don’t see them. 

* 

That’s about it for the backyard. In the end, perhaps I have relaxed some, or read some, or maybe I’ve succeeded in doing nothing for a while. It’s worth the effort. 

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From my CD - ROUND PEGS and SQUARE HOLES - “Highway 395” 

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