Today is theme day for City Daily Photo Bloggers, and this month's theme is nature. That's a pretty hard topic to narrow down to just a few shots. Most of my posts on this blog are about nature. I will limit this post to shots of three of my favorite nature subjects: sunset, the Cambria coast, and trees.
I never get tired of sunsets. It's hard to choose just one to share here, but there are more in my other posts. See smoky sunsets during last year's Chimney Fire here. You can find photos of the Salinas River at sundown here. I took these shots during sundown from the Steinbeck Winery. The shots below were taken in my own neighborhood.
Sunset in my Neighborhood
This shot contains two of my favorite nature subjects -- trees and the sunset.
One can approach the ocean from Paso Robles in many ways. Probably the closest beaches to Paso Robles are Cambria, San Simeon State Beach, and Cayucos. Continue south on Highway 1 or take 101 to Highway 41 to reach Morro Bay. Just a bit farther south and you will be at Avila Beach and Pismo Beach.Each beach and coastal city has its own unique character, and most locals have a preferred beach where they like to access the ocean. My personal favorite is Moonstone Beach, and next would be Avila Beach. The photo essays I just linked to will show you an extensive look at each beach in photos and videos as I experienced them. I will introduce some different and more recent photos here. I'm glad the ocean is only a short distance from Paso Robles, and I can get to any of my favorite beaches quickly. One of my favorite places to access the ocean in Cambria is Leffingwell Landing. Below are some of the reasons why.
Leffingwell Landing is one place where I can go with Hubby, who has difficulty walking very far, where he can sit and watch the ocean while I walk the boardwalk and we are both happy. There are also restrooms easily accessible. I think the sun is in his eyes in this photo.
Leffingwell Landing is a place where children can be active while getting their own personal taste of nature. I remember how my own children loved to climb on the rocks when we went to a beach that had them. They would have loved the Cambria coastline.
If you watch my video, you can hear the ocean at San Simeon, as well as see it.
Now we will move south to Cayucos. When I think of Cayucos I think of not only the ocean and the beach, but also the seaweed and the patterns formed by the waves on the sand.
Time to move south to Morro Bay now. Morro Bay's most famous landmarks are its smokestacks and Morro Rock. Since I'm focused on the ocean, I'll show you the rock. Since Morro Bay is a fishing village, it is usually surrounded by boats.
It's time to move on to Avila Beach, which actually is two beaches. There's the one near town with a more typical sandy beach, and there is also Port San Luis. These photos were taken at Port San Luis because there is more wildlife to look at. Below is a gull on the rocks deciding whether to go fishing.
Our last stop will be Pismo Beach. It's a popular beach with people and seagulls. Don't leave your picnic food unattended. It will soon be surrounded. This is what happened to one ice chest left by itself on the beach. It's like an airport restaurant for seagulls.
Here's a glimpse of people enjoying Pismo Beach near the pier.
Here are some of my more popular Zazzle products made from photos taken at Pismo Beach, in case you missed picking up a souvenir last time you were there.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it. The sharing buttons are just above the comment box at the end of this post. The photo below is especially designed for pinning.
This is my fifteenth post for the 2016 AtoZchallenge, a Blogging Challenge for the month of April, 2016. My theme is Things You Can See or Experience in North San Luis Obispo County. Here are links to the other posts if you missed them.
In my first garden in Templeton, 2001 - taken by my husband.
I started this blog on a theme day, February 1, 2015. The theme that day was what we would miss most if we ever had to leave where we live. I wrote then What I'd Miss Most if I Left Paso Robles Forever.
Today we are to write about why we feel we belong where we are, or where we feel our homeland is. Of course, my homeland is America. What I wrote last year about the part of it I occupy is still true this year, except that the Paso Robles area means even more to me after another year. We've now been here 23 years, and that's longer than I've lived in any other area. I grew up in Los Angeles County and spent the first 43 years of my life there. I had no idea what I was missing.
We moved up into Ventura County for 15 more years before moving here. I loved Ventura County when I was there. I've never lived far from the coast, and we lived within walking distance of Mugu State Park in Ventura County and could hike there very conveniently. If we had enough time, we could actually walk all the way to the coast. I was perfectly content.
