The rose
The Adventure Continues… Sidecars
Some of my favorite episodes of California’s Gold feature Huell hanging out with groups of people celebrating their hobbies — whether it’s railcars, monarch butterflies, or ships in a bottle. This week Huell has a great time learning about all the variations of motorcycle sidecars and meeting the people — and animals — who love riding in them. A visit […]
Negative space
There are plenty of examples of negative space to be found on the dry lakebed at Folsom. My favorite ones, of course, relate to the remnants of the North Fork Ditch and the empty spaces it has left behind.
Tree takeaway
The sweetgum trees in my front yard provide lovely shade in the summertime and many layers of dead leaves in the fall; they also cover the yard and walkways with pointy, round seed balls — a perpetual hazard underfoot. But I now have a bit more respect for those ubiquitous pods, now that I’ve seen birds, like these Lesser Goldfinches, […]
Memory Monday, Week 137
Some of my very favorite old family slides are the ones dating from the 1950s and 1960s; even if I don’t have very much information about where they were shot, it’s great to see vintage cars and places that may have completely changed over the decades since the photos were taken. And of course it’s wonderful to see my parents […]
Little gray
When I first sighted this cute little bird last week, I tried and failed to identify it. I had been standing near the bluffs above Lake Natoma and didn’t get a very good photo as it darted about in the branches, but I did note the small size, overall gray coloring, forked tail, and what looked like a pointed crest […]
Plastic, rubber, and rust
It can be pretty entertaining to find odd little things lying lost or discarded while hiking around the lakebed at Folsom. It may be some object that’s fairly easy to identify — like the various pairs of sunglasses lost overboard by summertime boaters; and then there are the mysterious pieces, old and new. Are they of historical interest or just […]
Valley of giants
Walking around in the barren landscape created by the seasonal low water level at Folsom Lake, I feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of massive granite boulders scattered everywhere. I’ve never gotten too interested in geology, but I can’t help wondering about the forces that formed these stone giants and how they ended up in their present positions. […]
The Adventure Continues… Manzanar
This is not the first time I’ve featured an episode of California’s Gold related to Manzanar, but I can’t help feeling that this piece of California history remains timely and important, with some serious lessons for all of us. I’m currently reading the memoir Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston (for the first time, in […]