May, a "Gap" month, Part 1
On Friday, May 1, we said good-bye to Samuel P Taylor State Park for the sixth year and headed to our Colfax area home where LesThora, the motorhome would stay until our move to Emerald Bay State Park in June. Actually we did have an appointment on Monday, May 4, at Affordable RV in Auburn to repair the slide that wasn't going back out, but that was only for a few hours. We had lived with smaller floor space for about 6 weeks and would be very happy to get it back! The first two weeks of May we spent mainly at our house, before heading out for a two week road trip in our car.
I started this puzzle at Camp Taylor, transported it to the house and then finished it.
I of course walked each day, sometimes out the door of the house and on Wednesday May 6, I drove the 5 minute trip to where I can access the beautiful trails of Weimar Institute. The wildflowers were in full bloom for my hike there. Below are some of them.
Ithuriel's Spear
A mixture of Lupine and Clover
Wild Iris
Pretty Face
Bear Clover
AKA Mountain Misery
AKA Stink Weed
Carolina Crane's Bill
And an American Robin posing on a fence.
Grandson Jacob who lives in Berkeley is a member of the Contra Costa County Search and Rescue Team, and he invited us to volunteer as "victims" for a a Search and Rescue Training day on Saturday, May 9, near Mount Diable. The training day started early in the morning so we planned to spend the night in Richmond at son Shawn's house. It turned out Shawn had four tickets for a Giant's game in San Francisco for Friday night and his immediate family was unavailable to attend so we and a mutual friend got to take in a game before our Saturday event.
Picture of art work by Granddaughter Sophia!
It's always fun to be in the Giant's stadium for a game!
Especially when they win!
When I initially said I would volunteer for the SAR training event I imagined pretending to be lost and searchers would have to find me. I think I figured I'd be lead to some shady spot and I could just sit and relax until I was found, but of course that's not what was needed for this training day. Rob and I were part of a scenario where a building had collapsed and there were various levels of injuries and the "victims" would be sorted into three groups based on the seriousness of their injuries. 5 different teams of SAR team members rotated through to sort us out in this triage event. Rob and my "injuries" were minor so we weren't considered in need of immediate assistance. It was interesting to be a part of the exercise and to meet some interesting folks, especially young people who aspire to careers as first responders and expressed their motivation as wanting to be of service and help others. The day was long and by afternoon was quite hot, but we're glad we participated.
The setting was in view of Mt. Diablo at the Contra Costa Sheriff's Training Grounds.
Rob getting make up to look like he was overheated.
Does he look overheated?
By the afternoon overheating might have been real!
And I had an arm abrasion.
There is lots of wildlife to see near our house in the Colfax area.
A Red-shouldered Hawk on Monday, May 11.
We often hear these hawks near the house and at Camp Taylor.
A deer in the brush on May 11.
A turkey showing his plumage, May 12.
Notice the overgrowth of invasive Scotch Broom, by a gate that needs repair.
Over the past few years Scotch Broom has made some impressive and hard to eradicate stands of growth on our property, and has apparently provided cover for predatory mountain lions and possibly bears. We have begun making plans to try to get it pulled out and managed - more about that later.
Chinese Paper Houses, my favorite foothill wildflower!
On Friday, May 15, we had an appointment to get our car serviced in Auburn so while waiting for it I went for a walk and found lovely wildflowers on a short path .
Chicory
Bird Vetch
A Trail on the short path.
Our two week road trip in our Subaru, "Lucille" (rhymes with Lou Seal, the Giants mascot) (Lucille sports black and orange trim, the Giants' colors, thus her name), began with a drive back to Marin County on Saturday, May 16, to celebrate the 80th birthday of Woody, our fellow camp host at Samuel P Taylor State Park the past couple of years. Woody had made us put his big party on our calendar a year ago I think! His family is part of the reason West Marin County remains such a beautiful landscape. There is a lot of public land in West Marin, but also lots of ranch land that is being preserved by the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and the families that own the land. In the late 19th century Woody's great grandfather came from the Italian speaking part of Switzerland to work as a ranch hand. Woody tells the story of his great grandfather going for a walk one Sunday in the spring when the hills were still green. As he looked out over the rolling hills he was reminded of his homeland in Switzerland, a place he knew he'd never be able to return to, and he vowed that he would work every day until he could buy the land before him. He worked for seven days a week for some years and purchased the first of several acreages and became a dairy farmer. Eventually the 1,200 plus acre ranch that Woody grew up on would be passed down to Woody and his three siblings. Several years ago the four of them sold the development rights for their ranch to the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). Through donations MALT pays land owners the difference between the value of the land as agricultural land and its value as developed land, and the land owner is bound by law to keep the acreage intact and only use it for prescribed agricultural purposes. Woody and two of his siblings who weren't interested in farming the land divided the money received from MALT and one of his siblings kept title to the land. It is note worthy that the donation used to purchase their development rights was given by George Lucas, of Star Wars fame, who owns large tracts of MALT real estate nearby. Lucas did not want any land visible from his own property to be developed. Woody's 80th birthday party was held in the large former dairy barn on his family's ranch. We have been guests on the property previously, but I don't seem to have any pictures of Woody's special day, nor of the beautiful land.
Following Woody's lovely party complete with catered meal, dancing and story telling for well over 200 guests, we headed to Samuel P Taylor State Part to spend the night in one of their cabins. It was fun to be "campers" rather than guests. I guess "glampers" is a better term since we slept indoors with heat on beds. We did have to provide our own bedding, and cooking is outdoors camp style. I of course went for a walk in the morning to explore Camp Taylor before we headed south to the Santa Cruz area.
Our cabin, lodging for the night of May 16.
There were ducks in Lagunitas Creek.
And Redwood sprouts from the logs cut from a big tree in February.
It will be interesting to see how these continue to grow when we return.
Fairy Bells were still blooming.
This is Lysimachia Latifolia
And Clintonia Andrewsiana
Wild Cat Canyon was still flowing a little on May 17.
On Sunday, May 17, we headed to Santa Cruz for Cabrillo College's Symphonic Band Spring Concert where Erin was playing the clarinet. We spent two nights at the Brookdale Lodge near Boulder Creek while enjoying time with Erin enjoying some hiking, dining out and time togeether,
Erin behind the harp.
The three of us at the beach.
On my morning walk on the road behind the Brookdale Lodge.
I am so far behind in keeping this blog up, and there is much more to recount about our May road trip, so I will break here, and resume with tales of heading north to Eureka, Oregon and Washington. No bet pictures for this installment.
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