beehive tree

these kids are posing--if you can' t tell they are supposed to be eating honey. this tree in glen park canyon has a fence around it and it took us a little while to figure out why--there are hundreds of bees buzzing in and out. today the kids and i took a little hike through my favorite park this side of town. the playground area full of birthday partiers, tiny t ball players, soccer teams running across the huge field, a tennis player playing in (only) skin tight white jeans. maya spotted a box of chocolate cupcakes on a bench and the kids were given one by a friendly woman who said she baked too many. as we leave this busy area and walk the path between the creek and the huge grassy stony hill the crowd thins down to a few dog walkers. we see an excited man and woman with binoculars and they let us use them to see baby owl heads poking up out of a nest in a huge eucalyptus tree. there are signs up about the coyotes, there is miner's lettuce, wild radish, blackberries with blossoms everywhere we look, little creeks with secret hideouts, aggressive robins, blue damsel flies. i am proud my kids can spot poison hemlock and deadly nightshade, they know their dangers well. we meet a tough looking lady and somehow in minutes have made a connection and she is telling me how she rescued one of her pit bulls out of a neighbor's yard because they were letting him get ripped up by other dogs. "if you spend five thousand dollars on vet bills for an animal they become yours, right?", and then wierdly i have teary eyes and she does the bam thing on my fist and tells me i have a lovely family. which i do.