Remembering Freda

Looking back at some of Freda's art of the past three years... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll miss you Freda!

Good Day for Snakes

I love to see reptiles on my hikes, especially snakes.  On my hike today at Calavera Nature Preserve, I lucked out with two good sightings within a half hour.

On the trail was a sparkling San Diego Gopher Snake. 

It must have recently shed as it was very bright and shiny.

It was probably about 3 feet in length.  The longest gopher snake on record was 9 feet two inches!

Next up was this Red Diamond Rattlesnake, about 3 and 1/2 feet long.

No mistaking that head for anything besides rattlesnake!

... or the tail! 

The End

Amphibian Demise

Our class assignment this week was to make a drawing that made a statement about a subject we were passionate about. This unfortunate Leopard Frog was my choice.  In agricultural areas around the country, frogs are showing up with extra legs, deformed legs, or retaining their tadpole tails.  Many don't survive the transition from tadpole to frog.  These alarming mutations are a result of fertilizer runoff causing algal blooms that in turn result in an explosion of water snails.  These snails harbor flatworms that infect the cells of tadpoles, causing the deformations as the tadpole transforms to a frog.  As John Muir said, everything in the universe is interconnected.

Library Volunteers

We have been volunteering at our wonderful Carlsbad Dove Library the past few weeks.  Friday mornings we go in and sort through the donation bins.  Usually, about 2/3 of the books go to the dumpster for recycling, and the rest we sort by genre.  Some of the books end up on the library shelves, but most are sold in the library store.  We also get first crack at any books we want to buy for ourselves, unless it is particularly valuable and can be sold online.  We are usually done in about an hour and a half.  The store and sales are all done by volunteers, and about $100,000 a year is raised for the library.  We have great fun finding interesting books.  Below are a few samples:

It is a bit like a treasure hunt.  Here, Gail is examining a book for condition and desirability.

I had to tell Gail that she could not keep the book on knives and swords.  Sorry, Honey.

 

These were two finds that I did keep - couldn't resist the one of Ben Franklin's writings!

 

This was our favorite of the morning!  Romance novels are the fastest sellers in the store.

 

Another steamy read!

 

Cassidy, this one's for you!

 

I thought this one was about me!  (See below)

 

And so ends our morning at the library.  We keep saying how this is such a light experience compared to our volunteer work up in Cordelia rehabbing seabirds.  We are hoping to find another volunteer experience helping others to preserve nature in addition to the library.

 

After the library, we drove down to the Humane Society thrift shop in Encinitas where we recently purchased a great abstract painting by a La Jolla artist for $10!  On the way back, we pulled into a new cutting edge park where runoff from creeks is filtered in a settling pond and then runs through native vegetation before entering the ocean.  Anyway, we heard all these sirens above us - there were a number of police cars and motorcycles all together, and a helicopter overhead.  We thought that the president must be in town and this was his motorcade.  Wrong!

 

 







 

The motorcade turned out to be a pursuit of a driver who wouldn't stop.  He was eventually bumped off the road (red mini-van) in a police maneuver, as we found out a few miles down the road after spike strips failed to work.

 

 

He had a child in the car - his wife had jumped out earlier, but couldn't get the child out before he took off.  From the library to high speed pursuit - all in this one fantastic blog!  Thank you for all your comments - we love hearing from you!

 



Balboa Park

After our stop at UCSD, we headed down to Balboa Park, which we agreed is the best that San Diego has to offer.  There are many museums and cultural centers there, as well as beautiful buildings and grounds.

After parking, we made our way across park lawns, a ravine, and towards the buildings built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The beautiful pool in front of the arboretum.  The pool had to be totally refurbished after an unauthorized midnight water gun fight last July.  The vegetation in and around the pool, the koi fish, and the pools plumbing were decimated. 

This is a beautiful place to relax and walk around.  We chose to go to the Mingei International Museum where there was a special exhibit on musical instruments.

 

This is a Regina music box similar to the one my parents had and that I am current guardian of.

 



Below is an instrument, built by a San Diego man, called the Kithara I. 

 

 

The above instrument is a pyrex glass xylophone.

 

 



The Theremin is an electronic instrument that is played without touch.  Instead, you move your hands around the two antennae.

The Theremin produced eerie sounds for movies, and later in some rock band music.

Back outside, we marveled at the California Tower, built in 1915.

The buttress roots of this giant fig tree are much larger than this photo would lead you to believe.

Looking like a giant asparagus, this century plant is sending up it's stalk before dying.

We enjoyed walking around some of the old, out of the way gardens.

Gail enjoys waving at passengers on planes and trains - she even has me doing it!  The air approach to the airport in San Diego is right  over downtown.  The planes seem to brush the building tops before landing!

A brilliant flower that the bees were wallowing in.

We aren't kidding about the planes!

We ended our venture by going to the Russian Georgian Restaurant Pomegranate where we had Russian beer, vareniki, and a special lamb dumpling dish.  This is becoming one of our favorite San Diego restaurants!

Then for desert it was Toad Sweat Ice Cream, described as, "Not for the faint of heart."  This is because it was drizzled in a very spicy hot chocolate sauce - a sort of yin-yang desert.

And so ended a splendid day, sort of a mini-vacation.  Coming next is a little insight into our volunteer gig at the library - exciting stuff that you won't want to miss!

General Store Co Op

We made an excellent discovery awhile back - the little record store on the UCSD campus.  They always have a fresh selection of  old LP's in very good condition at great prices.  The store explains that they are a co-op with the sole aim of making their customers happy - and they do!

Gail, finding albums from her past.  Note the 4 for $10 sign in this section of the store.

Black Flag?  Wow!

Gail ended up getting The Cars, Pretenders II, and Stray Cats "Built for Speed".

I particularly got excited by the old blues albums.  I purchased a John Lee Hooker, live at the Kabuki Theater album (1971), and an album by Clarence Gatemouth Brown titled Pressure Cooker (1985).