Music History class from Josquin des Pres to Thomas Morley, Piano though the first selection of Igor Stravinsky's Five Fingers, then down to Rheem, grading papers at Mandarin Flower until battery power runs out, recharging briefly and heading out with deer raiding the plantation to
Rancho Laguna Park for a
viewful loop on the Old Moraga Ranch Trail
(by now, neither old nor ranch-like, apparently seriously re-routed to avoid
suburban and rural private property in a roller-coaster of irrational, non-hikerly ups-and-downs) to the
grassy Rimer (according to all the maps but Rhimer on the signs) Creek Saddle's
views of Valle Vista,
picking up the honest Rocky Ridge route,
past a very tired snake (a la Saturday Night Live's dog Skippy and the mailman) over
King Canyon highlands
returning towards point of origin and the
path's namesake via
Brown Ranch Valley
with incoming fog in the
shadows of the
setting sun, and
distant (dots nice)
cows
in cacaphonous clangor, which must be recorded briefly on the laptop (can only tease out about 2 minutes of power, in two takes) and edited overnight as
A Walk Through California: Contra Costa (Cows and Crickets).
Retreating from the sinister
stratus,
a connector trail
veers away from
forbidden zones back to the
post-commute crowd at the park, after which it's time to join the late throngs on Route 24 towards
Mt. Diablo, orchestrating another page of The Opera of Daniel: VII. The Lions' Den upon return.
