Eostre's Art

Tuck and I do not attend any manmade church or temple; our place of worship is the woods—or other place of wilds when the woods are off limit due to heat, fire, or snow. 

It was heat that kept us from our usual house of worship on this holiday marking Spring, the rise of the Sun (the Son), and the renewal of life. Also, Tucker seems to prefer ocean over forest anyway, so we drove to his temple of choice.

He had been having a rough go of it as of late. Due to his incessant scratching that was still undiagnosed, he had popped a hematoma. For those who don’t know what that is: it’s essentially a blood blister on the ear. A scratch or hit breaks open the capillaries between the cartilage and skin on the pinna (the floppy part) of a dog’s ear, and it creates a gap, filling with blood. It can be pretty painful. But dogs don’t know that wacking it into things repeatedly (by shaking one’s heads) or scratching it (because it feels funny) will just make it worse. Like human blood blisters, there isn’t much one can do. It just recedes on its own. If you try to drain it, it’ll just fill up again. You could also do surgery, but that seems a little excessive to me for a non-life threatening condition. He’d had a couple before in prior years. One went through numerous drainings, the other with just one draining, then receded on its own. I hoped this one would go down on its own without any draining.

So, Tucker was forced to be bonnet boy again to keep his ear still until it healed.  Donned in his blue bonnet, Tucker and I headed to our oft-frequented place by the ocean: the Carpinteria Bluffs and Tar Pits. 

There is some open meadow

A good sea breeze,

Some sea lions hanging out,

A few places where we are not allowed,

A grand view or two,

And some tar.

I had forgotten how bad the tar can be. Tuck’s paws got a little sticky, so he gave up on the walk back.

Not sure how this is in any way comfortable, except that his paws aren't sticking to anything but themselves. He looks like the main character of a fairy tale either at the beginning or the end of the story... hard to tell which.

Tucker dramatically came to life after I gave him a few moments and then we headed to a second stop I had seen on the map that looked intriguing and close by: Oak Creek Winery.

It was near closing time when we arrived, and it being Easter, there were few people there. We got a little cabana-like sitting area to ourselves with a view of the vineyard. I let Tuck take off his bonnet since I would close by to stop any major ear-wacking. He seemed to like the freedom for ears and the view.

Easter Sunday for many is about church and family. They go to church is the morning and then spend the afternoon with family. Tuck is my family, and so we spent it together in our own house of worship: the bluffs above the ocean, then sat together for a beverage, looking out over nature groomed by humans, and contemplating new beginnings. For Easter is just another way to celebrate Spring—the time when Mother Nature paints the world  anew.

Here's to the unblemished potential of the year ahead and life renewed, however you choose to honor it.