Hawaii Botanical Gardens, September 2007Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Reading update 11/5/07
Over the weekend, I reread The Time Traveller's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven't been able to get absorbed into any book I've picked up for the last couple weeks, so it was nice to go back to an old favorite, which I was probably reading for the fourth or fifth time. And it makes me bawl every single time. In fact, my eyes were still a little itchy and red when I got to work this morning. Also realized that the first time I read it must have been when I was in Chicago in 2004, before I officially moved there, training for my job teaching reading classes -- Scattered throughout the pages are the marks I used to figured out my reading speed as I practiced the speed reading skills I was going to be teaching. Hard to believe that I'm going into my fourth year at this job - it's the longest I've been with a company since Sam Goody.
Oh yeah, I'm also trying to do that blog-every-day-in-November thing, but it's a challenge when I don't have internet access at home. I think I'll have to cheat and just post an extra post or two on Mondays or Fridays :-)
Oh yeah, I'm also trying to do that blog-every-day-in-November thing, but it's a challenge when I don't have internet access at home. I think I'll have to cheat and just post an extra post or two on Mondays or Fridays :-)
Friday, November 2, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Note to self: What I've read for the past couple months
No one will care about this post other than me, but I want to get these books jotted down before I completely forget I've read half of them. Otherwise, I'll totally check them out of the library all over again, only to realize three pages in that there's a good reason the book feels so familiar. Plus, since I didn't write it down, I have no idea what I read all summer. This is my list since about the beginning of September.
Brian Selznick -- The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (Creative idea, lovely black and white illustrations, not as well-written as it could have been).
Maria Doria Russell -- A Thread of Grace, Children of God (Neither was anywhere near as good as The Sparrow, though CoG is a sequel)
JRR Tolkien -- The Fellowship of the Ring. (For the umpteenth time, getting ready to write lesson plans on it for work).
Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy (Read them because I really enjoyed the first and third movies. The books are not as good, and I couldn't even finish the second one)
Keith Donohue -- The Stolen Child
Lois Anne Yamanaka -- Blu's Hanging (Recommended by this couple staying at the bed and breakfast with me while I was in Hawaii -- she's a local Hawaiian author)
Michael Ondaatje -- In the Skin of the Lion
Jeremy Iverson -- High School Confidential
Markus Zusak -- The Book Thief (Amazing! Best book I've read in years)
John Clinch -- Finn (the story of Huck Finn's father. Interesting. Pretty depressing)
Michael Ondaatje -- Divisadero (Nowhere near as good as The English Patient, but still quite lovely)
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road (In typical McCarthy style, really dark and emotionally difficult to read, but so well-written.)
Arthur Phillips -- The Egyptologist (The reviewers of this one must be dolts -- the "shocking" ending was SO predictable! I basically skimmed the second half of the book. I've been wanting to pick up Phillips' first novel, Prague, but after this book, I'm not so sure).
EDT on 10-25. Forgot one: Heat by Bill Buford. (The first third reads like a hero-worshipping tribute to Mario Batalli. I mostly skimmed the final third -- not nearly as good as, say, Anthony Bourdain, if you're into the whole behind-the-scenes-in-the-restaurant-industry thing).
Brian Selznick -- The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (Creative idea, lovely black and white illustrations, not as well-written as it could have been).
Maria Doria Russell -- A Thread of Grace, Children of God (Neither was anywhere near as good as The Sparrow, though CoG is a sequel)
JRR Tolkien -- The Fellowship of the Ring. (For the umpteenth time, getting ready to write lesson plans on it for work).
Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy (Read them because I really enjoyed the first and third movies. The books are not as good, and I couldn't even finish the second one)
Keith Donohue -- The Stolen Child
Lois Anne Yamanaka -- Blu's Hanging (Recommended by this couple staying at the bed and breakfast with me while I was in Hawaii -- she's a local Hawaiian author)
Michael Ondaatje -- In the Skin of the Lion
Jeremy Iverson -- High School Confidential
Markus Zusak -- The Book Thief (Amazing! Best book I've read in years)
John Clinch -- Finn (the story of Huck Finn's father. Interesting. Pretty depressing)
Michael Ondaatje -- Divisadero (Nowhere near as good as The English Patient, but still quite lovely)
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road (In typical McCarthy style, really dark and emotionally difficult to read, but so well-written.)
