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| Cronan Ranch, Pilot Hill |
The month of February 2021 is one-year anniversary of our pre-pandemic life. February 2021 is also the month that both of us became fully vaccinated. Dan got his second Moderna shot and I was able to get both of my Pfizer vaccines. March 12 is the end of my two-week post vaccine period. Not sure how or if our lives will differ but we already feel some relief that serious illness and death from Covid-19 is less of a possibility.
We navigated through February much the same as any other post-pandemic month. Neighborhood walks, cat walks, birdwatching, and some hikes. There was not a lot of excitement.
On a cool, misty morning we hiked the Monroe Ridge Trail at Coloma. It's only about 3 miles and there is a nice view of Lotus and Coloma from the top. Coloma is where John Marshall's discovery of gold in 1849 brought immigrants from around the world to California in search of riches. Even though this trail is quite close to home, this was my first time on it.
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| View from the highest point of the Monroe Ridge Trail |
Another beautiful day we returned to Cronan Ranch to hike the Up and Down Trail to the Sky Ridge Trail (5.4 mi). The oaks were beginning to bud and grasses were turning Spring green.
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| Dan and Chaz ahead |
Our one bird watching road trip was to Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area in West Sacramento.
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| Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area with I-80 in the distance |
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Shovelers
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"Walking" our cats leaves a lot of time for photographing Spring's progression in our yard and also for listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
Crocus (left) Dwarf Narcissus (right)
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| Narcissus |
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| Manzanita blossoms |
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| Hellebore (Lenten Rose) |
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| Daphne |
And, cats! They have both been on diets since their November vet appointment when they were ruled fat. It has been a struggle to return them to their former condition of svelteness. They both seem to constantly be starving even though the scale shows little progress. To supplement his calories, Syd chewed and partially opened one of the cat food cartons and a cat (identity unknown) attacked and consumed part of a round of freshly baked sourdough bread cooling on the counter. I would have accused Dan but since the divot was removed from the center top it appears the assailant had no thumbs. Most recently four roasted beets cooling on the kitchen counter before being peeled were attacked mercilessly (again cat identity unknown). I checked paws and lips and there was no sign of red beet on either of them. A missing beet was found in shreds on the floor the next morning.
Pandora (left) and Syd (right)
Lizard hunting season has begun
Tandem grooming sessions on the washing machine grooming table.
January 2021 was the worst month in our county for deaths due to Covid-19. February brought a decline in cases, deaths, and hospitalizations but the county continued to be in the purple (Widespread) tier. In February there were 761 additional positive cases and 21 additional deaths. With February's stats there have been a total of 9120 positive cases and 100 deaths since March 2020. The county is slated to move into the red tier in March if the positivity rate continues to decline.
In the year since our orbit shrank and my life evolved into documenting our cats and how our landscape progresses through the seasons, we have both chaffed at the inability to travel--especially overseas travel. Last year's road trip was the brightest six weeks of the last year. The rest was just running in place. Looking toward the future with hope.
