Tulipmannia

Tulipmannia comes to Pier 39 in San Francisco during a two-week period in February.  Planters and half wine barrels are full of colorful blooms.

This year our camera club had a field trip to the location. This is not a spot I usually visit.  It tends to be a popular tourist location and I had skipped it for years for that reason.  But this weekend was great fun, both for the tulips and for the people watching.   

Here are some samples from the excursion:

Kids of all ages were out enjoying the sunshine, the flowers, and activities.

San Francisco skyline in the background.  

This girl's family was visiting the U.S. from China for 3 weeks.  The large bubble making gadget was a big hit with her and with the children further down the street.

Chris and I rode over on BART.  It was a short trolley ride down to the wharf area where we met several other club members.  Besides photographing, we enjoyed lunch out together.

Remember that you can go back and click on the first photograph and view them all in a slide show at a much larger size.    Using spot metering and underexposing a bit I could get the dramatic light on the flowers and darken the backgrounds to almost total black.  The early morning moisture from the watering misters was still in evidence.  And, at least when we first arrived, there was no breeze.  Made for ideal flower close up photography.

Winter in California

I am spending the winter in California, mostly on my site in Coarsegold, but with regular visits to other areas of north-central California.

The winter is noticeable for the drought conditions.  Although there have been a couple of good rain storms, they have been too far between, too short, and too warm.  This region depends heavily on the snow pack in the Sierras and there is little snow there.  And what does drought look like?    Here are a couple of photos.

It is a long ways from docks to water at Bass Lake.  Bass Lake is in the foothills not too far from where my site is.

These water carved holes in Coarsegold Creek should be underwater this time of year.   There are a few tiny pools from the last rain storm, but hardly what we need.  If the winter is cold enough, the real action in the creek is in spring when snow higher-up melts.  But even in a cold winter, there should be substantially more water in this creek.. This section of the creek flows through Park of the Sierras.  Part of the park is in the undeveloped acreage.

Boring insects like pine borers and pine bark beetles are kept in check by nature through fire and cold snaps.  As people move out into the countryside we suppress fire. And cold weather is not the norm anymore.  Here is a stretch of dirt road in the National Forest , above Coarsegold with serious beetle damage.  Note the dead needles on the tree and the ground.   Although this area did not burn last year, it is a serious fire hazard.  There was a huge fire in and around Oakhurst last year.

This winter has provided time for some visits with family and old friends.  In January Chris and I joined my cousin Bonnie at her house in Albany to celebrate her sister's birthday.  Bonnie and Sharon are my second cousins.   Besides the two sisters, Bonnie's son and grand kids, in-laws, ex spouse and old friends were there.  They are all folks I have known for a long time so it was fun visiting.  All the descendants of the Maxfield clan in attendance signed a birthday card for my aunt.  Ruth, one of my mom's younger sister, turned 100 the end of January.   The card made it in time for her birthday which was celebrated in Florida.  I've had a nice note back from her.  She still lives independently although she gave up golfing a couple years ago.

In February my cousin Dick Dilley and his wife, Jan, were here from Indiana.  We had a day long adventure in Yosemite, and a couple dinners together in Oakhurst.  The following weekend I joined them, their son John, his wife Gail and their college son, Paul,  near Pinnacles National Monument (south of Hollister).  Gail's family has a ranch there.  Although rains have been sparse this year, it did rain that weekend and we relished it.

This coyote was resting near the Bridal Veils parking lot.   Later we saw it in the parking lot where it was clearly accustomed to being fed.   

Jan and Dick during our trip to Yosemite

Road into the ranch with another ranch to the left.

John, Dick and Jan during our walk.  

Looking back toward the ranch with outbuilding in view

Gail and Paul along creek which had been dry the day before but came up quickly in the rain.

In February, Carol Kolb, an old friend from our early days in the camera club emailed me to say she would be in Fresno for a horse competition with her daughter.  It was a chance to see Carol and visit, meet her daughter who I hadn't seen since she was a toddler (she is now graduated from college), and photograph some of the riding competitions.  Here are a few views.

Sissy with her horse in a jumping event

This photo and the ones that follow were in the cross country competitions across the road from where I photographed Sissy.

This photo and the following were taken during the cross country events.

Field trip to Yolo ByPass Wildlife Refuge

Saturday, Jan 17, we hosted a Diablo Valley Camera Club field trip to the Yolo ByPass Wildlife Refuge.  Well, sort of.

A member alerted me to the fact the refuge had been closed before Christmas due to an extreme high tide which flooded the road.   But I called the refuge and was assured that the refuge had reopened and only one small area was still closed.

We arrived, all 13 of us to find the following sign and cones across the main road.    So, someone said there was another entrance.  We drove to that and discovered it was an authorized entry only area.     And while we could have walked it, a bunch of people walking scares off the birds.  Cars don't have the same effect.

So, someone suggested we head to Grizzly Island Refuge.  Great idea, and it was closer to our return home than going to the Sacramento Refuge, although one member opted to do that.

In fog of varying intensities, we headed to Grizzly Island which fronts on the upper reaches of San Francisco Bay at Suisun Bay.   We arrived to find that it was totally closed to the public, except for an area open to hunters with permit.  Two members did try going into that area and were promptly thrown out.    (interestingly, at Yolo Bypass, one couple opted to try the road which directed folks to the hunter check in site.....and they found lots of birds, and as long as they didn't go past the checkpoint, it was okay to be there....but it sure wasn't clear from the signage).

The drive to Grizzly Island  refuge passes some great tidal areas,  the fog created some nice effects and we had fun.  By this point the group had scattered, but five of us ended up at Rush Ranch, a conservancy area which is both a working ranch and which is open to the public.  It is used a lot of school groups.  John Muir's great grandson trains horses and give carriage rides designed for the disabled at the ranch.   He was away that weekend at a national event, but trains horses to pull wagons, carriages etc. as part of a program for the disabled.  Mr. Muir developed multiple sclerosis as a teen,but loved horses and continued to ride until riding became difficult.  Then he developed his skills as a carriage driver.  He trains the horses and gives rides to visitors at the ranch about once a month.   

It is  embarrassing to lead a field trip to a place that isn't open.  But we had a good time and people did get some good photos.

Here are just a few of my photos from the day

Low winter fogs are common in the two areas, as well as most of the California Central Valley in winter

One of the carriage horses raised by Michael Muir.   There were several with this interesting black white spotted horses, some more white with black spots and some black with white spots like this one.

Inside the blacksmith shop on the ranch

This was the best shot I could get of the new colt, which we learned was only a day old.  Outside there were double fences and the colt's head always seemed to be behind one of the wooden fence slats.  The mother has the interesting black and white coloration of several of the horses there while the colt does not.

Rolling hills on the way home