Picture of the Day - My Field of Dreams

I have decided to christen this "Secret Hill" which is a joke if you know where this is. Overlying it is what I think of as my field of dreams over which I have trodden down many and various trails of tears. What I mean by that is that I have oftentimes the past few months cried about a great many heavy things that have been revealed to me by God over that period of time as I traced trails and paced paths over this field's doubly-plowed surface meditatively looking for petrified whale bone and biconoids. Ah, biconoids: well that gives away generally where this is located. At other times I have not been sad but my medative rockhounding ramblings here have been my escape from thinking about heavy things or the mundanities of modern living. Heavy rains are slated for the coming days and I fear those who farm this land (from whom we have permission to be on it for rockhounding purposes) will soon seed this surface and we will have to wait until after the next harvest.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Fire & Water

Today I had a modified Kim Day in which I took the day off but in this case I did not go solo but joined the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on a business roadtrip to Santa Barbara with lunch at Harry's, book browsing at Chaucer's, and then a visit to the Gaviota Coast on the way home to hunt petrified whale bone. We took Highway 154 down in order to get to our destination quicker as well as to see the aftermath of last summer's Whittier Fire (which was not fully controlled until earlier this winter), an aftermath I had not heretofore seen with mine own eyes and it was eye-opening. Dangerous weather with the potential for flashflooding and mudslides is predicted for the overnight period into tomorrow. We were chased off of Gaviota Beach at Gaviota State Park late this afternoon by the first major rain bands of this strong Pacific Storm whose circulation will pass over the Central Coast overnight into tomorrow. Above is the view along Highway 154 looking eastward across the burn scar with ominous skies clabbering up and lowering. The long story of modern California history is that of wildfire followed by flashfloods and mudslides. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Picture of the Day - Here It Comes!

Late this afternoon/early this evening I was out rockhounding in my usual location of late and could not avoid noticing the spectacular sky yet with a note of foreboding as the ongoing fetch of subtropical moisture that has overridden the Central Coast the past several days is slated to finally bring in a powerful Pacific Storm in the days ahead. The story of this impending storm is written in this skyscape. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Pepper Tree House Deck

This afternoon into this evening I worked a wedding at Pepper Tree Ranch in Edna Valley, several miles south of San Luis Obispo, CA. It features one of my favorite structures in San Luis Obispo County, certainly my favorite treehouse. For images of two other views of this concrete & metal treehouse deck which appears deceivingly organic in composition go HERE.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Picture of the Day - Last Student Teaching Sunset

Tonight was my last night staying late grading papers and inputing grades onto Aeries. This upcoming finals week won't require I do that as I have now done all the remaining heavy work wrapping up grades for the semester apart from the finals they take this week and their history notebooks. I had a ball this year, so much so I feel a bit of melancholy as the end nears and I must leave. It was an amazing experience coming back to my old high school in my mid-40s and student teaching.... the experience far-exceeded my expectations on every level.
Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Dead Deodar

This 90-year-old Deodar Cedar is the oldest tree in the Atascadero Sunken Gardens. According to THIS article the City of Atascadero notes it is in decline and plans to fell it. Today, while I visited the Atascadero Farmers Market, it sure seemed the tree was more than merely in "decline", but rather entirely dead, as in kaput. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Photo of the Day - By the Grace Of God

By the grace of God, this tree came down between two churches two blocks from my house (Plymouth Congregational Church (top) and St. James Episcopal Church (bottom) on Oak Street between 13th and 14th Streets here in downtown Paso Robles. It's also fortunate nobody was hurt when it crashed down, damaging some fencing adjacent to a structure on the Plymouth compound.

Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

This Opened My Eyes

I have been aware of this progressive trance track "Open Your Eyes" by Russian trance outfit Aurosonic for a few years now. However, for reasons I cannot now fathom, I never felt like sharing it heretofore here despite its abject "epic-ness". This sublime example of progressive trance (the best type) was released in 2013 and features the haunting vocals of Englishwoman Kate Louise Smith. Crank up your speakers and listen, feel, and dance. As hauntingly beautiful as this is, it is also difficult (at least for me) to catch every word of these soulful lyrics, so I include them below courtesy of songlyrics.com:

It's dark out here
In the pursuit of love
Completely unabridged
This silent fortress

My mind escapes me
Feeling it in my bones
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

Open your eyes
Open your eyes
I started blind
But now they're wide open

Open your eyes
Open your eyes
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

And how it breaks me

In the pursuit of love
Completely unabridged
The silent fortress
My mind escapes me
Telling my story well
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

(Alt )

Open you eyes
Open your eyes (open open)
The story's closed
Our love has broken down
Open your eyes
Open your eyes
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

Santa Margarita Lake Is Back

Today I headed out to the east side of Santa Margarita Lake (a.k.a. Salinas Reservoir) with Mike, my brother by another mother. We both hadn't hiked in too long and needed to get out and start a pattern of weekly hiking. I needed it as part of my decompressing from last week's big teaching experience and to recharge my mental-emotional batteries. Mission accomplished! It was especially satisfying to see how much water was everywhere including all types of watercourses and water catchments. Even parts of the trail we hiked (Blinn Ranch Trail which follows sections of the old road before the dam was filled) were covered in water or showed signs of water recently running over them. There were also washouts and minor landslides/rockfalls. The Salinas River was flowing strong into the back of the lake which is rapidly filling and nearly full. Areas of the back of the lake which had been bone dry for years and looking rather desolate were back under water or water was nearby.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Nascent Alta Maria Station

For the second consecutive day I worked most of the day at the old The Station wine bar in Los Alamos soon-to-open-as Alta Maria Station restaurant in the same location. The timing of this intentionally coincided with the town's annual "Old Days" celebration and parade. At the beginning and end of my time there today when things were relatively calm I captured these images of this beautiful and interesting property/venue which first opened as an Old Highway 101 full service station in 1926.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Sobranes Smoke From HR

This evening I was out at Heritage Ranch cutting down an olive tree for a friend/client. The wind shift about 30 hours ago back to a northwest flow has brought smoke back to the Central Coast in a big way. However, the source of the smoke, which is the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County, is now notably larger than when last the wind brought the smoke directly here and thus now it is much smokier. In fact, it was essentially overcast with smoke when I left this place about an hour after this image was captured. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Amongst Elfin Pigmies

For many years I've heard about the Elfin Forest in Los Osos adjacent to the Morro Bay Estuary. I've driven by some of its trailheads on previous occasions, too, but never took the time to stop there and walk. That changed today as I visited it with my friends Kameron, Blake and his girlfriend Krystal. It was overcast with a thin veil of coastal stratus which gave some measure of respite from the harsh August sun and heat battering points further inland. I was in this area last week looking for a place to walk my dog which I was unable to do given California State Park's open hostility towards dogs or anything else non-native aside from people. This locality is under the management of San Luis Obispo County Parks and allows dogs on leashes which means I'll be back soon I hope with my little monster Tequila.

This tragic fiery head-on collision on Highway 46 East near Shandon is still seared in my mind. I was rather surprised that it was in any connected to this place but it is a most appropriate tribute.

I'm glad I visited this place before it might burn given the ongoing drought cum new drier normal and how heavy are the fuels here. A fire in here would really change the place in a way that it would take longer than my remaining lifetime to return to its former state.

I love the artistic patterns created by the Creator on this mudflat.

That is Morro Strand in the distance capped with sand dunes.

This was my first encounter with a dwarf forest of pigmy oaks.

Although not present in this image, there were patches of ferns growing scattered throughout this preserve.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).