Category: nature
Under “photography” over at rightreading.com I’ve posted nine recent photos from Point Pinole from the same shoot as the image below. Check it out.
It would be a good thing. Urban Forest Map is trying to make a log of all of the trees in San Francisco. The group is made up…
Today’s image of shafts of sunlight cutting through tall redwoods along a Muir Woods hiking trail comes from vgm8383’s photostream. This is an HDR (high dynamic range) photo — a technique that combines multiple exposures to give a greater range of tonal detail. It worked pretty well in this instance because Muir Woods is surprisingly dark (test it with a light meter if you don’t believe me), and the light is very green.
This view of Muir Woods in Marin County is from soupboy‘s photostream.
Yesterday I attended the Goldman Environmental Prize Awards, as I have done most years since sometime in the early 1990s. The event is held in the city’s beautiful…
The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), the state flower, blooms profusely along the northern California coast from about February through September. The most common variety is a bright orange…
I once edited a book by the poet Michael McClure called Scratching the Beat Surface. One of Michael’s premises was that the natural world can be appreciated even…
San Francisco was hardly a forest before the swell in its population in the mid-nineteenth century — it was mostly coastal dunes, scrub, and marshland. The city’s most…
This great map from the 1890s shows creeks in blue and marshes in green, with modern landfill in magenta. A larger version is at the Oakland Museum of…
The San Francisco Bay Area doesn’t have such a bad climate for fall color. The image above is of a Japanese maple; below is a Fuyu persimmon (both…
Most guides will have you enter the Sobrante Ridge Regional Preserve from Coach Drive in Carriage Hills, but if you enter from the El Sobrante side — the…
Bay Nature magazine, to the surprise of many, has managed to stay afloat for several years now. They’ve even started broadcasting on public television stations. It shows how…
Bravo to Contra Costa supervisors who unanimously voted down an attempt to expand the East Bay urban limit line — a line overwhelmingly approved by area voters less…
First it was uppity sea lions. Now it’s coyotes. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, coyotes are attacking dogs in Golden Gate Park. Coyotes disappeared…
Here’s a good plant for Bay Area gardens. Most people probably know the common stock that is grown as an annual in many parts of the country. This version, perhaps close to the wild species found in the eastern Mediterranean, is a perennial in most of the Bay Area. It has a woody stem and grayish green foliage. It grows to about 2½ feet. In the summer it gets fragrant white flowers on short spikes. It can be grown from seed, or it’s available in 4-inch containers from Annie’s Annuals. Full sun, average water.
Annie’s Annuals in Richmond (at 740 Market Avenue) is holding their spring party this weekend, April 14-15. They will have free “supermarket sweep” raffles every hour — winners…