Posted April 20, 2021

September 2020

Last September 2020, having just completed our garage remodel, we embarked upon our next big project: landscaping our yard. The first thing we needed to do was remove some trees. We worked with a certified arborist to determine the health of all our trees and decided to remove two very large Deodar Cedar trees from the front yard. Their Latin name is Cedrus deodara. The name Deodar derives from Sanskrit and translates as “timber of the gods.” The tree is native to the Himalayas, where it can grow as tall as 250 feet.

The medicinal properties of the tree are rather amazing. At the University of Redlands website (here) I found the following description:

“The wood, resin and bark have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Heartwood has diaphoretic and diuretic properties. Wood has also been used to treat fever, hemorrhoids, pulmonary and urinary disorders, insomnia, rheumatism, and diabetes. Tree bark is used to treat fevers, diarrhea and dysentery. Needles can treat tuberculosis. Resins can be used to treat joint pains, skin conditions and bruises, while oils distilled from wood chips are used as antiseptic to remedy bronchitis, acne, tuberculosis, catarrh arthritis and as a diuretic. The oils also help to soothe coughs, fight viruses, promote restful sleep, open sinuses and alleviate ear congestion. These oils have also been used as an insecticide, herbicide, molluscicide, antifungal, and to scent soaps”.

After consulting with our arborist, we still decided to remove the tress since they were not in healthy shape.

As you can see, the main tree trunk branched off in many different directions. This compromised the health and stability of the large upper branches. We were advised to remove the trees before any more heavy branches fell.

For safety, many of the limbs had to be lowered by rope. This was complicated and difficult work. Here they are attaching a pully to the trunk of the tree to aid in lowering the heavy branches to the ground.

The chain saw operator was the worker who had to climb up into the tree. He used ropes to climb up and down and to lower branches. He definately had to know all his Boy Scout knots.

The saddle where the main trunk branched off was the weakest area of the tree. It was not stable or healthy in that section. Branches and limbs grew in every direction. He had to decide which ones should be cut and lowered first.

Here the team is lowering a small branch. Even the smaller branches are very heavy.

The chain saw operator frequently checked his ropes and knots. Some ropes kept him safely up in the tree while other ropes were attached to limbs that were lowered to the ground one at a time as he cut them.

Some pieces of the tree were very heavy and had to be lowered carefully. No one was hurt during the removal of these two trees. As parts of the tree came down they were fed into a huge chipper.

The size of the branches and trunk that the chipper would accept was amazing. Sometimes it took 3 strong workers to lift a section of the trunk and put it in the chipper. Once the piece of tree was properly placed the chipper would just pull it in and grind it up into mulch. It was a loud, noisy, and exhausting process.

The top of one of the trees comes down. Look out below!

Above, the chain saw operator is cutting through a section of the trunk. These sections were big and very heavy. Wood chips and sawdust flew everywhere as the chain saw cut through the main trunk.

These chaps really worked hard!

No branches left on this tree. Only the main trunk remained.

Counting the rings on the stump revealed that the trees were about 63 years old. Now the stumps had to be removed. Digging them out was not an option. Luckily, there was a machine that could help with this work.

This stump grinder chews up, grinds, and removes the stump and all the larger roots. Even the stump becomes wood chips and mulch.

The picture above shows what the chipper did to the trees and branches. This pile was from two truckloads of chips. Since there was no more room on our driveway, a third truckload of chipper material was hauled off to another location. We saved this huge pile to spread around our yard and garden. The pile was about 5 tons worth of chips and mulch. It smelled wonderful, but I certainly had my work cut out for me. This pile was spread throughout the garden one shovel full at a time with the aid of a wheelbarrow.

The pile went from a mountain to a molehill over the course of a couple of weeks. As the pile got smaller, so did my waist line! Finally, all the cedar chips were spread over our entire property. It smelled wonderful. It made me happy to think that the trees that we had enjoyed for 3 decades were still on our property, only in a different form.

We removed two large cedar trees and four small redwoods. That part of the project took two days. However, there was more work to come.

February 21, 2021

Earlier in February I went for a walk in San Francisco. I had been cooped up for so long at home, following the shelter in place guidelines for avoiding COVID 19, that I grabbed my face-mask and camera and drove to SF for a walk. This walk would be different from my walks around the neighborhood, or my wanderings in the local regional parks.

