edible cactus, Rivenrock Gardens logo.

The Seasons ebb and flow, moving through our lives and coming back again like the rise and fall of the relentless tides.
It is best to plant when the time is right for it, and good to harvest when the season is in full maturity.
Don't rush time, don't hurry nature. Plant when the time is right and your work will be more richly rewarded.
To hurry things causes excess work and worry, and increases chances of failure.
Prepare for the coming season, be ready to do the proper work when it is upon you.
Let the vigor of growth in its' proper season do the work for you.
Observe, relax and listen.
Don't hurry, and all things will come to you when you need them.

The Master said,
"To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there
must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in
expenditure, love for the people; and the employment of the people at the
proper seasons."
~Confucius~

"The seasons go their course and all things come into being.
But does heaven speak?"
~Confucius~

Summer, 2007

Summer, 2007

Photos of Summertime at Montana de Oro (Golden Mountain) California

Pounding surf, rocky cliffside beaches.
Pelicans, terns, gulls

The Central Coast:
California's Crown jewel of the Middle Kingdom
on the Pacific Shoreline

We made a screensaver from some of the photos.
It has twenty photos in it and is 6.8 Mg in file size.
You are welcome to download it and install it free of charge.

blogmontanadeoro0707_1.jpg (36193 bytes)

Spring 2007

spring2007_7.jpg (31081 bytes)

Spring 2007

A wildlife Refuge in the middle of the Los Angeles Megalopolis?
Well, maybe not in the exact center,
but the Sepulveda Basin Project and Wildlife Refuge is a surprising bit of green in Los Angeles County.

WINTER 2007

Winter 2007

The Central Coast had a mix of heat and cold during this winter.
We got many good photos of the coast and of the hills.
We built them into both a screensaver,
and also into the winter2007 webpage.

A sad tale's best for winter.
I have one of sprites and goblins.
~William Shakespeare~
A Winter's Tale, 1610

centralcoast07_2.jpg (33043 bytes)

AUTUMN 2006

Money have I none,
But I've got silver, in the stars,
And gold in the rising sun.

A most spectacular sunrise and sunset occurred on 122106 in the Lompoc area.
We have some photos showing this off.

I'm just a Country Boy
~Don Williams~

I ain't gonna marry in the fall
And I ain't gonna marry in the spring
For I'm in love with a pretty little girl
Who wears a diamond ring

I'm just a country boy
Money have I none
But I've got silver in the stars
And gold in the morning sun
And gold in the morning sun

A beautiful sunset in Lompoc
Rivenrock Gardens Screensaver of the beautiful sunset in Lompoc
on Dec 21, 2006 the shortest day of the year.
This series of shots were taken from Harris Grade,
above Lompoc/Mission Hills/Vandenberg Village and looking West to the Ocean.
1.2 MG

This screensaver has seven photographs of a most beautiful sunset.

It is always in season for old men to learn
~Aeschylus ~

For the unlearned, old age is winter;
for the learned, it is the season of the harvest
~Hasidic saying~

A photo from the beautiful sunset in Lompoc screensaver.

SPRING 2006

A Springtime Visit to the Central Valley
It's not easy bein' green
~Joe Raposo~

It's not easy bein' green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer bein' red or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that

It's not easy bein' green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over
'Cause you're not standing out like flashy sparkles
On the water or stars in the sky

But green is the color of spring
And green can be cool and friendly like
And green can be big like an ocean
Or important like a mountain or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why
But why wonder, why wonder?
I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
And I think it's what I want to be

WINTER 2006

If Hollywood will not come to the cactus, you must take the cactus to Hollywood

Hollywood and Cactus, what gives?

~Odysseus~
(as played by Sean Bean in the movie "Troy")

"If they ever tell my story let them say that I walked with giants.
Men rise and fall like the winter wheat,
but these names will never die.
Let them say I lived in the time of Hector.
Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles."

FALL 2005

A day with the falcons!

'If I Were A Hawk'
by Mary Ann Coleman

If I were a hawk,
I would taste the tips of storm clouds
and clutch lightning bolts in my great claws.
I'd fold my wings and dive into forests
green as the Atlantic
with the wind polishing my feathers,
and then flap away again.

