It FINALLY cooled off and started feeling like fall down here! With it comes some nice rich colors. Who say’s we don’t have fall on the west coast? And who says poison oak can’t be beautiful?
Plants
My new quest to explore and conquer the unlikely plethora of State Parks, County Parks, and Open Space Districts in the south SF bay/peninsula led to check out Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. It’s known for panoramic views of the bay, and wildflowers. Well, it’s only now just starting to feel like fall here, so that means it’s still dry. It’s a stark difference in landscape from Castle Rock State Park. The ridge is virtually treeless at the top, with invasive grasslands abound. There are a few classic oak woodlandy areas (yay shade!) but overall the preserve is more defined by the treeless ridge at the top. Mental note: spring would be a better time to go, as it was a hot day, with not much shade and no wildflowers, save a few thistle. Nevertheless, there were interesting photos to be taken! This trip made me realize that a lot of the open areas are a bit parched from the Mediterranean summers and won’t really lush out until the winter when the rains come and the spring. Guess I’ll choose more carefully where I go until that happens! Next up, perhaps some redwoods?
Now that I’m down here, there are so many open spaces to discover! If you google maps search for the peninsula between SF and San Jose, you’ll find there are so many State and County Parks and Open Space Preserves, just waiting to be explored by yours truly. Two days ago I took a three hour hike in Castle Rock State Park, and it was gorgeous with all the decoration of fall. Here’s what came out of it!
Last weekend I spent a lot of time out of doors, to my grandest of pleasures. I first spent a day with Teejay, a fisheries grad student, and my good friend Matt out on the Suisun Marsh trawling and seining for fish as part of the 30 year long monitoring project that’s been going on over there. I’ve been out on the marsh before, but that day was probably the best I’ve had, considering the perfect weather and the fact that we pulled up a sturgeon! The next day, Matt and I were joined by our friends Richard and Meeza up in Samuel P. Taylor State park for a couple days of much needed camping and hiking. I can’t believe how beautiful the redwoods are up there, and only a 2 hour drive from Davis. I admit I’m spoiled, living in California. But there is no shame in taking advantage of what’s out there. Enjoy!
I need to submit 3 photos for the photo contest from my study abroad program in New Zealand. I have narrowed it down some, but it’s at the point where public opinion would be nice. Have a look and tell me what you think! If you have any questions, just shoot me a comment! (Also up on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150485375290946.372946.538240945&type=3&l=6f209e56c0)
Behold, my favorite tree, the manzinita, in all of it’s firey coolness. This was from a camping trip in the Pinnacles National Monument in California a few weeks ago.
My mood is very season-dependent, and because this is winter life is more easily depressing. This is an oldie, from when I went to France when I was 15. It’s in Monet’s garden in Giverny, France. Must counteract the gloom!
In other news, my next domestic project is getting my photos up online. I’m terribly behind, and I would like to put them up on Flickr, as to avoid a second incident of me losing all of my photos from the first two years of college (due to an unfortunate mishap involving transferring files on external hard drives. And no, they’re still gone and I may never get them back -_-.) But step one would be to organize and edit said photos, which might take a while. So sorry guys, you’re going to get mostly old stuff on here for awhile. Happy looking though!