This is the height of Rhododendron Season in Mendocino.  I got these twenty from among the hundreds of blooming rhododendrons between Cousin Sue's house and Comptche-Ukiah Road.  The drought stricken California hills on the east side of the Coast Range of mountains which should be emerald green on the last day of April are already as golden as they are in July of a normal year.

Mendocino… a million miles from Baltimore.  Tomorrow we are heading back to San Diego which is not that far from Baltimore.  I’m in love with one of Cousin Sue’s redwood trees.That tree wears its bark well. The cabbage… well, it’s just cabbage; but maybe it’s the poet in me that helps me believe the cabbage is related in some important way to the tall redwood and to the spectacular azalea growing at the east end of the red house at the end of the lane.  The wheelbarrow, the shovel, and chair belong together.  The little garden snake slid by my left foot when I was watering a rhododendron… and I was startled, but I felt glad it could be comfortable enough in my presence to come close on its way to the lavender.  The car parked in front of Mendoza’s Market is a mystery.

A photographic essay… with Robert Frost and Andrew Wyeth in mind.

In this “picturesque New England coastal village” that happens to be perched on a California bluff above the Pacific Ocean instead of in a snug harbor in Connecticut or Maine, it’s not easy to focus on socioeconomic disparity, earthquakes and avalanches, or even global warming. All seems right with the world when Tilly and I go out in the morning to the end of Warner Lane to get the paper… and if we didn’t read that paper or turn on the television, we could almost forget that the whole world isn’t like Mendocino. Alas, the troubles are still there in Baltimore and Kathmandu and the town of Ensenada, Chile.

A perfect Day for a drive through redwoods and wine country to San Francisco... bringing back good memories of the time when we lived in Mill Valley... 1959-1960.

Tilly and I went out to Comptche Road for the paper this morning, and on the way we saw a couple of deer.  With my iPhone I got a picture of one of them. It was not at all good... you can barely see the deer; so I used the dry brush option to turn the photograph into a painting.  If you look closely you can see the deer.  I confess I "doctored" the second picture using Photo Shop so the Cabrillo Point Light Station can be seen clearly from Mendocino Headland.  The third picture is Big River just above the bridge to the south of Mendocino.  Margaret and Nancy are standing on a high bank above Big River  in the fourth picture.  The fifth picture is Big River looking east. The sixth picture is a plant on the gravel road above the river.  The seventh picture with Nancy is looking north along the coast from Mendocino.  The eighth picture is another mother seal with her pup.  This time I had my Nikon with long lens, so I got clear picture.  I got the last picture from the deck of the restaurant where we had lunch on the Noyo River in Front Bragg.