Deck time on a Saturday afternoon

March 3, 2015 by RMW 18 Comments

I couldn’t believe it when I looked at my calendar Saturday morning and saw that the entire weekend was a blank page. As many of my friends are still doing the Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 grind, usually my weekends consist of running from one event to another to pack everything into two days. It’s a relief when Monday morning comes around!

I was happy, after all the ups and downs of the past few weeks, to end one month and begin another with no plans. So after puttering around in the morning, Saturday afternoon I poured myself a glass of some red substance, picked up my camera and opened the door to my roof deck.

We’ve been having some rain lately so there were some nice views all around. Southern California is known for its postcard blue skies without a cloud in sight. But I love clouds, so whenever we have storms I enjoy being on my deck looking up at all the different formations.

The first photo is looking south to Culver City Park and Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. The second photo is looking northwest “Over the Rainbow” and Sony Pictures towards the ocean. Gorgeous sunsets in that direction. The third photo was just looking up, I liked the striations.

These three photos are of my beloved geraniums with a few cacti and kalanchoes. The roof deck is my favorite spot in the universe and I always feel so fortunate to be able to sit out there in the tree tops and watch the numerous birds, insects and planes flying around.

These are the neighborhood parrots. You don’t have to see them to know they are flying overhead… their cacophonous squawking is enough to drown out a helicopter. I counted thirty birds in this pandemonium of parrots…. yes, that is what a flock of parrots is called… and for a good reason!

Of course, when I am sitting out on my deck it isn’t long before I have company. Freddie was out here first when Frankie decided to stop by and say hello.

Frankie says I’m not interested if you’re not interested.

Look, we know we are both the handsomest cats in the universe but enough with the pictures, okay!

Planes coming into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) fly in over my deck, then make a pass over downtown LA and fly all the way out to some place like Covina where they turn back to make the descent into LAX behind the Baldwin Hills Overlook (top photo).

I am situated halfway between LAX (to the south) and Santa Monica Airport (to the north) which is where private jets and smaller private planes land and take off. Those smaller planes fly in the opposite direction to the commercial airliners and from my perspective sometimes it looks like they are on a collision course.

Then there are the fighter planes at Edwards Air Force Base out in the desert. They fly at much higher altitudes and I enjoy the contrails they make cutting across the sky. And we mustn’t forget all the helicopters buzzing around.

So, I live in a very busy air corridor and I love watching all the activity… not to mention bird life from hummers and finches to hawks and crows… and low flying ducks. And, of course, the parrots. So anytime you are bored, just come on over and we’ll watch the skies together. BYOB, of course!

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