Tilden

I wanted to post this last week, but power outages and other assorted things got in the way. We managed a return trip to the botanical garden at Tilden Regional Park. I’m really glad we got there when we did as we had lovely cool fog hugging the hilltops and everything was still very green. We’ve experienced a heatwave or two since then and the hills are already turning to their summer tan. It’s still beautiful, but I already miss the green color.

First though, it’s time for the pointy-eared people and the floppy-eared one to shine.

When we went off to the botanical garden, the hills were still bright green and we had a bit of fog.

View looking back over San Pablo Reservoir (foreground) and the Briones Reservoir, just visible above and beyond it.

The botanical garden preserves and exhibits the native plants of California. According the park website:

Notable among the many specimens that have been brought in from all corners of the state are representatives of nearly all the state’s conifers and oaks, and probably the most complete collections of California manzanitas to be found anywhere. There are also extensive collections of California native bunchgrasses, bulbs, aquatic plants, and representatives of about 300 taxa that are classified in the California Native Plant Society’s landmark study, “Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California.”

I must inject a quick note. After that trip, we found a beer that got our attention, so we tried it. It was made by a local brewery called Fort Point Beer Company. It was called “Manzanita”.

This beer was amazing and was the perfect beverage to go with grilling.

Anyhow, back to the botanical garden… There were plenty of things to see. We even saw a beautiful butterfly.

I put the rest in a slideshow

[Show picture list]

It was an interesting week. We wound up waiting on a guy to show up with a tow truck. The appointment was for the afternoon, but he never showed up. He finally showed up at noon the next day. That effectively killed most of our weekend (for us, it’s Monday and Tuesday). We made it to Tilden Regional Botanical Garden, but could only spend about an hour there. It was still worth it and we’ll go back. We’ll get to that later.

The kitties have been happier with the air conditioning off most of the time now and we might even get some rain later next week. The bird watching has been intense. Very intense. Today though, the neighbor has been outside working Tito and Titanescu have been on alert and Miss Jenny has been growling. Miss Pepi has been a good doggie. No barking or growling from her. That’s good because her volume level is set way too high. 🙂

Miss Jenny watching the birdies. There's a shrub about two feet away from the window that is full of sparrows every evening. — Miss Jenny watching the birdies. There’s a shrub about two feet away from the window that is full of sparrows every evening.

Pepi was watching the hummingbirds with me

This was a camera test. I liked it.

Onward to the Tilden Regional Botanical Garden. With the tow truck driver effectively shredding our weekend, we didn’t get to spend much time there. However, it’s not far away, so we’ll go back. The friends of the garden describe it best.

The Regional Parks Botanic Garden is a naturally beautiful and tranquil living museum of California native plants. Located within Tilden Park in the hills above Berkeley, California, this enchanting 10-acre garden is a sanctuary for many of the state’s rare and endangered plants and a place for visitors to wander among trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses from plant communities throughout the state.