Mission flowers

I didn’t seek out the Mission Francisco de Asis looking for flowers. And while most of the photos I shot on site were of the church and the cemetery, I couldn’t help stopping to admire the colorful blooms I discovered in and around the grounds of Mission  Dolores. Most were in the churchyard, but I also found Geraniums and Impatiens […]

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Goodbye to the garden

Here is the last batch of images from my visit to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden in Fort Bragg last October. I’m still hoping to return and check out the garden during the springtime for a completely different experience!

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Where trees are of stone

I had managed to cover the looping half-mile Main Trail at the Petrified Forest near Calistoga, California. It was nearly time to leave, but when you find yourself in such beautiful surroundings, it can be difficult to drag yourself away! But as I approached the main building and the entrance gate once more, this amazing place still had one or […]

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Back to the valley

Today, the last series of images from my trek up Mt Konocti last May. I do still have a few photos I’m not including  because they’re very similar and/or because I would have to extend the series. And I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to move on to other topics! I’ll most likely share those images at a […]

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Step by step

There are times when I’m so happy to be hiking through along a forest trail that I feel I’m stopping about every few steps to shoot a photo; and then there’s the time last May when I did actually manage to document nearly every step I took around the back of the Robert Louis Stevenson Tree. As I was doing […]

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The old North Trail

Today’s post title is actually borrowed from a recent library find that now graces my bookshelves: subtitled Life, Legends, and Religion of the Blackfeet Indians, it was written by Walter McClintock and originally published in 1910. While the North Trail at Mendocino Botanical Gardens isn’t all that old, the sign (see above) certainly looks like it’s survived a few hard […]

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Walking in Chinatown

I’m always drawn to San Francisco’s Chinatown whenever I’m in the city, partly because of its history but also because there is always so much to see just wandering the sidewalks. With my hotel located on the lower slope of Nob Hill, I’m actually within walking distance of the Stockton Tunnel, and I used this as my gateway to Chinatown […]

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Lost in the Petrified Forest

Continuing the images from my visit to the Petrified Forest in Napa, California. Although the property is relatively small — especially when compared to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona! — there is still so much to see that anyone who, like me, loves to pick out interesting details, it’s easy to spend half a day happily exploring. The […]

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Miracle groves

Walking through the two groves at Hendy Woods State Park, it’s clear that at some point in the past fire has come through and left its mark. But the giant coast redwood trees manage to survive the flames fairly easily, and fire can be beneficial to the health of the forest by clearing out the dense undergrowth. Whenever I feel […]

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