I'd fly through a hundred cloud-patched sunsets,
and hammer sungold to the pines with my curved beak.
I'd name the whole sky mine and call aloud to claim it,
circling the world till night eased me down on my nest.
An umbrella of stars over my shoulders,
I'd sleep without fear or nightmare in the dark
if I were a hawk.

SUMMER 2005
A Professional Photographer comes to Rivenrock

A photograph of three varieties of cactus at Rivenrock.

Desert Person
by Byrd Baylor

Like any desert creature,
I build my own
safe shelter
with what the desert
gives.

I make thick walls
of mud and straw.
With my own hands
I shape the earth
into a house.

But when I say,
"This is my home,"
another desert person
always knows
that I don't mean
the house.

I mean
the farthest mountain
I can see.

I mean
sunsets
that fill the whole sky
and the colors
of the cliffs
and all their silences
and shadows.

I mean
the desert
is my home.

WINTER 2005

rain, rain, more rain, and mushrooms galore!

Only in winter can you tell which trees are truly green.
Only when the winds of adversity blow
can you tell whether an individual or a country has steadfastness.
~John F. Kennedy~

FALL 2004

The Central Coast: Beaches, Mountains, and Deserts- We don't call it the Central Coast of Paradise for nothin'

John standing by the Rivenrock truck.

Edna St. Vincent Millay -
I Know I Am But Summer To Your Heart.

I Know I Am But Summer To Your Heart
And not the full four seasons of the year;
And you must welcome from another part
Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear.
No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell have I,
nor any wise and wintry thing;
And I have loved you all too long and well
To carry still the high sweet breast of Spring.
Wherefore I say: O love, as summer goes,
I must be gone, steal forth with silent drums,
that you may hail anew the bird and rose
when I come back to you, as summer comes.
Else will you seek, at some not distant time,
Even your summer in another clime.

SUMMER 2004

Wind That Shakes the Barley

Robert D. Joyce, 1830-1883

I sat within a valley green
Sat there with my true love
And my fond heart strove to choose between
The old love and the new love
The old for her, the new that made
Me think on Ireland dearly
While soft the wind blew down the glade
And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the mournful words to frame
To break the ties that bound us
Ah, but harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, "The mountain glen
I'll seek at morning early
And join the brave united men"
While soft wind shook the barley

Twas sad I kissed away her tears
Her arms around me clinging
When to my ears that fateful shot
Come out the wildwood ringing
The bullet pierced my true love's breast
In life's young spring so early
And there upon my breast she died
While soft wind shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream
And many's the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green
About her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse
Then rushed o'er vale and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak
While soft wind shook the barley

Twas blood for blood without remorse
I took at Oulart Hollow
I placed my true love's clay-cold corpse
Where mine full soon may follow
Around her grave I wondered drear
Noon, night and morning early
With aching heart when e'er I hear
The wind that shakes the barley

WINTER 2004

My Bonie Bell

The smiling Spring comes in rejoicing,
And surly Winter grimly flies;
Now crystal clear are the falling waters,
And bonie blue are the sunny skies.
Fresh o'er the mountains breaks forth the morning,
The ev'ning gilds the ocean's swell;
All creatures joy in the sun's returning,
And I rejoice in my bonie Bell.

The flowery Spring leads sunny Summer,
The yellow Autumn presses near;
Then in his turn comes gloomy Winter,
Till smiling Spring again appear:
Thus seasons dancing, life advancing,
Old Time and Nature their changes tell;
But never ranging, still unchanging,
I adore my bonie Bell.

FALL 2003

"Live each season as it passes;
breathe the air, drink the drink,
taste the fruit,
and resign yourself to the influences of each."
~Henry David Thoreau~

Fall foliage in North Carolina.

SPRING 2003

From 'The Cowboy Junkies'

Have you ever seen a sight as beautiful
as that of the rain-soaked purple
of the white birch in spring?

Have you ever felt more fresh or wonderful
than on a warm fall night
under a Mackerel sky,
the smell of grapes on the wind?

Well I have known all these things
and the joys that they can bring
And I'll share them all for a cup of coffee
and to wear your ring

Have you ever had the pleasure of watching
a quiet winter's snow slowly gathering
like simple moments adding up?

