Auburn Farmer's Market

My world is at the eastern edge of California's Sacramento Valley.  Not quite on the valley floor but not really the Sierra Foothills, Hubby likes to call it the "toe hills".

One of the great things about this area is its variety of locally grown food.

In the Summer you can find a Farmer's Market any day of the week, and there are two year around markets.  While the variety may not be as great in the winter months it puts the cook in touch with the rhythm of the seasons and encourages one to try cooking what is currently growing.  With the coming of spring, the number of vendors has increased here at the Auburn market, open Saturdays year 'round.

While most of the vendors feature produce and goods from Placer or the adjoining counties, Rodriguez comes from Watsonville on  the coast.  It's about 200 miles, not close but a lot closer than most grocery stores get their food.

With its marine influence, it is hard to beat the quality and variety of food grown there.

If citrus is what you crave, though, you can't beat Placer grown mandarins!  Mine don't come from the market but from my own garden.

So what can you find besides veggies?  Well, how about some fresh picked mushrooms?

Or some freshly baked bread.

Pistachios,   locally grown, in the shell, flavored or turned into a spread.

Olive oil in several flavors.  Dedrick's features cheese from north of San Francisco as well as imported cheeses.

Tired of chicken eggs?  How about turkey or duck eggs?

We don't eat much meat but most of what we do eat comes from my friend Bob at Coffee Pot Ranch.  The beef is all grass fed and lean.  All of the meat is hormone and antibiotic free.  I've been out to the ranch and seen how well treated the animals are.

Wine?  Of course.  This is California after all and not all of the wine comes from Napa or the Central Coast.  There are plenty of fine wineries in the foothills.

If you don't want to wait until you get home with your purchases to eat, well how about some pizza.  Not in the mood for pizza?  There is also a vendor selling fresh hummus and pita, another with samosas and other Indian food and of course Mexican food is also on offer.

One rancher even brought his livestock.  This man sells skin products made from emu oil!  He assured me this gal would never be turned into "product".  She has a name and once named the animals are safe.  At least until old age makes them unproductive breeders.

You can see more of our wonderful world at Our World, Tuesday.

Yosemite--The First Days of Autumn

It is time again for another Yosemite post.  I never tire of this place and we try to visit at least twice a year.

In past years our Autumn visit has always found Yosemite Falls dry.  The rocky ground in the high country from which this feature gets its water relies on snow melt.  There is no soil to hold the moisture and release it slowly.  Whether it was due to  the heavy snow pack this year or the late summer thunderstorms, there was still water flowing over the falls.

It was a real treat for the late season tourists and for us as well.

Though not the thundering rush of spring I found the reduced flow to have a charm I don't experience in May or June.

Yosemite Falls was not the only place where water was unexpectedly present.  The "lake"  in Mirror Lake was gone as usual but there was still water flowing through on its way to join the Merced River.

One didn't have to look too hard to find a pool with a reflection.

It may have been the beginning of Autumn, but the park was filled with tourists from all around the world.  I was pleased that for once these late season visitors had not missed out on some of Yosemite's best know wonders.

See more of our world at Our World, Tuesday, hosted for us by Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy.

More Flowers Along My Way

The Flowers in bloom change as elevation changes and the season progresses.

Platanthera leucostachys

Two months ago the bog orchid was blooming near Mono Lake, at around 6500 feet.

Last week I found this example in a marshy area at 10,000 feet.

It is a tiny flower, each bloom less than 1/2 inch 

 with many on a stalk about a foot high.

Pedicularis Attollens

Smaller still are the flowers of another bog plant, little elephant's head.

Elephant's head is a larger but similar plant whose elephant shape is easy to see with the eye, this little flower needs the macro lens to appreciate the shape.

Dodecatheon alpinum

Yet another plant of the alpine bog is the aptly named "Shooting star".

My timing was off to get a picture, I was only able to find one example when I went out with my macro lens.

Lilium parvum

Yet another wetland flower blooming last week was the "Sierra Tiger Lily".

