Today is a gorgeous day in Cerritos…a bit too warm with 89° but nice, nice the less. No smog or haze and a slight breeze. I was outside talking to one of the neighbors when I noticed a mockingbird was serenading us with his many songs. I’m sure he’s trying to attract a mate as he just kept on singing with hardly a breath. I know it was a male mocker because it’s only the males who sing the many tunes. I enjoy hearing them because it reminds me of spring days of yore…many birds singing their tunes with seemingly no cares, blooming flowers galore and a nice feel to the air. Life is good!
Water Henge's 5 pieces
On the first day of spring, I walked over to the Cerritos Regional Park to check out “Water Henge: H2O = Life,” a sculpture near the community pool. Cerritos has many sculptures throughout the city, but this is my favorite because I can understand it. It’s also different from all the other sculptures in Cerritos because of its composition is of Expanded Polystrene (EPS) that is coated with one” thick cement. Ceramic tiles accented with glass pieced surround the cement. The piece was commissioned by the City of Cerritos and Los Angeles County and was created by artist Kim Emerson. The artwork is made up of five mosaic landscape sculptures that represent a visual timeline of the presence of water, or lack of water, in the region. The pieces range in size from 9 inches high to 15 feet high. The tallest piece has a part on top that looks like the sun and the sun is supposed to shine through the hole onto the smallest piece on the first day of spring. This is why I went over to see it. But I didn’t think far enough ahead and failed to realize that I had to wait until the sun
Cerritos Water History
had risen higher. Well, I couldn’t wait that long and so I’ll just have to rust that this really happened. I don’t know if it ever does because I’ve never seen an article in the newspaper or online about this little piece of trivia. The smallest piece of Water Henge represent an 11,000 year drought 10,000 years ago. And we think we’re in a drought now after a year or so! After being a bit disappointed in not seeing the sun shine, I continued my walk around the park and took a picture of a large flock of coots (what Dad used to call mud hens). They were “grazing” on the grass, probably leaving their evidence everywhere. Those birds are really messy!
The messy coots!
Speaking of birds, I’ve seen evidence of several sparrow and finch nests around the house and one of the neighbors told me he has a swallow’s nest attached to his house. Since the birds have completed it, he’ll let them finish out their cycle before knocking it down. Swallows are persistent little birds as they will try two or three times before giving up on a nest if someone knocks down their attempts at building their little mud house.
Spring has sprung and hope springs eternal (most of the time) Happy Spring and Happy Easter to you all!
buzzardnotes 
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