Arthur Phillips -- The Egyptologist (The reviewers of this one must be dolts -- the "shocking" ending was SO predictable! I basically skimmed the second half of the book. I've been wanting to pick up Phillips' first novel, Prague, but after this book, I'm not so sure).
EDT on 10-25. Forgot one: Heat by Bill Buford. (The first third reads like a hero-worshipping tribute to Mario Batalli. I mostly skimmed the final third -- not nearly as good as, say, Anthony Bourdain, if you're into the whole behind-the-scenes-in-the-restaurant-industry thing).
Friday, August 31, 2007
Hi Matt
Look, a post. These pictures are from March in Santa Cruz. THAT'S how far behind I am!
This is a surfer standing on the top of a very high cliff -- 2 or 3 stories tall, I'd guess. He's checking out the waves, which are BIG.
This is that same guy about 20 seconds later. Yes, he's mid-air.
And about 30 seconds after that. Do you see what a MONSTER that wave is?
He survived, though, and here he is climbing back out of the water to do it all over again. Even the way OUT of the water looks scary as heck to me!
And finally, this is a kid (seriously -- he looked about 15) who thought he had the guts to do this. He's got his feet down on a tiny little ledge down below. He sat there for about a minute, thinking about it, then climbed right back up! I think that's a little closer to my style :-)
So in Santa Cruz, there's this lighthouse that's been converted into a surfing museum. It's on a cliff, up above the ocean, and it's surrounded by benches that have placards that pay tribute to surfers who have gone to the great ocean in the sky, often in surfing accidents.
That doesn't seem to faze these guys, though.
This is a surfer standing on the top of a very high cliff -- 2 or 3 stories tall, I'd guess. He's checking out the waves, which are BIG.
This is that same guy about 20 seconds later. Yes, he's mid-air.
And about 30 seconds after that. Do you see what a MONSTER that wave is?
He survived, though, and here he is climbing back out of the water to do it all over again. Even the way OUT of the water looks scary as heck to me!
And finally, this is a kid (seriously -- he looked about 15) who thought he had the guts to do this. He's got his feet down on a tiny little ledge down below. He sat there for about a minute, thinking about it, then climbed right back up! I think that's a little closer to my style :-)
Sunday, April 15, 2007
farm living is the life for me . . .
Hey Mike, what's that on your car?
Careful. . . careful. . . almost there . . .
Oh Crap!
There are many many things I like about living on the farm, but nothing has made me laugh as hard as this pretty much since I moved here. Especially the look on Mike's face in the last picture.
I suspect the chicken was trying to get away from the dog, who has been terrorizing them all afternoon. The dogs around here are great with the sheep, but not quite so much with the chickens
Is it a cat? Wait, no . . .
It's an Araucana Chicken. Of course. What now?
Careful. . . careful. . . almost there . . .
Oh Crap!
There are many many things I like about living on the farm, but nothing has made me laugh as hard as this pretty much since I moved here. Especially the look on Mike's face in the last picture.
I suspect the chicken was trying to get away from the dog, who has been terrorizing them all afternoon. The dogs around here are great with the sheep, but not quite so much with the chickens
Friday, April 13, 2007
What I've Been Reading 4/13/07
I can't even begin to talk here about the hectic-ness that has been my life the past couple weeks. Suffice it to say that someone else's shit hit the fan at work and I've been busy dealing with the fallout.
