Return to principles

A typical scene from the San Diego area. I love the topography, but I understand that the coyotes are finding it harder to scrounge for food. We wake up here to a bell-like bird sound just before dawn. And the other day we went to the San Elijo Lagoon where I saw a hummingbird for the first time in my life. I imagine its colours are beautiful (blue, red, yellow), but I could barely tell as it was a whir.
Today we caught the train back to Los Angeles and talked to a Nigerian cardiologist and Korean journalism student. The cardiologist was most impressed by San Diego. He thought it was very clean and didn't 'know how they do it'. And yet, US cities are cutting services. The mayor of San Diego (Sanders) announced his budget measures the other day, and they include reducing library hours to two days a week. Can you imagine if you went to London or Paris and the libraries were only open two days a week?
Funny how easily we talk to people. I helped a woman take her suitcase downstairs and onto the platform at Union Station. In the two minutes it took to help her down, she told me how she'd had a life-threatening illness and her husband had been told to prepare himself. I hugged her on the platform and got back on the train to go to Van Nuys. But it is amazing how often here we have hugged people we have just met.
Now we're back in the San Fernando Valley. We walked to the Sepulveda Basin Dog Off-the-Leash Park in the early evening - hundreds of dogs and their owners enjoying the dedicated area by the side of the concrete river, in the distance the magnificent serrations of the surrounding mountains. Then we went to Lake Balboa where families were fishing. I realise Los Angeles is restoring infrastructure and community and wish them well. I remember being impressed by the bicycle path I saw a couple of weeks ago. And this a city built for cars!