Have you ever satisfied a gut feeling
to follow a dry dirt road that's beckoning you
to the heart of a shimmering summer's day?

Well I have known all these things
and the joys that they can bring
And I'll share them all for a cup of coffee
and to wear your ring

And I don't know how I survived those days
before I held your hand
Well I never thought that I would be the one
to admit that the moon and the sun
shine so much more brighter when
seen through two pairs of eyes than
when seen through just one

Have you ever seen a sight as beautiful
as a face in a crowd of people
that lights up just for you?

Have you ever felt more fresh or wonderful
as when you wake
by the side of that boy or girl
who has pledged their love to you?

Well I have known all these things
and the joys that they can bring
And now every morning there's a cup of coffee
and I wear your ring

A King Snake and Cleopatra's bust on our patio.

WINTER 2003

HWY 101, Nipomo California
early morning time lapse view.

THE WAY IS TAO,
123

The swallow has decided
only summer
exists.
Every autumn,
it turns its back on winter,
and crosses rivers, mountains and oceans
in arduous quest of its
eternal summer.

The sparrow takes
the seasons in its stride.
It enjoys the warmth of summer
and shivers in the chill of winter.

The clever and ambitious
believe
in the dominance
of mind over matter.
They emulate the swallow.

The Taoist sage
knows
the true mind
is in harmony with
the seasons.
He is a friend of the sparrow.

FALL 2002

~Henry Ward Beecher~
Any man can work when every stroke of his hands brings down the fruit rattling from the tree.
But to labor in season and out of season, under every discouragement requires a heroism which is transcendent.

Night time views of Rivenrock during a meteor shower.

Nighttime view of Cereus peruvianus at Rivenrock gardens.

SPRING 2002

spring2002

The Springtime mists come to Rivenrock Gardens

Xunzi Hsun-tse
(c. 213 BCE)
Are order and disorder the product of Heaven?
I say, the sun and the moon, the stars and the constellations
are the same as they were in the time of Yu and Jie.
Yu brought order, Jie created disorder,
so order and disorder do not come from Heaven.
Are they a product of the seasons?
I say, plants sprout and grow in spring and summer,
and are harvested and stored in fall and winter,
just the way they were during the reigns of Yu and Jie.
Yet Yu brought order, Jie disorder,
so order and disorder are not the product of seasons.
Is it land then? I say, obtaining land leads to life,
losing it leads to death, just as in the time of Yu and Jie.
Yet Yu brought order, Jie disorder,
so order and disorder are not a product of land....

Why does it rain after a prayer for rain?
I say, for no reason. It is the same as raining when you had not prayed.
When there is an eclipse of the sun or moon, you "save" it;
when there is a drought, you pray for rain;
when an important decision is to be made, you divine.
It is not that you can get anything by doing so.
It is just decoration. Hence, the gentleman considers them ornament,
but the common people think spirits are involved.
To consider them ornament is auspicious;
to consider them as spiritual acts is inauspicous.

WINTER 2002

Chuang Tzu
ca 286 B.C.
When Zhuangzi's wife died and Hui Shi came to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi squatting with his knees out, drumming on a pan and singing ''You lived with her she raised your children, and you grew old together, Hui Shi said "Not weeping when she died would have been bad enough.
Aren't you going too far by drumming on a pan and singing?'

"No," Zhuangzi said, "When she first died how could I have escaped feeling the loss?
Then I looked back to the beginning before she had life.
Not only before she had life but before she had form.
Not only before she had form, but before she had vital energy.
In this confused amorphous realm, something changed and vital energy appeared,
when the vital energy was changed, form appeared; with changes in form, life began.
Now there is another change bringing death.
This is like the progression of the four seasons of spring and fall, winter and summer.
Here she was lying down to sleep in a huge room and I followed her sobbing and wailing.
When I realized my actions showed I hadn't understood destiny, I stopped."

winter2002

Night time photos of Rivenrock
taken with time-lapse photography

FALL 2001

An Autumn with deer in rut.
A local deer stays near our house,
here we see her suitor close up!

Whatever you do, do it with all your might.
Work at it, early and late,
in season and out of season,
not leaving a stone unturned,
and never deferring for a single hour
that which can be done just as well as now.
P.T. Barnum

SUMMER 2001
Summer on the Coast

The Chinese philosopher Mencius
ca 335 B.C.

