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| Pacific Grove in the afternoon. |
Though I've kept my nose to the grindstone, it's made my blogging lackadaisical. Then Thanksgiving came -- a wonderful communal gathering with my beloved god family -- and after that we went to Pacific Grove for the weekend. Pacific Grove, Monterrey, and Carmel have long had a shared place in our hearts. We come back when we can, like homing pigeons, to walk the beaches and visit the art galleries in Carmel.
We spent both mornings in Pacific Grove, driving, then walking along the sea wall, enjoying the slate-blue of the distant waters, the foamy white ruffles of incoming waves, the soft hush-sh-sh of waves rippling and splashing on rocks, the muffled roar of larger waves, and the kwee-dkwee-kwee of the seagulls that soared and swooped from rocks to shore and back again.
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| A distant boat on the endless waters. |
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| A lone seagull, taking it all in. |
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| Rocks that jut up like sculptures. |
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| And a rock littered with roosting gulls. |
On land, the ice plant that makes a fuchsia-colored carpet across the sand in spring was bereft of flowers, but it glistened in green and red tones like stained glass.
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| A path of beauty. |
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| Fall colors like stained glass |
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| Someone staring out to sea. |
For years I've wanted to visit the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, an "overwintering" spot for monarch butterflies, November through February each year, free for viewing. This time we did. Look closely. Nature has truly devised a great safety system for these delicate creatures;
At first we thought they were only dried
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| Hundreds of butterflies with folded wings, looking like so many dried leaves in their wonderful camouflage. |
pretty leaves, at that. And then a little
kid pointed them out to us! "They're
in camouflage," he said. (Smart kid!)
We looked again, and were amazed.
Hundreds upon hundreds of folded
wings. Camouflage indeed!
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| One butterfly opened its wings |
Both afternoons, we drove into Carmel to enjoy the many art galleries. We have certain galleries we particularly like: One is Classic Art Gallery. One is the Carmel Art Association, a collaborative gallery that features work by local artists and puts out a lovely small catalogue each year that is like a book of art gems. You can visit them HERE. We also like Jones & Terwilliger Galleries. But actually there are so many good galleries, an amble through them is like an amble through several fine art museums.
Because Rajan is into black and white photography, we stopped by two photography galleries we've always enjoyed.
One is the Weston Gallery. They are featuring a color show in one section at present, but they specialize in the art of some of my husband's favorite black and white photographers: Ansel Adams (his hero), Edward and Brett Weston, Yousuf Karsh, Michael Kenna, Imogen Cunningham . . . . You can click on the name of the gallery above, and, once there, click on the artists and see wonderful samples of their work. The other is Photography West Gallery, featuring some of the same artists, all working in black and white film (my husband's first love) rather than digital.
Both afternoons we stopped by a charming restaurant/bar called Grasings on 6th and Mission, and had a glass of crisp Chardonnay. The place had a soft, warm atmosphere and a friendly staff, and it made for a nice pause in the day.
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| Hubby's ear in lower left corner. :-) |
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| A nice pause in the day. |
It's called Fifi's Bistro Cafe , reasonably price, a charming restaurant with a cosy atmosphere. Fifi was there that evening, as it was the restaurant's 30th anniversary. She's French, of course, and she looked casually chic, as the French somehow always manage to do -- black dress, red scarf, hair tumbled back in a clip. We are not dessert eaters, but when she found out we were celebrating my birthday, she insisted on bring an order of flan for us to share, and she brought a beautiful red rose to the table, scattering the petals over the white tablecloth. How French!
I have a lot of questions in this post: Have you ever seen the monarch butterflies wintering over in some location? (I understand there are quite a few; not just Pacific Grove.) Do you have a special affinity for the ocean? Do you enjoy black and white photography? What is your favorite art form?
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What a sweet boat!
perfect for animal Wednesday!!!
I will leave soon heading for home where it has been raining from friday on the weather will be perfect again!
Sometimes I miss out on things while away, but this time I escaped the rain.......
This morning when I was at the pool I was the only one together with a unch of crows and a small white with yellow heron. It was so nice watching them.I was drawing watching and enjoying the silence.After swimming I walked towrds my chair and I saw a crow picking up my micron pen and he flew away with it!!!!
I followed himwith my eyes and remember the spot where he dropped it, got my pen back. It was a hoot.
These crows here are so tall and slim but very beautiful as well so different then the little one in our garden with the blue eyes. You would have loved the show they put up...... They fooled around with the heron as well.
HAW! and love
i can see just the second pic... and it a great photo...
the composition gives life to the swan... i feel a kind of nostalgia and longing for flight as it is looking at the sea and the sky...
:)
If I just look at the head it reminds me of an old merry go round ride!
Love that boat!! Perfect for HAW.
I read Marianne's comment. WHAT A HOOT!! That crow must have thought it was you. Or he was bringing it to you.
HAW
how big is this swan, lo? it looks enormous.
i cannot believe a crow flew off with marianne's micron pen! i can close my eyes and see the scene! too funny.
i hope you are having a good good day. mine is going pretty well. i'm writing alot via this memoir class and it's pretty damn interesting...
xoxo
What a lovely boat. Swans are so beautiful. Love your cactus too. I have tried drawing them several times but mine never seem to amount to much....lol
Funny that we both posted swans - and maybe you were thinking of the swan boats in Boston Garden - always a favorite with me.
HAW a day late, be good!
I do love this one! Reminds me a little of some pics of dragonboats I took in Hong Kong - will post them one day!
Wow! this is cool swan boat. I can picture you having fun with it.
Happy Wednesday Lolo!
Wouldn't it be amazing to drift around in the Swan Boat underneath the stars?