Shoreline at Mountain View

South of San Francisco is the town of Mountain View. In 1956 the first company to develop silicon semiconductor devices was located there. The area is now known as Silicon Valley. Shoreline Park is built on an old landfill. It features an artificial lake and golf course. It has many trails and is adjacent to the bird sanctuary.

Here are a few photos taken by Lastech at sunrise.

Shoreline at Mtn. View

Shoreline at Mtn. View

Shoreline at Mtn. View

Shoreline at Mtn. View

Shoreline at Mtn. View

Shoreline at Mtn. View


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Tuesday odd bits

Here are a few photos that don’t fall into a convenient category. I adore them and think they should be seen though. 🙂

The first one is taken by flumptytail. She’s the mum of a bazillion kitties and I just had to post it here.  One word.  WOW!

Mantis by flumptytail
Flumptytail took this pic of a baby praying mantis. She said it was about a half inch (1.27 cm) long. The photo is impressive

The rest of the pics have been taken by Lastech. It’s an odd lot and are unidentified.

Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech
Photo by Lastech


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Wednesday Wonder

As I mentioned before, Lastech is now working a graveyard shift and we’re adjusting. It’s not a bad thing. 🙂 Lastech has managed to come home with some very nice pics. Here are a few of them.  ALL pics in this post were taken by him.

bamboo

bamboo
Bamboo
bee and bamboo
Bee on bamboo
Sunrise
Sunrise
clouds
Clouds

Now for the bonus pics.  Lastech was driving through the neighborhood on his way home from work and had a WTF moment.  He couldn’t resist taking pics of the lawn mowers in action.

lawmowers
Goats in the city
lawnmowers
Close-up of the goats mowing the grass at the reservoir


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Architecture: The Legion of Honor

The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is known around here as The Legion of Honor. It is a three-quarter scale adaptation of the 18th-century Palais de la Legion d’Honneur in Paris.

Legion of Honor
Legion of Honor
Legion of Honor
Entry gate with The Thinker in the courtyard
Legion of Honor
Detail of the arch

An American example of Beaux-Arts architecture, it is located in Lincoln Park in the Northwest corner of The City. It was built to honor the soldiers of WWI and is home to a beautiful collection of fine art. The museum houses about 4000 years of ancient and European art. It also has a fine Rodin collection.

Legion of Honor
Street lamp
Legion of Honor
The main courtyard and Rodin’s The Thinker

Adjacent to the museum, The Holocaust, a memorial sculpture by George Segal can be found.

Legion of Honor
The Holocaust by George Segal

The museum wasn’t open when we were there, but that’s because we arrived at sunrise. Instead, we were treated to the sight of a coyote trotting through the golf course and a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge just after sunrise
Coyote
City coyote running through the park


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A Gaggle of Geese

One of our favorite places in San Francisco is Golden Gate Park. We go there as often as we can. This year, we got there in time to see the offspring of the Canadian Geese that live around Stow Lake.  Once we saw the first batch of goslings, we made a point of going back more often.

This was the first batch that we saw.  There were 8 goslings in total. I shall refer to them as No. 1. 🙂

Canadian Geese and goslings
Canadian Geese and goslings

The next week, we went back. We not only saw group No. 1, but we saw a new group, No. 2. They were quite small and still bright yellow. There were four of them.

Group 2 of the Canadian Geese and Goslings
Group 2 of the Canadian Geese and Goslings

Group No. 1 had already grown a bit. All 8 were still there.

Canadian Geese and goslings.  Group 1
Canadian Geese and goslings. Group 1
These two from group 1 came to eat at my feet
These two from group 1 came to eat at my feet
Part of group 1 heading off for a swim
Part of group 1 heading off for a swim
Group 2 off for a swim
Group 2 off for a swim

A week or so later, we drove by again. This time, I saw a creche and I hopped out of the car to count geese and take pics. Group 2 was there. They had grown a lot. I thought the others were group 1, but there were 9 goslings. It turns out that it was a 3rd group. In all, I saw 21 goslings that day as I found group 1 a short distance away. Groups 1 and 2 had grown so much that they were almost done molting.

Creche
Creche

Just a few days ago, we drove by one more time to check on geese. Holy Cow! They had grown up! This is what we found.

Lastech visiting with the geese
Lastech visiting with the geese


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