So. . . Not much reading lately, but a couple of really excellent books to mention:
Nancy Farmer: The House of the Scorpion
Picked this one up last month when I was in Portland (darn it -- still haven't posted those pics!), from the remainders bin at Powells. It's young adult lit, and has won a ton of awards and rave reviews, for good reason. I read the whole book in less than a day and it was truly fabulous. The premise: It's some unspecified time in the future. Human cloning is a reality and to the South of the United States is a country called Opium, which exists, as you can guess from the name, purely to produce drugs. The main character is Matt, a young boy who learns fairly early into the book that he is a clone of the biggest of all of the drug lords. I don't want to give anything away, but suffice it to say, Matt lives a pretty screwed-up life at the hands of the drug lord and his cronies, but eventually escapes from it all. Really interesting book. Parts of it reminded me of Louis Sacchar's Holes, and other parts reminded me of dystopic writers like Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale or Ray Bradbury. Good stuff. I'll definitely be recommending it to middle school and high school students.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love
I wasn't so sure how I'd feel about this one, not being an especially religious type, and also not having much patience for sappy self-help crap. This book turned out to be quite a lovely read, though. It's a memoir and the basic story is that Gilbert goes through a bone-crushing divorce and then the devastating end of the affair she used to shield herself from the divorce. In search of something, well, not so sucky, she decides to live abroad for a year in 3 different places: Italy (where she eats like crazy and learns to speak Italian), India (where she lives on an Ashram and meditates a lot) and Indonesia (Where she studies with a medicine man and, unexpectedly, falls in love again). This book had the real potential to become sappy, and there are certainly moments where it walks the line. But Gilbert is also pretty darn irreverant and FUNNY, to boot, so she tends to stay just this side of the line. I liked a lot of things about the book, but I think what struck me the most was Gilbert's capacity for self-forgiveness, and her lack of fear at showing that side of herself to the world. I've already recommended the book to a friend who's going through a tough break up. I kept thinking of her as I was reading -- I think there's a lot that will speak to her in this book.
And, really, that's about it for my reading for the past couple of weeks, unless you want to include countless documents at work.
Santa Cruz pics in the next post, I swear.
So. . . Not much reading lately, but a couple of really excellent books to mention:
Nancy Farmer: The House of the Scorpion
Picked this one up last month when I was in Portland (darn it -- still haven't posted those pics!), from the remainders bin at Powells. It's young adult lit, and has won a ton of awards and rave reviews, for good reason. I read the whole book in less than a day and it was truly fabulous. The premise: It's some unspecified time in the future. Human cloning is a reality and to the South of the United States is a country called Opium, which exists, as you can guess from the name, purely to produce drugs. The main character is Matt, a young boy who learns fairly early into the book that he is a clone of the biggest of all of the drug lords. I don't want to give anything away, but suffice it to say, Matt lives a pretty screwed-up life at the hands of the drug lord and his cronies, but eventually escapes from it all. Really interesting book. Parts of it reminded me of Louis Sacchar's Holes, and other parts reminded me of dystopic writers like Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale or Ray Bradbury. Good stuff. I'll definitely be recommending it to middle school and high school students.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love
I wasn't so sure how I'd feel about this one, not being an especially religious type, and also not having much patience for sappy self-help crap. This book turned out to be quite a lovely read, though. It's a memoir and the basic story is that Gilbert goes through a bone-crushing divorce and then the devastating end of the affair she used to shield herself from the divorce. In search of something, well, not so sucky, she decides to live abroad for a year in 3 different places: Italy (where she eats like crazy and learns to speak Italian), India (where she lives on an Ashram and meditates a lot) and Indonesia (Where she studies with a medicine man and, unexpectedly, falls in love again). This book had the real potential to become sappy, and there are certainly moments where it walks the line. But Gilbert is also pretty darn irreverant and FUNNY, to boot, so she tends to stay just this side of the line. I liked a lot of things about the book, but I think what struck me the most was Gilbert's capacity for self-forgiveness, and her lack of fear at showing that side of herself to the world. I've already recommended the book to a friend who's going through a tough break up. I kept thinking of her as I was reading -- I think there's a lot that will speak to her in this book.
And, really, that's about it for my reading for the past couple of weeks, unless you want to include countless documents at work.
Santa Cruz pics in the next post, I swear.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Oysters!
On the way home from hiking at Point Reyes yesterday, we stopped off at Hog Island Oyster Company on Highway One in Marshall for some oysters. We were totally disappointed when we pulled up and they looked closed. Turns out, they were, but the lovely young ladies that work there were still cleaning up and hadn't closed out the cash register yet. They took pity on our poor oyster-deprived souls and hooked us up.