Then in 1993 we moved to Templeton and I knew I'd really found my place. We also live in Paso Robles sometimes. Whichever place I lay my head each night is still home. The trees and vineyards are easily accessible. I feel the trees I've been photographing on the streets, in the parks, and in the vineyards are like friends I've watched as they grew larger and sometimes even fell or split. They are part of what being here means to me.
One thing I love about this area is being able to stroll through the quiet vineyards with my camera, exploring them and discovering some remarkable trees and birds. The photo above was taken where a strand of trees separates upper vineyards from lower ones closer to the highway. Some of the most beautiful oak trees in the area live at Zenaida. One day I saw a group of turkey vultures in the trees. Later that day I saw my first acorn woodpecker. Birds love vineyards. Some like to steal grapes and others help keep the rodent population down.
I also love the coastline here, especially the north coast which is closest to me. We had beaches in Los Angeles and Ventura County, but I love the character of our rugged coastline here. This was taken as I walked the boardwalk at Moonstone Beach.
To get a better idea of why I love this area so much you'd need to follow the blog and see the photo or photos I post each day as I walk around with my camera. As I take my pictures, I turn some of them into postcards and posters in my Zazzle Store. Here's a sample postcard from the collection linked to below.
I think I've had cabin fever. Yesterday was the first time in over a year that I did not write any blog posts or spend time online. It was almost as though my brain just wanted to rest. So I let it. I read three books on my Kindle which weren't worth my time, watched a bit of TV, and stayed in bed a lot. I think I may have been half sick. For sure I was depressed.
Today we decided to get away for a few hours and break the routines I felt trapped in. First we went for lunch at Touch of Paso. We were the last to leave, so I took this picture just before we paid our bill. Hubby is still double-checking it.
After we had eaten, we headed down Highway 46 West to Highway 1 to Leffingwell Landing. I wish I could have stopped along the way to take photos of the cattle on the green hills which stretched all the way to the sea. It was clear enough today to actually get a glimpse of the ocean from the highway, but all the viewpoints were on the other side of the road. I was hoping to catch some of those views on the way home, but it didn't happen.
It was a beautiful day to be on the coast. It was warm enough to enjoy without sweater. The sky was very blue and clear. The waves were large enough to make some high sprays as they splashed on the rocks. I made a video I may share later in the week. I didn't see the way to the boardwalk so I mainly took my photos from the parking lot and the stairway to the beach. Since it ended on a huge rock, I didn't think it wise for me to go down to the beach via the rock. My knees weren't up to the rough surface. I did, however, get this photo from the parking lot.
People were friendly today and open to conversations with strangers. We met some people who lived in Fresno and they offered to take our picture together. We talked for a bit afterwards.
Just as we were getting ready to leave, another man pointed out some otters swimming some distance away. I would have missed them -- especially since my camera battery had just died and ended my being able to see through my zoom lens. I seem to have misplaced my spare camera and I couldn't find it before we left home, so I didn't get all the photos I'd hoped to get, including those I wanted to take of the hills on the way home.
It's amazing what a large dose of nature can do to combat depression. It sure beats talking to a therapist, is more fun, and a lot cheaper. I highly recommend it.
Harmony, California isn't a very big town. It really is more like a small neighborhood. There was, however a garden or two near the pottery shop. One of the most interesting sights for me there was that of bromeliads growing in trees. In this photo you can see a group of them on a host tree.
Most of the plants I saw in the gardens were bromeliads - stemless perennial plants with leaves springing up from the center. Some of these were epiphytes, also known as air plants. Those are the ones you see in the trees. They were also growing on the ground under the trees. Most weren't blooming, but this one was.
Some of the other flowers I could not identify were also in bloom. You can see them below. The one with light purple flowers looks very much like a sage variety to me, or something in the mint family.
I have no idea what this bright yellow and orange one is. If you recognize it, I'd love to have you identify it in a comment below.
This rock garden was next to a metal wall. It consisted of a raised bed with another garden bed under it.
