Gary Giocominni Open Space

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Marin County, the area just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, has a plethora of little out of the way places that even many local residents don't know exist.   And one of those is a huge tract of land near the town of Woodacre -- it's the Gary Giocominni Open Space, complete with towering Redwoods and a little creek that isn't so little this time of year.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Over the past 40 years the Marin County Open Space District has purchased and set aside in perpetuity from development an extensive system of parks including 34 open space preserves that total 19,300 acres and 190 miles of trails.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

In addition to Open Space District purchases of raw land, individuals and families sometimes donate their land to the district -- as the Giocominni family did 20 or so years ago.   We, the residents of Marin County appreciate and see the value of our rustic and unimproved natural areas -- they're great for recharging the spirit and uplifting the soul.   Amen...



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

mad rush to catch the sunrise

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

With the sun arriving an hour later, I'm really lovin' this new Daylight-Saving-Time.   It gives me extra time to drag my sorry-butt out of bed and over to the computer to do some photo selections, Photoshopping, HTML'ing for the DailyDuo, FTP'ing, and finally -- posting today's humble edition of AphotoAday.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

But still no time to dawdle -- the sun is on a tight schedule.   It's going to arrive whether I'm ready for it or not.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

So, with the cooperation of the weather -- there I am, mittens on, one hand probably grasping a paper cup of 7-11 coffee, sharing the light-show with nobody else but a short string of Canada Geese.   Quack, quack, quack...



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

San Francisco -- old and new

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

If I'm not mistaken, this was Bank of America headquarters near Market Street until they built their ugly but towering brown behemoth over at 555 California Street.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

On the left is the old Transamerica Insurance Building (now the Church of Scientology) and the pointed tower on the right is the new Transamerica Building -- now a distinctive part of the San Francisco skyline.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

And this ornate detail is the entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery. Nope, they just don't build them this way anymore.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

waves and splashes at Point Bonita

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

On Friday we had a forecast of "substantial waves"...



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

...so I high-tailed it down to Point Bonita to see if I could snag any photos.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I had a grand time...



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

...and it looked like the Seagulls were enjoying it too.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Webb Creek at Steep Ravine

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

With all of this recent rain the creeks are running full-blast.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

But not too fast to show off a bit of beauty.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

...


click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

...



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

lets set sail for China Camp

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Well, the venerable Bay Shrimp netter, the Sea Breeze, doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

An exact reproduction of a Chinese junk, the Grace Quan, is usually tied up here but I'm guessing she is over at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco for a visit.   That dinghy in the photo has the curious name of Zero Two.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Now, if anyone still lived here this would be Frank's neighbor.   Frank Quan is in his 80's now and except for a few years in the Navy during WW2 he has lived at China Camp his entire life.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

You had better be willing to forgo the cooked crabs -- they haven't been on the menu for forty or fifty years.   But if you arrive on a Saturday or Sunday, around noon, you just might find the China Camp Cafe open for business.   Keep your fingers crossed for clam chowder -- and try to ignore that it came out of a can.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Yep, and that's Frank Quan's shrimp boat -- he still goes through the motions of setting the net but the catch of Bay Shrimp these days has diminished to almost nothing.   This is because fresh water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers is largely siphoned off for agricultural uses in the Central Valley, which has resulted in rising salinity for San Pablo Bay -- the upper "thumb" of San Francisco Bay.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Golden Gate Bridge, once again

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

The southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is a busy place with construction of new roadway approaches in full swing.   Habitat restoration and erosion control has been going on in the general area for quite some time -- inexplicably, a large number of healthy Cypress trees have been removed.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

As much as the Golden Gate Bridge is associated with San Francisco, it's true reason for existence is to provide access to my beloved Marin County and all points north.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Okay -- this is inside a fenced area where I definitely wasn't supposed to be -- Battery Cavallo -- standing by since 1872 to defend San Francisco Bay from invaders that never came -- notwithstanding Beatniks in the 1950's and Hippies in the 1960's.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

dark and stormy clouds

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

We've had some especially dark clouds roll over in recent weeks.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I've been trying not to read anything into them -- oh you know; political unrest of all kinds and natural disasters of every description -- but some of them have been especially ominious.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

While some, occasionally, have been rather glorious...