I had recently purchased a new lens for my Leica camera and I wanted to try it out. It was a wide angle lens and I wondered how it would perform in the canyons and lanes of the San Francisco financial district. All of the photos in this post were taken with this new lens. The lens is a Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH Safari edition. That’s a mouthful of a name for a very fine camera lens.

It was a beautiful day with sunshine, blue skys, and white puffy clouds. It was February 3, only 24 hours after Groundhog Day, and it felt like spring was already in the air. Looking up I could see blue sky, but down at street level all was dim, shadows, and almost twilight. It was a day of contrasts; light and dark, sunshine and shade, brightness and shadow, color and black and white. I walked around for several hours, seeing almost no-one. Even though it was a Wednesday, only an occasional walker appeared. At times it felt like I had the whole city to myself.

Many of the skyscrapers have a stark, almost overwhelming beauty about them. One can feel the eminsity of their presence when looking up at them from the street level. The majesty and sheer weight of such a construction, framed against the blue sky, can make one feel small and insignificant in comparison. Looking down, I saw the patterns built into the sidewalks of the city. Beauty above and beauty below.

On this day the streets were empty and the curbside seating for restaurants and cafes looked strange when no one was around. A lonely picture. There was not much activity in the big city on this mid-week day.

I’m not sure which I like best: color photos or balck and white? I’ve included some of both here. There is something about a black and white photo that almost captures the soul of the object in the picture, if skyscrapers even have a soul, that is.

This black and white photo above shows the Sales Force Building, the tallest skyscraper in SF, in the background. Actually, the Sales Force Tower in San Francisco is taller than the Wilshire Grand of Los Angeles if decorative spires are excluded.

I love the reflection seen in this building. I think the building is called the Lumina ll. At 400 feet tall and 38 floors it is a residential condominium project built in 2015. It looks like it is made of glass, and ties with the skyscraper at 100 Van Ness Avenue for the honor of the 55th tallest building in San Francisco.

A friend of mine who I meet with in the printmaking studio at Walnut Creek Civic Arts works for a Bay Area graphics design company. He worked on designing this address sculpture for the building at 1 California Street. When I see him in the printmaking open studio he is working on designs for block prints.

The large red letters in the sculpture are quite impressive. This is looking up at the skyscraper from the bottom of the sculpture.

Another black and white photo of reflections off a glass skyscraper. I wonder which you like best; the black and white photos or the color ones?

Many of the buildings can reflect images in their windows. The futuristic Transamerica Pyramid building is seen reflected in the many windows of this glass and cement skyscraper in the Market Center complex. The famous Pyramid is the second-tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline.

Above, light and shadow play on the beautiful columns of the Old Federal Reserve Bank. The building is now called the Bently Reserve.

The Phelan Building at Market and O’Farrell Streets in the financial district of San Francisco is a unique landmark. It is an 11 story office building. It was built in 1908 on the site of the original Phelan Building that was damaged in the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Here is a self portrait taken with my Leica M10P through a storefront glass to a mirror.

This final picture is definitely better in color than black and white. I waited for awhile before taking the picture, but no-one walked by to be in the photo, so I just snapped the shot anyway. Coming across this graffiti lifted my spirits a bit. Love and beauty are where you find them.

Being in the stark cold canyons of the big city made me think of that wonderful song by John Hartford: In Tall Buildings. Click on the link below to watch and hear an exquisite musical performance of one of his greatest songs. The song is sad, indeed, but nevertheless a fitting end to my mind-boggling day in the canyons of San Francisco.

Sending Giftwaves…

November 4, 2020

For years we thought about remodeling our garage to make it a more useable space. We would dream of a printmaking studio, or a weaving studio, or a clean place to play and record music. When the pandemic hit and we were at home most of the time we decided to start work on our project in late May.

The doors we had were good, and even attractive, but they didn’t let in enough light. Our design had to include lots of light for artwork, music, and creative activities.

The doors came off and were replaced with heavy visqueen plastic sheeting for over 11 weeks. With delays at almost every turn the remodel took much longer than expected.

The old doors were folded, stacked, and organized with all the installation hardware put into boxes. We were able to sell them to an engineer who had a ranch in Morgan Hill. He planned to use them as doors on his barn.