I've never actually had oysters at home before, but we had fun learning how to open them, aided by an "oyster knife" from the general store in Tomales. Thankfully, the knife wasn't actually sharp. Otherwise, I think we would have had some blood with our oysters -- the damn things are hard to get open! Here's a pic of M. fighting with one of them.
You have to sort of wiggle the knife, which looks like a letter opener only not so sharp, into the hinge end of the oyster. Once it pops open at that edge, you twist the knife around to open the shell all the way. See below.
But, ohh, is the hard work worth it!
But, ohh, is the hard work worth it!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
What I'm Reading 3/21
Things are still hectic at work, so my reading continues to be relatively light. This week, I read a couple young adult books and that's about it. I've also started Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, but I'm not through it yet.
William Steig -- Abel's Island
William Steig was an author I remember really enjoying as a kid. He had this great picture book called Sylvester and the Magic Pebble that was quite lovely. In any case, Abel's Island is a chapter book and it was an enjoyable little read. Slightly odd in terms of the language -- emotionally it's about right for third or fourth graders, but the language would be difficult for a lot of adults I know. I think it's probably a better read-aloud book for kids than one they'd read independently. I DO really love authors who don't talk down to kids, though. Actually, I guess I would really have enjoyed independently reading this book as a kid -- I would have been excited to go look up all the words I didn't know and figure them out. :-)
Ian McEwan -- The Daydreamer
Another young adult book, written by an author who normally writes adult literature. I really enjoyed McEwan's Atonement, and The Daydreamer was not a disappointment. Peter, the main character, is a boy who often gets lost in the world of his fantasies with poignant results. It's a quiet book, a bit dreamy, very well written. Again, I like it because it doesn't talk down to kids in any way. I think I read somewhere that McEwan wanted to write a book for adults that kids would love, too, and he's done a great job here.
William Steig -- Abel's Island
William Steig was an author I remember really enjoying as a kid. He had this great picture book called Sylvester and the Magic Pebble that was quite lovely. In any case, Abel's Island is a chapter book and it was an enjoyable little read. Slightly odd in terms of the language -- emotionally it's about right for third or fourth graders, but the language would be difficult for a lot of adults I know. I think it's probably a better read-aloud book for kids than one they'd read independently. I DO really love authors who don't talk down to kids, though. Actually, I guess I would really have enjoyed independently reading this book as a kid -- I would have been excited to go look up all the words I didn't know and figure them out. :-)
Ian McEwan -- The Daydreamer
Another young adult book, written by an author who normally writes adult literature. I really enjoyed McEwan's Atonement, and The Daydreamer was not a disappointment. Peter, the main character, is a boy who often gets lost in the world of his fantasies with poignant results. It's a quiet book, a bit dreamy, very well written. Again, I like it because it doesn't talk down to kids in any way. I think I read somewhere that McEwan wanted to write a book for adults that kids would love, too, and he's done a great job here.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Tomales Bakery
This morning I woke up and realized that I had no milk in the house for my coffee. As much as I may try to deny it, I'm afraid I actually DO need coffee in the morning. I didn't have any yesterday, and I was wiped out and headachey by mid-afternoon. But I CAN'T drink my coffee without milk. At work, I actually water it down and then add milk. (Though, it should be said, the coffee at work is labelled "strong" and "not so strong" and I'm pretty sure that "decaf" is a four letter word around there).
Anyway, what that meant this morning was that I had to go out for either coffee or milk. I'm a solid 12 miles from the nearest grocery store, so I took the go out for coffee option, and went into the town of Tomales, which is only a few miles from my house. There's not a whole lot to Tomales: A general store, a coffee shop, a sandwich shop, a cute little hotel that usually doesn't even have anyone at the front desk (you get a key code to get in and out), and a teeny tiny park with swings and pine trees that shed cones as big as my head. That's about it, and I love it.