Though Calflora says it grows between 4000' and 8000' I found it at 10,000'.

Symphyotrichum spathulatum

 Other flowers, like this mountain aster, bloomed on the dryer slopes.  This semi-double bloom was a particularly attractive specimen.

Aquilegia formosa

Columbine is not fussy, it can be found in wet or dry areas.

Calochortus leichtlinii

The "Mariposa Lily" seems well adapted to dry slopes for that is where I usually find it.

These are a few of the flowers I saw last week in my world.  Find other views of our wonderful world at
Our World Tuesday

Traffic Jam!

I call Tioga Pass the "back door" to Yosemite.  It is the only entrance from the east.  Since it is only about 30 miles from our cabin, we thought we would pack a picnic and go looking for some scenic images.

Three quarters of a mile from the entrance, this is what we found.  While most of California's population lies to the west, most of the country is east of the park and many coming from other parts of the country choose this entrance.  We've seen lines before, 10 or 12 cars, but never anything like this!

All was not lost, though.  The traffic was stopped at Tioga Lake, a fine place for a picnic and a few photos.

Find more views of this amazing world of ours at That's My World, Tuesday, hosted for us by Sandy, Wren and Sylvia.  We all mourn the loss of our fourth host, Klaus, a wonderful photographer, who passed away last week.  He is missed.

Mono Inn

I rarely post about commercial establishments but on occasion I see fit to break my own rule.  This is one of those occasions.

The Mono Inn sits on Highway 395 a few miles north of Lee Vining, California.  It was built in 1922 as a health resort.  When we built our cabin 25 years ago it was a family run restaurant with good food.

 Later the Inn was purchased by the Ansel Adams family and managed by his granddaughter, Sarah.  It was filled with prints of Adam's photos as well as other photographers.

For some reason, the Adams family closed the restaurant a few years ago and it sat empty until being reopened last May.

The site has a history dating back far earlier than the resort, though.  Next to the inn is this monument to Kit Carson's daughter whose grave is near by.  

Mark Twain visited the area and wrote about it.

But it is not the history that draws us, or the connection to Ansel Adams or even the food, though it is still quite good.

No, the attraction is the view.  

I sits on a bluff to the west of Mono Lake and the view is spectacular.  If one is lucky enough to be there when the moon is near full the location offers an additional bonus, a view of the rising moon.

See more views of the world at That's My World, Tuesday, hosted for us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren an Sylvia.

A Yurok Village

Patrick's Point State Park has a reconstructed Yurok  Village.  The tribe uses it to teach both their own young people and the public about their traditions.

They had several dwellings and I found the construction to be very interesting.  They were built the traditional way, using planks from trees in the state parks that had fallen due to natural forces.  The round hole on the left side of the dwelling is the doorway.

It is hard to see from this shot but you enter onto a platform that runs around the edge of this sunken room.  The platform is used for storage and the people are below ground level.  

It seems a good way to avoid drafts in a cold and rainy climate.  In the center is a fire pit.

What about smoke?  Well they had a smoke hole, covered with planks to keep the rain out.

They had no nails so they lashed the buildings together using plant ties.  I found the construction to be very ingenious.

As with many cultures, the sweat lodge is important an important part of the culture.

The Yurok made dugout canoes and believed them to be living beings.

At the stern of the craft are two foot rests, these are the kidneys.  Towards the bow is a nob, this is the heart.

In front of the heart is carved a pair of lungs.

The canoes were used by both men and women.  They provided transportation on the rivers and larger ones were used to hunt in the ocean.

I find it interesting to see how people adapt their cultures to use what is at hand.  Plains Indians made homes from hides which were abundant.  In areas where birch was abundant that was used for making canoes and shelters.  Acorns are toxic but where they are abundant, native Americans learned to leach out the toxins.  Humans are amazingly resourceful.

See more of our amazing world at That's My World, Tuesday; hosted for us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren and Sylvia.

Flowers Along My Way

It's my birthday and to celebrate, let's take a hike.

