cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
20750
Summertime! (with hummingbird postscript)
This was the first day we had sunshine pouring into our house from dawn - for months we've had overcast skies until noon or later. To celebrate, we went for a walk ... I know just like on regular days. But this time we went to Kellogg Street, the beach on the bay. From here we can see across to North Island and we can see all the lucky people on the tourist boats, and the Navy sea lion training boats (red spots on outboards and flag)
The Marietta was out too but not many people were out at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning.
A few folks were paddling around,
and sailing
(or trying to sail),
while a small horde of youngsters were terrorizing the beach. There aren't many places where you can see a nuclear warship right across from a safe kiddy beach. The boat on the right belongs to Scripps Oceanography.
Here's a wider view as we walk along the shoreline. Sail straight ahead (south) about 10 miles and you are in Mexico.
Here we are off the sand and into the neighborhood, with gorgeous flowers right and left. This looks like a thistle; my wife says it's some kind of artichoke (I say that's a thistle too).
The flowers get brighter
and brighter
and whiter.
I believe we are supposed to think this is a squirrel (Not so, says Mike, the squirrel whisperer).
More flowers
then the birds appear.
Birds upon birds! We did see a hummer (footnote) but I can't find him in the pictures.
Is this climate change? Sand levels rising?
Looking back at the yacht basin and beach from the southern tip.
The doors and the gates confirm that this is a high-class neighborhood.
These could have been centerpieces (and won!) in the Coastal Decor contest my wife was in last week.
Even the electrical boxes contributed some artist flourishes to our walk.
This was touching, as Alan Johnson lived near here, was a buddy of mine and a classic / sports car dealer.
I bought this from Alan, some time ago. Some decades ago, in fact.
We finished on the streets, and saw many more notable details
Swarm of bees ravaging a single flower and ignoring the rest.
A mermaid who can read.
A seemingly underwater cactus plant (we have some of these at home)
And the kind of boat I think I'd like to own.
Bjorn Free!
Thanks for coming along with us.
Cazalea
PS - the hummer is in a file of his own in this thread
Summertime! (with hummingbird postscript)
This was the first day we had sunshine pouring into our house from dawn - for months we've had overcast skies until noon or later. To celebrate, we went for a walk ... I know just like on regular days. But this time we went to Kellogg Street, the beach on...
Gorgeous flora....
I've been 'collecting' some images of compelling cars over the past few days in my neighborhood ....
Thanks for the reminder, here's a compelling "car"
We saw this tough little rig too ...
Lovely!
I could easily live out of it.... I plan on putting a raised camper shell on my truck foreseeably....
Hey!
The front seats probably drop down, and you could easily prop up an expandable tent on the rooftop, like most people who camp do........
Try before you buy is the name of the game
I suppose you could squeeze yourself in if properly motivated. Overall length on a 90 is less than 12 feet! I was co-pilot on a 100 mile trip across England and it was memorable (ie loud), to say the least. I was used to this little rascal so I must be ge...
That's why....
I made sure my new truck has a 6.5 foot bed . Sure, it's possible to set yourself up inside of a cabin with the seats down, but nothing beats a proper truck bed set-up, not even a pop-up tent in my opinion! Thanks for the diagram Mike, cheers, Filip
There's always something when car camping!
Honda Element was a fine camping vehicle EXCEPT if you shut the doors, you can't open the front doors when the seats were folded forward. One MASSIVE flaw in the design, first discovered when needing to take a leak at 2 am! You have to leave one door unla...
Summertime, Addendum I
I wanted to add a note of thanks to the regal house with gates & wreaths of sea shells. They made our hike around their perimeter wall much more enjoyable by their streetside decor. They "urned it" ...
Much needed uplifting summer post 👌🏽
The spectrum of flowers always impresses. And I was thinking that that must be the safest beach in the world with all the military/navy presence. But the juxtaposition of a war ship with kids on the beach is indeed interesting.😁
They probably have no idea it is over there
My distance app says it's about 1.25 miles from the beach, and there are lots of thing passing back and forth in the channel between them and the temporarily berthed ship. Like this: ...
Thanks for joining us
We enjoy looking for things - otherwise we tend to take for granted some of the sights we can share - like these enormous trees: Eucalyptus (gum) tree Ancient pepper tree ...
HUMMINGBIRD - I saw it, photographed it, but where is it on the image?
It's " so easy to see" when you can hear it, see it's motion, and/or even better, if you know where it is going, such as a favorite branch on top of a tree (note - if you want to find hummingbirds, look UP). Here's a sequence of our rubber tree and our re...