Filmed on 11 March 2020; published on 18 December 2020
Location: China Flat, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California

• VIDEO BY ALICE
• SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO
  • Credits

Dear Ones,

As I recall, I had just come down with COVID-19 on 4 March 2020, a week prior to my birthday hike. I figured I would just as soon die in the wild as in my bed, so I picked a new, seldom used route in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and went for a good walk … not as far as usual, but a pretty good walk, considering. Even in the face of death, I feel, we can celebrate life, for, until the very moment of passing on, we live, and breathe, and may revel in the sights and sounds and scents of the physical world.

Beneath the video is an edited Summary …

VIDEO BY ALICE

SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO

Hello, Dear Ones,

t’s Alice. I Am of the Stars.

This is my birthday. I am going to show you a beautiful panorama of China Flat … get ready. It is in the Santa Monica Mountains, and here goes … [Shows panoramic, high view of China Flat.] … This is my birthday hike. I came over the mountain from that direction {shows trail and rocky mountaintop]. And now I am going exploring down that trail that you can barely see [shows trail leading down into a high valley] … to the other side here, where I have never been [shows narrow, high valley between two hills] … to see what I can find on my birthday. Pretty cool, huh? Very beautiful. [Completes 360 degree panoramic view.]

Dear Ones, This is the China Flat trail proper, down this way. I will show you … [Shows path through grass along high valley.] … I was going on down the trail thisaway, past that little tree right there [shows medium-sized tree beside trail] … and I suddenly got a feeling there was a mountain lion watching.

So I turned around and I am going back up the hill. They are very hard to spot, because they are just about the color of the rocks here, the sandstone rocks [shows sandstone boulders on hillside]. When mountain lions are sitting still, they look just like a sandstone rock. You would never know … They are that quiet.

I just could not spot it, but I am sure it was there, so I am going on back home now.

[The photos of China Flat in the end of the video are part of a collection of photos featured in another blog.]

Credits

“Birthday Hike at China Flat”
Imaged and Compiled by Alice B. Clagett, CC BY-SA 4.0
Music: “Prelude No. 6” from the Album “Preludes” by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0
Location: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, CA

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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adventures with Alice, Chris Zabriskie, coronavirus, COVID-19, musical collaborations, nature,