We'll walk from the cabin in search of wildflowers.  Spring came late to my mountains and when the snow finally left the plants seemed to say "look how long the days are, we better all bloom at once before winter sets in".

Up by the lake the meadow was filled with wild iris.

Leaving the lake we pick up the trail on a more arid section.  Here we find mule ears, paint brush, lupine and pennyroyal.

Pennyroyal

Have you ever had the pleasure of walking along a  trail with 

pennyroyal?  No?  Oh how I wish I could share the aroma through the internet.  It has a wonderful minty fragrance.  On a warm day it freely perfumes the air.  If it is being stingy with its scent, just rub your hand across its leaves.

There were several varieties of lupine.  I find these hard to identify but the most likely candidate seems to be spurred lupine

Dagger pod--Phoenicaulis cheiranthoides

Dagger pod is one of several species in the mustard family.  More common along the trail was its cousin, the yellow wallflower.

Copeland's Owl Clover--orthocarpus coplandii

The snapdragon family was well represented.  This lovely owl clover is one of my favorites but I saw several other paintbrush type flowers, in scarlet, orange and gold.

Davidson's Penstemon--penstemon davidsonii

There were two different penstemons in bloom

Elephants Head--pedicularis groenlandica

It's hard not to smile when encountering this member of the snapdragon family.

Another aromatic, this in the Amaryllis family, the wild onion.   I think this is a Swamp Onion as it was growing in a marshy area.

The snow has not entirely left my mountains.  These two were enjoying a little play in the snow below Cooney Lake.  I lingered a while at the lake.  I watched a gull watching a fisherman.  The bird kept flying over the fisherman's line.  I think the gull was hoping to make the fisherman's catch its own.

On my return to the cabin, I paused to enjoy the view.  I could see all the way to Nevada but Mono Lake is hidden from view.  It is behind the mountains on the right.

I hope that you enjoyed this view of my world, see more of our wonderful world at That's My World, Tuesday, hosted for us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren and Sylvia.

Why I Love Our Roadtrek

We camp with a van conversion, sometimes they are called a "caravan".  It is small, built on the body of a 15 passenger Chevy van and it can go almost anywhere.

We had no trouble making this sharp turn into a campground on the Klamath River but the driver of this large motorhome had a problem.  She didn't turn wide enough and her hitch caught on the asphalt.

We all waited while a tow truck operator banged out some asphalt and jacked up the coach until the driver was able to make the turn.

It was well worth the wait, though.  It turned out that a female Gray Whale and her calf had taken up residence in the river right by the campground.  More about that tomorrow.



 That was part  of my world last week.  For more views of our world check out
That's My World, Tuesday, hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Wren and Sylvia

The Tioga Road

Part of the easiest route to our cabin is still closed due to snow and a second route is congested due to construction; we decided to drive through Yosemite and over the Tioga Road.

We passed Yosemite Creek, several miles above where it will leap over the cliff and become Yosemite Falls.

We passed Olmsted point (I took this shot last year).  Looking east we see Tanaya Lake.  To the west, on a clear day, is a view of Half Dome.

Olmsted Point is the most dangerous part of the road to clear of snow in the spring.  Deep drifts and steep drops make it necessary to go slow and watch for avalanches.  A few years ago a plow operator lost his life and the park service doesn't want a repeat.  This year, due to the heavy snow pack, it didn't open until June 18.

When we stopped to admire the view at the top of Lee Vining Canyon I saw this plaque.

I am not surprised that it is considered a civil engineering masterpiece.  I can still remember when I was a child and this part of the  road was still one lane dirt with turnouts.  I could feel the stress and tension in my father and I hid on the floor of the car.  There were no seat belts in those days.

Turnout at the top of Lee Vining Canyon looking back up the road.

The road is now much improved and much safer.

The view down canyon towards Lee Vining

It is still hazardous, though.  One year we were stopped for several hours.  A motorist had gone over the edge and taken several motorcyclists with him.

Some places it just wasn't possible to level out a roadbed so they improvised.  Those who don't like heights might want to avoid this road.  It's no longer legal to hide on the floor of the car.