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

motion of the ocean

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, I suppose it could be the motion of the ocean



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

or magenta clouds overhead



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Jack Kerouac Alley, San Francisco

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I suppose a logical place to find Jack Kerouac Alley would be on the dividing line between between Northbeach and Chinatown.

And there it is, peacefully holding down the territory between City Lights Bookstore and the very eclectic 20 hr/day drinking establishment, Vesuvio.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Still scratching your head about Jack Kerouac?
Oh, he was a "beat generation" poet who had a few ideas.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Jack Kerouac Alley has taken on a new look since March 2007 -- it features engraved Western and Chinese poems, including poets such as John Steinbeck, Maya Angelou, and Kerouac himself.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

How to Meditate
-lights out-
fall, hands a-clasped, into instantaneous
ecstasy like a shot of heroin or morphine,
the gland inside of my brain discharging
the good glad fluid (Holy Fluid) as
i hap-down and hold all my body parts
down to a deadstop trance-Healing
all my sicknesses-erasing all-not
even the shred of a 'I-hope-you' or a
Loony Balloon left in it, but the mind
blank, serene, thoughtless. When a thought
comes a-springing from afar with its held-
forth figure of image, you spoof it out,
you spuff it off, you fake it, and
it fades, and thought never comes-and
with joy you realize for the first time
'thinking's just like not thinking-
So I don't have to think
any
more'
Jack Kerouac



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

foggy and cloudy lately

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

It's been foggy and cloudy lately.
Throw in a whole lot of rain and that just about sums it up.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Lots of rain in December, very little in January, a bit in February, and now this deluge all of last week.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

The clouds have finally brought us copious amounts of water.
Thank you very much.
Quack, quack, quack.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

mossy Laurels at Roy's Redwoods

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Marin County is studded with a lot of mossy trees, but I think the Laurels up on the ridge at Roy's Redwoods pretty much take-the-cake.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, it's the old question -- horizontal or vertical...



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Forget Me Not

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Well, I'm not sure of the true name of this wildflower, so until I find out -- please advise if you know -- I'm just going to call it a Forget Me Not.

Those are Madrone trees in the background -- that I know for sure.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Discovered the scene at Roy's Redwoods in west Marin County -- oh, you've heard me mention Roy's Redwoods before, haven't you?



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Lagunitas; nature and a store

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

The west of Marin County is sparsely populated which -- in my mind's eye -- makes it even a better place to be or pass through.   Getting there is by way of a meandering road following equally meandering creeks -- San Geronimo and The Lagunitas.   Ferns and trees bow reverently along the way.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

The Lagunitas Grocery was old when I lived nearby 42 years ago.   The place inside and out is pretty much the same.   The ivy comes and goes.   My hair isn't coming back.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Lucas Valley is the next valley about five miles to the northeast.   Curiously, Lucas Valley is home of the two campuses of the Lucasfilm Corporation -- both located on ranches that were former dairy farms.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

The sign was an antique when I lived here years ago but I have no idea how old this painted sign really is.   It has definitely seen a whole lot of Lagunitas mornings afternoons and nights.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Chinatown, S.F., U.S.A.

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

It could be time to do some window cleaning at the New Golden Daisy Deli.

Now, if you don't know who Martin Yan is, this just isn't going to make any sense; but imagine the excitement -- it must have been a BIG day when the New Golden Daisy Deli got a visit from the popular TV cooking personality.

This seems to be the only Martin Yan photo on display in Chinatown, however I've spotted two restaurant endorsements by Rachel Ray not far away.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Not a supermarket or warehouse store in sight, and that's the way it's intended to stay.   It gives scores of small business owners and their employees a means of survival.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

All sorts of stuff that I would be hard-pressed to name, although I'm pretty sure those are pistachios and oranges.



CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.

Lagunitas Creek, no shortage of water

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

"Lagunitas" in Spanish means "little lagoons", but right now Lagunitas Creek is more of a raging torrent than the rippled and bucolic creek it usually is.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

But as busy as the creek is right now, it still has time to put on a fine show of early morning reflective color.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

And blow a few billion bubbles.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

And to navigate and swirl, but mostly to hurry up and splash.
Some real rock 'n' roll going on, for sure...


CLICK to visit my Daily-Duo.
CLICK to visit KittyBLOG -- the daily doings of my cat.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.

Your comments are invited and welcome.