Hello? Wildflowers?

Updated on Friday, April 29, 2011 at 10:12AM by Catherine

Sweet Peas on Highway 46--todayWell, it's hard to explain.  If anybody knows a lot about wildflowers, please let me know.  

We had 30 inches of rain--at least, here in Cambria, but we weren't isolated from the rest of the county in that regard.  

Today we had a little picnic out at Shell Creek, usually the wildflower capital of the Central Coast.  And there was very little to see.  Maybe

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Notoriously Unstable

End of the "cul de sac"--the slideGot your attention, didn't I?  Now I hope you won't be disappointed if this blog is only about Highway 1 north of Cambria.

For those of you who have never driven Highway 1 between Carmel and Cambria, it's famous for its instability.  All it takes is a good rainy season to bring sections of cliff onto the highway, or sections of highway into the sea.  This year saw both.  First about 60 feet of southbound lane slipped into the ocean just south of Carmel, closing the highway to through traffic for a month, and creating one very long cul de sac.  Then a slide of mud and rocks at Alder Creek, just south of Gorda, turned Big Sur from a cul de sac to an island for days. One lane is finally open at the northern end, but now "82,500 tons of damp dirt and rocks" are sitting on the road again near Alder Creek,

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It's Spring--I Can Prove It!

California poppiesAnybody besides me notice that the weather--which has been notoriously unpredictable as long as I've been alive to enjoy it--is getting even more unpredictable? Like...a lot more unpredictable?

Now, I love the rain. And it's a good thing I do, too, because my formerly drought-ridden California town has racked up an impressive 30 inches for the season. That's about half again our normal average.

Not a week ago, we were in full "winter" storm mode (the calendar said it was spring, bu

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About Gratitude and Clouds

It started when I was walking Ella on the boardwalk of Moonstone Beach Drive one day.  I looked up at the clouds, and they looked for all the world as though they'd been painted on. I could see the brush marks. And of course I didn't have my camera.

Clouds are changeable. By the time you get home on foot and grab the camera, they'll be something else entirely.

I had very recently started doing my "Daily Gratitudes." Rather than keeping a gratitude journal, as I've done intermittently in the past, I began posting one thing I was grateful for, every day, on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Why online?

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A Post About Hiking Boots

Okay. Right up front. If you don't hike, and aren't much on the great outdoors, you'll probably think I'm insane. Or...maybe not. Maybe you have your own story about some article of clothing or gear that took on its own meaning over the years. If so, please do comment and tell me. I'll feel much better.

I finally broke down and bought a new pair of hiking boots to replace my old Birkenstock Rockfords. After nine years and what I very conservatively estimate to be 3,000 to 4,000 miles together. About the equivalent of lacing them up in New York City and walking home to the coast of California, only much more

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New Year, New Travels

Updated on Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 12:34PM by Catherine

I always have the same plan for getting off my butt and onto a high mountain trail.  I make reservations at the Grand Canyon.  Preferably Phantom Ranch, which is such a tough reservation to get.  Then I know I have to get back in shape, and there's no way to really postpone it. Well...in this case I had to make my reservations a full year in advance.  December '11.  So I could postpone it. But, you know what?  I never want to.  I'm always so inspired by knowing I'm heading back to the Canyon that I fall in love with hiking all over again.  This will be my fourth Canyon hike.

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