Sad Stories

Mother of the Forest - Calaveras County  2013

Selling the Sublime - Yosemite  2013

Two signs I've seen this year, one in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the other in Yosemite, both with examples of the unthinking depredation of the wilderness that occurred in the 1800's. Implied in these statements is the assumption that we modern folk are so much more sensitive and in tune with our surroundings that we'd never allow environmental catastrophes to occur.

One wonders what kind of interpretive signs will be posted in the coming years concerning the folks of the 2000's and their stewardship of the land.

Mineral Redux

Mineral - Calaveras County  2013

Mineral Burger - Calaveras County  2013

Hali and Mike paid a return visit to Mineral, the gourmet vegetarian restaurant in Murphys. (Last year's report here.)

This time Mike made sure to get a reasonable exterior shot as well as a photo of their famous "burger." Excellent! (In spite of the restaurant's odd prediliction for serving only foreign wines. What's with that?)

Flowers - Murphys

Flowers - Calaveras County  2013

Poppies - Calaveras County  2013

Seen while walking the main street. Once again, had to manually focus on the poppies.

Sequoias - 2

Branches & Sequoias - Calaveras County  2013

Tassels - Calaveras County  2013

This was still early Spring, so the deciduous trees were not yet in bloom. Many dogwood trees in the vicinity, so they would be nice to see later on. Still too early, however, but some new-growth tassels were in evidence.

Sequoias - 1

Three Sequoias - Calaveras County  2013

Hali & Sequoia - Calaveras County  2013

We've hiked here a number of times before, on one memorable occasion witnessing a large tree suddenly fall to the ground with a, yes, resounding thump.

The problem with photography here and in other forest locations is that if the weather is nice and sunny then contrast in the forest is excessive. This time, however, there was a high overcast in place making for pleasant hiking and photography.

Murphys Sightems

Native Sons - Murphys  2013

Limo - Murphys  2013

Seen in the gold rush town of Murphys, now the Carmel of the Sierra.

Photo note: there was an orange traffic cone in front of the motorcycle in the top photo. Part of it was easy enough to clone out, but the part in front of the motorcycle's front wheel . . . not so easy.

Pine Needle

Pine Needle - Calaveras County  2013

As mentioned yesterday, pine needles had been falling during the winter, some coming to rest hooked onto existing tree branches. Nice pattern.

BTW, the camera really didn't want to focus that closely. I had to turn off the autofocus and switch to manual focus. Huh.

At The Cabin

Pine Needles - Calaveras County  2013

Juniper Branch - Calaveras County  2013

The cabin near Arnold hadn't been occupied for a while, so there were a lot of pine needles, etc. scattered about in random pictorial arrangements.

Earlier cabin photo.