In any case, Tomales Bakery = AWESOME. I can't believe I've lived here for 2 months and haven't made it in till today. This may become my new Sunday ritual. It's this teeny-tiny little shop that smells like heaven. You can barely fit 3 people inside. Anyway, I got there nice and early, so it wasn't packed yet, and I had my pick of the pastries. (supposedly they sell out of almost everything by 11am most days). I had a humongous pecan roll that was absolutely delicious and perhaps the best coffee I've ever had. Just plain old coffee, but I doctored it up with a bit of organic brown sugar and some Strauss Family Creamery half and half, and it was absolutely delicious. Strauss milk is fabulous. Unfortunately, it's also VERY expensive. A half-gallon glass bottle of it costs around 5 bucks (including a dollar bottle deposit, but still). I've bought it a couple times, and even the skim tastes super-rich and fresh. But, really, I can't justify spending that kind of money on milk most of the time.
Other advantages to Tomales Bakery:
1. You get to pour your own coffee, which is good for me because I like to make mine about 1/3 caffeinated and 2/3 decaf.
2. It has these lovely wooden chairs outside where you can sit and drink your coffee and read the paper
3. If you go early in the morning, it isn't yet overrun with bikers and tourists, so you can watch the locals chat outside the post office, pet the dogs that wander around, and just breathe the lovely air and enjoy the quiet.
4. They're cheap! My coffee and cinnamon roll was only 3.50 total. And their loaves of fresh-made bread are about half the price of all the other local bakeries I've seen.
5. They'll call you to let you know when you've stupidly forgotten your wallet on their counter and not make fun of you at all when you go back to retrieve it. :-)
Anyway, what that meant this morning was that I had to go out for either coffee or milk. I'm a solid 12 miles from the nearest grocery store, so I took the go out for coffee option, and went into the town of Tomales, which is only a few miles from my house. There's not a whole lot to Tomales: A general store, a coffee shop, a sandwich shop, a cute little hotel that usually doesn't even have anyone at the front desk (you get a key code to get in and out), and a teeny tiny park with swings and pine trees that shed cones as big as my head. That's about it, and I love it.
In any case, Tomales Bakery = AWESOME. I can't believe I've lived here for 2 months and haven't made it in till today. This may become my new Sunday ritual. It's this teeny-tiny little shop that smells like heaven. You can barely fit 3 people inside. Anyway, I got there nice and early, so it wasn't packed yet, and I had my pick of the pastries. (supposedly they sell out of almost everything by 11am most days). I had a humongous pecan roll that was absolutely delicious and perhaps the best coffee I've ever had. Just plain old coffee, but I doctored it up with a bit of organic brown sugar and some Strauss Family Creamery half and half, and it was absolutely delicious. Strauss milk is fabulous. Unfortunately, it's also VERY expensive. A half-gallon glass bottle of it costs around 5 bucks (including a dollar bottle deposit, but still). I've bought it a couple times, and even the skim tastes super-rich and fresh. But, really, I can't justify spending that kind of money on milk most of the time.
Other advantages to Tomales Bakery:
1. You get to pour your own coffee, which is good for me because I like to make mine about 1/3 caffeinated and 2/3 decaf.
2. It has these lovely wooden chairs outside where you can sit and drink your coffee and read the paper
3. If you go early in the morning, it isn't yet overrun with bikers and tourists, so you can watch the locals chat outside the post office, pet the dogs that wander around, and just breathe the lovely air and enjoy the quiet.
4. They're cheap! My coffee and cinnamon roll was only 3.50 total. And their loaves of fresh-made bread are about half the price of all the other local bakeries I've seen.
5. They'll call you to let you know when you've stupidly forgotten your wallet on their counter and not make fun of you at all when you go back to retrieve it. :-)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Sonoma Coast Park and Armstrong Woods
Last Sunday, I went to Armstrong Woods for the first time. I hadn't really intended to end up there. I had to work all morning and by 1pm, it was such a beautiful sunny day, I just had to get out of the house. So I drove north up Highway One, figuring I'd just stop wherever looked interesting.
I stopped first at Goat Rock beach in Sonoma Coast State Park, hoping to see the Harbor Seals that apparently come ashore there this time of year to have their babies. Unfortunately, they haven't arrived yet for the year. This is the sign that greets you as you enter the beach.