"If the farmer's seasons are not interfered with,
there will be more grain in the land than can be consumed."

Winter will ask you what you did during the summer.
~Romanian Proverb~

A Summertime at the beach.
Summertime, and the weather is cool and breezy, a haven from the hot cities.

SPRING 2001

The promise of Springtime.

A Springtime with deer.
A local deer stays near our house,
here we see her baby fawn close up!

Wu-Men
"Spring comes with flowers, autumn with the moon,
summer with the breeze, winter with snow.
When idle concerns don't fill your thoughts, that's your best season."

WINTER 2001

Sanskrit Proverb

Look to this day,
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.

Winter on the Central Coast

Winter on the Central Coast.
Winter of 2001 brought large amounts of snow
to the delight of Central Coast residents

AUTUMN 2000

Fall in California,
California Four Seasons

Autumn 2000
California really does have seasons!
See images of colorful Autumn foliage from
'The Beautiful Central Coast of Paradise'

"Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies"
A Mandan American Indian story.

'Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies' was an original Spirit,
present at the beginning with The Creator.
She lives on an island far to the South where she has a garden.
There the blackbirds who come from the Red-Corn help her tend the garden.
When Winter comes the spirits of the garden plants,
and the wild plants that cannot stand the cold go to her warm island
in the South and spend the days there in warm relaxation.
When the Spring is coming Old Woman sends the blackbirds
North with the spirits of the plants to put them back
into their rightful places in the gardens, streams and woods.

SUMMER 2000

BOTH SIDES OF THE TWEED
Capercaillie

What's the spring breathing jasmine and rose,
What's the summer with all its gay train,
What's the splendour of autumn to those,
Who've bartered their freedom for gain.

Let the love of our land's sacred rights,
To the love of our people succeed,
Let friendship and honour unite,
And flourish on both sides of the Tweed.

No sweetness the senses can cheer,
Which corruption and bribery bind,
No brightness the sun can e'er clear,
For honour's the sum of the mind.

Let virtue distinguish the brave,
Place riches in lowest degree,
Think them poorest who can be a slave,
Them richest who dare to be free.

Summertime in California
-Beautiful Wasteland-

Summer 2000, Summer is fire Season in California,
see photos of a California brushland fire.

SPRING 2000

Springtime in Cactus Country

Spring 2000
The rains of winter bring a bloom to the desert,
God's paintbrush run wild with color.

Life and Death, possession and loss,
success and failure, poverty and wealth,
virtue and vice, good and evil,
hunger and thirst, heat and cold --
these are changes of things in the natural course of events.
Day and night they follow upon one another,
and no man can say where they spring from.
Therefore they must not be allowed to disturb the natural harmony,
nor enter into the soul's domain.
One should live so that one is at ease,
and in harmony with the world,
without loss or happiness,
and by day and by night,
share the peace of spring with the created things.
Thus continuously one creates the seasons in one's own breast.
Such a person may be said to have perfect talents
~Confucius~

WINTER 2000

Ecclesiastes 3

There is a time for everything,
And a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain,
A time to search and a time to give up,
A time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
A time for war and a time for peace.
What does the worker gain from his toil?
So I saw that there is nothing better
for a man than to enjoy his work,
because that is his lot.
For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

A California
Rainy Season

Winter 2000
Winter's rains bring needed
water to a parched landscape.

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The Master said, "To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, love for the people; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons." ~Confucius~

"The seasons go their course and all things come into being. But does heaven speak?" ~Confucius~

Summer, 2007 Photos of Summertime at Montana de Oro (Golden Mountain) California Pounding surf, rocky cliffside beaches. Pelicans, terns, gulls The Central Coast: California's Crown jewel of the Middle Kingdom on the Pacific Shoreline

We made a screensaver from some of the photos. It has twenty photos in it and is 6.8 Mg in file size. You are welcome to download it and install it free of charge.

A wildlife Refuge in the middle of the Los Angeles Megalopolis? Well, maybe not in the exact center, but the Sepulveda Basin Project and Wildlife Refuge is a surprising bit of green in Los Angeles County.

The Central Coast had a mix of heat and cold during this winter. We got many good photos of the coast and of the hills. We built them into both a screensaver, and also into the winter2007 webpage.

