Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Returned






Well, we decided to come back. It's very different back here at home with all the people and traffic. But it's nice to have conveniently located stores. Though we miss all the fields and farming. Anyway we visited two missions, the Pinnacles, and the Big Sur region coast. At the San Antonio mission there were Trichostema lanceolatum plants in bloom - a lovely aromatic native with pale blue flowers. From the mission grounds one has an impressive view of Sta'yokale - a peak sacred to the Salinan people. At the Pinnacles it was all buckwheat (Eriogonum sp.) and hummingbird fuchsia (Epilobium sp.) with their Autumnal flower hues bedecking the tumult of igneous boulders. Here we briefly explored the caves (I saw a bat) and spent some quality time sitting under and upon some very large rocks. At the mission dedicated to Our Lady of Solitude (Soledad) we paused in the quiet little chapel and enjoyed the shade under the corridor. There are a lot of vineyards in Monterey County and they looked lovely with Autumn color just beginning to creep into the vines, which were heavy with their harvest of grapes. Our return trip was quite an adventure with the very windy roads and the Chalk Fire doing its fire thing. But this stretch of the California coast is fantasticly scenic and the hummingbird fuchsia here was radiant against the cliffs. I also glimpsed a late-blooming lupine! We also stopped to make our way down a steep trail to Jade Cove. Despite the name the cobble beaches and cliffs seemed to be mostly of serpentine - but it doesn't matter because I just love shiny green stones! There was a lot of seaweed and it was quite refreshing. So hopefully you can match the pictures to locale based on my descriptions!

1 comment:

Deni said...

All of the photos are good, but the first one takes the cake!