I don't know if you can read the sign, but it says "This is one of the most deadly beaches in California." Reassuring, eh? Apparently these massive "sleeper waves" occasionally come out of nowhere and snatch unsuspecting tourists off the beach and suck them out to an untimely demise in the sea. Fun.
This sign is at one of the parking areas up above the beach. Sadly, this forces me to admit that my mom was right. (Did you hear that, Carol? You. Were. Right.) She's been warning me about mountain lions for months, telling me about how a mountain lion ate off a woman's face while she was hiking and so on. I really thought she was just being overly paranoid and trying to stop me from hiking alone. But, then, look at the pretty picture. I mean, it's not going to stop me from hiking, mountain lions or no. I'm pretty sure that the reason things like mountain lion attacks make such a big splash on the news is because they're so darn rare. Still, I wouldn't like to run into one of these beasties out on the trail.
In any case, after seeing neither harbor seals nor mountain lions (or goats, for that matter) at Goat Rock, I continued up highway 1 for a couple more miles, then decided to cut across 116 through the Russian River Valley and circle home that way. I have to say, the drive along the river there is nearly as pretty as the shore. And I totally want to live in one of the cute little houses perched up in the trees in all the little towns along the Russian River. Too far from work, I'm afraid, but maybe someday when I'm allowed to telecommute. Eventually, I ended up in Guerneville, and when I saw the sign for Armstrong Woods, I couldn't resist, since several people had recommended the hiking there.
I wasn't disappointed. Armstrong Woods, for those of you who don't know, is a state preserve that is chock full of massive Redwoods. What I'll say about it is this, for the trees, it's just as lovely as Muir Woods, with less than a tenth of the crowds (no tour buses!!!). The views if you hike up into the hills above Muir Woods are much better, but the lack of crowds is such a big draw, I think I'd probably rather come to Armstrong. Though I don't think I would hike alone here, again. Not enough hikers for me to feel safe. If I fell and sprained an ankle or something, it could be ages before someone came along and saw me.
In any case, It was fairly late in the day by the time I got there, so I only hiked a couple miles, up a ridge and then back down into the Redwood grove. It was also a bit of a gloomy day, so I don't have many good pictures. Here's one of something that blew me away, though:
The height and diameter of the tree are amazing enough, but the thing that really gets me is the age of the tree. How is it possible that something that is 1300 years old can even still be alive? How can something have been in the same place for 13 centuries and not have been disturbed? It's shocking, and wonderful. Makes me feel pretty insignificant, actually. And the tree is healthy, too. If stupid humans don't screw it up, it could live for hundreds of years longer. wow.
Anyway, today is the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market for the first time, and probably the SF MOMA. I've been told it's actually kind of disappointing if you've been to the art museums in DC, NY, etc. But I'm going to give it a try, anyway.
I stopped first at Goat Rock beach in Sonoma Coast State Park, hoping to see the Harbor Seals that apparently come ashore there this time of year to have their babies. Unfortunately, they haven't arrived yet for the year. This is the sign that greets you as you enter the beach.
I don't know if you can read the sign, but it says "This is one of the most deadly beaches in California." Reassuring, eh? Apparently these massive "sleeper waves" occasionally come out of nowhere and snatch unsuspecting tourists off the beach and suck them out to an untimely demise in the sea. Fun.
This sign is at one of the parking areas up above the beach. Sadly, this forces me to admit that my mom was right. (Did you hear that, Carol? You. Were. Right.) She's been warning me about mountain lions for months, telling me about how a mountain lion ate off a woman's face while she was hiking and so on. I really thought she was just being overly paranoid and trying to stop me from hiking alone. But, then, look at the pretty picture. I mean, it's not going to stop me from hiking, mountain lions or no. I'm pretty sure that the reason things like mountain lion attacks make such a big splash on the news is because they're so darn rare. Still, I wouldn't like to run into one of these beasties out on the trail.
