I Am A Naturalist - Experiencing Nature at PVS

Most of my family and friends know that Jay and I live in Palos Verdes Shores, a community of residents, 55 years or older, who live in manufactured homes on the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  

Nestled between the town of San Pedro and the Trump Golf course, our little piece of paradise provides us with expansive views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island, 

the Port of Los Angeles, tanker ships, fishing boats, and an occasional whale or dolphin. We enjoy daily ocean breezes, mornings with marine layers, 

hummingbirds visiting our deck feeders, monarch butterflies visiting our milkweed plants, 

the evening serenades of local coyotes and once in a while an uninvited raccoon trying to get into the trash bins.  

While we have the moving parking lot of the 405 freeway just a few miles away, it is easy to forget the hustle of the city and submerge ourselves into the natural world that surrounds us.  Separating us from the Trump Golf course is the Ocean Trails section of the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, areas of the peninsula that are protected by the Land Conservancy from development and provides hiking trails while preserving the natural setting.  After our wonderful rains, the Preserve was lush and green and later, filled with golden flowers of the wild mustard plants.  

But like all living things (ourselves included!), these plants age, and dry, and wither away…creating a disaster like a brush fire just waiting to happen.

But the city of Palos Verdes is on the ball and as well as employing various persons to comb the hillsides with weed-whackers, each year they also bring in goats to eat the invasive plants.  The Conservancy says goat grazing is considered environmentally friendly and economically efficient.

So, today Jay and I decide to take a walk over to the trail head and looked down on the busy baa-ing goats.  On our way we passed this sign that reminded us that there are other living creatures that also share our surroundings!

Except for the goats and one other man ahead of us on the trail, we felt like we were alone in this magical place.  

To the left were the rooftops of our community homes, and before us was hillside filled with goats.  

Some were chomping away, some were fighting over who was going to stand on top of the big rocks, 

and some were just resting while they digested!  

Later we walked over to the tall trees adjacent to our golf course to check out the red-tailed hawk nest and see if we could get a glimpse of mama hawk and her one little “hawklet!” 

Jay and I look at each other and say…”We live in paradise! 

Being surrounded by the beauty and the peacefulness of nature is restorative.  It gives us a chance to remove ourselves from the "noise" and be reminded of the essence of life.  All we have to do is turn on the television or pick up the newspaper and we realize that we don’t recognize our world anymore.  The “new normal” is frightening to us.  We feel assaulted by dissent, anger, disrespect, chest-thumping.  We don’t know what to believe or who to trust. We don’t understand our modern world and the urge is strong to assume the fetal position, to withdraw and hide.  But what we find ourselves doing instead is reaching for those behaviors that are constant and remind us of who we are at our core.  

We are currently taking an Omnilore course that is studying the ancient philosophies of China and we are reminded of mindfulness and all the wonderful tools that help us practice warm-heartedness, presence and goodness and that contribute positively to our well-being and our surroundings.  Being aware of nature that surrounds us contributes to that little bit of serenity.  

As Confucius say..."Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."  I think I'll go take a walk!