Oh, look — I discovered another bunch of images from last year that I had completely forgotten about! I shot all but one of these with my beloved Fujifilm camera while exploring around the west shoreline of Eagle Lake, in the small community of Spalding (Google seems to think it’s “Spaulding”). I would love to go back and see what […]
Today (April 21) is Earth Day, and I’ve been thinking a lot about dandelions lately. That’s partly because I recently finished reading Hannah Holmes’ Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn (Bloomsbury, 2005). I was attracted by the cute squirrel on the book’s cover, but as I read I also learned terms like “Freedom Lawn,” and “grass-farming” — I haven’t […]
As I wandered around an abandoned and overgrown portion of Spanish Flat Campground at Lake Berryessa, I found an oak woodland covered in foxtails and invasive vetch as well as a surprising variety of flowers growing wild alongside forgotten pieces of roadway and cement pads. I can only guess at what this hilltop headland looked like in its prime; these […]
It was six months ago, when we were at the Mendocino coast in late October 2023, that I finally got a chance to visit Russian Gulch State Park (not to be confused with Sonoma County’s Russian Gulch Beach). The clouds threatened rain and even delivered a few scattered showers; still, the day seemed perfect to me. While the Big Guy […]
Spring is an excellent time to explore around the shores of Lake Berryessa, as we recently did on our day trip during the first week of April. I discovered this unobtrusive trail near the Lupine Shores campground — guarded by a rather suspicious ground squirrel — which took me around the headland in a wide loop. I found the peace […]
When I made this year’s first trip to Phoenix Park last week I was hoping to see a lot of wildflowers after all the rain storms we’ve had. I was a little surprised that the various pools didn’t seem to be overflowing, although I know that only the earliest flowers are blooming right now. All in all, it was a […]
First of all, I should say that I didn’t actually hike Fern Canyon on this coastal trip. Secondly, there are a surprising number of places in California called Fern Canyon; Huell Howser visited one such trail in Humboldt County’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, and there are two that I know of in Mendocino County. The name itself sounds so […]
Looking back at some images from March seven years ago, documenting the change of the season from winter to spring in my area. I don’t believe I’ve shared these before — or at least not for a long time. I was finally starting to realize how much fun it was to photograph wildflowers and colorful blooms in people’s yards.
We found the tide extremely low when we arrived at Doran County Park (south of Bodega Bay), where we always stop to collect ghost shrimp. Although there seemed to be a surprising number of people using the beach — across the road from where we park — we had the bay side completely to ourselves. I did notice, though, that […]