In any case, after seeing neither harbor seals nor mountain lions (or goats, for that matter) at Goat Rock, I continued up highway 1 for a couple more miles, then decided to cut across 116 through the Russian River Valley and circle home that way. I have to say, the drive along the river there is nearly as pretty as the shore. And I totally want to live in one of the cute little houses perched up in the trees in all the little towns along the Russian River. Too far from work, I'm afraid, but maybe someday when I'm allowed to telecommute. Eventually, I ended up in Guerneville, and when I saw the sign for Armstrong Woods, I couldn't resist, since several people had recommended the hiking there.
I wasn't disappointed. Armstrong Woods, for those of you who don't know, is a state preserve that is chock full of massive Redwoods. What I'll say about it is this, for the trees, it's just as lovely as Muir Woods, with less than a tenth of the crowds (no tour buses!!!). The views if you hike up into the hills above Muir Woods are much better, but the lack of crowds is such a big draw, I think I'd probably rather come to Armstrong. Though I don't think I would hike alone here, again. Not enough hikers for me to feel safe. If I fell and sprained an ankle or something, it could be ages before someone came along and saw me.
In any case, It was fairly late in the day by the time I got there, so I only hiked a couple miles, up a ridge and then back down into the Redwood grove. It was also a bit of a gloomy day, so I don't have many good pictures. Here's one of something that blew me away, though:
The height and diameter of the tree are amazing enough, but the thing that really gets me is the age of the tree. How is it possible that something that is 1300 years old can even still be alive? How can something have been in the same place for 13 centuries and not have been disturbed? It's shocking, and wonderful. Makes me feel pretty insignificant, actually. And the tree is healthy, too. If stupid humans don't screw it up, it could live for hundreds of years longer. wow.
Anyway, today is the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market for the first time, and probably the SF MOMA. I've been told it's actually kind of disappointing if you've been to the art museums in DC, NY, etc. But I'm going to give it a try, anyway.
Reading this week 3/10
David Kamp -- The United States of Arugula.
I feel like everyone has been talking about this book, but I didn't end up being all that impressed with it. I've been trying to articulate why, but I'm not really sure. Perhaps because I'm not enough of a foodie to know all the big name chefs he talks about? Or maybe just because I don't actually tend to enjoy nonfiction books all that much to begin with? I'm much more of a fiction and poetry reader. I think I was just expecting it to be more exciting in some way, with all the buzz. Not a terrible read, but it's not a favorite, either.
Dora Mary Russell -- The Sparrow
Now this one is a new favorite. It's about a group of people who are the first to encounter a new alien race adn the tragedy that ensues. The description on the back didn't catch my attention at first, but a friend had recommended the book a few years back. Then, just recently, I saw it on a staff favorite display at Copperfield's Books and finally decided I should check it out. I read the first chapter or so, wasn't caught by it, and put it down. But then I tried again a few days later and I'm so glad I did. Russell's writing is lovely, and the characters felt like real people , people that I would love to have as a part of my own life. My heart absolutely ached for the main character, Emilio. I also found the structure of the book really compelling. You know from the first page that the expedition to this new planet has ended in tragedy, only one survivor who is all-but-incapacitated both physically and mentally. Russell then does a great job balancing scenes from the planet with scenes from the present of the book to slowly reveal the story.
Ray Bradbury -- Farenheit 451.
Somehow I've never read this book before, which isn't all that common for me and 20th century classics. I'm not quite done with it, and I've liked it a little less as I've read farther into it, but the first section grabbed me immediately. Bradbury really is a wonderful writer. I'll write more about this book when I actually finish it.
Also dabbled a bit this week with some ee cummings poetry, another Plath biography, and the usual tourist books about the Bay Area.
I feel like everyone has been talking about this book, but I didn't end up being all that impressed with it. I've been trying to articulate why, but I'm not really sure. Perhaps because I'm not enough of a foodie to know all the big name chefs he talks about? Or maybe just because I don't actually tend to enjoy nonfiction books all that much to begin with? I'm much more of a fiction and poetry reader. I think I was just expecting it to be more exciting in some way, with all the buzz. Not a terrible read, but it's not a favorite, either.
