Izumi Tanaka

I’ve been feeling sluggish about my photography, may be because of the sluggish weather.  Muse hasn’t come to me.  My cats are not cooperating.  What’s it all about?  At least the snails are happy in the unseasonal morning rains…

Hello, it’s almost at the end of April, and the rainy season is supposed to be over here in Southern California.  Yet I’m still using my space heater in my office and it was cold and drizzly last night.  What is up with that!?  Meanwhile, the little bit of precipitation fell in our neighborhood must be still a delight for our plants.  The trees and flowers all looked happy this morning in the sun.

The morning was bright after a short downpour yesterday.  As I took a walk in the crisp air, I encountered a whole bunch of these guys crawling all over the side walks.  Suddenly I’m finding myself having compassion for these little slow-moving creatures even though I still can’t touch them.  There’s something rather “zen” about how they are going around in their world.  (I don’t like the frivolous use of the word, “zen” but couldn’t find a better word in this case.)  Please don’t step on them, people!

Snails are out having fun in the rain! Come to think of it, I was terrified of snails when I was a kid. I still couldn’t touch them, but this is probably the closest I got to a snail in my life!

It was almost hard to believe it rained last night….  I know I heard it, but I was already in for the evening when it started.  When I woke up this morning the sun was shining through our bedroom window, so I forgot about the rain until I walked outside and saw the refreshened plans.  They all looked happy.

In between the downpour, the blue sky peeks in.

Nothing like a winter storm in Southern California…