Everything had to come out of the garage for the remodel. We rented a space at the local self storage and filled it up with the garage contents. Years of collecting and not processing our posessions meant that we moved out a lot of stuff into a 10 x 10 foot locker. We were hoping it would be a short lived rental.

We removed the old sheetrock from the walls facing the outside so we could install insulation. We want to be able to work in the space in the winter months as well as the summer months. Insulation will help during all seasons.

There was a lot of plumbing and electrical work that needed to be done before new sheetrock could go up. The pandemic slowed the permit process to a virtual standstill. In pre-pandemic times you would just walk in to the city or county offices to get a building permit. Now, however, everything had to be done online and it took forever. In addition, scheduling a rough inspection for the electrical work got bogged down and we waited even longer for that to clear. Once the inspection was passed the sheet rock went up.

In the meantime our washing machine and drier were wrapped in plastic and stored in the front yard for over a month. Getting our clothes cleaned with pandemic restrictions and guidelines was a challenge.

The garage cement floor had many cracks that needed to be vacuumed clean before repairs could be done. A high powered vacuum did the job.

Each crack was filled with an epoxy filler.

We wanted to get more light in the garage so, in addition to the new doors, we installed three rows of lights with 5 recessed lights in each row. This should give us plenty of light in the daytime and at night.

Finally, the sheetrock is up. The garage cement floor is cleaned, repaired, and ready to finish. A clear coat of epoxy floor coating is spread on the floor. Then confetti-like paint flakes are spread all over. They stick to the epoxy. When the epoxy dries, the flakes are scrapped off and vacuumed up. Then another clear coat of epoxy is applied.

We picked a speckled color of gray, white, and black flakes that gave the floor a gray finish that blended well with the gray cabinets that were installed next. With the floor finished the washer and dryer can return to the garage.

The electrical switches and outlets are installed. The cabinets are hung.

The job is starting to look good.

The garage door frames are made out of heavy duty aluminum for high strength. The panels have laminated glass that is obscure, letting in lots of light without being able to see through the glass. As a contemporary modern classic they are really beautiful doors.

You can see how much light the laminated glass doors let in.

It is finished. The first party includes a toast to the new light-filled space.

July 6, 2020

We had a three week adventure planned for mid June of this year, 2020, that included travels in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, and Switzerland. We were going to stay through the summer solstice and return around the 4th of July. Needless to say the trip was cancelled due to the Corona virus pandemic. Instead, we spent this year’s summer solstice hiking the Bear Creek Trail in Briones Regional Park (see previous post below). Since the solstices are important “holidays” for us I thought it would be fun to revisit what we did on the summer solstice last year, in 2019.

On June 19, 2019 we arrived in Lima Peru around midnight. We had flown from San Francisco to Atlanta to Lima to begin our adventure of chasing the total solar eclipse of 2019. We had a day to walk around Lima before heading south to Paracas Bay on the solstice, June 21, 2019.

It is the dead of winter in Peru in June. In fact, June 21 is the winter solstice in South America. It was strange to pack our winter expedition gear in sunny California just before our summer solstice knowing we would soon experience the winter solstice in Peru and Chile.

Travel Quest Tours International organizes total solar eclipse expeditions and astronony adventures. We joined the southbound eclipse group and were looking forward to experiencing totality on July 2 in Chile. The expedition was highly organized. The eclipse team included a trip manager, 3 trip leaders, a trip astronomer, an eclipse astronomer, an eclipse meteorologist, and a physician. We felt like we were ready for just about anything the cosmos might throw at us.

Rob Hawley, a fellow eclipse chaser, is a serious amature astronomer and astrophotographer. You can find out more about him by visiting his website here. Cesar Higueras is one of our trip leaders. You can find out more about Travel Quest International and their eclipse tours here.

The next day, June 21, was the winter solstice — aka our summer solstice back in California. We boarded a bus and headed south, out of Lima, towards Paracas Bay. It was a long bus ride, but before going to our hotel there we all took a dune buggy ride in a caravan to watch the sunset. We watched the closing of the shortest day of the year in Peru as the sun set over the sand dunes of Paracas National Reserve. It is very dry in this area of Peru and it rarely rains. Travel Quest set up an oasis with refreshments for us in the heart of this desert.

We climbed into our dune buggy for and exciting ride. On the top of the last dune overlooking the tents of the oasis our dune buggy threw a rod and the engine stopped dead. You can hear the engine start to sound a little funny in the video. We only had a short walk down the dune to rejoin our companions.

