Yosemite's Coyotes and Clouds

Friends I greet you from Yosemite Yosemite is full of wonder...bringing delight to the heart and soul. Both last night's sky...and this morning's sky spoke of an approaching storm. I went hiking...hopeful to take some pretty pictures. The light morning rain began...and within a half hour, it stopped. On the deer trail, there was a deer lay...not a bed... but a temporary comfortable place to rest. I noticed a pretty rock. But... The the sky and the clouds were putting on a show. I found a comfortable place on the ground...to sit...and began taking pictures with my iPod...almost a half hour flew by...with my head in the clouds...

The sky and clouds were wonderful.....

....when...a coyote was wondering when I might notice him!!!... His coat was shiny....oh, my.... now there were three more coyotes....in a semicircle formation. I began filming them... They walked over to a large slab of rock and enjoyed just sitting on the rock, as I enjoyed observing them!!! One coyote walked away from the others and sat by himself on the ground...near a blooming manzanita bush. Coyotes are shy and will not normally come near people. They hunt for mice...for dinner. These were not coy coyotes. Almost an hour later, I walked away.. Another coyote...this one limping...or was she pretending to be injured so as to draw attention to herself and away from her pups??? Sharing the beautiful early morning with a family of....coyotes was a gift from Nature....for which I am thankful. I enjoyed spending my morning with Nature. The natural day was very calm...yet exhilarating!!! I was happy to have sat on the soil....feeling satisfied and enriched by the glories of the clouds...and the coyotes .Later, I remembered the wisdom of Chief Luther Standing Bear...Land of the Spotted Eagle "The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew into the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing. " My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir..."A slight sprinkle of rain...cumuli...how beautiful their pearly bosses! Mountains of the sky, solid-looking, finely sculptured, their richly varied topography wonderfully defined. Never before have I seen clouds so substantially looking in form and texture. .... They rise with visible swelling motion as if new worlds were being created. ...One may fancy the clouds themselves are plants, springing up in the skyfields at the call of the sun, growing in beauty until they reach their prime, scattering rain and hail like berries and seeds, then wilting and dying. Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long or short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality... ... And what glorious cloudlands I should see, storms and calms,-a new heaven and a new earth every day. " After spending a wonderful day in Yosemite...in Nature...with clouds and coyotes...or other natural wonders, spend the night in a Scenic Wonders cabin....peacefully dreaming of your encounter with Nature...and Beauty. Another terrific day in Yosemite Sent from my iPod Pictures taken by my iPod