The abandoned, Part 4

In my next post in this short series I’ll be focusing on the farmhouse located in the same general area near Manchester Beach; but for today I have more shots from both of the empty houses sitting perched on the bluff above the 5-mile-long beach, near Alder Creek. I can only try to imagine the luxury and comfort that once […]

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Flowers of February

I didn’t expect to find flowers along the Mendocino coast in early February. But despite the rain and chilly weather, I actually encountered a few hardy blooms, both wild and domestic, growing in the areas between Manchester and Fort Bragg. I’m sure that with all the rain Northern California is getting at the moment, there will a lot more colors […]

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Scenes from the Garden

I always enjoy looking back at my visits to the Botanical Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The garden is large enough that I’m never sure if I’ve missed something; and since the only time I manage to get there is during August, I can only imagine what it must be like during the springtime. These images are from […]

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Overlooking the sea

My post of last Thursday should rightly have been titled “Between the storms,” since we had one more day of steady rainfall before the sun finally managed to come out. It wasn’t until Friday morning that we were able to get out and start exploring; and while the temperatures were a bit on the chilly side — mostly thanks to […]

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Exploring Lupine Shores

The Lupine Shores camping area sits on the tip of a peninsula at the former site of Lake Berryessa’s Steele Canyon Resort. We visited here about a week ago and found the camping grounds closed for the winter. But in April 2024 it was open, and while the camp sites were still vacant, I found so many great places to […]

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The first camellias

I noticed our first white camellia of the season just the other day — the red ones always open a bit later. And in less than 24 hours a bunch more had already burst from their buds. These three trees grow along the side of our house and for most of the year don’t get much attention, unless they start […]

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More from Monte Vista

Today I present some images from a couple of different October hikes in the same area along the American River’s south fork at Folsom Lake. The vibrant hues of spring may have been long faded, but there was still plenty of color to be found — in the Yellow Monkeyflower with its bright red spots, the scarlet Toyon berries, and […]

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