300 days of beauty, day 6

My brother and I took a long Christmas day walk down memory lane. We covered near every inch of our childhood neighborhood, recalling neighbors and stories and commenting about how it all looks different from our adult eyes. This picture is of our childhood backyard, our stomping grounds, literally. Officially named "the Canyon" we spent hours upon hours in this scrub-oak wonderland.

This rock was named "Smile Rock" because of face-like indentations on the front. Our pine tree we climbed so often has since died, and many of our scrub-oak caves have been removed to cut down on fire-hazards. In spite of this, it felt familiar, comforting. This Christmas day we saw countless bucks, many still sparring and a bit aggressive (we tried to not make eye contact and walk briskly past them with our two dogs who joined us on our memory pilgrimage). We avoided cactus and piles of deer poop, and we wondered if we should go pay our respects to Muffin's grave...our cocker spaniel who is buried in the Canyon. We laughed about this and were curious if the irises that were planted on top of her grave still bloomed in the spring.

The memories were pleasant, and more than that, the time with my brother was sweet as always. Of all the many beautiful gifts I have been given, my brother sits very far at the top.