Life on the central coast is full of little surprises.Vivid colors dot the grey coast overcast like little wrapped presents.

I love wildflowers. Everything grows so well in the ocean air on the Monterey peninsula.

Bright orange wildflowers pop against the grey of the sky, water and fog.

These baby squirrels were hurrying back to their nest beneath the rocks after hearing their mother call them. I’d never heard a mama squirrel call to her babies before. For that matter, I’ve never seen squirrels on these rocks before, but we saw many of them last week. Too many.

Some of the tourists were unwisely feeding them. Over by Lovers Point, a group of foreign tourists were feeding four squirrels, stupidly allowing them to take food from their fingers. Way too close. Way too stupid. The four of us looked at one another and shook our heads. We wanted to say something, but knew intuitively they would make light of our warning.

Within a minute, a woman cried out–she’d been bitten. Her companion pulled out tissues and was wiping away the blood as she continued to cry in pain. We wanted to tell them to take her to emergency immediately, but (again, intuitively) we were afraid they wouldn’t welcome our suggestion. (This is the world we live in.)

Nature’s a lot smarter. Walking on, we thought about the sunshine we’d seen the day before at Big Sur, and these gorgeous flowers at the River Inn.

Flowers and squirrels, beauty and stupidity: another day on the Monterey peninsula.