Dora Mary Russell -- The Sparrow
Now this one is a new favorite. It's about a group of people who are the first to encounter a new alien race adn the tragedy that ensues. The description on the back didn't catch my attention at first, but a friend had recommended the book a few years back. Then, just recently, I saw it on a staff favorite display at Copperfield's Books and finally decided I should check it out. I read the first chapter or so, wasn't caught by it, and put it down. But then I tried again a few days later and I'm so glad I did. Russell's writing is lovely, and the characters felt like real people , people that I would love to have as a part of my own life. My heart absolutely ached for the main character, Emilio. I also found the structure of the book really compelling. You know from the first page that the expedition to this new planet has ended in tragedy, only one survivor who is all-but-incapacitated both physically and mentally. Russell then does a great job balancing scenes from the planet with scenes from the present of the book to slowly reveal the story.
Ray Bradbury -- Farenheit 451.
Somehow I've never read this book before, which isn't all that common for me and 20th century classics. I'm not quite done with it, and I've liked it a little less as I've read farther into it, but the first section grabbed me immediately. Bradbury really is a wonderful writer. I'll write more about this book when I actually finish it.
Also dabbled a bit this week with some ee cummings poetry, another Plath biography, and the usual tourist books about the Bay Area.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
big blue sea
I've fallen in love with the Pacific Ocean.
I didn't grow up with the ocean. In fact, where I grew up (Michigan) is pretty darn far away from the sea. We have the Great Lakes, which are spectactular in their own right. But they're not the ocean. As a kid, my first experience with the Atlantic was visiting my grandparents in Connecticut and, frankly, I thought it was pretty icky. The beach we went to was overrun with horseshoe crabs, which are not the most pleasant creatures ever, and the water was dark and seaweedy and dirty. We also went on vacation in Florida a couple times, and I LOVED collecting shells on the beach. Mostly, though, I just didn't care much about the ocean. I was perfectly happy with nice, clean freshwater lakes.
But in November, when I saw the Pacific for the very first time (on Thanksgiving day, no less), it was love at first sight. And now, I live only 5 miles from Highway One, and the ability to drive up and down the coast is at my fingertips. So I spent the weekend exploring the Sonoma Coast. SO beautiful.
How can I be lucky enough to have all of this right in my backyard???
Yesterday, my friend L. and I wandered around the beaches just north of Bodega Bay. I can't remember which beach these pictures are on, but could it be more gorgeous? We went to Coleman Beach, Miwok Beach, and Shell Beach, and then today on my own, I went to Goat Rock Beach, hoping to sea the seals that come there to "nest" in the spring. Unfortunately, they haven't arrived yet. In any case, I'm fascinated by the rocks just jutting up out of the ocean everywhere around here. VERY different from the super fine-sanded, flat beaches of Lake Michigan.
Anyway, we went at low tide yesterday, and so I got to experience tidepools for the very first time. Check out the awesome sealife I saw:
These are called Giant Green Sea Anenomes, though they're not actually that big.
This one is an Ochre Sea Star. He was a BIG dude, 8 or 9 inches across. They also come in a bright orange color.
And this is a combination of Goose Barnacles and California Mussels. I never knew barnacles could be so lovely.
There are also all these places where waterfalls tumble out of the cliffs above the water and make their way down to the ocean. And the rocks on the beach are like nothing I've ever seen -- all sorts of greens and reds and striped white and black. I don't know much about rocks, but I certainly came home with pocketfuls of them that are now in lovely little heaps all over my house, along with some beautiful pieces of driftwood. Anyhow, I have a zillion more pictures, but it's getting on toward my bedtime, so they'll have to wait for another day.
(Sorry about the oddball formatting -- I'm still getting used to how this blogging thing works, and I'm too sleepy at the moment to fuss with it anymore to get it all to look exactly the way I want it to)
Cuteness overload
This, my friends, is the cuteness that I see outside my bedroom window on a daily basis. This little guy was born the morning this picture was taken. When he grows up, he'll look like this:
Pretty, huh? I actually have no idea what variety of goats we have here, but they have this long hair and crazy curly horns. To me, they look like they should be frolicking on an Alp somewhere. Instead, they frolic outside my window and make me late for work with their distracting antics.
(p.s. Finally got the software installed to download images from my new camera. I've been a regular picture-taking fiend lately, so there are many more to come!)
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