As I mentioned before, I have been sorting Lastech’s photos and uploading them to Flickr. I came across these. It’s usually sunny or rainy. Clouds like this are not as common. It’s beautiful when it happens though.
Lastech’s clouds need a bit of music. I found this piano piece and I think it goes very well with the clouds. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
A couple weeks ago, we were wandering around the Golden Gate. Not to be confused with the bridge, the Golden Gate is the strait that connects the Bay with the Pacific Ocean. We started our wandering in the Marina District and made our way over to the cliffs above Baker Beach. We had quite a few lovely sights along the way.
We began our journey at the Wave Organ. The Wave Organ is an acoustic sculpture that was constructed near the Golden Gate Yacht Club. It consists of pipes that run down into the water and the sound is generated by the tides. It was built using remnants of old tombs and tombstones when most of the cemeteries were moved from San Francisco to Colma roughly a century ago.
While on our way back to the car from the Wave Organ, I got this picture of the bridge. It looked so lovely in the evening, that we decided to follow the sun.
The cliffs above the Golden Gate were glowing with shades of lavender. The Marin Headlands are visible in the distance, across the water.
Point Bonita Lighthouse is at the very tip of the Marin Headlands. That is a suspension bridge visible to the right of the light and it is the only access to the lighthouse.
Soon after, the sun began to set. It was the end of another glorious day in San Francisco.
I meant to post this sooner, but life got in the way. 🙂
San Francisco has been called The City of a Thousand Hills. It has been called other names, but please don’t call it Frisco (that’s in Texas) or San Fran. It marks you forever as a tourist.
Our geology is interesting thanks to earthquake and volcanic activity. Our area has quite a variety. I’m not a geologist, so I won’t bore you with the details. However, if you are interested, the USGS has a good bit about it. You can find it here.
Continue reading “San Francisco has hills…and rocks”
On March 31st, I posted Walking Fort Point and its seven feet deep walls.
This week, we went back to enjoy the sunshine. Here are a few pics of the military Batteries in the vicinity and a few shots of Fort Point from the bluff and bridge above.
Standing at the entrance of the Bay for 150 years, Fort Point is a great example of military architecture, of a design made obsolete by advances in artillery and ordnance. The masonry, shape of the fort and its surroundings all contribute to a pretty singular experience, and make Fort Point a great place to practice with a camera.
In fact, it seems almost impossible to take a bad shot.
Continue reading “Walking Fort Point and its seven feet deep walls”
Ephemeral art can be found everywhere, but in natural settings, the inspiration and effect does seem more meditative. Using stones, bark, pine cones, twigs and whatever else may be readily available, people assemble compositions ranging from intriguing to wistful or even amusing.
This labyrinth created (and recreated several times) by Eduardo Aguilera at Land’s End is a meditative piece, changing as it does from dawn until dusk. In this particular setting, Aguilera’s “shrine” invites contemplation.
Continue reading “Art in Nature”
Tiled steps in San Francisco: an instance of a neighborhood bonding
Many times before, driving to and from one of our favorite diners in the city, we found ourselves looking up to a not-too distant hill, a rock outcropping, really, covered in grass and a few trees, which seemed to promise sweeping views of the San Francisco.
Looking closer, there seemed to be long flights of stairs leading to the top.
Continue reading “The Treasure of the Sierra Moraga”
Happy New Year everyone! I don’t have much for today. However, I wanted to post a favorite picture of mine. It was one of the first I took with my camera and I just got very lucky. The picture, as you see it, is upside down. It is a reflection in the pond at the Palace of Fine Arts here in San Francisco. I found the picture to be more interesting upside down, so here it is.
There’s always been some dream-like quality in films from Tarkovsky, Lars Von Trier or Kurosawa which I found attractive beyond the visual dimension, and it has to do with the way scenes flow, details and locations reveal themselves.
I used to dream this way: I would find myself going from one somewhat familiar location to a completely different one, a construct of my imagination, which could not possibly belong next to the original place in the real world, like going from day to night by the flick of a switch.
Living here in California means zooming by unknown treasures at 75 mph.
Exploring a city like San Francisco makes you wonder whether it was conceived by Morpheus. Take Mountain Lake Park, just off Highway one at Lake street, the park borders the Southern edge of the Presidio, and I’d never have known it was there, hadn’t we in fact looked it up.
The trail which starts at the Lake goes on for several blocks, seemingly forever.
Within a large city, suddenly you find yourself in the woods, starting with a lake which once reportedly had an abandoned albino alligator as a resident.
Continue reading “Cityscapes: San Francisco in dream sequences”
Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove is located in the Sunset District of San Francisco. It is located along Sloat Avenue between 19th and 34th Avenues.
The park was donated to the city in 1931 by Rosalie Meyer Stern and is named after her husband. Stern Grove is made up of three distinct areas: there is the Concert Meadow, the West Meadow, and Pine Lake Park. At 33 acres in size, it provides a wonderful place to take the dog or just go for a walk or picnic. The park is wheelchair accessible.
To get there:
From 19th Avenue, turn West on Sloat. Continue on a few blocks and turn right on Vale. Vale will take you to the gate and drive that leads to the parking lot.
The Concert meadow is where they hold the Stern Grove Festival. Since 1938 there have been free weekly concerts and performances in the amphitheater. It is the nation’s longest-running free, outdoor music festival.
Continue reading “Walking around Stern Grove in San Francisco”
