I was raised by my grandparents, Jim and Ruby Sharp, in a “better” neighborhood in San Diego. In the 1950’s, in Point Loma, I was the only kid I knew whose parents had divorced. Most parents did not shadow their children, but it was common to have met most of my friends’ moms and dads at some school event, but my mother lived across town and did not have a car, so did not come to my graduations or games. I was active in sports and loved playing football and baseball, and my grandfather, at the age of 65, coached the team I was on that was sponsored by Madelaine’s Pancakes. I am a decade away from that age, and cannot imagine how he was able to keep up with fifteen screaming ten-year-old boys running around the dirt lots, full of sugared sodas and candy bars. We lived in a house that looked out over the ocean, and every morning my grandfather would wake me for school, and I would drag myself into the kitchen where he would be having a second or third cup of coffee, leaning over the counter, silently looking out over the Pacific. My breakfast was always cooked, and my grandfather made scrambled eggs or pancakes or french toast, and there was also a small bowl of fruit; slices of an orange or when they were ripe a banana from the tree in our front yard. After thirty years in the Navy, my grandfather retired and probably planned on a quiet time at home with my grandmother, but that lasted less than a decade when they took me in. My grandfather loved his garden, which surrounded our house, from the fragile dichondra and the banana and avocado tree in the front, to the orange and lemon trees and roses in the back. A machinist in the Navy, my grandfather enjoyed working with tools and making things and had a complete workshop in the garage. He built my room at the back of his house with an electrician friend, Eddie Masco, from what had been his “lath house”; a structure the size of a small barn that housed what seemed like thousands of fuschia plants. One summer I had returned from college to attend classes at UCSD and my grandparents had planned a two week trip back to Illinois to visit Aunt Velma, and I was “hired” to care for my grandfather’s garden. In two weeks I came to understand that San Diego would revert to desert without the constant watering required, and came to realize how my grandfather spent a few hours of every morning. I knew that he had served on the USS Enterprise in World War II; there was a framed photograph and a row of medals hanging in the hall outside his bedroom, but he never spoke to me of the war except to say that he was one day away from Pearl Harbor when it was attacked in 1941. My grandfather took pride in his garden, and I would have liked to have asked how he survived for years fighting against the Japanese, and when he retired, created a garden that prominently featured a torii gate and Buddha.

Another one from the Black Pearl Skate Park. Shot in black-and-white, with minor tone adjustments and slight crop. In other news, I feel very obliged to share an interesting story about today's walk through the Cayman jungle on the so-called Mastic Trail. About halfway through the walk, I noticed something sitting at the inside curve of the path. Something which I realized should not be there, but which I could not deny I was seeing: A mammal of some kind, about the size of a small dog, with rusty-colored fur and a very rounded, arched back. It took off before I could see any more than that, letting out a high-pitched bark in warning. Then the real shock: It bounced. JUST like a kangaroo! The only native mammal on the island is the velvety free-tailed bat, so I was understandably stunned. After discussing this sighting with my art teacher's husband (a science professor at the nearby college), I got my explaination: A Brazillian agouti, a large member the rodent family, closely related to rabbits and the better-known capybara. They are non-native, but by no means invasive. I'd never seen one before, even in captivity, so am proud to say that the very first agouti I've ever seen was in the wild. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any photos of it. :( © All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use of this image is illegal and strictly prohibited.