One Word Sunday: Steps

The host of One Word Sunday is Travel with Intent, and the theme today is STEPS.

Self picked three pictures with steps from a road trip she took, the summer of 2021. Gov. Newsom had just lifted the pandemic ban on travel. You can bet she took off (so did the neighbors: the 90+ woman across the street went on a road trip to Seattle, a few days before self took off).

First: steps to Cal Shakes’ Theater-in-the-Round, One Shakespeare’s Way, Orinda. Self was waiting for the start of The Winter’s Tale.

Next: steps in Growing Grounds, a wee plant nursery, across the street from the San Luis Obispo Mission (Son graduated from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, years ago. Self hadn’t been back to San Luis Obispo in a long, long time) Proceeds go to a local mental health organization:

Finally: Steps from Ocean Drive to Ocean Beach, Carmel-by-the-Sea:

Weekend Street/Reflections, 3rd Friday in March 2022

Self just discovered this challenge, thanks to Travel with Intent.

Here are some pictures she took in the little museum adjoining the Carmel Mission. The words are those of Father Junipero Serra:

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge (CFFC): Bark and Leaves

Cee Neuner:

• This week our topic is celebrating Bark and Leaves. You can post bark on a tree or any type of leaf. And like in the photo below, you can post both in one photo.

Moss-covered tree trunk, southern Ireland (near Cork)

Side-yard gate, Menlo Park, California

Carmel backyard on a fog-shrouded morning in July

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge (CFFC): Which Way by alive and trekking

Self is always happy when she can join in one of Cee’s photo challenges. CFFC’s theme for the next few weeks is ‘other photo challenges.’ This week’s ‘other photo challenge’ is alive and trekking‘s Which Way:

From alive and trekking:

• The Which Way photo challenge is all about capturing the roads, walks, trails, rails, steps, signs, etc. we move from one place to another on. You can walk on them, climb them, drive them, ride on them, as long as the specific way is visible. Any angle of a bridge is acceptable as are any signs.

Here are two views of the rails and steps from Ocean Drive to Ocean Beach, Carmel.

Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) #18: Garden Art

Still playing catch-up! Marsha Ingrao explains the Photographing Public Art Challenge on her blog, Always Writes.

For this post, self has decided to focus on Garden Art. Well, not sure they rise to the level of Art. But they are man-made and have a certain aesthetic of beauty.

The hanging heart and the Buddha planter are both in self’s front yard.

The hanging wind chimes are from a garden in Carmel.

The fence with bottles is from a friend’s backyard in Menlo Park.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Here’s hoping everyone has a wonderful, safe New Year’s!

citysonnet colors and letters photo challenge: 28 November 2021

The color for 28 November is ORCHID.

Self does not have an orchid (or anything blooming that’s close to the color that’s on citysonnet’s November Challenge page.

Nevertheless, she does have a cousin who wore an orchid-colored top on a drive to Big Sur two weeks ago! Her shades even match her top!

Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) # 13: the Robinson Jeffers Tor House and Hawk Tower, Carmel-by-the-Sea

Still playing catch-up with the PPAC Challenge! Self spent last weekend in Carmel. One of the main purposes for the visit — aside from meeting an aunt she hadn’t seen in 20 years! — was seeing Robinson Jeffers’ Tor House, which had just re-opened for tours. Self is a lover of gardens, and the garden of the Tor House has been featured in several gardening books she owns.

To get to it from the north (the San Francisco Bay Area), you take 101 south, then 85, then 17 north, and finally pass through Salinas. Driving the 25 miles through Salinas to the Carmel turn-off will take almost an hour, because this area has perennial stop-and-go traffic. You will see fields, many fields! All in all, the drive took self almost 3 hours. She arrived about 15 minutes before the 1 p.m. tour she’d signed up for.

The tour of house and tower takes about an hour. Our guide was David, and he was really good. It will make you weep when you learn that Jeffers bought his lot for something like $200.

The views from Hawk Tower, right next to the house, are spectacular. Watch your step, the stairs are very narrow.

To think Robinson Jeffers built the house and tower all by himself! Tours cost $12.

The house is truly unique. Don’t miss, if you’re in the area.

Thursday Trios Challenge: 19 August 2021

Self loves this challenge. It is so much fun to look through her archives for trios.

Thank you to the host, Mama Cormier!

In July, self decided to Airbnb in Carmel for a few days. On all her drives around California, she somehow failed to hit up this place, which was one of the first places her Dear Departed Dad took her to when she was a wee little girl. We were on our first family vacation from the Philippines, and Dad decided to make of it a road trip. Somehow, he had always harbored a secret fantasy of having his entire family engage in that quintessential American family activity: the road trip. So he bundled all five of us kids and Dearest Mum on a plane, and rented a car after we landed in San Francisco, and took us on a road trip that included: Carmel, Las Vegas, and La Jolla. Oh, and Highway 1, which we drove all the way from San Francisco to La Jolla.

Anyhoo, last month, self decided to Airbnb in Carmel, and her host had a most interesting apartment, filled with original artwork, weights, records and turntables, hefty art books, and guitars (in case any of the guests wished to break out in song?). Here’s his guitar collection:

Self’s host was extremely cryptic. She notified him that she was vacating, and leaving the key in the apartment per his instructions, and got this response:

• I am just down the coast a little, enjoying the vanlife.

She thought and thought about an appropriate response, and finally came up with: Have an excellent vanlife!

Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Natural Lighting

What a fun theme! Self looooves Natural Lighting.

Thank you to the host of the Photo a Week Challenge, Nancy Merrill!

Picnic in the Park

Kitchen Window

Carmel Mission

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge # 160: Your Inspiration

Wow! Self LOVES the quote from Agnes Martin that inspired this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge!

She had a lot of fun going through her archives to identify her sources of inspiration.

Which are MANY. Here are a few:

• Gardens

Front Yard, May

• Beaches

Ocean Beach, Carmel

• History

The Jesuits in the Philippines, by Horacio de la Costa, S. J. (Harvard University Press)

Self is so glad she can share her inspirations with dear blog readers.