We have afternoon snacks and a Peruvian drink called Pisco Sour in our desert camp. Some travelers try “dune boarding” down the steep sand dunes on snowboards. It’s a lot of fun.

Everybody relaxes from the long bus ride and enjoys watching the sunset.

We hitch a ride back to the waiting bus on another dune buggy. It has been a long and exciting day. But, in fact, it has been the shortest day of the year in Peru. It has been a happy winter/summer solstice for us.

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The San Francisco Bay Area is home to over 7 million people in the 9 counties surrounding the bay. This area includes the Wine Country in the north, Silicon Valley in the south, the shores of the Pacific Ocean in the west, and the edge of the Central Valley in the east. In the little village of Lafayette where we live we are fortunate to have open spaces all around us. Briones Regional Park and Las Trampas Regional Park offer sunshine, fresh air, and exercise on hiking trails just a short distance from home.

Seeking health and wisdom we try to do what it takes to have an hour each day outdoors in the Natural World. Being outside, especially in uncrowded open spaces, bathes us in sunshine and fresh air. I know that the vitamin D from the sun is different from the vitamin D in the gel capsule supplement I take every day. Exercise oxygenates our blood and we breath deep, full breaths. The ridgetop provides perspective on our place in the immense network of interrelationships.

On the Summer Solstice we took a hike on the Bear Creek Trail that circles round the Briones Reservoir. It is an East Bay Municipal Utilities District trail, and since a permit is required it is less traveled than other trails.

The wonders of trees and grasses, streams, rivers and lakes, sun, clouds, fresh air and birds, ocean waves and wind, remind us of our connection to nature, the earth, and to each other.

Of course, walks around our neighborhood are also beautiful and colorful.

The children’s sidewalk art always has something good to say.

Creative decorations beautify our surroundings and energize our environment. We have so much to be thankful for.

April 25, 2020

We usually make granola around Christmas time. We give it away as presents to our friends and family. We also enjoy it ourselves for breakfast, and we love the way the house smells while we’re baking. Last Christmas we bought all the ingredients for a double batch but didn’t make it. Cindy had just had thumb surgery and was in a cast and we just didn’t get around to baking. With all the extra time spent at home lately we decided to bake our Christmas granola last week.

The receipe goes back to my college years when I lived in Fresno. We ate a lot of granola in those days. I worked on trail crews for the U.S. Forest Service in the summer time. Granola came in handy while in the backcountry for 10 day tours. The local cowboys, Sierra Nevada horsemen, and USFS mule packers called our granola “horse food.”

All the grains, seeds, and nuts get mixed together with oil and water. You can use almonds or walnuts to make it, depending on your taste. Honey is lightly drizzeled on top and mixed in.

Then into a 325° oven. After 10 minutes the pans come out and the process is repeated. Drizzel with honey, mix and stir, then back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

As the granola starts to brown nicely the house starts to smell amazing.

Be careful not to use too much honey. The granola won’t burn if you mix it every 10 minutes and keep the oven low at 325°.

Umm. Smells good. The total cooking time is about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes depending on your oven and how crunchy you like your granola.

Once the granola cools, raisins and/or coconut can be added and mixed in.

We like to put the finished granola into quart sized Mason or Ball jars.

This time we get 5 quarts and two freezer bags full of granola. It almost feels like Christmas in April!

Everything gets put away and the kitchen is all cleaned up again.

Stay healthy, happy, and positive. [I know that “positive” can have a negative connotation these days, what with the virus circulating around. Of course I mean stay positive in spirit!]

April 16, 2020

One of the last times I was able to get within 6 feet of someone was at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention’s Spring Situation back on March 8. It was a happy day of jam sessions, concerts, and workshops designed to focus attention on local and regional traditional music.

Some traditional musicians came down from the mountains to lead a packed jam session in the lobby of the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, CA. This duo from the Sierra Nevada mountains also did a set on the main concert stage with other bands.

Local musicians volunteered to showcase their music during a short concert set, lead a workshop, or be the MC on the main stage.

It was beginning to feel like springtime and lots of folks showed up.

The bands and musicians relaxed and warmed up back stage before their concert performance in front of the audiance.

It feels good to finally get your banjo in tune. Then you’re ready to go.

Here is one of the bands during their performance. Everyone seemed to relax and enjoy the show. Hot music and an appreciative audience.

