I Love the Beach

When I lived near the beach (many moons ago), I missed the mountains. Now that I live near the mountains, I miss the beach. One of my life principles is that I do not turn down opportunities to go to the beach. This particular opportunity was a special occasion for a dear friend and I. We delivered a car to our friend who is waiting for lungs (Have you signed up to donate your organs yet? Souls go to heaven; organs don’t.) This isn’t the car we delivered, in case you were wondering.

The next day we went out for coffee, and there was a cat that I made friends with. I might have a bit of a cat disorder, but I’ll have you know that I can quit any time.

Then we went kayaking on the bay in the estuary, which means a place where there is both fresh water and salt water coming in and going out with the tide. Morro Bay is a very special estuary, but I can’t remember exactly why.

This our guide Mandy. She looked as if she was doing nothing while paddling, but no one could keep up with her. She knew a ton about the wildlife, and was so helpful in teaching us how to paddle. She’s never had a student tip a kayak, although I may have threatened to ruin that record at one precarious point.
One of our views
Those are white pelicans, big birds, not often spotted. It is the brown pelicans that we are accustomed to seeing.
This is an oyster farm. They are in bags under the water, and take about a year to be ready. Yuck.
We hoofed it up the dunes on the sand spit, which is the narrow arm of land that forms the bay. Maybe we hot-footed it – I kept my shoes on because Mandy warned us that the sand was very hot.
Then I ran down to the water. I love the beach.
It isn’t often that I see Morro Rock from the south side.
Unexpected vegetation out there on the dunes due to some fresh water springs. The gray shrub closer up front is actually a variety of lupine. Who knew?
Weird man-made rock towers are all over the back side of Morro Rock.
Really weird – why have people done this??
I love sitting on the big rocks on the back side of the rock and watching the big waves make spray. Easily amused. Been doing this for years, and I never get tired of it.

Went Coastal

Your Central California artist went to the Central California Coast. What a fantastic location that is for this Beach Girl At Heart.  I found a few scenes that would make nice paintings but don’t believe I have the audience (“market”) for that subject. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos from that wonderful area.

 

 

Not Mineral King Mountains

Last week I had the privilege of spending several days at Hume Lake with my friend and a new friend at my friend’s cabin. (Friend friend friend – just wrecked that word for myself.)

This is the 4th summer that she has invited me to join her, and through the times spent together, I have come to know and love her cousins, gotten reacquainted with Hume (worked there the summer of ’78), and become quite close with my old friend from childhood. 

Rather than go into a bunch of personal blah blah blah, let’s do our usual thing with photos.

Look on the lamp table. There is my oil painting, cleverly titled “Hume Lake I”.
“Hume Lake II” was very well received, as was “Hume Lake III”. (Most of the birthday party attendees began shouting their birth dates at me.)
So calm in the evening.
Wild Azaleas were in bloom.
Because there were no campers around, we got to go places that are usually not open to cabin folks.
One of the places that we explored was the children’s camp called “Wagon Train”.
Instead of cabins, the kids sleep in these covered Conestoga wagon replicas.
The lake was so serene without the hundreds of camping kids present. This is sad, unless you view it as a temporary condition.
This wildflower is new to me. I don’t have to know the name because it isn’t in Mineral King.
We ate way too much, so I force-marched my companions around the lake one evening after dinner. One of them had a Fit-Bit that recorded 26,400 steps that day. (Those steps didn’t counteract all the ice cream,)
I went to Inspiration Point in search of a red Mariposa Lily. Guess I was too early this year, because all I found were Farewell-to-Spring and profusely blooming Bear Clover.
I drove home a different route and saw Hume from an overlook. 

There are so many options for coming and going, unlike Mineral King with one road in and out. Hume Lake also has electricity, wifi in some cabins, many many cabins, and provided the best summer of my life (1978) until I worked in the Mineral King area (Silver City Store) in 1985. (And I thought that BEFORE I met Trail Guy at the end of that summer, so there.)

We had the pleasure of witnessing the baptism in the lake of 3 terrific kids.

Another distinct pleasure was renting stand-up paddle boards. We almost opted out, but I remembered our decision last year that we would do this, combined with the fact that the day was hot, there wasn’t much traffic on the lake, and that “everyone” knows that people regret what they don’t do more than what they do. (My sister and I often remind one another to “Do It Anyway”, in spite of our reservations, fears and doubts.) It was great fun, and I didn’t fall, but I would like to learn how to paddle without the zig-zag effect, which greatly impedes forward progress.

Oh – ice cream. Did I mention ice cream?

Someone needs to cut off my end of the table.

P.S. I have FOURTEEN books on hold at the library. WHEN WILL THEY OPEN AGAIN??

 

 

Fun in an Orange Grove

What passes for recreation these days is gleaning oranges in a friend’s grove in Lemon Cove. (Don’t be confused – there is a Lemon Grove in San Diego, and an Orange Cove in Fresno County, and Lemon Cove is in Tulare County.) This has always been fun for Trail Guy and me, but now it is almost the only thing we do for fun. Taking walks, yardening, they count too, but I’m talking about going somewhere in a vehicle.