A sad tale's best for winter. I have one of sprites and goblins. ~William Shakespeare~ A Winter's Tale, 1610

Money have I none, But I've got silver, in the stars, And gold in the rising sun.

A most spectacular sunrise and sunset occurred on 122106 in the Lompoc area. We have some photos showing this off.

I'm just a Country Boy ~Don Williams~

I ain't gonna marry in the fall And I ain't gonna marry in the spring For I'm in love with a pretty little girl Who wears a diamond ring

I'm just a country boy Money have I none But I've got silver in the stars And gold in the morning sun And gold in the morning sun

A beautiful sunset in Lompoc Rivenrock Gardens Screensaver of the beautiful sunset in Lompoc on Dec 21, 2006 the shortest day of the year. This series of shots were taken from Harris Grade, above Lompoc/Mission Hills/Vandenberg Village and looking West to the Ocean. 1.2 MG

This screensaver has seven photographs of a most beautiful sunset.

It is always in season for old men to learn ~Aeschylus ~

For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest ~Hasidic saying~

It's not easy bein' green Having to spend each day the color of the leaves When I think it could be nicer bein' red or yellow or gold Or something much more colorful like that

It's not easy bein' green It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things And people tend to pass you over 'Cause you're not standing out like flashy sparkles On the water or stars in the sky

But green is the color of spring And green can be cool and friendly like And green can be big like an ocean Or important like a mountain or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be It could make you wonder why But why wonder, why wonder? I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful And I think it's what I want to be

Hollywood and Cactus, what gives?

~Odysseus~ (as played by Sean Bean in the movie "Troy")

"If they ever tell my story let them say that I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector. Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles."

A day with the falcons!

'If I Were A Hawk' by Mary Ann Coleman

SUMMER 2005 A Professional Photographer comes to Rivenrock

Desert Person by Byrd Baylor

rain, rain, more rain, and mushrooms galore!

Only in winter can you tell which trees are truly green. Only when the winds of adversity blow can you tell whether an individual or a country has steadfastness. ~John F. Kennedy~

The Central Coast: Beaches, Mountains, and Deserts- We don't call it the Central Coast of Paradise for nothin'

John standing by the Rivenrock truck.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - I Know I Am But Summer To Your Heart.

Wind That Shakes the Barley

Robert D. Joyce, 1830-1883

I sat within a valley green Sat there with my true love And my fond heart strove to choose between The old love and the new love The old for her, the new that made Me think on Ireland dearly While soft the wind blew down the glade And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the mournful words to frame To break the ties that bound us Ah, but harder still to bear the shame Of foreign chains around us And so I said, "The mountain glen I'll seek at morning early And join the brave united men" While soft wind shook the barley

Twas sad I kissed away her tears Her arms around me clinging When to my ears that fateful shot Come out the wildwood ringing The bullet pierced my true love's breast In life's young spring so early And there upon my breast she died While soft wind shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream And many's the summer blossom I placed with branches soft and green About her gore-stained bosom I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse Then rushed o'er vale and valley My vengeance on the foe to wreak While soft wind shook the barley

Twas blood for blood without remorse I took at Oulart Hollow I placed my true love's clay-cold corpse Where mine full soon may follow Around her grave I wondered drear Noon, night and morning early With aching heart when e'er I hear The wind that shakes the barley

My Bonie Bell

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." ~Henry David Thoreau~

From 'The Cowboy Junkies'

A King Snake and Cleopatra's bust on our patio.

HWY 101, Nipomo California early morning time lapse view.

THE WAY IS TAO, 123

The swallow has decided only summer exists. Every autumn, it turns its back on winter, and crosses rivers, mountains and oceans in arduous quest of its eternal summer.

The sparrow takes the seasons in its stride. It enjoys the warmth of summer and shivers in the chill of winter.

The clever and ambitious believe in the dominance of mind over matter. They emulate the swallow.

The Taoist sage knows the true mind is in harmony with the seasons. He is a friend of the sparrow.

~Henry Ward Beecher~ Any man can work when every stroke of his hands brings down the fruit rattling from the tree. But to labor in season and out of season, under every discouragement requires a heroism which is transcendent.