After the concerts were finished and the workshops were done many musicians gathered at the Starry Plough, an Irish Pub and Restaurant, for the monthly Shred Sesh. A “Shred Session” is a jam hosted by one band who calls all the tunes which are then played up to speed. This particular session was exceptional. Many fine musicians were in attendance since they were already in town for the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention’s Spring Situation at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Everyone was ready to play together!

This session was hosted by Jim and Amber Mueller from San Luis Obispo. Jim is an excellent fiddler and Amber keeps everyone together on bass. Other local musicians helped complete the band that would lead the tunes.

It was a great selection of tunes! Everyone was happy, not knowing that this might be one of the last times musicians could gather in such close proximity. Social distancing was only about a week away.

The Starry Plough Irish Pub and Restaurant has been a Berkeley institution for 47 years. Due to the extension of the shelter in place guidelines many small businesses have been having tough times. If you know and love the Starry Plough and want to help you can do so here.

Stay healthy, happy, and positive.

No April Fools…

My printmaking adventure started in France, at a friend’s studio in a lovely little village situated in the former provence of the Perche. It was early morning on September 18, 2013 when I received the call that Kenny Hall had just passed away in Fresno. Since this was the day I had planned to work in the studio I chose to make an etching of my friend on the day of his transition.

With the help of my friends and their studio I made an image to remember him by. The process was so wonderful and amazing that I became hooked on intaglio printmaking. Since then I have continued to study and create prints. I recently completed two more prints of musicians that hold special significance in my life. With the extra time I have of late, I’ve organized them and put them into archival protective envelopes.

If you are not familiar with Kenny Hall or his music there is a wonderful documentary of his life called “I Hear What You See: The Old Time World of Kenny Hall” by Chris Simon. You can see an excerpt of her film here.

A couple of friends and I paid a visit to (made a pilgramage to) Burl Hammons in West Virginia in 1973. Alan Jabbour gave us directions to his house in Stillwell Hollow where he lived in Pocahontas County. It was the dead of winter that year when we were welcomed by Burl, Maggie, and Sherman Hammons. I can honestly say that my fiddling took a turn from that meeting.

The etching of Burl Hammons comes from a photo made by Carl Fleischhauer. Carl Fleischhauer and Alan Jabbour co-authored the rare, but still available, study titled “The Hammons Family: The Traditions of a West Virginia Family and their Friends.” Carl is an amazing photographer and folklorist working for the Library of Congress. The book is well worth the read and the music on the CD has inspired and informed my fiddling for over 45 years.

During that same trip in the winter of 1973 we followed up our visit to Burl Hammons with an unforgettable stop at the home of Tommy Jarrell. Tommy also welcomed us, fed and watered us, and taught us more about American traditional fiddling in a few days than we could ever learn from book or record in the next decade.

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The spring weather in our area is giving us glorious days. Our back yard is in bloom with flowers, blossoms, doves, quail, song-birds, and hummingbirds joining us each day for our fiddle and guitar tunes on the deck in late afternoon.

Rowboat. I made up and rearranged this tune about 20 years ago. It almost always seems appropriate, but now more than ever. We had some fun with it on our April 1st deck-time tunes.

Local streets seem deserted and the earth is quiet. The pace of life is slower. Most people are keeping their distance. Sheltering in place is mandatory.

Despite homo sapien’s current health delima, nature continues to show it’s spring growth. Colors are vibrant, the air is clean, sounds are more natural. New growth, and new learning, are the order of the day. Because of social distancing, I can’t embrace my neighbors, or even my grandkids, but I can embrace this glorious spring day!

I went for a walk yesterday. The sunshine was warm and the fresh air was invigorating. I enjoyed seeing the green grass and the blossoming trees. Homeowners can’t help but notice that the hard work of designing their landscape plan and completing the garden labor is paying off.

I walked along, enjoying the local gardens, until I came to a steep road that seemed to head up to a ridge top, far above me.

I decided to try the challenge, hoping that I might achieve my daily goal of clocking 10,000 steps. I had to stop a couple times to rest, but I made it to the top. The views of Mt. Diablo between the houses were wonderful. After a breather, I turned around, facing the other direction, to walk back down the road. I took a few steps and came across this beautiful signpost…

May you float gently down the stream, and may you step merrily along the path.

Stay well.