It is fun to ramble around the grove, take photos, hunt, find, pick, eat, and later, to share. As an added bonus, when I am out there I can touch my face as much as I want, so there. (Talk about fun – wowsa.)

We are having more fun than humans should be allowed, especially when we are supposed to be hunkered down in our dwellings, watching too much teevee, taking in confusing and conflicting information, and being afraid.

Not us, nosireebob.

This is what passes for a business trip in this time of “staying in place”. And now I have ideas and inspiration for new paintings. Take that, Virus!

This area hasn’t been picked yet because it is valencias, not navels. We didn’t glean here. Gleaning is what happens after picking.
To find oranges, you look for a “door” to go inside the trees canopy, and then look up and around. (Try not to bash your head or step on any sprinklers or thorns.)

Mooney Grove V

Today let’s look at some of the more unusual pieces of Tulare County’s Mooney Grove Park. It will require a little bit of talk today.

Hugh Mooney often gets credit for donating the family’s acreage to Tulare County, but this sign says the Mooney family sold it the County for $15,000.

Maybe Hugh used that rifle to shoot squirrels. They are certainly a plague on the place now. Active squirrel holes are rampant.

What’s this? A platform to put a thingie for Frisbie golf, which can now only be called “disk golf”. There is an entire course for this popular game on the north side, but I saw the gizmos (“holes”) in other areas too.And here is another platform which used to hold a statue called “The Pioneer”. The plaster statue crumbled. (End of the Trail in plaster was traded with the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City for a bronze version).

There are 2 hills in the Park on the east edge. They were created with the dirt dug to form a recharging basin in the park. The formation is useful as an amphitheater, and one hill has a disk golf “hole”. When I went to Redwood High School, I used to look through the fence at a little log cabin that appeared to be abandoned. It was. After I grew up and became The Central California Pencil Artist (a self-ascribed title), the Boy Scouts reclaimed it, disassembled it, moved it to Mooney Grove, and reassembled it. I drew it as a fund raiser to help pay for the enterprise. (I wonder if I still have a copy of that drawing. . .)

Finally, I leave you with this Peculiar Sight.

Tomorrow we will conclude our tour of Tulare County’s Mooney Grove Park.

Mooney Grove Tour II

More photos of Mooney Grove Park, where I took a walk each day after I finished working on the murals on the Tulare County Museum.

Speaking of the museum, let’s focus on that treasure today. I’ve included pictures of the Pioneer Village behind the museum (entered through the museum) and 3 photos inside the museum.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at a bridge, not my favorite bridge (Oak Grove), but a simpler bridge in a true oak grove. 

Mooney Grove Tour I

This is a virtual tour. Enjoy it from the comfort of your easy chair. No viruses to be spread this way.

Mooney Grove Park is 100 acres of about 50 types of trees. The Valley Oaks (quercus lobata) make up about half of the tree population. The land was sold to Tulare County in 1909, with the agreement that only dead or dying Valley Oaks could be removed. Meanwhile, many new trees have been planted, a few of which I recognized, some that I learned about, some that surprised me, and all of which contributed to the specialness of this interesting and beautiful place.

It helped that I was working there during March, my second most favorite month. The grounds were green and many trees were in bloom.

Stop talking, Central Calif. artist, because we want to see some photos.

Okay. Photos. No more talk. Just pictures of a beautiful park in spring.

Any questions? To be continued Monday.

Central Calif. Artist in Sandy Eggo

After the family wedding on the Queen Mary, I headed down to Sandy Eggo. San Diego. (When I lived there during college, I saw an occasional bumper sticker that read, “I go to Sandy Eggo State University”.)

First, a stop at my mural. I didn’t paint it, but it seems that someone must have painted it for me.

My sister and I love to walk through neighborhoods. Look at the name of this one:

I saw a business there called “Abnormal” something-or-other. 

We walked several miles looking at houses and yards. Because it costs so much to live there, even the most modest homes are very well maintained, landscaped, and just doggone cute. I really love the attention to detail, especially in tile work.

This corner with all sorts of blue treasures in the dirt grabbed me. I am used to looking for treasures, an occasional blue sparkly something to take home. But these clearly belonged at this address. (Why would someone sprinkle blue sparkly things in his yard this way??)
We found a monastery. A real monastery! It is so very beautiful, a large piece of property with gardens galore, high walls and hedges to keep the mystery in and the gawkers out. (Tulare County could use some nice architecture like this.) 

There were several Little Free Libraries, but this was the first one I’ve seen with succulents growing on the roof.

This citrus tree had 5 varieties budded onto it. I think this type of tree is called “tutti-fruiti”.

So much variety in the plant life. This upside-down morning glory is on a shrub.

Then, we went to the beach. Of course we went to the beach – we were in Sandy Eggo!! We Central California natives are always happy to walk along the Pacific Ocean.

Monday will be the post about things I learned in February, and then I hope to return to our regularly scheduled broadcast on Tuesday. 

This means I will stop diverting your attention away from my art and get back to the business of being your Central California artist.