Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, Wasting Time Soulfully (Field Trip)

Click on the illustration above, for a mighty fine view

Spent a nice bit of time this afternoon on a bench behind the
San Francisco Ferry Building wasting a little time of my own

Sittin' in the mornin' sun,


I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
s,

Watching the ships roll in,




And then I watch 'em roll away again,

Yeah

 I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
,

Watching the tide roll away
,

Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay


Wastin' time

.

 Thanks Otis, you said it all for me.

Last Stop Before Oz (Hiking Edgewood)

Planning a trip to Oz?
You won't find a better way to get there, then a hike up to the top of
Inspiration Point at Edgewood Nature Preserve
Click on the illustration above for an enhanced view of this Oz portal.

A Measure of Inconvenience (Union Protest)

Bet  it's inconvenient for this
gentleman to go without work,
 due to the strike
But reduced wages and benefits,
are even more inconvenient

I'll be boycotting Northern CA Safeway stores until the USW dispute is settled. There's a lot of grief in the world. This is grief that touches me, because I've been shopping at this grocery store for the 45 years I've lived in CA. I don't want the dollars we spend on groceries supporting management that doesn't care about the living standards of the people who clean the aisles and restrooms, and take out the garbage.

It certainly will be inconvenient for me to walk another half mile down the street to avoid shopping at Safeway while I wait for the United Service Workers to settle their differences with Northern CA Safeway stores.

It will be inconvenient if I can't find the brand of salad dressing I like, or have to take extra time to run my errands. It would certainly be easier just to duck in and take advantage of the specials.

I'm guessing it's a little more inconvenient for these folks to stop work. What's it about? The newswire says...
"The janitors were motivated by their frustration with says, 

contractors' unfair intimidation of workers, including illegal threats of
termination, and proposals to sharply reduce standards for wages and benefits.

"I walked out because Safeway's janitorial contractors are not working with us
to negotiate a contract which will remedy unsafe and unhealthy conditions in
the stores, and help us support and build a life for our families," said
Leodegario Acevedo, a janitor in Santa Rosa. I am standing up for my

rights."

View from the Choral Terrace: Kettle Drums on the Move (Bing Concert Hall, Stanford)

A View from the Choral Terrace
Where all we have to heft is our music

The new year sparked an increase in campus musical activity, playing and singing in the new Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University. As a community member of the Stanford Symphonic Chorus, I was quite pleased to be included.

The instrumentalists who play timpani have their work cut out for them shifting the great big kettle drums into place.

Amaryllis: Sure Fire January Blues Reliever

With vacation from work and school well past, and several months of wet or cold to get through in the Northern Hemisphere, it's easy to get the blues in January.

A candy-striped amaryllis bud opening suddenly in a chilly window, reminds me that a good dose of spring time is just around the corner.

Anybody can bloom  in an unexpected place.

California: Cold Time Pursuits

When it gets cold in other places, the natives go skatin'.

When it gets cold 'round here, well...it's not really that cold. We're talking somewhere in the 40's.

Best cold weather activity for San Francisco Bay Area?

Making beer.

Bay Laurel, Umbellularia californica, in Bloom (HIking Edgewood)

California Bay Laurel
Umbellularia californica
 is in bloom now at Edgewood Nature Preserve

I was surprised to find that California Bay Laurel already in bloom at Edgewood on a New Years Day hike at that preserve. I could have sworn it didn't bloom that early last year.

Below are some historical human uses I gleaned about this noble plant, when I prepared a field trip report for the California Native Plants class at Cañada College last year.

~ ~ ~

I’ve met several people who substitute California Bay Laurel leaves for the Mediterranean Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) . Kozloff (p. 248)  agrees with this practice saying “They (the leaves) can be used for seasoning but have a stronger flavor than L.Nobilis.”

However, in 1976 then UCSC Environmental Studies professor Ray Collett[1]told his students, of which I was then one, that the leaves of the California Bay Laurel were poisonous and should not be used to flavor food. Toni Corelli[2]takes a middle ground saying that “Leaf oils may be toxic to some people.”

Corelli also says that native people used the leaves “medicinally to cure headache and as a tea for stomach ailments. Oils from the leaves were rubbed on the body to ease rheumatism. Leaves were also spread on floors to repel fleas; boughs were buned to fumigate lodgings and to fight colds. The nuts were roasted, cracked and eaten.”

The Ohlone weren’t the last people to use the leaves against bugs. At UCSC in the mid 1970’s my college roommate used the leaves to attempt to rid our room of fleas.  Ray Collett also suggested that students who suffered from bedbugs try the leaves.

Modern use, other than firewood, includes woodworking. Woodworkers, include environmentally contentious landscape refuse salvagers, use the wood for a variety of wood craft, including these lovely little Dryad flutes.[3] The makers of the Dryad Flute says, “It is valued by woodworkers for its beauty and the variety of figure and coloring in its wood.  It is considered a tonewood by luthiers (luthiers make guitars as well as other lute-related instruments) for its ability to reflect the sound wave without deadening the tone. “

---

[1] http://members.cruzio.com/~rayc/about.html

[2]Toni Corelli  Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve Second Edition 2004 Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay CA

[3] http://www.dryadflutes.com/205BayLaurelinA.html

New Bloom for a New Year: Dirca Occidentalis (Hiking Edgewood)

Please Click on the Illustration Above
For More Beautiful Detail

I always like to start out the year as I mean to proceed through it.

What better way than an afternoon's Bloomin' Hike at Edgewood Nature Preserve?

Can you believe the Leatherwood is already in bloom?

A good omen for 2013, if ever I saw one.