It’s been quite a long time since I visited the Sonoma coast during the springtime; we’re usually there in the autumn or mid winter. So it was great to see so many colorful wildflowers growing everywhere on this trip. I’ll share some images of the flowers in a later post. But during this visit to Gerstle Cove we found not […]
We just returned from five days at the coast, near Salt Point State Park. We were lucky to find a small house with a great ocean view only a few minutes away from Stillwater Cove. We were able to cook our own meals — including freshly caught fish one night — and we had tons of solitude. I tend to […]
A foggy morning along Highway 1 in Sonoma County.
I explored the Oaks Nature Trail at Folsom Lake’s Peninsula Campground once before, last summer; even though this path is a bit more “civilized” than the dirt horse trails I usually like to wander, I still enjoyed myself a lot. And this time out was even better. Everything was much more green than during my summertime visit. I had a […]
Although the Brugmansia is extremely toxic, all seven species are still very popular ornamental trees. These plants, native to the South American tropics, are listed as Extinct in the Wild; but they’ve still managed to spread to other regions around the world, thanks to human cultivation. The name “angel’s trumpet” refers to the large, pendulous, trumpet-shaped flowers, 14–50 cm (6–20 […]
Sometimes when I’m at home I find myself rushing about for no reason at all: quick, run into the kitchen! Hurry up, put the dishes away! Let’s go, empty the drier! Move it …. wait, what did I come in here for? It’s great that I feel energized, but most of the time that rushing around probably looks like I’m […]
The California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera) was especially popular with developers and landscapers in my area during the 1950s and 1960s, and they can still be spotted thriving in some unexpected places even now. Not too surprising, since they typically live from 80 to 250 years, or even longer. It was hard to miss this lone pair growing along the […]
I can’t count the number of times over the years I passed through the city of Auburn on Interstate 80 and noticed the old courthouse and the statue of the miner. Each time I promised myself, “One of these days I’m going to stop and check this out.” Well, that day finally arrived — and even though I only paused […]
The waters of Folsom Lake may be at historically low levels this spring, but right now the shoreline that would normally be underwater is covered in something something even more beautiful. We found these purple lupine blanketing the ground at Rattlesnake Bar State Park on the north fork, but it seems to be blooming in profusion elsewhere on the lake […]